From A Past Issue Of The New Orleans Menu Daily Originally published November 23, 2007 Ten Best Dishes Made From Leftovers The best kitchens are the least wasteful. There's something good to be obtained from even the lowliest of foods--some of which, if they're cooked with imagination--can be better than a simple dish made with much more expensive ingredients. Here are ten wonderful dishes which, at least in their original versions, were made of leftovers. 1. Oysters Rockefeller, Antoine’s. The dish was improvised in the 1880s by Jules Alciatore, the son of founder Antoine Alciatore, when a luncheon party asked to have an appetizer added to its menu. The story is that Jules saw some leftover relish trays in the kitchen and ordered a sauce to be made from them and baked over oysters. 2. Cracklings, Mother’s. The cracklins are the fat they trim off the hams, fried down to obtain cooking fat. What’s left is put out on the counter and given away. You can eat it until the heart attack starts or until they run out, whichever comes first. 3. Lamb Patties, Emeril's. Emeril started making these at Commander’s, where they still do show up every now and then as a lunch special. A lean strap of lamb that’s trimmed from the lamb racks is ground up and grilled over wood, to a wonderful (and, surprisingly, low-fat) result. I think it's mostly the staff that gets these, however. 4. Bread pudding everywhere. This is an obvious one: the leftover stale French bread is used to make this greatest of New Orleans desserts, as well as for the somewhat related lost bread. <>5. Red Beans and Rice with Ham Shanks, Smilie’s. After the ham has been carved off, the bone remains with a knuckle of meat. These have been used as the caveman-style garnish for red beans beans and rice at quite a few restaurants around town over the years. Smilie’s is the only restaurant I know of that still serves this, although it pops up here and there now and then. 6. Spicy Tuna, Any Sushi Bar. After the tuna is trimmed to make sushi and sashimi, some miscelanneous scraps are left over. Nothing wrong with them--they're just the wrond size and shape for standard sushi. So they get chopped fine and mixed with red pepper and a few other things to make spicy tuna, found on the inside of fancy rolls all over the menu. 7. Vegetable soup, Tujague’s. After they boil the brisket for the most famous dish at the old restaurant, they use the stock to make a great vegetable soup. There’s a gang of Quarterites that descends on Tujague’s every Wednesday lunch to eat this, with mashed potatoes added to the bowl. 8. Filet Tips, Any Steak House. Few steak houses cut their own beef from the loin any more. Those that do are left with the thin tip of the tenderloin roast. It’s impossible to make a steak out of this, but it’s still delicious. I always order it when I encounter it. 9. Lobster bisque, Andrea’s. They shell the lobsters for one of the most expensive dishes here. Then they have all those shells and miscellaneous meat. Out of it comes a good, creamy bisque. 10. Debris, Mother's. The bits of beef that fall off when they carve to roast beef at Mother’s go into the gravy pot. A sandwich made of just the debris gravy is more than a little good. © 2007 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com