Lou's Most Excellent Rocketti

LEFTOVERS.

Leftovers conjure sour memories for me. Circa 1982. When Mom said, "we're having leftovers" for dinner that meant we were having what we didn't eat the night before because we didn't like it.

I always thought of leftovers as "used food." I know that's a bad way to look at it but there's the truth.

I made a flank steak the other night coated with Montreal seasoning. We had half of it left and The Lovely Wife is busting my chops about when-are-we-gonna-finish-the-steak? because TLW loves leftovers. I was dreading it.

I think I came up with something that works and is also not so bad for ya'. This serves two quite well.

2 shallots, sliced thin
2 garlic cloves, minced
Cayenne pepper - about 1/2 tsp
Black pepper - about tsp
"Leftover" beef-product, about 1/3 pound, sliced very thin
1/8 box wholewheat pasta
Two BIG handfulls of baby roquette (spinach works too)
Salt
Extra virgin olive oil

This happens pretty fast - pay attention.

Bring 5 quarts of salted water to a boil.

In 2 TBS olive oil sweat-up the shallots for about 5 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and cayenne and black peppers. Cook for 30 seconds more and then transfer to a small heat-proof bowl.

Add the pasta to the boiling water.

Add the steak to the pan you sauteed the garlic/onions in. Gently warm up until the steak just turn a bit grey (assuming you started with rare steak...which you should have). Remove steak from pan and set aside.

Pasta should be near done......going on 8 minutes here.

Add the roquette to a colander and drain the pasta into the colander. Quickly add back the pasta/roquette to the pot and stir in the garlic/onion mix.

Plate the pasta in bowls and top with the steak. Top with shaved Parmesan.

Ah bon....

Lou's Most Excellent Hanguk Banh-Mi

Leftovers from my Korean chicken recipe turned into this for lunch. Delicious. If there are any Korean restaurants out there reading this, this could be a new gold mine in popularity.

Leftovers from LME Korean Chicken
Black sesame salt*
1 sub roll

*Available at many Asian grocers. If you don't have it, just use some finer-grained sea salt.

Toast the roll in a toaster or in a lightly buttered pan (latter preferred). Reheat a few strips of chicken (or a lot, if you want a bigger sandwich) and then add about ¼ cup of the chicken juices.

Coarsely chop the lettuce. Place chicken in roll, cover with juices, and top with lettuce, kimchi, and daikon strips. Generously sprinkle with the sesame salt. Yummy.

Lou's Most Excellent Greco Chicken Sandwich

Left over chicken. What to do with it?

My mother always turned it into chicken salad which, to this day, I'm not fond of. But my buddy Jim brought some precooked chicken over to us from Canales Brothers Deli (I was a bit under the weather) and I made some pita sandwiches out of them the next night.

The problem with the pita is that bites aren't universal. You get a bite of this, bite of that, and on a rare occasion a bite of the whole thing. This is not a complaint, but rather an observation. I'm a whole kind'a bite kind'a guy. Hence the beauty of the sandwich.

Here's what I did. It's quick, easy, and damned tasty. Also pretty healthy when you think about it. This makes enough for two sandwiches.

1 half a large, boneless chicken breast, precooked (salt, pepper, garlic)
2 Roma tomatoes, each sliced into about 5 slices.
½ a cucumber, peeled and thick sliced (same dimensions as tomatoes)
2 kosher dill pickles, sliced lengthwise into 4 strips
Feta (your choice)
4 TBS Greek style yogurt (I used non-fat Fage Total)
1 TSP Herbs de Provence
Hummus
2 demi baguettes (from Bonaparte Breads via Wagshal's) or hard, crusty sub rolls.
Extra virgin olive oil
Optional: pitted kalamata olives


In a small dipping bowl, add 1 TBS of boiling water into the Herbs de Provence. Let rest for five minutes. Mix the herbs into the yogurt.

Cut the chicken into long, thin strips. Drizzle with about 1 TBS of olive oil and let sit for about 5 minutes. Preheat a skillet to medium.

Cut your bread lenghtwise and toast to a nice, crisp brown. While toasting, quickly sear the chicken in the pan to just warm it up; you do not want to brown it. Add more oil to the pan if necessary.

On the bottom bread slice spread a generous amount (about 1½ TBS) of the yogurt-herb mix. Layer some chicken slices, feta to your liking, pickle slices, cucumbers, tomatoes, and drizzle with a little olive oil. On the top sandwich half spread about a TBS of humus or more. Add a few pitted olives, if desired. Place the top on and spike the sandwich with long picks to hold it together.

Cut n' serve.

Lou's Most Excellent Italian Chicken Sandwich

Whoa.

Look at that. Will you just look at that and tell me you're not going all Pavlov on me right now?

My friend Barb gave me a packet of Louie's Italian Beef seasoning a few months back. It had been sitting in my cupboard for awhile; I don't make Italian Beef (or pork) during the summers as it's a slow cooking kind of thing and best enjoyed in front of football.

But the other day I made a beer can chicken. Notice no recipe for that is posted here since it wasn't that special. I prefer my brined chicken to beer can any day. While beer can is good, brined is better.

So I had this left over chicken: a breast and two hind quarters. How could I make this taste good?

Voila.

The bread here is just as important as anything else. I got some baguette from Bonaparte, which I've rediscovered after a long absence. Their baguette is somewhat chewy but when toasted crusts up just right. It was an excellent chicken and broccoli delivery vehicle for the evening.

1 cooked chicken breast and two cooked chicken hind quarters
2 heaping TBS of Louie's Italian Beef seasoning
1 bunch broccoli rabe
6 cloves garlic
Aged Italian provolone cheese (don't get the American crap)
Extra virgin olive oil
Red pepper flakes
Salt & pepper
Buns/rolls

Remove the skin from the chicken and debone the meat (save the leg bones). Cut and pull the chicken as best you can; you want nice, thumb sized pieces.

In a 2 quart pot add 1.5 cups of cold water, bring to a boil then reduce to simmer. Add the seasoning and two cloves of garlic (peeled and smashed) and stir. Add the chicken and leg bones and stir to mix. If too thick (like sludge) add some additional water. Cover and set to simmer for at least 1 hour. Meanwhile....

Bring 4 quarts of water to boil. Peel the leaves from the broccoli rabe, cut off about the bottom inch of stem and rinse. When the water is boiling, add about 2 TBS of salt and blanch the broccoli for 1 minute. Strain into a colander and rinse under cold water until cool.

In a large saute pan add about 4 TBS of olive oil and heat to medium. Shave or mince the remaining garlic and add to the oil with ½ - 1 TSP of red pepper flakes, 6 - 8 cranks of pepper, and two big pinches of salt. Saute over medium heat for about 10 minutes, until the broccoli has become tender but still has crunch.

Remove the inner crumb from the top half of your sandwich bun/roll. Toast the roll and prepare your sandwich with chicken (a lot - watch the bones), broccoli (a lot - and get that oil on there too), and a good helping of thick cut provolone.

Have a good time.

Lou's Most Excellent Kabob Tagliatelle

What started out as an idea for grilled spaghetti turned into this. "This" turned out to be quite good but I'm still going to work on the grilled spaghetti concept too.

On Sunday I made some killer kabobs at my folks' place. Tenderloin, shrimp, scallop, onion, bell pepper, mushroom, and squash. For four people - with an Italian sausage and calamari starter - it was way too much but that's how we do it. Fittingly, mom gave me a bunch of the left overs.

Reheating kabobs is flat-out lousy. The veggies get mushy, the meat over cooks, and it's never as satisfying as them coming right off the grill. Who in their right mind really likes reheated kabobs? Thus: do not look at left over kabobs as left over kabobs but rather the base ingredients for something else.

After four days of not having pasta, I wanted pasta. Friends' comments regarding grilling spaghetti revealed that this wasn't going to work on my grill. My grill basket was pretty rusted out and I was guessing a non-stick surface was more than somewhat necessary. Too much oil would have caused a lot of flare-ups so I decided to just pan fry.

1 pound tagliatelle pasta
Kabob leftovers
Other additions in your fridge (I used salt cured olives and grilled asparagus)
Extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
Parmesan cheese
Salt & pepper

Boil the pasta as per directions on the package, minus two minutes. Drain, run under cool water, and then set aside in cool water.

Separate the meat from the veggies in the kabobs. Cut each piece in half, if not quarters, so that each piece is now about the size of a quarter.

Drain the pasta in a colander and set aside.

Heat a very large skillet to medium-high heat. Add about 3 TBS of olive oil and the garlic all at once, sizzle for about 15 seconds, then dumb the veggies and other add-ins in. Continually toss for about 3 minutes, move to one side of the skillet, and then add the meats to the other side. Saute for about 3 - 5 more minutes to warm up the meats. Combine all and then remove to a clean plate.

Add about 3 TBS of olive oil to the pan and wait for the oil to "shimmer." Once this happens, add the drained pasta all at once, quickly toss, and let sit undisturbed for about 2 minutes. Toss quickly and sit another 2 minutes. Repeat this for 5 cycles; the pasta should start to brown.

Add in the veggies and toss to mix, cook an additional 3 - 4 minutes. Plate immediately and garnish with shaved Parmesan. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Lou's Most Excellent Grilled Steak Sandwich Tips

I should be arrested for animal cruelty for this one. My poor dog, Bailey, sat patiently in the kitchen the entire time I was making this. While repeatedly telling him "You ain't gettin' any," he didn't seem to notice. There was that slim chance that maybe, just maybe, he'd swipe the thing off the counter and I wouldn't notice.

Nope.

The other day I cooked up some beautiful prime Delmonico's from Wagshal's Market that Pam The Butcher beautifully chose for me, as per directions from LME Steak Tips. We (fortunately for me) didn't finish them all and now I had some beautiful left overs.

I love steak and I love bread so how can I go wrong here? From the crappiest-but-greatest cheesesteaks in Philly at Jim's and Pat's to the gourmand creations with Wagyu beef at Wolfgang Puck's The Source, the combination of meat, bread, and cheese can't be beat.

I'm shooting for the middle here.

Leftover, besides the steaks, were my Steak Mushrooms. Here you go:

15 button mushrooms, stems removed, sliced thin (about ¼ inch)
1 medium yellow onion, halved and sliced thin (about 1/8 inch)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup chicken broth
1 TSP minced parsley
Butter
Salt & pepper

Melt about 2 TBS of butter over medium heat. Add the onion and sweat for about 5 minutes, then add the garlic and mushrooms. When mushrooms have sweated most of their liquid - about 8 - 10 minutes pending the size of the pan - add a ½ cup of chicken broth. Simmer until the broth has been reduced, then add the other ½ cup with the parsley and do the same. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Let the mix rest while you prepare the steak.

Slice the steak - as much as you want - against the grain before cooking it for the sandwich in ¼ inch strips, about 1½ inches long. In a hot pan, add a little olive oil and sear quickly. Like the LME Grilled Chicken Sandwich , you don't want to "cook" the meat but just get it warm again.

Cheese? It's your choosing. I used provolone in the pics here but whatever floats your boat go right ahead with. I'm a big fan of American cheese for steak sandwiches (I know, I know...) because it melts so well. But I had some nice aged Italian provolone in the fridge so I went with that.

Toast your roll. You want a good toasting on the inner crumb to a) give support and b) soak up all the greasy goodness that will otherwise leak out. Mmmmmm....

When the steak is near cooked put your cheese on it and then top with the mushroom/onion mix. Slide the steak onto your toasted bun and top with whatever you want. I just used mayo and a drizzle of Pam's "steak dressing," from what I can gather is olive oil, parsley, thyme, and a few other herbs.

And if you've got a dog...don't you dare share.