Pounti, Patates and Pointy Cabbage

Autumn harvest is done.

Everything has been eaten, stored, bottled, frozen or given to the neighbours.

A few new recipes for you, using up my autumnal produce and then I hope you'll love your veg as much as we do.





Pounti is an Auvergne dish- traditionally made to use up leftover cooked meat. It can be eaten warm or cold, served as a main course, side dish or with an apéritif.

We made it at Cookery Workshop, using cooked ham- but use any meat you have.

Ingredients:
200g leftover cooked meat
100g bacon lardons
1 bunch of parsley
3-4 Swiss Chard leaves ( or 1/2 bag spinach)
1 onion
6 eggs
300g flour
2 tsp baking powder
500 ml milk
200g prunes (soaked overnight in water or tea)
butter for greasing, salt and pepper to taste

1. Blitz or finely chop the meat, bacon, parsley, onion, chard or spinach

Blitz the meat, veg and herbs

2. Add the eggs, flour, baking powder and milk and mix well

Mix up your eggs, flour and milk and add to the veg mixture

3. Pour into either a large greased cake tin, or several small tins for individual cakes

Pour into cake moulds

4. Drop in the stoned prunes

Add the prunes

5. Bake at 180 degrees for approximately an hour ( for a large Pounti ) or check smaller cakes with a skewer after 30 minutes.
6. Eat warm from the oven if poss.

Pounti

I also experimented this year with two new crops- cabbage ( pointed variety) and sweet potatoes.

I asked my local cooks how best they liked to cook their cabbage, and got this suggestion from my Romanian neighbour who says it is her husband's favourite. We loved it too, so I have named it after him.

Cabbage Alexi
1 head of cabbage
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 jar of passata
2 apples
1 pack of lardons
chipolatas or pork chops
red wine

1. Gently fry the chopped onion, crushed garlic, and chopped apples

Gently fry onion, apple, garlic - and add in the lardons

2. Blanch the cabbage for 4-6 minutes in boiling water, drain and chop

Blanch the cabbage heads

3. Add the lardons to the frying pan and fry until lightly golden
4. Add the chopped cabbage, stir fry and add a glug of red wine and plenty of seasoning

Add the cabbage, red wine and seasoning

5. Cook over a high heat for a few minutes, then add the passata and turn down to a simmer
6. Brown the chipolatas in a frying pan

Brown the chipolatas

7. Tip the cabbage mixture into an oven dish, add the chipolatas, cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes at 170 degrees.

Cabbage Alexi

And finally, to the sweet potatoes (Patates Douces). I only grew two plants, but they yielded well- if a little wonkily shaped.

Meet Sweetie, Knobby, Curly and pals

They nevertheless made two meals, each for 4-6 people.

I scrubbed the potatoes, pricked them all over with a knife and baked them in the microwave until soft when pressed ( about 6-10 minutes depending on your microwave). I then peeled them easily.

The first meal was a Sweet Potato and Lentil Curry and the second was a Vegetable Lasagne- made with layers of lentil ragout, Swiss Chard and leeks, creamy pesto sauce, sweet potatoes and a Welsh Rarebit topping.

A layer of sweet potato 

Welsh Rarebit Topped Lasagne
http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.com/search?q=lasagne

For the curry: fry onion, garlic, chilli and ginger, add 1-2 tbsp of your curry paste of choice, add the chopped sweet potato and 2 cups of cooked lentils some vegetable stock and a can of coconut milk and simmer together.

Lentil and sweet Potato Curry

And that's it for now...

Hope you're feeling the love!