Around the Island

Food: Leave it for leftovers

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Sheltering in place on Shelter Island, where food options can be limited even in normal times, we’re challenging ourselves to be creative about what we buy and what we cook.

Whether living alone or with an extended family, we can tap into our creativity and make satisfying, nutritious and tasty meals. We personally are focused on making the most of leftovers, which are always in abundance regardless of the times or season. Here are some of our tips:

Buy food that can be used in multiple ways

• Transform a pound of chopped chuck or sirloin into a meatloaf, sandwiches, and meatballs for Italian Wedding Soup.

• Enjoy a roast chicken today, and downcycle it tomorrow into a salad or sandwiches and eventually a tasty stock.

• Open a can of tomato sauce or make your own with a 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes (available at the IGA), and use it to top spaghetti and meatballs. Extend it with broth and leftover rice as a hearty soup, and make homemade pizzas with pita or English muffins.

• Eat carrots raw, mixed into salads, cooked glazed in a pan, or roasted.

• Eat eggs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Start the day with an omelet or frittata stuffed with yesterday’s veggies. Make egg drop soup by whisking one into a simple broth or break one over a bowl of ramen noodles.

• Cook rice as a tasty side dish, or the basis for risotto and casseroles. Just like Chinese cooks, turn day-old rice mixed with meat strips, veggies and scallions into fried rice.

Buy ingredients that can help transform leftovers

• Just a few staples in the pantry, fridge and spice rack can help transform leftovers by adding flavor, texture and nutrition.

• Add color and flavor to any protein via sprigs of fresh tarragon, rosemary, thyme, basil and parsley.

• Make an easy soup by dropping bouillon cubes into water along with yesterday’s veggies or chicken and some noodles or rice.

• Use breadcrumbs (ideally home-made from the ends of loaves and broken crackers) to give crunch to a mac-and-cheese casserole, or to coat fish and chicken before a quick sauté.

Share

• Inviting neighbors over for a potluck of leftovers is off the table, but there’s still lots that we all can share from a distance to extend our food resources:

• Share your own recipes and tips for extending food with friends, family and neighbors on social media.

• Share extra food with seniors and friends who live alone.

• Bring canned goods that you are not using to the Food Pantry at the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church. For more information call 631-749-0309.

• Share your composter with neighbors whom you trust to make deposits of clean organics — no plastic or bones.

Makeover restaurant leftovers

• Doggy bags are popular because they can help save time and money.

• Good cooks know, too, that the remains of sauces, sides and even the bread basket can jumpstart exciting new meals.

• Keep local restaurants going in these tough times by ordering extra portions, and use the leftovers to create new meals (even tomorrow’s fancy French Toast).

Teach your children well

Cooking your way through a pandemic is a great time to teach kids to appreciate food and enhance family togetherness.

• Create fond memories of making bread, pancakes, smoothies and other items with parents and grandparents. It’s an opportunity to instill lifelong cooking skills, too.

• Demonstrate how to warm up spaghetti and meatballs in a frying pan, and reheat pizza in the oven – not the microwave! — and just have fun.

Karen Kiaer is a lifelong resident of Shelter Island. Jacquie Ottman, her house guest, is researching a book on leftovers.