Stone Fruit

That is, fruit with a stone in the middle- as opposed to stoned fruit which is how I often seem to serve it- macerated in creme de cassis or poached in red wine!
We are now getting well into the stone fruit season- apricots, cherries, then peaches and nectarines as the summer goes on and plums as the season reaches its peak. Time to look at some ways of using up these fruits whilst they are plentiful and getting cheaper- before they spoil in the fruit bowl.

I'm starting with an Apricot Pavé.

A pavé is French for a cobblestone and is used in menus to describe something which is that sort of shape eg. pavé de saumon or pavé de rumsteack- but hopefully a little lighter in texture!
This cake is a basic sponge, but made delicious with the addition of some chopped apricot, orange and coconut.
It doesn't need any icing or drizzle- it is quite soft and moist as it is.

Ingredients:

5-6 apricots, sliced
200g of softened butter
juice of 1 orange
200g sugar
100g dessicated coconut
300g flour
2 tsp baking powder
120 ml milk
3 eggs

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Cream the butter, orange juice and sugar and gradually beat in the eggs.
Add the flour, baking powder and coconut and mix in the milk to make a batter.
Mix in the chopped apricots, pour into a greased and lined square cake tin (if you have one) and bake for 40-50 minutes until golden and firm.

Once cool, cut into squares (to be proper pavés) or slices if you prefer.

Apricot Pavé

Another good way to use up apricots is in a clafoutis- which I have featured on the blog before, but here it is again if you missed it.

Halve the apricots and place in a greased pie dish

Make a sweet batter with eggs, milk, sugar and plain flour

Pour over the apricots and bake at 180 degrees until set

Likewise for my Cherry Soup ( which- OK -does require poaching in wine etc etc)

Poach cherries, grapes and other fruit in red wine and sugar until syrupy

 (You can look these recipes up using the panel to your right and clicking on the link).

If you have any cherries left over - use them to decorate a refrigerator cake . This is my Fluffy Ruffle Pie- so named because that is what we used to call this mousse-like confection when my two brothers and I were little. It is definitely a blast from the past- but easy and tasty, so I urge you to try it.

Ingredients:

250g digestive biscuits, blitzed to crumbs
100g butter
1 fruit jelly (lime, lemon, cherry, strawberry whatever you like)
1 small tin evaporated milk

Make up the jelly to 300ml with boiling water and leave to cool. (After about an hour it will begin to set slightly- this is perfect).
Grease and line a 23 cm cake tin. (If you use a loose bottomed one - make sure you do line it, or you will have a lemon jelly/evaporated milk catastrophe in your fridge as I did!)
Melt the butter in a saucepan and mix in the biscuit crumbs
Press the mixture into the tin, lining the base and sides to make a shell
Place in the fridge or freezer to cool.
Mix the evaporated milk into the jelly mixture and whisk with an electric whisk until good and frothy.

Whisk up your jelly and evaporated milk

Pour into the flan tin and leave in the fridge to set  (overnight is best).

Serve decorated with fruit or whipped cream.

Fluffy Ruffle Pie

If you prefer a more grown up version, you can make a Key Lime pie- which uses condensed milk and fresh limes rather than jelly and evaporated milk. The biscuit base is the same - but the filling uses 450g sweetened condensed milk, the juice and zest of 5 limes or lemons and 300 ml of lightly whipped double cream. Whisk the lime juice, zest and milk together - watch it start to thicken- and then fold in the whipped cream.

Finally- and you might think this is a bit of a cheat- I have a savoury recipe for you- using olives (which I think do still count as a stone fruit).
I made these Olive Cookies Sablés for our annual garden party and they went down well with the apéritifs - so I thought I'd share the recipe with you as it is such a good one.

Ingredients:
(Makes 24 cookies)
180g flour
80 g soft butter or marge
1 egg
24 pitted black olives
80 g grated strong cheese eg. Parmesan or mature cheddar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp fresh herbs- finely chopped (eg. rosemary, thyme, oregano)
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven  to 160 degrees.
Put the butter, egg, 16 of the olives and the oil into a food processor. Pulse in the flour, baking powder, salt, pepper, and the grated cheese and keep going until the mixture forms a ball of soft dough.
Line two baking trays with baking paper, then, using wet hands form 24 balls of dough - each one about the size of a walnut. Lay them on the trays, spaced apart.

Cookies spaced apart

Flatten them slightly with a fork.
Cut the remaining 8 olives into 3 rings each- and put an olive ring on top of each cookie.
Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

Baked and decorated

Cool on a wire rack- and enjoy with your apéros !

Olive Cookies Sablés

Super Speedy Summer Suppers

It seems I am carrying on the theme of things beginning with 'S', with some recipes this time which are super quick and summery- mainly because no one wants to be spending much time cooking in the evenings, now the weather is (slowly) improving.

Although I did put my slow cooker into service today ( to stew up a batch of soft onions for me to use in various dishes), generally speaking, summer isn't a time for stews and casseroles. It's a time for fresh stuff and salads, which are quick to prepare.

Fresh stuff brings with it the greater possibility of waste though- and making the most of the leftovers can be a challenge.

To help with this, each of the dishes I've prepared has a sister dish (or two) which use the leftovers up quickly.

I'm starting with a summer stir fry: mange-tout, mushrooms, peppers, spring onions and radishes (yes, radishes). Very much in season and much more versatile than you think.

Summer Stir-Fry

Begin by cutting all your veg into equal-ish chunks.

Ready for stir frying

Heat some oil in a wok until it is smoking hot and then toss in the mushrooms, mange touts, peppers, onions and radishes in that order, a minute or two between each addition.
I added some cooked chicken and fried it all quickly for 5 minutes or so more.
Meanwhile cook some noodles in boiling water for 2 minutes, drain them (reserving a ladleful of the water) and add them to the vegetables.
Add 1-2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1-2 tbsp of sweet chili sauce and the reserved noodle water.
Toss everything together, bring up to the boil and give a final few stirs then serve.

The radishes give a water-chestnut like crunch to the stir fry and keep their pretty pink colour too.

Summer Stir Fry

To use up your leftover radishes, slice them finely (or use a food processor) and toss them in some mustard mayonnaise along with finely sliced celeriac to make a Radish Remoulade:

Radish Remoulade

You can use shredded white cabbage or carrot if you prefer this to the celeriac.

Salads are needed as an accompaniment to the next dish- a cheat's Pissaladiere (an onion tart/pizza from Nice).

Some say it should have a dough base like a pizza, others insist on a pastry base.(You will never get two Provencal mamies to agree on any recipe!)

So, you can  either make this tart using frozen puff pastry rolled out to a rectangle, or use pizza dough rolled thinly or cheat even further by using a pre- cooked pizza base, as I have done here.

Pissaladiere Pronto

1 pizza base ( or puff pastry or pizza base mix as described above)

2 large onions

1 clove of garlic (crushed)

black olives

1 small tin anchovies (optional)

1. Slice the onions finely and cook them slowly and gently in olive oil and butter in a pan with a lid or in the slow cooker until they are cooked to a golden brown pulp. Season with salt, pepper, crushed garlic and a pinch of sugar.

2. Lay out your base (pizza or pastry) and spread the onion pulp over it.

3. Criss-cross with anchovies (if you are using them) and dot with black olives

4. Bake in a hot oven (200 degrees) until either your pastry is golden ( 20 mins) or your pizza base is crisp ( 10-15 mins).

Pissaladiere Pronto

Sorry! we had eaten half of it before I remembered to take a photo!

Serve with the radish salad and some dressed green leaves. (I am using watercress, spinach and rocket).

Bagged salad can be as much of a scourge as a boon. Yes, it's convenient but you may end up throwing half of it away as it doesn't keep long once opened.

Just as cooking with radishes might have taken you by surprise- cooking with salad leaves is also a good way to use them up. Try this:

Salad Bag Soup

Salad Bag Soup

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped finely

1 litre of vegetable stock

3-4 fat garlic cloves, peeled

3-4 sage leaves

2 bay leaves

200g watercress, washed and roughly chopped

200g baby spinach leaves or a bag of salad leaves

2 tbsp finely chopped herbs (parsley, chives, dill)

olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

croutons of thinly cut baguette

1. Soften the onion in a little olive oil

2. Tie the sage and bay leaves together with some string and place them in a pan of simmering vegetable stock, in which you also have put the whole garlic cloves

3. Simmer for 10 minutes until the garlic cloves are soft.

4. Remove the herb leaves and discard. Keep the soft garlic cloves to one side.

5. Add the onion, watercress, spinach and chopped herbs and simmer for a further 10 minutes

6. Blitz in a liquidiser until smooth, taste and adjust seasoning

7. Mash the garlic cloves with a little olive oil and spread the paste onto the croutons

8. Serve the soup and croutons together.

This soup keeps its flavour and colour for up to 2 days in the fridge and freezes well.

I often serve it with a dash of milk or cream in it too.

Finally, I'm using up the rest of the onions that I cooked in the slow cooker to top a Flammekueche or Tarte Flambee.

Traditionally, this tart is made with a dough base which is wafer-thin and crispy. I have made the quickest possible version here, using sandwich thins ( those square toasting breads). You could use pitta bread too.

Tartines Flambees

1 sandwich thin or pitta bread per person

1 tub of creme fraiche

2 onions ( cooked slowly with garlic as in the recipe above)

140 g bacon lardons or diced cooked ham

1. Split the breads, spread the creme fraiche and onion paste generously over them

2. Sprinkle on the lardons or ham and bake on a baking tray in a very hot oven until the creme fraiche starts to turn golden brown and the bacon is looking caramelized.

Delicious with a glass of Alsace white wine.

Tartines Flambees

So, there we are: five fast foods to help you out quickly at supper time. 

(Alas, a little too much alliteration though!)

Six Simple Strawberry Dishes

Inspired by this gorgeous photo of my daughter's first strawberry crop this year- I thought it was time to think about ways of using up all those luscious red summer fruits that are starting to fill the shops, roadside stalls and PYOs.

After all, it is the Chelsea Flower Show this week, Wimbledon is just around the corner and all those other milestones of an English summer are appearing on the horizon. (Even if the central heating is still on and the rain is lashing down outside!)

So, I've put together 6 recipes to make the most of a punnet of strawberries.






With strawberries, just fresh as they are with some cream is usually the best way- but to pretty them up a bit ( and make them go a bit further ) try making a tartare.

Strawberry and Basil Tartare

 Strawberries are combined here with some shredded basil, creme de cassis and a drop of olive oil to make a colourful and tasty pud.

Ingredients:

a punnet of strawberries

1/2 tsp good olive oil

2 tsp creme de cassis liqueur

3-4 basil leaves (shredded with a sharp knife or scissors)

1. Wash, trim and dice the strawberries (reserving some to garnish the finished tartares)

2. Mix the dice with the basil, olive oil and creme de cassis

3. Fill a chef's ring with a spoonful or two of the dice and press down firmly to slightly squish the strawberries

Strawberry and Basil Tartare

4. Unmould, decorate with a sliced strawberry and serve with cream.

Eton Mess Cornets

As served to the stars at the Cannes Film Festival this year (according to my latest Journal des Femmes)- traditional desserts like Tiramisu, Chocolate Mousse and even Apple Crumble are served up as finger food in little ice cream cornets and are le dernier cri!

I've chosen an Eton Mess as the quickest of the bunch- and I think it's ready for its close-up.

Ingredients:

a punnet of strawberries

3 meringue nests (crushed)

2 tsp creme de cassis liqueur

200 ml whipping cream

ice cream cornets

1. Wash, trim and dice the strawberries and mix with the creme de cassis

2. Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks

3. Combine the crushed meringues, cream and strawberries

4. Pile into ice cream cornets and serve

Eton Mess Cornets

Some more strawberry ideas for you- a lemonade, an ice cream cake (which looks really special but is very easy to make), sticky strawberries and a fondue.

Chocolate and Strawberry Fondue

The quickest way to do this is using Nutella (which you melt in the microwave, stir and serve with fresh strawberries and forks for dipping) . This version however is really very sweet and a bitter chocolate sauce is much nicer. 

Melt 100g of dark chocolate together with 1 tsp of creme de cassis or kirsch, a knob of butter and 1 tsp icing sugar either for 1 minute in the microwave or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.

Serve in pretty cups, with your strawberries and long forks.

Strawberry and Chocolate Fondue

For the next recipe I am grateful to Gillian Walkinshaw for her version which I spotted on the Guardian Witness website.

Sticky Strawberries

1 punnet of strawberries

2 drops of rose water

1 tsp runny honey

Chopped  toasted hazelnuts or pistachios

1. Wash and slice the strawberries

2. Mix them with the honey, nuts and rosewater

3. Serve with greek yoghurt or better still hazelnut yoghurt.

Sticky Strawberries

Plenty more good ideas (with or without strawberrries) on that page by the way
https://witness.theguardian.com/assignment/55535616e4b03e21263ee5c4

Now- the piece de resistance! The ice cream cake. Or to give it its posh name:

Ice Cream Fraisier

You will need:

1 punnet of strawberries
1 tub of strawberry ice cream
1 madeira cake

1. Line a loose bottomed cake tin with cling film
2. Cut 2 cm thick slices of madeira cake to fit snugly around the bottom of the tin. Press down firmly

3. Halve your strawberries and arrange them cut side out in a little guard of honour around the tin.

4. Take out your ice cream and allow to soften for a few minutes before spooning into the tin and spreading out smoothly until it reaches at least to the height of the strawberries or may be a cm higher.

5. Smooth the top with a wet spoon or palette knife.
6. Place back into the freezer to firm up again. (Don;t leave it more than 10-15 minutes though- or your strawberries will freeze rock hard- belive me!)
7. When you are ready to serve, take out of the freezer, unmould from the tin, peel off the clingfilm and decorate the top with more strawberries, dusted with icing sugar.

Ice cream Fraisier

Doesn't that look smashing?

Finally, if you have a few squished strawberries left that don't look good enough to serve on their own- try this Strawberry Lemonade:

100g of strawberries

juice of 2 lemons

75 cl of cloudy lemonade or ginger beer (chilled)

mint to decorate

1. Pass the strawberries through a sieve to take out the seeds

2. Mix the pulp/juice with the lemonade and lemon juice

3. Serve in cocktail glasses with a sprig of mint or a twist of lemon for garnish.

Strawberry Lemonade

Now all we need is some sunshine and summer will officially have started!

Fresh Ideas

I'd like to say that life is getting back to normal here, after our French adventure, but what with one thing and another, it just hasn't.
However, it's definitely time to restock with some fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and fish. Even reading last month's blog back to myself leaves me with a feeling of Vitamin C deficiency!


So, this time I'm giving you some soup recipes, some starters, vegetable sides and a meat and fish dish with the aim of offering you a more balanced diet than last time.

To start, I've made an Asparagus Charlotte. This is a pretty little starter, featuring a smoked mackerel mousse surrounded by a guard of honour of new season asparagus tips. Very cheffy-looking- but simple to achieve.

Asparagus Charlotte

Ingredients:

1 bunch of asparagus (you will use the tips and save the stalks for soup)

3 smoked mackerel fillets

1 tub of cream cheese with chives

Juice of half a lemon

2 tbsp creme fraiche

4-5 spring onions ( chopped)

Salt and pepper

Chives for decoration.

1. Steam the asparagus over a pan of simmering water until just tender but not floppy. Plunge into iced water to keep green colour vivid.

Chilly asparagus!

Reserve the cooking water for soup.

2. Trim the tips. Again reserve the stalks for soup.

3. Slice the tips lengthways in half

4. Blitz the mackerel, creme fraiche, cream cheese and lemon juice in a food processor .

5. Add the finely chopped spring onion and season well

6. Spoon or pipe mixture into chef's rings or scone cutters and chill until firm

7. When ready to serve, unmould and arrange the asparagus cut side out in a guard of honour around the mousse.

8. Tie a chive around each one to hold it all in place.

Asparagus and Smoked Mackerel Charlotte

Hopefully, you now have some leftover asparagus stalks and poaching water to make soup. The next recipe makes a creamy asparagus veloute- made delicious with coconut cream:

Asparagus and Coconut Veloute

Ingredients:

1 bunch of asparagus (whole or just the stalks)

1 bunch of spring onions (chopped)

1 small pack of frozen peas

1 litre of vegetable stock (including the water used to steam the asparagus)

1 small tin of coconut cream

1 tbsp chopped dill

Salt and pepper

Oil for frying

1. Steam the asparagus until tender over a pan of simmering water.

2. Reserve the cooking water and add it to the vegetable stock to make up to 1 litre

3. Chop the asparagus and put it with the spring onions and peas in a little oil in a saucepan. Sweat gently for a few minutes.

4. Add the dill, stock and coconut cream and simmer gently for 15 minutes to let the flavours mingle

5.Blitz with a blender, adjust seasoning and serve.

Asparagus and Coconut Veloute

Next, I've made a vegetarian starter using halloumi cheese, aubergines, mushrooms and tomatoes.

Halloumi and Vegetable Tian

A tian is a layered vegetable dish named after the Provencal earthenware vessel in which it is baked. Originally, these were conical in shape but nowadays those sold in kitchen shops tend to be more like gratin dishes. I've recreated the 'stacked' look with roasted vegetables interleaved with halloumi, using a skewer to hold them all in place in the oven.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 portobello mushrooms

4 slicing tomatoes

1 large aubergine

250g halloumi cheese, sliced into 8 pieces

2 crushed cloves of garlic

salt and pepper

fresh thyme sprigs

olive oil for marinading and roasting

1. Remove the stalks from the mushrooms, slice the tomatoes thinly into 4 slices per fruit, slice the aubergine thinly (you are aiming for 12 slices if possible)

2. Mix the crushed garlic and thyme sprigs with 2-3 tbsp of olive oil

3. Put the mushrooms, tomatoes and aubergine slices into the oil to marinade. Coat well with your hands, adding plenty of salt and pepper. Add more olive oil as you need it.

4. Leave for 1 hour or so.

Marinade the vegetables

5. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees.

6. Pan fry the halloumi briefly until you have a golden crust on both sides.

7. In the marinading dish, assemble your tians: mushroom cup first, then alternating layers of aubergine, tomato and halloumi, finishing with a tomato cap.

8. Secure in place with a bamboo skewer (or use chef's rings if you have them)

Hold the tians in place

9. Roast for 15 minutes until all the vegetables are soft and beginning to caramelize.

Halloumi and Vegetable Tian

I also used up any remaining aubergines in one of my favourite soups:

Aubergine and Butter Bean Soup

Anyone would think this smooth and delicate soup is rich with butter and cream- but in fact it is completely dairy-free and owes its silky texture to the butter beans which both thicken and enrich. The aubergines? Well, they lend a delicious, fragrant flavour to the ensemble!

Ingredients:

(Makes a litre and a half of soup)

2 medium aubergines

4 cloves of garlic

2 tsp honey

olive oil

juice of half a lemon

1 onion

1 litre of hot chicken or vegetable stock

1 400g tin of butter beans

salt and pepper to taste

1. Prick the aubergines all over, slice in half lengthways and lay cut side down in a baking dish lightly oiled with olive oil. Put the garlic cloves in too, in their skins.

2. Bake at 200 degrees for 15 minutes, then add the honey to the hot pan and swirl around. Continue baking for another 10 minutes or until the aubergines are soft and wrinkly. ( It happens to us all!)

3. Allow to cool enough to be handled, peel off the skin and chop roughly. Squeeze the garlic from its skin and do the same.

4. Soften the onion in some more olive oil in a saucepan, add the aubergine, garlic and drained butter beans and fry gently.

5. Loosen the sticky honey and aubergine juice from the pan with 2 cups of hot water. Add to the vegetables in the pan.

6. Pour on the chicken stock and simmer for another 10 minutes to amalgamate the flavours.

7. Blitz with a hand blender, adjust seasoning and serve with croutons.

Aubergine and Butter Bean Soup

Now for some main dishes- starting off with rabbit:

Rabbit in Cider

This is a version of the French classic 'Lapin Au Cidre'. Fresh rabbit is widely available in all supermarkets in France (including my local Lidl)- but I have found that this is not the case in the UK. If you can source it at your butchers, it is well worth the effort as the combination of rabbit, cider, cream and tarragon is such a good one. If not, the dish works well with chicken or pork too.

Traditionally, it is made the day before so the flavours mingle well and then the sauce if finished off just before serving- which makes it an ideal dish if you are serving to guests.

(Serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

1.8 kg of fresh rabbit, jointed

100g of smoked bacon lardons

200g of button mushrooms

2 carrots

1 onion

2 cloves of garlic (crushed)

70 cl of chicken stock

15 cl of dry cider

40g flour

10 cl of creme fraiche

90g butter

2 cloves

1 bay leaf

1 tbsp fresh tarragon

salt and pepper

1. Peel the carrots and onion and puncture it with the cloves

2. Season the rabbit and brown the pieces in 20g of butter, along with the lardons

3. Place in a casserole dish or slow cooker with the crushed garlic, carrots, bay leaf and onion

4. Deglaze the frying pan by boiling the cider in it and scraping with a spatula

5. Pour this over the rabbit, along with the chicken stock and cook for 1 hour in a casserole in the oven at 170 degrees or 3-4 hours in the slow cooker.

6. To finish the dish, add the button mushrooms either half an hour before the end of cooking, or as you reheat the next day. Remove the bay leaf and onion.

7. Make a roux with the flour and the remaining butter and strain in the hot cooking liquor. Heat, stirring constantly as it thickens. Adjust the seasoning. Add the cream and tarragon- and the rabbit pieces- and serve.

Rabbit in Cider

Next I braised some fennel to go with a fish dish. Usually I cook this recipe (Slow Braised Fennel) with olives and orange juice- but this time I left out the olives as I was serving it with Tapenade Crusted Fish.

Slow Braised Fennel

1  large bulb of fennel

250 ml orange juice

splash of white wine

salt and pepper

1 tbsp chopped parsley

1. Slice the fennel bulb thinly, reserving the feathery fronds as garnishes.

2. Place it in a slow cooker, or heavy bottomed saucepan along with the orange juice, wine, parsley and seasoning. Cover with a lid and braise until tender- about 20 minutes in a saucepan or 2-3 hours in the slow cooker.

Slow Braised Fennel

As I mentioned, I intended serving this fennel with fish. I chose firm white fish fillets (cod or hake) and placed them on baking parchment with a splash of white wine and some chopped parsley. I then sealed the parcels up like Cornish pasties, twisting the paper together to form a seal.

Wrapping up the fish parcels

Bake in a hot oven (180 degrees) for 20-25 minutes. Then lift out the fish pieces and spread each one with some olive tapenade. Top that with some breadcrumbs and finely chopped chive or spring onion and flash under a hot grill until crisp.

Serve with the fennel and other veg of your choice. (I usually bake some tomatoes on the vine along with the fish)

Tapenade Crusted Fish

Finally, with the leftover fennel I made another soup: 1 onion and 1 clove of garlic softened, 3 small potatoes (chopped), fennel slices, orange juice, chicken stock and parsley- simmered and then blitzed.

I usually sieve the finished soup to remove any fibrous bits of fennel or potato skin, add a little milk or cream and serve garnished with the fennel fronds which were saved as a garnish.

Cream of Fennel Soup

So, all in all I feel a bit healthier now. Lots of nice spring veg and fresh meat and fish working their magic.

I thought coming back to the UK, I'd find myself fresh out of ideas for the blog- but it seems the opposite is true!

Hope this week's blog has refreshed the parts that other blogs didn't reach..

Stale Storecupboard Stuff

Well, I'm back in Blighty, back on home turf with a bump- so it's back to familiar blog territory too ie. using up stuff that you might throw away (if you didn't know better.)

I had a bag of leftover picnic foods from our journey across France, and a storecupboard full of packets and boxes that had sat unused and unloved for the 3 months I was away. Time to use up biscuits, cereal, toasts, cakes and other dry goods before it was too late to do so.




I started with the breakfast cereal- and made a Bettelmann. This is a bread pudding-like cake from Alsace made from cereal and/or toasts, soaked in milk and baked with fruit and a bit of booze.
The name means 'Beggar Man' and is also known as 'Mendiant' in French.
Nothing too poor about it though, as it is spicy and satisfying- especially when served with cream or custard.

It featured in this Saturday's Guardian Cook supplement too.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/apr/25/cornflake-tart-oat-quiche-ice-cream-sandwich-recipe-swap

Soak some sultanas (or traditionally cherries) in a litle rum (or kirsch for cherries).
Warm but don't quite boil 450ml of milk, 3 tbsp of sugar and add 125g of crushed cereal. Work the mixture with a fork, then a wooden spoon, until you have a homogenous porridge-like consistency. (I know it doesn't sound or look great at this stage- but have faith!) Leave this to stand whilst you butter and line a 20cm cake tin with chapelure (finely blitzed biscotte /toast crumbs).

Into the cake mixture, beat 2 large eggs, a teaspoon of mixed spice and a teaspoon of cinnamon.Peel and thinly slice a dessert apple and add this plus the rum-soaked sultanas to the mix.Pour the mixture into the cake tin, level the surface and sprinkle with a sachet of vanilla sugar.

Bake at 170 degrees for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Bettelmann with apples and sultanas

I made a very similar pudding-cake using a packet of semolina. I know, I know..semolina! When was the last time you thought of serving that up to your guests? In fact,  I only had a packet in the cupboard as 'emergency camping food'.

However, a gateau de semoule is a very popular French dessert- and I thought I would have a go at making it.

I was pleasantly surprised.

You need 200g of semolina, 150 g sultanas, 140 g caster sugar, 1 litre of milk, 2 eggs, 5 cl of rum and some vanilla essence. For the caramel topping you need 120g of powdered sugar and 4 dessert spoons of water.

1. First soak the sultanas in the rum.

2. Then make up the semolina according to the instructions using the milk, sugar and vanilla essence. Leave it to thicken and cool.

3. Pre heat the oven to 170 degrees and make the caramel by boiling the water and powdered sugar together until it darkens in colour.

4. Pour the caramel into a lined 20 cm cake tin and allow it to spread out.

Caramel topping added

5. Now beat the eggs into the semolina and pour it over the caramel.

6. Bake in the oven until golden and firm.

7. Cool slightly and peel off the lining paper, turn out, slice and serve.

Gateau de semoule

The next two desserts are similar in many ways- they both use an egg custard to set them, rather like a bread-and-butter pudding.

The first I made from a packet of galette biscuits- but any biscuits would do eg. Nice, Malted Milk or Digestives.

Here is the recipe (which appeared in the Guardian earlier in the year.) Their picture (and flattering write-up) is so much better than mine!

"Every dish I cooked was delicious, but the cake from LeftoverLiz quite literally took the biscuit. Who’d have thought that a pint of milk, a couple of eggs, a leftover apple and a few old biscuits could make such a show-off pudding? I’ve since tried it with digestives too, so don’t be afraid to experiment with the broken bits at the bottom of the barrel." (The Editor- Guardian Cook supplement)

The winning recipe: Breton biscuit cake

Although I’ve made this pudding-cake with Breton galette biscuits (because I love their toffee buttery taste), the recipe will work well with any simple biscuits (malted milk, Nice and so on).
LeftoverLiz, via GuardianWitness

Serves 8-10
1 dessert apple or pear, peeled cored and chopped
1 tbsp butter, for greasing the tin
2 eggs
100g caster or vanilla sugar
500ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g stale biscuits

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1 First make a compote with the apple or pear. Put the fruit in a small saucepan with a little water then stew it down to a pulp for around 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.

2 Generously butter a 15cm cake tin, then beat the eggs and sugar together in a bowl until the mixture goes pale in colour. Mix in the milk and vanilla.

3 Spread out the biscuits in a layer on the bottom of the tin, add a spreading of the fruit compote and then pour over some of the milk mixture.

4 Repeat with a second and even third layer until you have used up all your ingredients.

5 Leave it to soak while you preheat your oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 and then bake the cake for around 20-25 minutes until the custard is set. Leave to cool, sprinkle with icing sugar and serve in slices with cream.

My final dessert for today uses up my picnic- to be precise: a box of Madeleines and some jam.

Leftovers from a Proustian picnic

1.Butter a gratin dish, slice the madeleines lengthways and spread them with jam.

2.Preheat your oven to 170 degrees

3. Arrange the madeleines in the dish and pour over an egg custard made from 350 ml of milk mixed with 1 beaten egg, some vanilla essence and 100g of caster sugar.

Soak the cakes in the egg custard

4. Allow the milk to soak in to the cakes and then bake until risen and firm (about 25 minutes).

Madeleine Pudding

And so here ends my story of stale storecupboard stuff.

It is nice to be back- but I think it is high time I went out and bought some fresh ingredients. Don't you?