Since we eat a lot of fish in our small household, the leftovers present an on-going challenge. One of my favorite dishes to use up the fish and maybe also some leftover veggies is to make timbales…timWHAT? Let me reassure you that this exotic- and Frenchie-sounding procedure is quite basic: it’s a custard, that’s all it is!
With just a few simple steps.
So I will walk you through some very simple steps I took this evening, in the hopes that you, too, will become a convert to this expedient and delicious dish. A nice piece of last night’s gorgeously fresh filet of flounder was mashed along with a leftover-veggie mixture of beet greens and mushrooms (a little over a cup in all) and added to three beaten eggs. I added a chopped shallot, some chopped parsley, and finally a cup of a mixture of heavy cream and milk (half and half would have been fine, too) that I had warmed in the microwave oven. I considered adding the salt my recipe called for, but thought the leftovers were salty enough. My mistake! You really do need to add salt because of the blandness of the eggs and all that cream.
Time to bake!
Meanwhile, I had heated the oven to 350˚F, put in a baking dish filled with about an inch of water to heat, and greased four ramekins. I poured the mixture into the ramekins, put them in the baking dish and baked them about 30 minutes. They cooled off on a rack till they reached the lukewarm temperature I like to serve them at. Then I ran a knife around the edges of the ramekins and inverted them. They are quite filling, so just a salad accompaniment is all you need for a light meal. If you like, you can make a sauce (a lemony kind of hollandaise might have been nice), but that’s really gilding the lily. Incidentally, timbales make great first courses for a dinner party.
Good luck trying this! You won’t be sorry. Let me know how you make out and what combinations you used.
I have many many other recipes that can be found in my new book, The Refrigerator Files: A Guide to Creative Makeovers for Your Leftovers. You can check it out on iUniverse, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble. I use my own book a lot!
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Thanks for the idea Jocelyn! Leftover fish can sometimes seem unappetizing, but this sounds great. I can’t wait to try it.