I was watching the show of a celebrity chef (who shall remain nameless) whose television series was dedicated to "helping" the viewer use up odds and ends of ingredients they may or may not have lying around in their pantry. A few examples of their leftovers were cuts of pork belly, half a pot of coffee, a small bowl of fish chowder and a pint of milk. With these parts they made fairly standard recipes or simply shoved it in a sandwich.
Which brings me to my point. How can you have a "leftovers" recipe? More pertinently, how can you truly have leftovers? Is the final thigh in a bag of frozen chicken a leftover? What about that asparagus stalk at the bottom of the fridge?
It's not unique to this chef; many TV personalities will talk about how to use that tired piece of beef to make something spectacular or pleading to the viewer on the screen that the cabbage need not be thrown away.
Who is the demographic here? Who is chronically purchasing and creating too much food that their kitchen has small batches of various recipes and single portions of ingredients? Maybe it's just me and my family but when we buy what we need for a particular dish we end up using all of what we bought. A casserole needs 500g of chicken breast? We'll buy 500g and use 500g. I don't leave a token chunk of product in the fridge as some sort of peace offering to the spirit of food preservation. If we made too much (maybe someone wasn't that hungry) it'll get put in a box and eaten later. I've never found myself staring at a refrigerated tub of bolognese, scratching my head, thinking "I need to create a new and interesting meal with this otherwise it's going in the bin". God forbid you'd just eat it.
The ideas are always oddly specific as well. "If you happen to have some duck breast, a tin of butter beans and a sweet potato don't throw them away! You can make my recipe!". Okay, if I'm ever stuck with those particular ingredients in my fridge and need to create something new and delicious for my soon-to-arrive dinner guests I'll be sure to give it a try. Does it have to be leftover duck breast or can I go out and buy some to cook your dish?
It's simply a weird thing for a show, i.e. a static piece of media, to do. A forum full of people all posting and editing their ideas for spare bacon, that's understandable. But a thirty minute piece to aid those betrothed with one too many spring onions doesn't seem sensible. It also doesn't help when it's so obviously staged. The chef in question went to a friends house to aid them in their never-ending fight with leftover ingredients and conveniently found about a dozen tiger prawns, a chilli, some ginger, lemongrass, garlic and coconut milk. A flash of inspiration told the chef to make a Thai prawn curry. So, what, the person bought all of these items that are synonymous with Thai cuisine but had no idea it could be made into a curry? What happens when the chef confront a cupboard containing only dried spaghetti, a packet of jelly and some cardamom pods? Just call the show off?
My point is that, with proper planning, leftovers shouldn't exist. Everything in the pantry should either be standalone or marry well with whatever else you've got. If you find yourself needing guidance on how to use that weird vegetable you bought because you have no idea how it goes with the random things in your fridge then you've done something wrong.
Keep it up and you'll end up with a shelf containing fennel, raspberry jam and bearnaise to turn into dinner. If you find a recipe for that, let me know because I have no idea what I'm going to do with them.
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