Plum Crazy

After the fruitless summer of 2017- when the late frosts of the Saints de Glace laid waste to all the blossom- this year the fruit trees in my Auvergne garden have gone, well...crazy.

My greengage tree, which in the 3 years we have been living here has only produced 4 little fruits, is suddenly and bough-breakingly laden.
What's more, they are all ripe and need to be dealt with right away.




Ho-hum, never mind about unpacking. Time to get preserving.



In addition to all the usual crumbles, pies and cakes I made pots and pots of plum relish and chutney.

Relish/Chutney

There were also Clafoutis

Plum Clafoutis

and Tatins to be made.

Plum Tarte Tatin

And, just as an experiment, I decided to make an Oriental Plum Sauce for dipping and stir fries.

I put 2 kilos of plums ( or greengages to be more precise) in the slow cooker ( stones removed),

Plums in the slow cooker

along with 750g of white onions ( chopped), 6 fat garlic cloves, 4 heaped tsp of ground ginger, 6 heaped tsp of Chinese 5 Spice powder, 250 ml of soy sauce, 2 tbsp black treacle and  650ml of cider vinegar.

Onions and oriental flavours added

I left it to cook ( and smell delicious) for 6 hours. (You could achieve the same effect in a large pan, simmered for an hour.)

I then tipped it all into said large pan and blitzed it to a smooth mixture using a stick blender. I added 400g of dark brown sugar and 400g of white granulated and heated until all dissolved. A quick boil and then pour the hot mixture into hot sterilised bottles or jars and seal.

Oriental Plum Sauce

Summer Stir Fry

I have used this on stir fries (yum), also with bacon and eggs like HP sauce and last night added a dash to some sauteed Swiss Chard. It was delish.

Just as we were eating the last of the plum/greengages in a fruit salad- my neighbour called round.

"Cela vous intéresse, les prunes?" he asked hopefully, holding out a sack of 5 kilos of golden Mirabelles. Smiling gamely, I accepted ..retaliating an hour later with 3 kilos of apples surreptitiously hung over his fence as a gift.

So, it's back to the preserving pan to make Mirabelle Jelly..

Mirabelle Jelly all made

just don't talk to me yet about the groaning peach trees. Give me a week.

One of three peach trees!

Kohlrabi, Kale and a Kitchenful of Veg

A trugful of treasures

Just look at all this glorious vegetable bounty. It's the result of a visit to my friend's allotment where she invited me to help myself to anything and everything that needed harvesting.
So, I have a trugful of green beans, Swiss chard, kohlrabi, curly kale and ruby chard to take home.

I feel inspired- and about time too as I have been suffering from blogger's block recently.

What did I make? A stir-fry, 3 soups, fritters, stuffed leaves, lasagne and a gnocchi bake. Not bad eh? Here's how.

First things first- a super fresh summer stir fry is in order- radishes, spring onions, kohlrabi, beansprouts, chard stems and green beans.
Freshly picked, the kohlrabi can be sliced and stirfried as it is- but if you prefer, you can steam or boil it until tender first. Do so in its peel though, to keep its delicate flavour (and then peel it afterwards)
Once prepped, the veg can be simply cooked in some hot oil in a wok, then some cooked noodles, sweet chili and soy sauce mixed in.

Veg all prepped

Super Summer Stir Fry

The leftovers make a substantial soup, added to miso or chicken stock.

Leftover noodle soup

Kohlrabi has been described as 'part veg- part alien' because of its otherwordly colour and knobbly appearance.

Allotment Aliens!

It is really a form of turnip and has the same creamy and slightly spicy flavour. For that reason it does well in Indian dishes. For something a bit unusual - try these fritters, made with shredded kohlrabi and spring onions.

Shred the raw kohlrabi in a food processor. (Incidentally, it would make a great slaw like this with shredded carrot, apple and spring onion).

Kohlrabi Slaw

Chop 2-3 spring onions and mix in with the kohlrabi. Add a teaspoon of curry powder, a pinch of turmeric and a tablespoon of flour. Season well with salt and pepper and then mix in an egg to make a batter.

Heat some oil in a frying pan and shallow fry spoonfuls of the mixture until golden on both sides.

Fry in hot oil

You can eat this as a starter like a bhajia  with raita or hummus or as a side dish.

Kohlrabi fritters

Next- the Stuffed Ruby Chard leaves. (The red stems went into the stir fry).
These are steamed for a few minutes and then drained on kitchen towel.

Steam the chard leaves quickly

I made a meatball mixture from breadcrumbs blitzed with fresh parsley and garlic (keep a tablespoon back to sprinkle over the top), minced turkey and an egg. Season and mix the ingredients well, then form into meatballs using wet hands.

Turkey meatballs

Fry the meatballs to caramelize the outside, and when cool enough to handle, wrap in the chard leaves, lay in a gratin dish and pour over some tomato sauce. (I used a ready-made tomato and mascapone sauce and it went really well). Sprinkle on the remaining breadcrumbs and bake for 15-20 minutes until bubbling in moderate oven.

Stuffed Ruby Chard Leaves

The green chard leaves I blanched for 2 minutes in boiling water, then into cold water to preserve the colour. I squeezed them out in a J Cloth and used them as a layer in a lasagne:  leftover bolognaise ragu, then pasta, then chard leaves

layers of leaves, pasta and ragu

ragu, pasta, bechamel sauce, grated cheese and a dusting of nutmeg for the final layer. Baked for 40 minutes again in a moderate oven until golden.

Meat and 2 Veg lasagne

Time for another soup- this time using the chard stems. Chop these and use them exactly as you would celery. I softened some onion and garlic in a soup pan, added the chard stems, a few chopped new potatoes and 1 1/2 litres of chicken stock. Simmer until the veg is all tender, then blitz with a stick blender, add 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley and adjust seasoning to your taste.

Swiss Soup

Now, the gnocchi.
Cook these little potato dumplings according to the instructions on the packet- usually for just 2-3 minutes or so in boiling water. Drain and set aside with a tea towel over the top.
Make a bechamel sauce, season well and add 100g of grated spicy cheddar with chilli.
Meanwhile blanch and squeeze the kale as for the chard leaves above, and then chop and fry with a crushed clove of garlic in a deep frying pan or wok.
Add the gnocchi and toss together, then mix in the chilli-cheese sauce.

Ready for the oven

Pour into a gratin dish and bake until bubbling and browned on the top ( 20 minutes or so in a hot oven).

Chilli-Chard Gnocchi Bake

Last, but not least- if you have leftover cooked veg I often put it all into my Use-it-Up minestrone- vegetable stock simmered with tomatoes (or leftover pasta sauce) soup pasta, any cooked veg such as green beans, courgette, peppers, kale or spring onions and- the secret ingredient- any leftover baked beans. Season well- a kick of hot sauce goes well with it too, I am told.

Use-it-Up Minestrone

Phew! I think it's time to stock up on some more veggies!

Lean, Mean Green Beans

A friend gave me several bags of green beans from her freezer the other day- the produce of her bountiful allotment. I joked that she could guess what the next blog would be about. We laughed- but then I reflected that that maybe wasn't such a bad idea.

So, this month's post is dedicated to phaseolus vulgaris- the humble green bean.





When fresh and in season (July/August), these lovely legumes can be treated just like asparagus- stir fried with a little garlic and salt

Simple stir fried beans

then topped with a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds

or lightly steamed to accompany soft boiled eggs

Asparagus and beans to dip

or even with a quick holllandaise sauce to dip them into whole

Lemon and chive mayo hollandaise
http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/hollandaise

When cooking from frozen - either cook them quickly like in this quick Spring Stir Fry

Stir fry beans, radishes, peppers and spring onions

With beansprouts, noodles and soy sauce in a Spring Stir Fry

or slow cook them with peppers, onion, olive oil, white wine and garlic then cool them to make marinaded slow cooked veg- delicious with salads or quiches.

Slow cooked marinaded vegetables

If they are leftover from a meal, put them in a minestrone to give them another lease of life.

Minestrone

And mix them into your Salade Nicoise

Salade Nicoise

Or why not add them to a Chicken Printanier- a dish of chicken with beans, asparagus and peas in a white wine, mustard and cream sauce?

Chicken Printanier
https://witness.theguardian.com/assignment/5385b5f1e4b0bc2e60e1816f/1004099

Believe me, if I could make a pudding out of them I would- and a quick trawl of the internet revealed that many people have done!

Green Bean Cake

Maybe I'll think about that next time.

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!)

Week 21- Healthy Take on the Takeaway

In the UK we do love a takeaway meal.

26% of the population eat one at least once a week- and an astonishing 1 in 10 people eat one more than twice a week.

Although, 'can't be bothered to cook' is the most often cited reason for this- there are other reasons too. The food is tasty, often can be delivered to your home when you're tired or unwell, and the people in the small shops and restaurants work hard and long for their profits.

The problem is that the 'tastiness' comes from that hit of fat, salt, sugar and flavour enhancers which ultimately is not good for your health. The food is often deep fried, and the provenance and usage of the oil is outside of your control too.

So, this week I am preparing a menu of favourite takeaway-style Oriental food- to show that it can be very healthy and very easy to prepare.



Starter is miso soup with 'pot sticker' dim sum, followed by yasai yaki soba ( a vegetable stir fry with buckwheat noodles) and crispy chilli beef (yes- deep fried, it is supposed to be a treat- but you can control the amount and type of oil) and followed with an exotic fruit salad with ice cream and toasted coconut.

For the pot stickers, I am using minced turkey, which is low in fat, for the filling. Mix the meat together with some soy sauce, finely chopped spring onion, a little garlic and a few breadcrumbs to make a burger-like consistency. (Indeed you can keep any unused mixture and make it into burgers in a bun for tomorrow night's meal). Form into small sausages and leave to chill in the fridge.

Defrost 2 spring roll wrappers (or filo sheets) and keep covered with a damp tea towel whilst you work. Place the 'sausage' in on half of the square, brush the edges of the wrapper with a 'glue' of cornflour and water and then fold and seal a bit like a pasty.

Brush the 'pasties' with a little oil on either side and then fry them gently in a frying pan. When lightly brown on each side, turn off the heat, put on a tight fitting lid and leave to steam for 5 minutes to cook the filling through.

Serve with miso soup: you can buy jars of miso paste in most supermarkets. A jar will last for ages in the fridge, once opened. Put one heaped dessertspoon of the paste per person into 500ml of boiling water, add some chopped spring onion and a handful of beansprouts and serve immediately.

Miso soup with dim sum

The noodles are quick and simple to prepare too- just boil them for a couple of minutes in a pan (no need for salt), drain and refresh with cold water in a colander. Meanwhile, stir fry peppers, beansprouts and spring onions in a wok, add 1 beaten egg mixed with a tablespoon of soy sauce and stir until the egg is cooked and evenly distributed. Mix in the drained noodles and add a dressing of your choice: soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, peanut butter (for a satay style sauce) etc Decorate with crispy onions and sesame seeds.

Yasai yaki soba

For the crispy chilli beef- cut one sandwich or flash fry steak into very thin strips. Marinade these for a short while in soy sauce, then toss in cornflour until coated. Heat an inch of vegetable oil in a wok until smoking and then add the beef piece by piece and fry quickly ( a very few minutes ) until golden and crisp. Lift out the pieces and drain them thoroughly on kitchen paper. Heat your favourite chilli (or black bean or hoi sin sauce) in a pan and coat the beef with sauce.

Crispy chilli beef

Exotic fruit salad

For dessert, a fruit salad is a refreshing choice. I prowl around the aisles of the supermarket looking for fruit which is reduced as it is a bit bruised or overripe- today's haul brought me kiwis, pineapple and mango- which I added to grapes, mandarins and strawberries. Topped with vanilla ice cream and a spoonful of toasted coconut- ( dessicated coconut dry-fried for 1 minute in a pan, stirring all the time, until it starts to brown lightly then removed immediately from the heat.)

Quite a feast- I hope you agree. If I had bought this from my local takeaway (not counting pudding which isn't available)  it would have cost : £12.50. If I had eaten in at Wagamamas, it would have been around £35 for two.

Making it myself cost: just under £7 for two. Plus, there is leftover stir fry to make noodle soup tomorrow, leftover fruit salad for my lunchbox and another meal of turkey burgers for tomorrow night.

If you would like to see more takeaway-style recipes, I have begun pinning them on my pinterest boards at http://pinterest.com/leftoverliz/takeaway-ideas/

Live long and prosper!