Leftover Fish and Random Pantry Salsa

David over at Cooking Chat has challenged us with Leftover Tuesdays. The concept is simple: use your leftovers in a creative way to make a new meal.

The idea is sound and even seems like fun. My problem is that when I eat leftovers, I am use to just reheating the same meal. That is why I only like to eat leftovers one time and then the rest goes to the dogs. However when I was cooking this weekend, I looked at each meal and tried to come up with ways to change it up and make some creative leftovers.

I decided to work with the fish leftover from the Red Snapper Alicante I made on Saturday night. I wanted to use this because I had two large fillets left and, besides the fact that it was expensive and I didn't want to waste it on the dogs, re-heating fish for lunch in the microwave does not appeal to me. The fish was cooked simply with rings of onions and peppers so it was nicely flavored but there was no sauce.


Now I had to figure out what to do with the fish. At first I thought of making a taco but I thought that seemed kind of boring. I'm sure it would have tasted good but I didn't want to cover up the delicate taste of the red snapper with lots of filling. I racked my brain for flavors to compliment fish and I settled on doing something with fruit. I was thinking about some sort of mango salsa.

The only problem was that I didn't have any fresh mangoes. And this being a leftover challenge, I didn't want to make a special trip to the store to get some. So I turned to my pantry. I used a cup of Dole's Mixed Tropical fruit. I drained out the juice and placed the mango, pineapple and papaya fruit pieces in a bowl. Then, back to the pantry . . .

I received an order last week from Casa Oliver. I had ordered several items from Matiz, a company from Spain. I found them because the peppers are on the list of 100 foods I have to try in 2007 that Food & Wine magazine put together. I grabbed the peppers and Sweet Garlic.


I also grabbed some Banana Ketchup that I bought while in the Caribbean last year. It tastes so good but I have not found anything to eat it with. Since I was feeling creative I decided to toss that in with the fruit, garlic and peppers. I mixed it all together and poured it on top of the fish.

It turned out great! The peppers didn't really contribute that much because I probably didn't add enough, but every once in a while I'd get a vinegary crunch from them. The fruit and the banana ketchup both definately go well with the fish. I'm going to have to find some more creative uses for that banana ketchup.

I have to thank David for this challenge because I am usually a recipe follower. I rarely put random things together. But tonight I completely stepped out of my comfort zone and it was really fun. I'm going to have to do this more often.