Sauce and Spice

Or what to do with leftover curry.

I made a big batch of Chicken Korma the other day, and there was plenty left over.
I could just freeze it - and have the same meal again another day- but as there was more sauce than chicken left in the pot, I decided to use it up in different ways.



Firstly, I made a super quick dhal (using tinned lentils and tinned onions- but you could cook your lentils and onions in the normal way too of course.)
Just mix 1/2 tin onions( or 1 chopped onion gently fried) and 1 tin of green lentils ( water and all) with 1 tsp ginger, 1 tsp minced garlic and 1 tsp finely chopped chilli. Add 300 ml leftover curry sauce and simmer for 20 minutes or so.

Green Lentil Dhal

Next I made a Goan Curry Soup. Just blitz the leftover curry with 300ml chicken stock, 1 tsp chilli, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp turmeric and 1 cup of apple juice.

Blitz together your ingredients

Serve with some cooked rice or coconut cream to thicken.

Goan Curry Soup

Lastly I had a choice of two dishes ( only enough leftover sauce for one- but here are both the recipes so you can choose.)

First of all, a Tarte à l'Indienne ( or Curry Quiche).

Mix your leftover curry sauce with 4 beaten eggs and a splash of milk or coconut/almond milk.

Pour into a pre-cooked pastry case ( 23 cm in diameter ) and bake at 170 degrees until set and golden. (Aprroximately 1 hour- but keep checking).

Tarte à l'Indienne

Lastly, try this Curried Gnocchi Tray Bake.

You can make your own gnocchi from leftover cold mashed potato or cooked pumpkin ( or use a storecupboard packet for speed).

To make your own, mix 2 cups of cold mashed potato or mashed pumpkin with 1 egg yolk and 1 cup of flour, salt and pepper.

Form into little balls and flatten slightly with a fork. 

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and drop the gnocchi in one by one. As they cook, they will rise to the surface. Skim them out with a straining spoon and put them in a buttered dish.

Cooked pumpkin gnocchi

Mix the little dumplings with cooked broccoli, chard, spinach or leeks and your leftover curry sauce.

Gnocchi ready for the oven

Sprinkle over some breadcrumbs and bake until golden and bubbling in a hot oven (180 degrees) for about 20 minutes.

This is a one-pot dish, and needs nothing else with it- so plate up and enjoy!

Curried Gnocchi Tray Bake

And so ends my tale of leftover curry sauce. I hope it inspires you to make some spicy saucy dishes yourselves.

Nothing left for me now except the washing up.

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!

Sugar and Spice

All things nice. That's what I want my blog to be made of.
And this time I have been inspired by a recipe I tried out after watching 'Barefoot Contessa' on TV.

I do love chef Ina Garten- she looks a bit like me (although perhaps a few boxes of chocolate cookies and several sticks of butter down the line) and her recipes are always delicious.

Ina Garten in her kitchen

Leftover Liz in the kitchen

                                                          Spooky eh?

This first recipe is no exception to the delicious rule- Baked Cinnamon Mini Doughnuts. Mmmm!

As Ina says, 'Who doesn't love a doughnut?'- and she clearly has had a few in her time, as have I.

 I was intrigued with the idea of making these without a deep fat fryer though and so

duly purchased a silicone mini doughnut mould ready to try out the recipe.
I can report that it worked well and I adapted the quantities a little to give you a version here (less melted butter but still pretty damn good.)

This quantity makes 12 mini doughnuts.

Ingredients:
125g flour
125g sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon or mixed spice
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
200ml milk
1 tbsp butter (melted)
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the topping- 50g sugar, 1 tsp mixed spice or cinnamon, 50 g sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
2. Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, spice and sugar.
3. In a separate jug, melt the butter (allow to cool a little) and whisk in the egg, milk and vanilla
4. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry
5. Pour or spoon into the moulds, filling just as far as the top of the central ring. Bake for 15 minutes or so until just golden and firm.

Turn them out once cool.

Melt 50g butter on a saucer in the microwave. Pour 50g sugar onto another saucer and mix in a tsp mixed spice or cinnamon.
Dip one side of each doughnut in the melted butter and then the sugar.

Baked Cinnamon Mini Doughnuts

I do like the flavours of cinnamon, nutmeg (or mixed spice) in cakes. This next recipe is a family favourite ( as you can see from the old recipe book) and never fails. It is particularly economical - ie. no eggs, no butter - as recipes often were back then.

Family Spice Cake

Ingredients:

450g flour

110g veg fat or 110ml veg oil

175g sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp black treacle

110g dried fruit

3 tsp mixed spice

275ml milk

1. Melt the veg fat and mix in treacle and milk

2. Combine all the dry ingredients thoroughly- and make a well in the centre to pour in the treacle mixture

3. Mix well with a spoon and then pour into a well greased 18 cm baking tin

4. Bake for 1 and 1/2 hours at 175 degrees- but check regularly with a skewer to see if it is cooked through.

The rest of todays's recipes are savoury- using chili, ginger and other warming spices and flavours to enhance simple leftover dishes: Thai- inspired noodle salad,  spiced pickled salad, chili chips and Tarte a l'indienne.

I'm beginning with the pickled salad.

Pickled Vegetable Salad

Slice cucumber, carrot and radish thinly with either a mandoline or in the food processor.

Bring 3 tbsp rice vinegar, 60 ml water, 2 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp chili flakes or finely chopped red chili, juice of 1/2 lemon or lime and 1tsp minced ginger to the boil in a small saucepan

Pour over the vegetables and allow to cool before refrigerating for at least 4 hours.

Drain off the excess liquid ( but KEEP IT for the noodle salad dressing) and serve garnished with toasted sesame seeds.

For the Thai-inspired noodle salad, two things to say.

First of all, I am indebted to fellow blogger Thewholeingredient for the inspiration behind this recipe.

Secondly, I'm not going to tell you how to make the noodles and stir fry veg that make up this salad- as it is supposed to be made when you have leftover stir fry to use up!

Thai-inspired Noodle Salad

Ingredients:

leftover noodles and stir fry veg

leftover pickling vinegar etc from the recipe above

2-3 dates

1 tbsp crunchy peanut butter

1 tbsp soy sauce

Blitz all the above dressing ingredients ( except of course the noodles and stir fry itself) and then warm them through in a small saucepan 

Pour over the waiting noodles and veg, add a dash of sesame oil and garnish with some extra chopped peanuts and spring onion if you have them.

Finally, my last two 'recipes' use up leftover chili con carne and chicken curry respectively.

My favourite way to use up a few spoons of chili is - over chips!

Put 'em in a bowl, spoon on the chili- add cheese if you want- and serve! (Not really a recipe but yummy nevertheless)

Chili chips

A little more skill required for the leftover curry- but not much.

Tarte a l'indienne

Tarte a l'Indienne:

1 baked pastry case

2-3 tbsp leftover curry with sauce

3 eggs

200 ml milk

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees

2. Blitz the leftover curry together with the milk and beat in the eggs

3. Pour into the pastry case and bake for 20 -30 minutes until firm and golden.

OK with you Ina?

How good was that?

Week 31- Warming Things Up

What a difference a week makes. Last week I was basking on a sun lounger, seeking shade in restaurants and going to evening barbecues.

This week, a 10 degree drop in temperature, jumpers and jackets coming out of the bottom drawer- and rain!




Time to warm things up- figuratively speaking (as today's recipes all contain spices) and literally - as they are all made out of  re-styled leftovers!

Firstly I have made vegetable samosas, followed by a chicken and vegetable biriyani (two ways) and a ginger tiramisu for pudding.

Leftovers to be used up- cooked veg, chicken pieces, vegetable curry and rice from the freezer, ginger biscuits and apricot jam.

Samosas are a genius way of making about two tablespoons of leftover cooked veg (from Sunday lunch perhaps) feed 6 people as a starter. The only tricky bit is folding the samosa- and once you've mastered that you can soon get a production line going. If you don't want to waste any food, you can always practice using a square paper towel or napkin.

First, make your filling: I had some leftover potato and courgette to use up so that was my base. I fried some mustard seeds, garlic paste, chili paste and ginger paste together in a pan in some oil until the mustard seeds began to pop. Then I added a chopped onion and fried it until soft, then some frozen peas. I worked in a heaped tablespoon of curry powder and then added the potatoes and courgettes (cubed). A little splash of water to moisten and then the filling is ready. Leave it to cool a little before rolling into the samosas.

Cook your filling

For the pastry, I used spring roll wrappers (from the Chinese supermarket) but you can use filo pastry. (In both cases, keep the pack under a damp teatowel whilst you work.)

1. First, fold the edges in to the middle so you have an oblong, three layers thick.
2. Then place a heaped teaspoon of filling into one corner and fold over to cover like a little fat triangle.

Lay filling in one corner

Fold over one corner 

3. Brush the pastry with water as you go to help it to stick
4. Then fold the triangle back upwards, then downwards, then up again until the strip is used up.
5. Seal up, and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet
6. Brush with oil and bake in a moderate oven -180 degrees- until lightly browned. (Much nicer and healthier than fried!)
7. Serve with mango chutney to dip

Fold triangle again upwards

And down again until you reach the end of the strip

3. Brush the pastry with water as you go to help it to stick
4. Then fold the triangle back upwards, then downwards, then up again until the strip is used up.
5. Seal up, and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet
6. Brush with oil and bake in a moderate oven -180 degrees- until lightly browned. (Much nicer and healthier than fried!)
7. Serve with mango chutney to dip

Seal up by brushing with water

 Samosas ready for the oven

Vegetable samosas with mango chutney

I made the biriyani from some leftover vegetable curry and rice - and some marinaded chicken pieces. You can buy either these ready cooked and 'tikka' marinaded or do-it-yourself with some chicken breast marinaded in a tikka paste and then fried in the frying pan.

If you do it that way, lift the chicken out but fry some onion, garlic and ginger paste in the tikka spices in the pan, then add your cooked rice. Stir through quickly and add your vegetable curry and work it in, then add the chicken pieces.

When piping hot (because it is reheated after all), serve in bowls with a yoghurt and mint dip flavoured with a teaspoon of turmeric and some sambals of chopped tomato, cucumber and grated coconut, if you have it.

Chicken and vegetable biriyani

I also took some of the biriyani from the pan and spooned it into a blanched pepper which is then cooked in the oven (along with the samosas). It made a lovely lunch with salad. 

Biriyani stuffed pepper

If you don't have leftover curry in the freezer (and why not?)- I have a recipe for one here:

Use whatever vegetables you like in this veggie curry- I always like sweet potato, and something green like broccoli, beans or peas- but you can use anything, any combination of fresh, frozen, leftover, cooked or tinned. They all work well- even baked beans added in go well. First, fry some chopped onion until soft, add your prepared veg and a good tablespoon or two of curry paste.( I don't have a good enough palate to blend my own spices for indian curry so prefer to use a spice paste.) I use korma - and then mix in coconut milk and stock to make the curry- or rogan (as here) with extra chopped tomatoes and stock.
I put it all in a slow cooker (or casserole) for a good few hours until the veg are soft and the flavours have developed.

Sweet potato curry

Finally- pudding!

This is simple and delicious- and uses up half a jar of jam and biscuits which are threatening to go stale in the biscuit barrel.

Lay a layer of ginger biscuits in the bottom of a dish, moisten with some rum or fruit juice, spread with jam (I used apricot but lemon curd would be good too) and then spread on a layer of whipped cream. Continue to build layers like this and then sprinkle the top with a crushed ginger biscuit.

Chill well in the fridge before serving.

Ginger 'tiramisu'

So, a touch of colour and warmth to brighten up a wet week- a bit like this photo I took of the rain and mist rolling in over the Sussex Downs: