Something from Nothing ~ Week 2

As you know, in the dual interests of thrift and tasty Pixie~Pursuits, I am disciplining myself to make a delicious meal from something leftover...at least once a week. The rules of the game are that I must give a recently enjoyed food a new life, and hopefully a new taste and look as well!  Here's what I had to start with this week...

A typical-looking leftover plate of some chicken Piccata with sauce, peas and mashed potatoes. Oh my - whatever am I going to do with this? I put my thinking cap on, and came up with the perfect solution ~ croquettes! Yes, those wonderful golden brown creations....but first, I needed to make a dipping sauce. Marinara-type sauce is wonderful for dipping, so I sliced a garlic clove quite thinly, and sauteed it in two Tablespoons of olive oil...on the lowest heat setting..you just want to soften the garlic, and flavor the oil in this step....the garlic will burn and turn bitter if you do not keep the heat extremely low...

Then, I added the following ingredients,



A little more olive oil (about one teaspoon), a small can of tomato sauce, salt, pepper, red pepper flake, and dried basil, parsley and oregano..just throw it all into the sauce pan with the garlic and oil, mix with a fork, and place on low heat to simmer..

I scraped the sauce (which contained lovely capers and sun-dried tomatoes) off the chicken, and placed into a bowl.  Then, one chops the chicken into very small dice, like so...



I then mixed the chicken, mashed potatoes, peas and sauce together with some fresh tarragon and parsley from the (now indoor) Pixie herb Patch...



I then got out one of my favorite go-to ingredients; Japanese Panko breadcrumbs....crunch-tacular!

Then, one rolls the mixture into croquettes...

Then coat them with seasoned flour, and the bread crumbs. I added salt and pepper to the flour, and salt, pepper and garlic powder to the Panko...

Then, you heat about 2 Tablespoons olive oil in your non-stick skillet, and fry over medium heat, just until nicely browned on each side...

These can be made vegan or vegetarian friendly by simply leaving out the chicken!  Well? How did they turn out?

Really....quite.....amazing! The hot croquettes with some of the marinara sauce were a lovely hot lunch on a blustery Autumn day that made me feel like I was wrapped in a foodie blanket of warmth! The chunks of chicken were great, the chewy sun-dried tomatoes...yum!  There are two things I might tweak the next time I make this, which are; put some chopped scallions into the mixture, and include a beaten egg to hold them together better ~ these have to be carefully handled, and will fall apart easily.  But oh my, they tasted wonderful! Week 2 Something from Nothing is a definite keeper.

Stay tuned for next weeks' Something from Nothing, and a visit with Kitchen Angel! I hear she's been "horsing around". Hmmmm..

Please email me your favorite leftover use-up recipes (allymv@yahoo.com) and I will re-create them and post the pictures here!  Come ON! I've got a whole YEAR, ya know!

Eat well, my friends. Love and kindness to all,

Pixie