Leftovers Love: Zucchini Pickles

These pickles, which you got a peek of recently in sandwich porn, were made by simply slicing up a small zucchini that I had not used in my zucchini-onion sautée (they were 3 for $1 at my beloved Mr. Melon), and plopping the coins into the brine left over from my dill-horseradish (cucumber) pickles. (I made these a couple of weeks ago, so don’t think I used rancid veggies or anything.)

They are an excellent addition to sandwiches, as recently documented in the aforementioned porn, and were a hit when I served them as an accoutrement to lamb tacos made with fried scraps of leftover lamb roast, jalapeno jack, iceberg lettuce, sour cream, and cilantro on warmed flour tortillas. Sadly, gentle reader, I did not capture a photo of these tacos, as they were devoured too quickly.

Spread leftovers love, it’s the Brooklyn way!

Awesomesauce!

For most people, “awesomesauce” is a figure of speech, and a pretty inane one at that. For me, awesomesauce is an actual condiment, and a pretty—wait for it—awesome one at that.

Awesomesauce is basically a variation on chipotle mayo that I have whipped up in various forms/ingredient ratios for various purposes. Like salad dressings, it’s one of those things you make to taste, so I’ll tell you roughly what I did last time (gentle reader, I certainly did not measure) and you experiment with your own custom blend, ’k?

One note before starting: I may have mentioned this before, but I always have some chipotles in adobo on hand—you only need one or two for most recipes, but a can is usually under a couple bucks, and the remainder will keep in the fridge almost indefinitely as long as you decant it into a glass jar. (Once opened and exposed to oxygen, the metal can will react with the chipotles, and unless you’re a goat, eating rusty can is not a good look.) I recommend washing out and saving empty jars of mustard or jam or salsa for just such a purpose.

Ricotta Dip

Just came up with this quick app that I made ahead for tomorrow night’s dinner, and it’s the easiest thing ever. Spread it over toasted baguette slices (or, even better, flatbread) and it’s kinda like a DIY white pizza. (And this is coming from someone who was never fooled by that “English muffin pizza” nonsense. Seriously, what are we, stupid? That shizz is not pizza.)

Anyhoo, I made this with White Rose supermarket-brand ricotta; the other ingredients give it mad flavor, so don’t stress about getting a fancy expensive ricotta—it’d be like ordering top-shelf tequila in a margarita. (Really? You do that? Oh, honey, nobody is impressed.)

Like Ketchup, But Better

I like to think of this DIY condiment as being to ketchup what Avatar is to 2-D movies. (Of course, I haven't seen Avatar, because I always have to be different -- hell, I never even saw Titanic -- but that's beside the point. It's an analogy, people.) Basically, it's a roasted tomato relish with a rich tomato flavor and a hint of sweetness. You know, like ketchup, but better. (Hence the title of this post. Come on, try to keep up.) It can be used as anything from a sandwich spread to a sauce for fish (more suggestions below, under the jump).

This is a great way to use up tomatoes from your garden, or ones that are starting to get squishy. If your market has a section of discounted-because-it's-about-to-go-bad produce, this is a perfect opportunity to utilize it. If you've got options, plum tomatoes (the oval kind) might be best for this, but obviously, since I just told you to go ahead and use tomatoes that are about to go bad, we're not going to be too particular here.