Monday, November 10, 2008

Roast leftovers, part 1

Saturday's dinner was cut up meat and onions in a bowl with some of the juice, soaked up by whole wheat bread. Sunday was meat shavings and Monterrey Jack cheese wrapped in a tortilla.

Monday I got a little ambitious. In my 8" cast iron frypan, I carmelized an onion. Then I put some of the leftover liquid in the pot, along with a spoonful of the rendered fat. (that was a mistake, I think). I dumped the mess into the saucepan.

I read that when you carmelize an onion, you should use a bit of vinegar at the end to deglaze. I say, why use vinegar when you have scotch? About two tablespoons swished around and was dumped into the saucepan.

I cut a potato in thin slices and dumped that in, filling the frypan with water and dumping the water in the saucepan. Simmered until the potatoes were cooked.

I tasted it and it was pretty bland and fatty tasting - next time no fat. I put in generous amounts of celery salt and black pepper, then let it boil some more.

(This is one of those times that roasted long green chiles would have come to the rescue. Alas, they had gone bad)

Tasting again, it wasn't so bad. I spooned some into a bowl with sharp cheddar cheese on top. That turned out to be the key.

What's going on here

I'm thinking the sharp cheddar mitigated the sweetness of the onions, and the fats blended well together.

Lessons Learned
No rendered fat on sweated, carmelized onions, and cut the onions into bits instead of rings for soup.

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