The leftovers from the Chinese New Year are mainly divided into two categories: meat and bean products. Of course, some might say that vegetables are also left over, but vegetables themselves are prone to producing nitrites during storage. Their antioxidant components, as well as vitamins like C and folic acid, are severely lost during storage and reheating, and vegetables almost lose their culinary value after being reheated.
Therefore, the general leftovers from the Chinese New Year are mostly meat and bean products. To revitalize these two types of dishes, only three steps are needed.
First: Knife Skills
Large pieces of meat are best for cutting. Slice them, dice them, or mince them, and then cook them with fresh vegetables, whole grains, etc. For example, you can dice pork, shred chicken, or slice braised pork into shreds, and then mix them with cold-dressed vegetables to make a salad, or use them as fillings for pies or spring rolls.Second: Seasoning
The purpose of changing the flavor is twofold: to alter the taste of the dish and to adjust the saltiness. If you have leftover braised shrimp, you can remove the oil, add some ketchup, and transform it into shrimp with a unique tomato flavor. When stewing chicken, often the broth is all drunk, but the chicken is left behind because its taste is too bland. If you dice it and stir-fry it with curry powder, you can revitalize it into curry chicken, which will delight your taste buds. Braised and smoked foods tend to be heavily flavored. If you cook them with seasonal vegetables, you can boil out the saltiness, making the rich flavor milder.Third: Adding Ingredients
Adding more vegetables to the leftovers helps to improve the nutritional balance. For example, if you have leftover braised pork ribs, you can add onions, mushrooms, potatoes, carrots, corn, etc., to make a stir-fry of ribs with seasonal vegetables. You can also transform leftovers into soup. For instance, leftover stewed ribs can be turned into a vegetable and noodle soup by adding vegetables and flat noodles; leftover scrambled eggs with tomatoes can be transformed into a tomato and dough drop soup by adding wood ear mushrooms and dough drops.