Lately I’ve been experimenting with doubling my main dishes with plans to use them as leftovers. But I don’t just throw what’s leftover into the fridge and serve it one or two nights later. I freeze the leftovers then fancy them up a couple weeks later so that they seem like an entirely new dish.
For example, I made beef burgundy stew in my slow cooker a few weeks ago. I’ll have to write down the recipe I used because I’ve come up with a good one based on The Dinner Doctor’s. I used two packages of stew meat — so maybe two pounds or so of beef — but added a lot of onions, carrots, and mushrooms so that there’d be enough for two meals. I froze the extra in a gallon Ziploc bag.
Last week, I thawed out the beef burgundy and made it into a beef pot pie. I started by sauteeing some sliced onions in butter until they were lightly browned. Because the stew gravy had been a bit too thin, I stirred in two tablespoons of flour and cooked it for a few minutes to remove the raw flour taste. Then I added the mostly-thawed stew and brought it to a gentle simmer. The gravy thickened up nicely.
As it was simmering, I took a refrigerated pie crust and baked it in the oven on a piece of parchment — not in a pie pan, but just as a big circle that I would slip onto the top of the stew when it was time.
When the pie crust was light golden brown and ready to come out of the oven, I seasoned the stew with a bit of soy sauce, then added chopped fresh parsley. I put the pie crust onto the beef stew in the skillet. Then I served it straight from the skillet.
One Comment
Hi Anne, I just started blogging as an attempt to write, reflect, share photos, stay connected with family. I remembered you were one of the first people to tell me about blogging, then I found you. Congrats on your book. All is well, we are still on Maui. I am actually writing a book myself. A couple in fact. Kind of fun.
Hope you are well.
Theresa