Leftovers Made Even Better

 Matthew and I had a dinner party last Friday…it was delicious and we had way too much food (are we shocked by this? NOT AT ALL).  From leftovers, I made us a Pad Thai type dinner on Sunday…and unlike my many attempts to make Lo Mein for two people (usually ends up being enough for at least four), it made 2 bowls of delicious, and pretty nutritious dinner! 

• 1 red pepper, sliced thin
• 1/2 cup of carrots, sliced into pieces about the same size as the pepper
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1 Tb minced garlic
• 1 bunch of scallions, chopped
• 1/3 to 3/4 cup leftover peanut sauce (originally made from chicken broth, coconut milk, lime juice, soy sauce, peanut butter, cayenne pepper, garlic powder)
• About 1 cup of leftover shredded/chopped pork (it was a papaya-glazed recipe I had smashed together from a few different recipes, but you can really use any already cooked meat you like…or seafood…whatever)
• Chopped peanuts (unsalted)
• 1 package fresh Asian noodles

The pepper, garlic and scallions went into the sauté pan with a little canola oil (maybe 2 swirls around the pan) first.  They’re called aromatics, and they develop their flavors first, making a really great flavor base for any dish…you could use spicy chilies or peppers, and onions or shallots.  The carrots and peas went in shortly after this, because they need to cook.  Meanwhile, the pasta was being cooked for about 3 minutes in boiling water.  While the pasta is cooking, the peanut sauce and pork went into the pan, heating up with the vegetables…it should seem too thick to coat the pasta at this point, but that will get resolved.  When everything in the pan is heated through and the pasta is cooked, the pasta was moved directly from the water into the veggie/pork/sauce pan, using tongs or a spaghetti fork…this brings some of the starchy pasta water along with it, thinning the sauce a little, and allowing it to coat the pasta and get everything mixed together.  Divide into two dishes and top with peanuts.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 4:13 pm and is filed under Yum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.