Leftovers omelette

Eggs beaten the night before.

Jungle Duck Salad

Thai Jungle Duck Curry is one of my favourite dishes, so naturally when I had leftover duck from a roast and leftover pineapple and tomatoes from a pasta salad, the opportunity to recreate this as a salad could not be missed. my favourite bit was the duck skin, which in retrospect, would have strengthened duck's fatty flavour amidst pineapple and tomato and French dressing. But thankfully, this really did taste like a salad version of the original curry. Except for the curry flavoured or lime-chilli dressing... Oh well.

A simple leftovers meal

In order to save time, I made these bacon and egg cups by filling a muffin tin with bacon, cracking and egg into each one, and baking. I am serving one of my bacon and egg cups with a small tin of beetroot and some leftover gluten free spinach gnocchi.

This is another meal from yesterday that uses the bacon and egg cups. Only in this case, I have smeared Kraft cheese spread on top of the bacon and egg cups and used rice that I precooked a stored away in the freezer for later use.

Nachos and baked beans, aka healthy alternative to Doritoes Pizza

After making pizzas a few days, I had leftover tomatoes, pizza sauce and cheese. I also had a bag of Cool Ranch Doritoes I had been wanting to try and hadn't finished. The natural conclusion? Nachos! This is partly inspired by a recipe of my sister, who likes to cover doritoes with cheese and pasta sauce, then microwave them for a bit. Some chips have submerged with the sauce and cheese and are soft, while others remain crunchy. The baked beans are there to "bulk" everything up and turn an unhealthy snack into a healthy meal. Who said they need to go to Dominoes to get the "Doritoes pizza" experience?

My version of chicken biryani

Biryani is basically Indian style fried rice with meat and vegetables. In this recipe, I took leftover rotisserie chicken and cooked rice and added some frozen vegetables I got from an Indian supermarket near where I live (namely okra, which tastes like a bland version of green capsicum) and of course, spices (mainly cumin, but also pepper and chilli flakes). The great thing about spices is that as long as you never use TOO much, it's always fun to use different spices. Tumeric has a somewhat muddy flavour and is great for filling out the flavour of the hotter spices. Cumin has a very distinctive savoury flavour while not being too hot. Cardamom seeds can also be added to the rice and have their own distinctive, bitter flavour. Of course, it goes without saying that all spices need to be fried in a little oil before the cooked rice, chicken and vegetables are added to unlock their full flavour.

Vietnamese style cold rolls

I had leftover fish curry, so I decided to use some of it to make Vietnamese style cold rolls. I used 30 g rice paper, 50 g rice noodles, lettuce and as much fish as I needed (not much at all). I prepared the rice paper by dipping it into a bowl of boiled water. I made about 3-4 rolls, which was very filling and about 500 calories. I put all the leftover noodles and lettuce in a bowl in the fridge to have cold rolls later. The little container of what looks like sand is actually toasted rice. I think you make it by roasting rice in the oven for a while, then crushing it with a mortar and pestle, though I'm not sure because my Cambodian housemate made it for me. It adds a little satisfying "crunch" to the rolls. Cold rolls has become my favourite way of using up leftovers, mainly those cheap rotisserie chickens I have been getting cheap on the way home via the supermarket late at night.

Sushi

I used 1 cup of sushi rice (also short grain rice, even arborio rice, are both fine), to which I cooked according to instructions and to which I added sushi vinegar. I didn't use a sushi mat, I just laid out the nori on a chopping board, pressed a cup of the prepared rice onto half of the sheet, laid out the filling in the middle of the rice, in a line, then rolled up the whole thing, making sure to wet the two pieces of nori that were coming together. It was like making a Vietnamese cold roll, or tortilla wrap, only you don't have to fold in the sides as well. After the roll was wrapped up, I sliced it. For the filling, I used leftover fish fingers. Which aren't the best, but are an extremely cheap protein source. The sauce is mayonnaise mixed with wasabi powder.

We had already made sushi with proper ingredients like carrot, cucumber and smoked salmon (and egg!) but they had already run out rather quickly, and I needed to use up my fish fingers.

Healthy smoked salmon and kale linguine alfredo

I was in the unusual situation of having kale, smoked salmon and eggs to used up. I therefore did a search on Google for recipes with salmon, kale and eggs and came up with a version of alfredo that uses a raw egg sauce instead of cream. There is also this idea that you can substitute half the amount of pasta you would usually eat with a vegetable, in this case, kale. Kale is bitter and tough, so rubbing it with salt and and cooking it as much as possible are good ways of making it more palatable. Therefore, what I did was cook the kale and pasta together and drain, and while they were still hot, quickly added a mixture of beaten egg and skim milk. In true student fashion, I had also used some of the cheese powder that comes in sachets with those packets of Easy Mac (it was dissolved into the milk). You could of course use a little normal cheese like a normal person. Despite this, I think I can grandly state that I have made "healthy smoked salmon and kale linguine alfredo." The smoked salmon was untouched because I prefer it that way. Even so, it began to cook on top of the pasta as I was eating it.