Oh, Minimalist. You really know the way to a guy’s heart.
Not only are you writing about reusing leftovers, you’re using noodle pudding to do it. Your noodle pudding recipe is enticingly similar to my grandma’s devine kugel. (Here’s more on the institution that is kugel.)
The Minimalist, aka Mark Bittman, is onto something when he talks about grains being among the most common kind of leftover. And the idea of turning bread, rice and noodles into dessert, while not a new one, has my undying approval. Now that’s alchemy.
It’s exciting to see so national a writer talking about frugality. I have a hunch, though, that this will become more common in the mainstream media for obvious reasons.
I’m curious: Do you often find yourself with leftover grains? If so, will you try Bittman’s recipes for noodle pudding, rice pudding and bread pudding?
7 Comments
I find myself with a lot of extra challah from our observance of the Jewish Shabbat. I freeze it and make a fair amount of french toast and bread crumbs. Occasionally, I’ll make bread pudding or stuffing (sometimes I’ll make the stuffing without even making the bird).
Other grains we don’t tend to have leftovers, mostly because I’ve tried to do a better job estimating how much we will actually eat, given the dish being made.
OMG–challah bread pudding is waaay too good. (Is challah bread pudding like saying chai tea–overly redundant?)
But have you tried challah French toast?
I agree. We probably will see similar concepts to the ones posed in this article as the economy’s state continues. I too wrote about this article in one of my blog posts this week.
I like to make rice pudding with extra rice. As for bread, I often just defrost it and toast it and use it as is. It tastes good if eaten warm, and not frozen after it’s gotten stale.
I don’t know if my husband and I are just more starch-addicted than the average family, but we NEVER have leftover grains! If we lived somewhere where such things were possible (like a small town in Italy or France) we’d have fresh baguette delivered every day, and every bite would definitely get eaten. Cheese toast in the morning, sandwiches at lunch, and bread as a side with dinner. Challah (bread) pudding sounds pretty dang fantastic though.
I almost never have leftover grains, even though I eat them all the time. Trying to think why… I think it is because I only cook for two, and I try to plan the portion sizes to avoid leftovers. Measuring serving sizes for pasta and rice is very easy, and since I buy bread that comes in a plastic bag (yes not very glamorous I know) it generally keeps for the week it takes me to eat it. Leftover grains are probably more of a problem for families where serving more people increases the chance for unpredictable appetites.
Any leftover bread (including biscuits and the like) in our home goes into the freezer. I use it for croutons, bread pudding, french toast, etc. Rolls get reheated for future meals. For things like scones, I recently discovered you can cut them and have them ready to bake, then flash freeze all but what you intend to eat that day. Perfect because only a couple at a time get eaten in our home, but I can reduce my prep time by making a freezing a batch, then baking just what is needed to help reduce waste.
Leftover pasta is almost always recycled into some form of pasta salad. Or sometimes a fritatta.
Rice goes to rice pudding every one in a blue moon, but usually I use it to make fried rice for breakfast. It’s wonderful w/ ham, eggs and spears of freshly sliced tomato, and even w/ some greens or other veggies. I am also a huge fan of rice stuffing, since I don’t really like bread stuffing. Oh, and occasionally it goes in soups.
I often have leftover rice and, while I love Bittman’s version with eggs, I do a decidedly more lazy version (which my dog & boyfriend love, so it must be great, right?).
I leave the leftover rice in the pot, cover it with milk, add a spoonful of sugar and some cornstarch (in a slurry with water to avoid lumps) and cook it ’til it’s thick. Sometime I add a splash of vanilla or rum or some nutmeg or whatever.
It’s not a.m.a.z.i.n.g. but it’s darn good.