Recipe books are often filled with recipes for leftovers. Ideally a good cook has none, as their food should be so good nothing remains at the end of a meal, and they have judged precisely what is required. But inevitably we all have odds and sods that make their way into the fridge for later use, and it is literally a waste not to use them.
Friday we had some neighbours over for a meal, the main course of which was a daube of beef slow cooked for four hours. Lots of meat, and some health conscious eaters, so a few morsels left at the end. On Sunday these were dried of sauce, cut into much thinner pieces, and mixed with a drained tin of lentils, chopped onion and vinaigrette to make a salad. It was good, and I felt virtuous.
Getting the same feeling now as I smell the stock made with a chicken carcass and a few veg and herbs, the basis of a vegetable soup tonight. But it has to be about more than thrift to be really valid, and good chicken stock is always more than thrifty, the beginning of many flavorsome sauces, stews and soups. Cubes (we all use them at times) get nowhere near.
So leftovers well used are a sign for me of imagination, of economic thinking, and maybe experience. But only if they are not the norm.
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