Leftover Veggies

Leftover Veggies

Carrots, beets, cauliflower, hearts of palm, mushrooms, zucchini, onions, scallions, tomatoes, fennel, broccoli, cilantro, spinach and arugula.

What to do, what to do...

I recently made dinner which consisted of a vegetable salad with fresh spinach and arugula for the appetizer... however, a plethora of chopped veggies remained... sans salad dressing - simply ready to be served. Rather than preparing a fresh salad for breakfast, I decided to add a French-flare to create a more "breakfast-appropriate meal."

I placed all chopped veggies into a medium bowl, then sprinkled with the juice of one lemon. To the mixture, I added 1 tsp "Slap Yo Mamma" cajun seasoning, a pinch of smoked sea salt, 2 tsp dried oregano, a few shakes of smokey Tabasco sauce and 1 tsp lemon pepper. In order to give the veggies a touch more "bite," I crumbled 1/4 cup of cooked polenta and a few slices of left-over turkey deli meat. After tossing all ingredients together, I melted 1 Tbsp coconut oil on an iron skillet and slowly cooked the veggie mixture. I deglazed with 1 Tbsp Pino Grigro, which provided a subtle, yet necessary sweetness to the conglomeration of favors.

While the concoction was cooking, I simply sprayed a non-stick olive oil on a sauté pan and heated the pan to a medium heat. I gently cracked two eggs and slowly added them to the pan, attempting to keep the egg white from channeling tributaries and spreading across the pan. Why medium heat? All too often, individuals make the mistake of cooking eggs on a high heat. When cooking a sunny-side up egg, it is essential to cook it "medium and slow." Otherwise, the egg-white will cook too quickly and the yolk will be completely raw. When cooking on a medium heat, the egg white will cook slower, allowing the egg yolk to catch its pace. The intention is to serve the egg while the yolk has been slightly cooked - not too running, but cooked enough to be safe to consume. While the eggs were cooking in a delicate manner, I simply sprinkled each egg with a touch of the "Smack Yo Mamma" cajun seasoning - providing a touch more of "bite."

In plating, I warmed two mini-iron skillets in a 350 degree oven. I piled a mound of the vegetable mixture onto each skillet, then sprinkled with roasted, chopped, smokey-almonds (gave an essential "crunchy" texture to the dish). I carefully used a spatula to transfer the sunny-side up egg atop each skillet, then sprinkled a few more chopped almonds... finished with a sprig of cilantro. Brilliant accruement to this dish would be a spicy Srircha thai sauce. When the consumer's fork makes its first incision into the egg, the yolk will disburse it's yolk in a volcanic, magma-like state... creating it's own sauce to permeate the entire dish.

Again - easy, healthy, colorful, fast... a way to transforming leftovers from nothing into something.

"Rational habits permit of discarding nothing left over, and the use to which leftovers (and their economic allies, the wild things of nature) are put is often at the heart of a cooking's character." - Richard Onley

Love y'all dearly!