St. Pakelika's Day? - Leftovers Reborn, Asian Fusion

So, St. Patrick's Day has come and gone once again. Like all the other holidays where "they" have sort of told us what to eat, by tradition, or otherwise, you now probably have a lot of corned beef, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and celery on hand. Plus, don't forget that green beer and green Irish Whisky that should not be a problem to take care of, given the right attitude.

So, Pakelika? What up brah? Okay, its the Hawaiian word for Patrick. So, I, like many other people did NOT want to end up having to eat another heaping St. Patty's Day meal and I wasn't sure what to do with everything we had left over. I could vacuum seal (Suk-N-Seal, as we call it around here) it, but still, now we are going to have to eat another St. Patrick's Day meal some time in the future and I was kind of hoping maybe not until Mar, 2013. Yeah, not so much; these leftovers were not going to last and I would not want them in a year anyway. Who would?

Out came the creativity and right to work I went, armed with my with my fusion, right brained cooking ideas, and here is what I came up with.

Look good? Let me just say that I whipped this puppy together (No SPCA comments please; it's a figure of speech) and it rocked! It was NOT a leftover meal, but rather an entirely new Asian fusion savory dish put together from a St. Patrick's classic.

First of all, here's a disclaimer. Why? Because I worked with the ingredients and adjusted them many times before I got what I was striving for. I will list the basic prep steps and ingredients, so it's really up to the cook how much of each to put in for the end result. I mean, it's supposed to be a leftover dish anyway, right?

Okay, first of all, get your leftover ingredients out and see how much you have:

• Corned Beef
• Cabbage
• Carrots

I elected not to use the potatoes for obvious reasons. Now, the new ingredients:

• 1 Sweet, Maui onion
• 2 chopped, fresh green onions
• 4 cups steamed brown rice

You'll need a very large sauté pan, because a lot of things are going to be mixed well. I actually used the large sauté pan and a large pot and split it all back and forth to get a good mix.

Start by chopping and sautéing the onion with olive oil and butter. Cook it to the point of getting a nice caramelization on the pieces. Set aside.

Finely chop 2/3 of the corned beef and cut the remaining 1/3 into small bite sized pieces. We want to see the meat in the dish but we also want the flavor to be incorporated throughout and in every bite. Sauté the meat until warmed throughout and 'crispies' appear on the edges of the corned beef pieces. We "likey" the crispies! :) Now add the sautéed onion to the meat and mix well.

Cut the carrots as well as the cabbage into bite-sized pieces.

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Okay, break time. Let's talk about something here. Note here that we steam all our veggies (carrots for 10 minutes and cabbage for 6, for example ~~ al dente), so these leftovers had some sturdiness and light crispness to them which really worked well. If you're one of those ones that boils your vegetables until all the life, vitamins, color, and flavor is gone, and your left with some soggy sort of gray matter, then you may have difficulties at this point. One, I kinda feel sorry for both you and your vegetables, and two, if you threw them into this dish, it is gonna be freaking gross, brah! I can only imagine what mush it would create.

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Okay, back on point now! I just had to throw that in there. I'll never forget going to someone's house who claimed to be a 'cook' and she boiled her broccoli foreveeeeeeer, until it was gray, lifeless, and purely inedible for anyone, to include a dog. She thought it was wonderful...yuk!

Now, add the carrots and cabbage to the beef mixture and mix week. Gently, brah, gently! Next, add the 4 cups (or whatever about you decide on) of cooked brown rice to the dish and again, gently incorporate with a large spoon.

Looking pretty ono, huh? Voilà, it's a stir fry...kinda. Now comes the wet and dry spice ingredients and this is what I used:

• Rice wine vinegar
• Sesame Seed oil
• Teriyaki sauce
• Sweet ginger garlic seasoning
• Minced fresh ginger
• Black sesame seeds

I kept adding different portions of each of the spice ingredients until I got the flavor I was looking for so there are no precise measurements here for you to follow. It's purely up to your taste. In the end, this St. Pakelika's Day dish was outstanding. What a great way to turn leftovers into a whole new savory meal. I was also able to divide up the entire meal in six 2-person portions which I then Suk'd-N-Seal'd and are in the deep freeze for when we want something quick and easy and oh, so ono!

I hope you get a chance to try this, if not now, maybe next year when 17 March comes around the corner again.

Mahalo for Cooking with Captain Bobby Mitchel



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