Man Food ~ Worldwide Pants!

In much of my blogging I talk about the things I do with leftovers and it is possible that there may be some confusion as to where said leftovers come from. 
Well quite a few come from wonderful creative spicy interesting meals that I have cooked myself (ahem) but some come from the HUGE manly dinners I cook my darling every single night.

I don't know if you are familiar with the American comedy "Everybody Loves Raymond", we watched it a lot in the Caribbean.  At the end of each episode the logo of the television company, World Wide Pants, is shown on the screen together with a picture of a meal, presumably cooked by Marie in the programme, being laid down.  

Because of this, when dinner is ready, I often call my real man by shouting out "World Wide Pants".  I don't know what the neighbours think but that is by no means the worst thing I call out to him.

Anyhoo here are some pictures of Real Man Food together with ideas of what to do with any leftovers - slim chance though that may be.

1.   Roast Dinner 

Roast meat of some description, always five lovely homemade Yorkshire puddings (unless I make six), mushy peas, veggies, potatoes and rich homemade gravy. You can see by the knife action that he is eager to get started on it.  A chicken dinner is a little different - homemade bread sauce and stuffing replacing the Yorkshires. 

Leftovers - leftover meat can be used to make pie, shepherds pie, rissoles, sandwiches, salads etc.  Leftover yorkies, if not influenced by gravy etc. are good popped in a hot oven for a few minutes and then eaten for breakfast with honey or maple syrup and butter.

2.   Steak and Kidney Pie

Bought in puff pastry, sorry) with veg and mash. Sometimes its a chicken and leek pie or a minced beef pie.

Leftover mash can be fried and served with breakfast,

add leftover veg to make bubble and squeak or munged with other leftover things (eg. fish for instance) formed into cakes and fried for lunch.  See here for lots of ideas for leftover pastry trimmings.

3.   The manly fry up 

This typically includes bacon, sausages, kidneys, black pudding, tomatoes, mushrooms, oven chips, onions rings, peas and 4 slices of bread and butter.  Sometimes the meats are different, maybe a bit of steak or gammon for instance, and occasionally there are beans and an egg but no peas.

Leftovers - I can hardly think of anything to do with leftover chips but if you do have to reheat them DO NOT USE THE MICROWAVE or they will go soggy. Reheat them and onions rings in the oven. Sausages are good in sandwiches (handy sausge sandwich hint here). Any of the other leftovers could be used in a frittata. Crumble black pudding over kedgeree or add to stuffing.

4.  Toad in the Hole

I have written about this before (including this picture which I am rather pleased with and the incredibly easy peasy Yorkshire pudding recipe) it is served with veg, potatoes and gravy.

This is tricky so far as leftovers are concerned but as there never are any I'm not bovvered.

5.   Mince and Dumplings

This is a real favourite. I have no idea why there are only nine dumplings showing in the picture because without ever measuring the ingredients I always seem to make him 11!  The recipe is here - see how many you make! Veg with this but no potatoes.

Leftovers - there are never any dumplings left but if there were I find the best way to re-use them is to slice in half and fry the dry cut surfaces in butter till crisp and golden and they are heated through.  If there is a lot of mince left I can make him a pie.  If just a little he might have a Sloppy Joe type thing for lunch or sometimes I add some beans, cumin, chilli and something tomatoey to make myself some chilli con carne.

Read More Here

I am so keen on using up leftovers I wrote a book, originally called The Leftovers Handbook it is now in its 2nd edition as Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers.  In it I give all the information, ideas, recipes, handy hints, cook’s treats, storage info, ideas of what goes with what that I can think of for over 450 possible leftovers.