Leftover Makeover

One dish, styled three ways

September has always been my favorite month to cook in France. The summer abundance of tomatoes, eggplants and peppers still flood the market, but the more fleeting figs and tiny Mirabelle plums are also on offer. More importantly, it’s finally cool enough to boil water or turn on the oven. Still, there’s only so many batches of ratatouille a girl can make, so this is the time of year I start searching for other outlets for the eggplant, zucchini and tomato overflow.

This week’s solution came not from the quantity, but from the form of eggplant available at my local market. (Form inspires change – I’ve been waiting for high waisted wide leg jeans to come back FOREVER, suddenly, my whole closet is full of new possibilities.)

Long slim Chinese eggplants have been available for a year or two in Arles, but I’ve always shied away, not sure how to prepare them. There’s a tiny dumpling restaurant in Toulouse that makes a chilled eggplant salad in a spicy sauce that is somehow both substantial and light. Let the retro-engineering (aka internet research) begin.  

I’m on week 3 of my half empty nest, and I’m starting to realize there’s more than one way to cook for yourself. One is to spend a contemplative half hour creating something new, another is to fill the freezer with good things and pull something out. Another is to make a sizable batch of something appealing and adaptable enough that you actually want to eat it three days in a row. Otherwise known as…leftovers.

Leftovers have a mixed reputation with me. I grew up in an American Jewish family – in our house, if you didn’t have leftovers, you didn’t make enough. Stuffed cabbage and pot roast taste better the next day. A piece of noodle pudding straight from the microwave is my deathbed food. My mom often made something we called “Tuesday Soup”, an excuse to throw all the week’s leftovers into a pot with some broth and one of those “soup packs”, I remember it as a plastic tube filled with lentils, split peas and barley maybe?

My attitude towards leftovers changed when I arrived in France. I began to shop almost daily. Big slabs of meat or fish were simply too expensive. Single portions of protein and fresh ingredients became the norm. I began to resent the Tetris of small plastic containers piled up in the back of my fridge when my parents came to visit.

Don’t get me wrong – I do a great deal of cooking ahead. I make big pots of sausage and lentils, minestrone, vegetable couscous, chili, ratatouille, daube de boeuf. All the world’s peasant dishes demand to be made in large quantities. Thankfully the freezer means I can tuck them away – Batch cooking is simply leftovers you don’t see the very next day!

But if I’m going to eat something 3 or 4 meals in a row it must be delicious, versatile, good hot or cold, complimentary of different textures. I don’t really think of this as eating leftovers. More like an outfit: one dish, styled three ways. Chilled eggplant salad fit the bill.

The first night I ate it over brown rice, I love a dinner of contrasts – hot and cold, plain and spicy.

The next day for lunch I paired the eggplant, straight from the fridge, with the last of Sam Sifton’s Cold Sesame Noodles, a take-out substitute staple in our house. I added a dollop of Chinese chili flakes and black beans in oil; the chilled eggplant can take the extra heat.

On Wednesday morning I went to our mid-week outdoor market and bought mackerel fillets to grill under the broiler. (I think I’ll be coming back to mackerel in another post. It’s an overlooked fish – super quick, super flavorful – not to mention a great way to judge a sushi restaurant.)

For lunch on Thursday I reverted to finger food. (See last week’s post.) By this point the eggplant had mellowed almost to a puree, perfect layered with crisp lettuce leaves and toothsome roast chicken.

Before I knew it, it was Friday, the leftovers were gone, my husband and son were home, and I was cooking for the family again.

Cold Eggplant Salad with Zippy Soy Dressing

To create this recipe, I did some internet research, tweaked and tasted, substituted and scrouged at the back of my cabinets. Et voila!

To prepare the eggplant:

6 firm Chinese eggplants, sliced into 2 inch sections, then halved or quartered (Yes, you can make this dish with regular eggplants - look for small, narrow, firm ones - slice into half inch rounds, then each round into 3 or 4 rectangles, so they steam evenly.)

Bowl of cold water with 2 tbsp of white vinegar or rice vinegar

For the sauce:

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 ½ tbsp sesame oil

1 ¾ tbsp dark Chinese black vinegar

1 tbsp agave syrup or brown sugar

1 large pinch Chinese 5 spice powder

2 teaspoons dried sweet pepper flakes (nôra or ancho)

1 large pinch of dried hot pepper flakes (to taste)

1 clove of garlic, grated

1 small knob of ginger (about ½ inch)

Fill a large pot fitted with a steamer with a few inches of water, heat.

Fill a large mixing bowl with water and 2 tbsp of white or rice vinegar. Slice each eggplant into 2-inch sections, then quarter or half these sections, adding the eggplant to the vinegar water as you cut them. Soak the eggplant for 10 minutes. The soaking keeps the eggplant from oxidizing, and sets its lovely color.

When the water in your steamer is boiling, drain the eggplant and discard the vinegar water. Add the drained eggplant to your steamer in an even layer. Steam for about ten minutes or until eggplant is tender.

Meanwhile, combine all the ingredients for the sauce.

When eggplant is tender, remove from heat, drain the water and let the eggplant sit for a few minutes until slightly cooled and drained of excess moisture. Spread the eggplant in a shallow dish, cover with sauce and mix carefully. One of the reasons this is so good for leftovers - It gets better the longer it sits in the sauce.

Depending on your whim, you can serve this dish warm, cold or at room temperature. Top with cilantro or sliced spring onion, more hot pepper flakes and a little fresh grated ginger if you like! This will make a nice appetizer for 4, or you can do what I did, and restyle for several solo feasts.

Bon appétit!

How do you style leftovers at your house?

Do you see French batch cooking in your future - if so…

Does your mother leave tiny plastic containers of unidentifiable leftovers at the back of your fridge? Share your pain.

Merci et  à bientôt!