Leftover Alchemy: From Class to Kitchen to Kindness

How I turned a Sri Lankan feast into sambal samosas, nasi goreng and breakfast on sourdough with a zero waste philosophy

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This post is not my regular format for my weekly posts. I’ve already sent out my Sri Lankan Eggplant pickle post earlier this week.

Here it is in case you missed it.

Last weekend’s Sri Lankan cooking class was such a joy. The kitchen was humming with spice, laughter and the sound of chopping and dicing. We cooked up a proper feast: fragrant curries, sambals and so much more. As always, I sent my guests home with leftovers so they could savour the flavours we created together, and share them with family.

Sri Lankan cooking class May 2025

But there are always leftovers. And here’s the thing. I can only eat a dish once, maybe twice, before I start dreaming of what else it could become. My kitchen runs on a zero waste philosophy, but that doesn’t mean endless repetition. It means reinvention. Extraction of all flavour and a little kitchen alchemy.

So here’s what happened this week.

Fermented chillie sambal

That Spice Garden fermented chilli sauce we served with the beef and cashew kofkas became the base of an Indonesian style tomato chilli sambal. I’ve written about this sambal before, though this version was slightly different. Richer, funkier, with a mellow heat from the fermented base.

Sri Lankan Chicken curry samosas and fermented chilli sambal

Next came the samosas. I rolled up leftover Sri Lankan chicken curry, fried dahl, potato and bean curry and spiced potatoes into golden little triangles. Served with that sambal on the side of course. I made more than I could possibly eat, so a generous stash now lives in my freezer, waiting for one of those days when dinner needs to appear as if by magic.

Leftover rice transformed into garlic nasi goreng

Then there was rice. Always rice. I turned mine into a garlic nasi goreng, slow fried with eight cloves of garlic and a generous spoonful of that sambal. I folded through fresh mung bean sprouts left over from the class. Topped it with a fried egg, a drizzle of chilli kecap manis and one more spoon of sambal. Breakfast perfection. There was plenty left over, so I gifted a warm container to my elderly neighbour. They love cooking class weekends. I often send over tasters, and in return, they leave bananas or backyard fruit on my doorstep. A quiet little food exchange built on kindness.

The coconut water from the fresh coconuts we ground during class is slowly fermenting into coconut vinegar on my bench. More on that another time.

I also simmered a big pot of chicken stock this week. Bones from the class, bundles of aromatics, and the kind of slow, low heat that draws every bit of goodness from the pot. It’s already found its way into a few meals and will be starring in a risotto for next week’s Cooking with Marcella post.

Marcella Hazan’s left over onion caramelised with balasamic for breakfast

Speaking of Marcella, I had a couple of onions left over from making her famous tomato sauce with butter and onion. The onions always get removed at the end, soft, sweet, full of tomato essence. I’ve made it a personal kitchen game to never waste them. This week, I slowly cooked them in olive oil and balsamic until caramelised, then layered them onto sourdough with a swoosh of ricotta. A quiet, delicious breakfast.

That’s the thing about leftovers. They’re not just about saving food. They’re an invitation. To play. To stretch your imagination. To keep the goodness going just a little longer.

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©Lisa McLean 2025