Leftovers? I prefer to call them ‘brilliant meal building-blocks’

Leftovers have a bad reputation. Deemed the dregs of a dinner, the afterthought of an over-generous cook, they also add to the frustration of an already-full fridge. It’s unfortunate because, branded slightly differently, they could be known as “next-day dinner saviours” or “brilliant meal building-blocks”. ( I might need to work on that.) Either way I’ve seen many great cooks and food writers try and fail to encourage the masses to embrace their leftovers. Perhaps it just won’t happen for some, but for the many clever cooks out there, they will already know full well the benefits of giving leftovers a little love. Considering last year my leftovers were generously donated to whomever we were staying with during a year of moving, I myself have grown to love my leftovers again– it comes down to good home kitchen management.

Meal plan

As dull as it might sound, each Sunday, our time is well spent making a meal and shopping plan for the week ahead. In general I stick to it: I pick out the ingredients for the recipes I’ve chosen, I boil up rice and bulghur wheat and whatever else, to get ahead, wash vegetables and salad ingredients and in general try to make life a little easier in advance. It works too; in most cases we use up the contents of the fridge with little going to waste and, probably even more importantly, we eat better, healthier meals as a result. A regular weekly cooking routine will guarantee plastic-wrapped bowls and Tupperware piling up, but accepting them, either as a repeat meal or incorporating them into new ones, is the only way forward.

This week I share recipes for weeknight suppers. The bones of my chilli jam chicken recipe have been hanging out in the vast recesses of my mind for years. I love the idea of making a marinade from leftover jars of jams and chutneys. The spiky dregs of a jar of chilli jam form the basis for a kicking little marinade infused with fish sauce, ginger and rice wine – one that could even be shaken right there in the jar before being slathered over the meat of your choice. The accompanying rice recipe actually benefits from using cold leftover rice from the fridge, as the grains don’t turn to mush as they would if using freshly cooked.

All the flavours

I also like the idea of delivering all the flavours of a roast dinner in half the time and, while this cheat’s porchetta recipe is certainly not the traditional one, it manages to do just that.

Both these recipes are great weeknight options and even better the day after as repeat dinner or a “brilliant meal building-block” – come on, that’s going to catch on, right?