Waste Not, Want Not

What to do with bread dough that just can’t get its rise on, due to too-cold kitchen temperatures? Make flatbread, and put the rest of the dough in the laundry room to enliven. While I lovingly cooked the pita in the iron pan, using a wipe of butter for each new pillowy disc, I pressure-cooked chick peas, onion, carrot, kale, a Toulouse sausage, and herbs in some leftover soup I had made from the lamb chop bones and kale/pesto mashed potatoes from new year’s eve. After cooking, I added a little tomato paste, some pimentón and piment d’Espelette, and cut the sausage into rounds. Wicked winter grub.

As good as it was, though, the breads, toasted lightly, brushed with butter, and dusted with salt and piment d’Espelette were sublime just by themselves. And it’s worth noting that even though NYE dinner was lackluster, those bones and mashed spuds made for a superlative soup- without which these chick peas would have lacked their amazing depth of flavor. The next day I cut up the two leftover chops and added them into this chick pea stew with minced kale, cubed potatoes, and water to make an even better remix. I love the evolving winter soups; that version 3.0 is still in the fridge- about a pint of it- and will serve as the substrate for something tasty in the next couple of days. It’s been the happy last resting place of most of our random leftovers for almost a week now.

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6 Comments

  1. The Spiteful Chef
    January 6, 2010

    YES! Flatbread is also the solution if you're trying to get bread to rise and run out of time before dinner. Le Genius.

  2. cookiecrumb
    January 6, 2010

    I love how you keep pushing food forward. Take what you have in the fridge from yesterday, and make it into something brilliant for tomorrow. (Or, garbage soup, as we call it.)

  3. Jen of A2eatwrite
    January 6, 2010

    I've done this, too. Nothing like fresh flatbread!

    BTW… I've been letting my bread rise in a kitchen cabinet that has a heat vent underneath it. I noticed the pans in that cabinet were warm, and so I've been taking them out and putting the rising bowl in. It's pretty great. 😉

  4. Julia
    January 7, 2010

    Never thought of that. So, last night I made flatbread. It was excellent and quick, too. Thanks!

  5. peter
    January 7, 2010

    Kristie: Le thank you.

    CC: It's my peasant roots.

    Jen: Our cabinets are all freezing; the laundry/furnace room is just right.

    Julia: You're welcome! "Turn that fail upside down" is what I always say.

  6. Miss jane
    May 18, 2010

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