Leftovers Reimagined

A few days ago, my father (who I am staying with this summer) turned to me and said "What do you want for dinner?" "I don't care" (my stock response) came flying out before I had even fully comprehended the question. "Okay, we'll just have the fried rice," he responded. This was, of course, referring to the epic amounts of friend rice that I had made few days ago after I misjudged how much the recipe made. However, rather than just serve the same dish twice, I like my food to be interesting. For this reason, when I was biking home that day, I was suddenly had a brilliant plan to spice up an otherwise bland leftover meal; I called it Leftovers Reimagined.

Basically my premise was simple. I decided to see how many dishes I could make based predominantly around Fried Rice. Later I added the other leftovers in the fridge (quite a few odds and ends) to the challenge so I could truly have my hand at 'reimagining' a variety of leftovers. The concept came to me as a sort of Iron Chef: Battle Fried Rice and, as such, I got quite excited. The only rule that I gave myself was that I was to buy as little things as possible (really focus on just using what we had) and that all of the fried rice dishes had to maintain an Asian flair (taste) yet not taste like any of the others, or the original fried rice.

After popping off to the store to pick up a few things (I spent less than $3.50) I was ready to begin. This is what I was working with:

LEFTOVERS (and stuff at the end of its life):
Fried Rice
Misc. seasoned chicken and veg.
Roasted red pepper
Half a lime
Butter Lettuce
Tomatoes
A dessicated Lemon
Bacon
INGREDIENTS AROUND THE HOUSE
Chickpeas
Spices
Sauces
Lemons
Soy Cheese
Rice Paper
INGREDIENTS I BOUGHT
Baguette (very thin)
Peanuts
Spring Onions

Using these as my ingredients combined with out of the box thinking and an obsession with plating as my muse I came up with the concept of a tapas style meal:

• Roasted red pepper hummus with toasted bread 'crackers'
• Bitesize chicken-lettuce wrap sandwiches
• Asian-fusion bruschetta
• Spicy grilled puréed fried rice rolls
• Western fried rice

(For dessert I was going to make Butter Mochi, but lacked the ingredients and time)
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The process was relatively simple:
Roasted red pepper hummus and toasted bread 'crackers'
This I finished before heading to the store; it is idiot-proof and can be made and stored way in advance. Basically, I used a recipe (chickpeas, tahini, lemon, etc...) from my friend Ma'ayan's mother and threw everything I needed into a food processor, puréeing untill creamy. I then added the roasted red pepper I had lying about and puréed that until incorporated. Later I threw some thinly slice baguette into an over at 350°F for about ten minutes to make the chips and I served then side by side, with a dusting of cayenne pepper

Bitesize chicken-lettuce wrap sandwiches
I took the misc. chicken & veg. that I had (a very small amount) and divided it into four equal parts. I then wrapped each in a butter lettuce leaf before putting that between two slices of baguette and adding a toothpick for structural integrity. note: this the first dish made should be stored in the fridge to keep the bread from drying out.

Asian-fusion bruschetta
For this I first doused a tomato in soy sauce, a bit o olive oil, salt and pepper before roasting it in the oven. I then diced it while hot and added it to a bowl of fried rice that had been doctored with lime juice and a splash of soy. This was served with slices of baguette (uncooked) but actually was a bit nicer when paired with the bread crackers (more of a contrast of textures) from the hummus.

Spicy grilled puréed fried rice rolls
This was the item that least labour-intensive, yet most exciting to make. Basically, I took fried rice, added chopped peanuts, spring onions, and a dash of Sriracha, and puréed the lot in a food processor until a paste. I then separated the mixture into little clumps, placed each on a sheet rice paper and rolled them into tight tubes. I let them sit until right before the I served dinner and then quickly grilled them on a panini press and served them with a sweet chili sauce for dipping.

Western fried rice
At the end of it all, I still had a very small amount of fried rice left over that I was originally planning to serve plain. However, even with time on the line, I decided to do otherwise. I cooked up the small amount of bacon left in my fridge and crumbled it into the fried rice; I added more oyster sauce and heated the entire thing up in the microwave. I then served it hot with soy cheese on the side (my father has a dairy allergy) that you sprinkled on the still-hot fried rice, so it would melt onto the fried rice but not get all clumpy or messy in the microwave before it was served.

Dinner is served

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In the end, this entire process (besides the hummus, made in the early afternoon) took about an hour (the time it took for my tomato to roast) and turned out pretty tasty. There are things that I would change (as with whenever one cooks, but that is what cooking is: one part food love, one part vanity, one hunger, and ten parts mistakes and triumphs to learn from).