QUICK AND TASTY WEEKNIGHT SUPPERS

 

                                    Quick and tasty weeknight suppers

           As spring approaches, the longer daylight seems to energize us for more diverse activities every day.  So, less time in the kitchen requires the cook to utilize shortcuts without sacrificing the taste or presentation of the meal. One of the best shortcuts is to utilize pre-cooked ingredients, or to put it bluntly – leftovers! Those healthy home cooked ingredients that can form the basis for a subsequent dish.  Meals featuring rice or chicken come to mind and adapt easily to creating subsequent meals. Occasionally I will cook extra rice for dinner while already planning a dish for another day.

Such a plan should not mean simply reheating the leftovers in the microwave.  Rather, combinations of interesting spices and other meat or vegetable additions will allow the cook to create a completely new and delicious meal, often with international overtones.

Chicken Paprikash is one such example. Roast chicken will invariably leave you with extra cooked chicken meat that can be cut in bite size pieces and assembled quickly in a delightfully spicy and colorful meal with paprika the national spice of Hungary. Most of us are familiar with paprika as only a colorful red powder sprinkled on deviled eggs or other dishes for colorful garnish with negligible taste. It is made of dried ground red bell peppers. But others, such as Spanish smoked paprika, prepared by smoking during the drying process, has a distinctive strong smoky flavor.  The most complex is flavorful Hungarian paprika.  In Hungary this spice can be found in eight levels of heat from mild to super-hot, but most brands in the US supermarket do not specify the level of heat and hence require judicious application the first time to asses it’s potency. 

                                                      Chicken Paprikash

Dice leftover chicken into bite size pieces 3-4 cups. Melt 2 tblsp. butter in a large pan and sauté 3 thinly sliced shallots with 1 garlic clove for 5 minutes. Stir in 2 tblsp. tomato paste, 2 tblsp. red wine vinegar and 2 tblsp. sweet paprika to a paste. Add 1 cup chicken broth and ½ tsp. hot Hungarian paprika (or ¼ tsp. hot red pepper flakes). Add the diced chicken and cook until thick. Stir in ½ cup sour cream, heat thoroughly and serve on wide noodles with a green salad.

Oriental fried rice is a tasty meal prepared quickly with leftover rice. Leftover rice is less sticky than freshly cooked rice and makes for better fried rice texture.  Fried rice’s primary ingredients are rice, ham or shrimp, egg, seasoning and scallions. Chinese fried rice is prepared with long grain rice with salt as seasoning, while Japanese fried rice depends on short grain rice and is seasoned with soy sauce. A recent Bon Appetit recipe inspired the creation of the following dish.

                                                    Ginger ham-fried rice

Assemble the following: 3 cups cooked leftover rice, 1 cup coarsely shredded cabbage, 1 cup snow peas cut in thirds (or 1 cup frozen peas thawed), ½ lb. diced ham, 1 tsp. fresh minced ginger, ¼ red seeded pepper cut in julienne strips and 3 large thinly sliced shitake mushrooms.

For sauce stir together: 2 tblsp. reduced salt soy sauce, 3 tsp. rice vinegar, 2 tsp. toasted sesame oil and ¼ tsp. sugar.

In a large pan or wok fry the mushrooms in 1 tblsp. vegetable oil, add cabbage, pepper and ginger and stir fry for 5 minutes. Scramble in 2 eggs, stir in rice, ham, 2 sliced scallions, snow peas and the sauce. Cook to heat through and dry. Garnish with pickled ginger and serve with sliced seedless cucumber and radish salad dressed with seasoned rice vinegar.

 Leftover cooked noodles such as penne or rotini can also become an unexpected shortcut gem when lightly browned in 1-2 tblsp. butter. These crisp noodles will complement cutlets and other meats when served instead of French fries.

The cook’s judicious choice of shortcuts with leftovers is bound to save time without sacrificing the joy of a tasty and interesting dinner.

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in coastal Maine and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day:” and “Uncharted Journey from Riga”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)