So, like I said yesterday, sometimes a braise leaves you with a whole lot of liquid that you don't need to serve with the meat.
As easy as it might be to toss out that liquid, you'd be wasting a whole lot of flavor. Don't pour it down the drain -- cook with it.
I had a plan for the liquid from that tandoori turkey. As soon as I pulled out the drumsticks, before even sitting down for dinner, I was going to pour in a can or two of chickpeas into the pot, toss in a pig's foot (because, why not) and slide the whole thing back into the oven at 275 for three or four hours. The result would be combined with whatever rice was left over and give me a few lunches.
At the last minute, I discovered that the two cans of chickpeas I could have sworn were in the pantry had vanished. I did, however, have a box of ditalini -- one of those really small pastas.
So, the pig's foot went in the pot, which went back in the oven just before dinner. Two hours later, all its gelatiny goodness seemingly cooked out, I tossed the foot and added a cup of pasta and brought the mixture to a boil.
I have found, when cooking with a very low ratio of liquid to pasta, that the pasta takes up to twice as long as normal to cook. You also need to keep stirring to make sure it doesn't burn, and stand ready to throw in some more water if the liquid cooks down too fast.
Once the pasta is done -- al dente is just fine, take the pot off the heat. You may, depending on how much there is, want to spoon or skim off some of the excess fat.
The result here was a spicy, meaty mass of pasta that went great with some rice to stretch it out, and a pot of wonderfully flavored liquid that did not go to waste.
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