Leftovers

Before you are enlightened in the miracle transformation of leftover Garlic Mashed into the best breakfast potatoes ever, I have to enlighten you on a old firehouse norm; a courtesy, sort of, regarding food and the change of shifts.

You see, when our shift was getting ready to leave after 24 hours, we would make fresh coffee, clean up the kitchen and, most importantly, debrief the incoming crew on the state of the leftovers which were covered and preserved with care. The cook would then plan the tour menu around what was in the fridg. This was a ritual, every day, every platoon.

EXCEPT when there is a feud. The fire service harbors good, healty competition, even rivalries between companies and even between entire platoons. When it turns ugly, it gets rough.

One day we left the kitchen a mess and boy was the next crew pissed! They let everyone know about it, too. Hey, we had a call that morning. No time to clean. Did they care? No. They bitched, made a scene, carried on . . . anyway, following our next tour we cleaned, and cleaned good. We cleaned the refrigerator . . . completely. we even dumped the Ice.

Bulls eye. Message received, loud and clear

Garlic Mashed Potatoes:

• 10 lbs red potatoes, washed (not peeled) and quartered
• 3 heads roasted garlic*
• 1 pint heavy cream
• milk
• butter
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup or so (more is OK) freshly shredded Parmesan cheese

*Just take a whole head of garlic, cut off the top quarter, drizzle olive oil over the top, wrap tightly in foil and roast, at about 350 for 1 hour. Roasted Garlic.

Prepare the potatoes just as you would any mashed potatoes; with the butter, milk, cream, salt, pepper. Just add the cheese and, with the roasted garlic heads, squeeze out the pulp into your potatoes and mash. The cheese will thicken them, so add milk until they seem quite thin. They'll thicken.


But the leftovers? After they have spent the night in the fridg, they'll be good and stiff. Just heat some olive oil in a skillet to medium high heat, roll golf ball size potato balls and brown them until crispy. Don't turn them until they are good and crispy, crisp all sides and serve.