WASTE NOT: Lamb Pie
My husband used to say that we had the most expensive compost ever. I admit I have not historically been a whiz with leftovers. I am making a real effort to change that. It's inevitable that some recipes flop. The failure sits in your fridge until a brave soul mercifully throws it out. To me, that's justifiable compost. But many things go to rot because we don't remember they're back there or we can't bear to eat the same thing, in the same way, for the third time in one week.
Making something new and delicious with leftovers forces one to be imaginative. There are few, if any, recipes for leftovers in contemporary cookbooks. So, in a way, re-cooking food isn't bound by many, if any, rules--though good intuition does help. The end product doesn't always work, but when it does the dish is doubly satisfying.
We have been cooking a lot of lamb lately. Mostly because it's our favorite meat of the moment and we have been buying superb whole, locally grown lamb from Sierra Farms. We recently had some quality leftovers from a dish of four braised lamb shanks. A couple of nights ago Rob got the leftover shanks out and mixed them with a little tomato and some small potatoes to make a very good lamb stew. Tonight, I warmed the leftover stew, added a bit more lamb and a head of roasted garlic from the leg of lamb we recently had, along with some olives and peas. I baked it all in en croûte. The result was one of my best leftover creations yet: Lamb Pie. We ate it with lettuces tossed with olive oil & fleur de sel.
