昨日夫が作ってくれたディナーのマッシュポテトを食べきれなかったので、ポテトサラダにしてサンドイッチの具にしました。イギリスにもポテトサラダはありますが日本ほどポピュラーではない気がしますし、サンドイッチの具にはしないみたいです。
As we couldn’t finish all of the mashed potato that my husband made yesterday for dinner, I made a potato salad with the left-overs and used it as a filling for sandwiches. I think they do have a potato salad like this in England as well, but apparently they don’t use it for a sandwich filling.
玉ねぎの薄切りのあくぬきをしたものと、きゅうりの薄い輪切りにお塩をしておいたもの、少しだけ余っていた茹でた人参の大きめのみじん切りを加えて、粒マスタードとマヨネーズとあえてトーストしたパンにレタスと一緒に挟みました。夫も気に入ったようで、何より。
I just added some sliced onion and very thinly sliced Japanese cucumber (it has more crisp texture than English cucumber) that has been salted then dried after the moisture comes out. We had a couple of slices of boiled carrot left as well so I chopped them and added them to the potato. Some ham would have been a good addition but we didn’t have any. Then I mixed some Japanese mayonnaise (much lighter and a little more sour than western mayonnaise, similar to Salad Cream in England but a little thicker and not as sweet) and some grain mustard to the potato mixture. I put very little mayonnaise on slices of lightly toasted bread, some cos lettuce and the potato salad in between the bread. Glad that my husband liked it, too.
食事の基本が和食だと数種類のおかずが登場することが多いので、余ったものは翌日再び登場させて新しく作ったものと一緒にいただく、という形であまり残り物を処分することは少ないように思うのですが、我が家のように今日はインド料理、明日はタイ料理、明後日はイタリアンという食卓では余ったものを無駄にしないというのはとても難しい。そういう食卓に限らず洋の食事は基本メインに添え野菜２、３種類という形のことが多いので、翌日残りを食べるということはあまりしないように思います。ローストの場合は翌日冷たい状態でサンドイッチの具にしたりそのままいただく方おられますし、形を変えてパイの具にしたり煮込んだりする場合もありますし、人によっては翌日同じものを食べる人もいると思いますが、我が家は同じものを続けて食べるのが苦手なので仕方なく罪悪感を持ちながらも処分することになります。ですので、今回のように前日の残りを全然違うものにして登場させることが出来るのは、楽で美味しいランチが食べられるのもそうですが、残り物を美味しく食べられたということがとても嬉しかったりします。
In Japan, a typical meal would consist of a few dishes with rice and maybe miso soup, so if you have some left-over, you keep it, take it out next day and have it with a few newly cooked dishes. Most Japanese dishes taste as good or better next day or even for a few days. You have a few new dishes as well so most of us are happy to eat left-over. However, at home we tend to have Indian today, Thai tomorrow, Italian the day after tomorrow and so on, so this doesn’t apply. Besides, even when you have mostly Italian or mostly “English” most of such western dishes don’t taste good next day and I feel it’s not easy to enjoy eating left-over. I think many people in England are quite happy to eat left-over roast meat as it is or using it in a pie or in a sandwiches (although I don’t because I find they smell and taste too strongly gamy for me once it’s cooled down) and some may have left-over casserole next day again but most left-over gets thrown away. I freeze some like casserole or soup and I would eat some on the next day for lunch if it’s something that tastes as good but most left-over food gets thrown away and it makes me feel very guilty. So, like today, when I can use left-over for something completely new and enjoy it, it makes me feel good.