The frugal housewife and clever mom (Dealing with leftovers)

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

AFTER the Holidays the usual situation in most households is “What on earth will I do with all these kasobrahan?”

As a frugal housewife, one is loathe is to throw away all the leftovers. There in the fridge is a plateful of leftover adobo and everybody is tired of meat. Then there is a bit of fish, usually the tail of the bangus. Also there is a small bowl of nilaga with cabbage and one solitary boiled potato. How about that small saucerful of menudo which isn’t even enough for one person anymore? Then there are three raw potatoes. Again, there is half a daing na boneless bangus which nobody wants anymore; three carrots; half a celery stick; one stalk scallion; or maybe four baguio beans. Oh, yes, there even is covered in a bowl, some fish or squid balls no one wants. And so on and so forth.

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So what to do with all of these good foods and still come up with a nice meal? You can always give the sobras to a dog and call it a day, but being the frugal housewives that we are our souls balk at such waste.

Dear frugal housewife, be clever and don’t throw anything away. The usual catch all for leftovers is the simplest thing. Make a dish of pancit. Or make lumpia; what about a sarciado with tomatoes and egg sauce?

Let’s be frugal and clever. Let’s do a pancit and lumpia, see? There is even a theme - Chinese. To begin:

For pancit with leftovers and a little new things you will need:

1. Leftover adobo, or chicken, or beef, sliced and boned

2. Leftover soup, even just the soup, strained of small bits of veggies and meat

3. Leftover cabbage

4. Beans, celery, scallions and carrots

5. Fish and squid balls.

6. A couple of cloves of garlic

7. Onions

8. A couple of soup cubes of flavor mix

9. Noodles of choice: canton, bihon, miki bihon, etc.

10. Cooking oil.

11. Salt and pepper to taste

12. Soy to taste

Noodles of choice. Now you have chosen your noodles. You should have just enough noodles for your family, and as much as possible the noodles should not be truly enough for you family. This is so there won’t be any leftover noodles, or you will have to deal with some more leftovers.

Everybody knows how to make pancit. So we won’t waste time teaching you how to make pancit. If you will look over the ingredients, you will see that you have exactly what is needed for a noodle dish. So cook away frugal and clever housewife. There you have it. Be warned though, not to cook the ingredients too much. You may slice them as needed, but if they are the previously cooked ingredients, as much as possible, toast them in the cooking oil with the garlic, to avoid overcooking. Take out the already cooked ingredients before doing the new ones. If your cabbage and carrots are new, do them now. You will have a good more or less chopsuey dish to top your noodles.

When the ingredients are done, take them off the frying pan and do the liquid. Estimate the liquid needed, using of course the soup, and some hot water. Add the flavor mix or the soup cubes. Before dropping in the noodles, taste for salt and pepper, with some soy for color and flavor. When you are happy with the taste, slide the noodles in, washed and cleaned. Except for canton. We all know that canton isn’t washed before cooking. Bring the mixture to a boil and let the noodles cook. Cover the pan and allow the noodles to absorb the liquid. When the noodles are done, about 10 or 23 minutes put the veggies on top and cover once more for about 5 minutes. You now have a steaming hot and flavorful dish of leftovers. Serve for merienda with lumpia or part of a lunch.

Make a lumpia with leftovers.

Same thing but you have to buy lumpia wrappers.

1. Menudo or fish

2. Potatoes

3. Carrots and bits of cabbage

4. Garlic and onions

5. Cooking oil

6. Salt and pepper to taste

Do the same. Flake the fish of the menudo, but try to not mix the two. Just have two kinds of lumpia. Saute the garlic and onions with the carrots and cabbage or whatever else you have, and divide the mixture between the fish and the menudo.

There you have the lumpia mixture. Again, all of us frugal and clever housewives know how to mucke lumpiang shanghai. Have calamansi for the pancit and vinegar and garlic for the lumpia.

So go for it sisters. The bottom line.... DO NOT THROW AWAY LEFTOVERS.

BON APPETIT!