Spring has Sprung!

and the grass has riz...*

Time for a celebration 'printanière'- a selection of spring time recipes for you.

The first is a Spring Risotto - and four ways with the leftovers.

And I finish it off with some  leftover Hot Cross Bun ideas. Yum!





First, for the Spring Risotto. Use whatever spring veg you have left in your garden or is seasonal in the shops. I had spring onions, leeks, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes ( and frozen peas).

For two people, you need 1 large mug of risotto rice, some olive oil for frying, 1 litre of hot chicken or vegetable stock, 1 glass of white wine, 1 tbsp Boursin or cream cheese with herbs and garlic and a knob of butter. Begin by stir-frying your veg (except the peas) and risotto rice in the olive oil. Add the white wine.

Stir fry your risotto rice and veg until coated

Then add the stock, a ladleful at a time, stirring as it absorbs.

Stir in the stock a ladleful at a time

When the rice is nearly tender, and all the stock more or less used up, add the peas ( they will keep their green colour if you add them last).

Add the peas

Finally, mix in the Boursin and a knob of butter to make the risotto extra creamy.

Stir in the Boursin and butter

Serve hot in bowls.

Creamy Spring Risotto

The leftovers lend themselves to all kinds of dishes- hot or cold.

You can form the rice into little balls, coat in egg and breadcrumbs and fry in hot oil ( or bake for a healthier version) to make Arancini. 

Arancini with spicy chilli sauce

Or mix with a little curried mayonnaise and some chopped tomato or sweetcorn for a risotto salad.

Risotto salad

Or use to make Stuffed Beef Tomatoes. Just hollow out some large beef tomatoes with a teaspoon and mix the chopped flesh with the leftover risotto before spooning it back into the tomatoes and baking in a hot oven, topped with grated cheese.

(Suggestive olive decoration not compulsory!)

Stuffed Beef Tomatoes with Cheese ( and humorous olives)

And do something similar with Bell peppers- stuff with risotto mixed with some cubed feta or halloumi cheese and lardons and bake in a hot oven.

Risotto Stuffed Peppers

And now for those Hot Cross Buns. Who doesn't love them? Toasted with butter and jam or honey, they can't be beaten.

One a penny, two a penny...hot cross buns

Or can they?

You might like to try digging out your old sandwich toastie machine to try these next two ideas.

Try spreading the bun with caramel or fudge sauce and chopped banana, 

Spread the bun with caramel and sliced banana

Then toast until the outside is crispy in a toastie machine ( or fry on both sides in  pan) to make a Banoffanini:

Banoffanini- yum!

Or use the same method but spread the bun with Nutella or chocolate sauce and sprnkle with raspberries or fruits of the forest and toast to make a Chock Berry Toastie.

Chock Berry Toastie and ice cream

Finally- how about a Hot Cross Bun Baked Alaska?

Beaten egg whites at the stiff peak stage

Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees. Whip up two egg whites with some caster sugar until at the stiff peak stage. (The egg yolks go into scrambled eggs for tomorrow's lunch).

Split and lightly toast the buns. Allow to cool completely before topping each with a scoop of ice cream of your choice. Then quickly spread the egg whites all over using a palette knife ( or piping bag if you are flash) making sure that the ice cream is completely covered right down to the base of the bun as the tiniest hole can allow the ice cream to melt and leak out.

Bake in the hot oven for 4 minutes until golden all over. (You can add some finishing touches with a cook's blow torch if you have one.)

Hot Cross Bun Baked Alaska

* Poem often attributed to Ogden Nash 'Spring is sprung and the grass is riz- I wonder where dem flowers is?'

Full of Beans

A hill of beans!

We are an exotic bunch at our Atelier de Cuisine (Cookery Workshop).
I am the only Brit, but there are others with Polish, Romanian, German and Alsacien backgrounds.
And of course, cooks in the group from all different regions of France too.
We all try to bring a little of our own cuisine to the meetings. This time it was the turn of Anne from Alsace ( more of that in another blogpost) and Claudine from Béziers.




Claudine was making a traditinal Cassoulet from her region (South West France)- and she had brought enough ingredients to feed an army! The recipe below is for four very generous portions with plenty for leftover dishes.

Cassoulet à la façon de Claudine

500g of haricot beans (either soaked in cold water overnight or tinned)
300g of unsmoked bacon ( cut into large pieces)
4 duck legs
200g belly pork
4 Toulouse sausages
150g chopped tomatoes
2 carrots
2 cloves of garlic
1 bouquet garni
1 onion studded with cloves
salt and pepper
oil ( or duck fat) for frying

1. Either drain the beans ( if soaked ) and cover with cold water, then bring to the boil for 5 minutes. Or empty tinned beans into a heavy based pot, then refill the tins with water and pour over the beans.
2. Add the chopped bacon, the garlic, carrots, the onion, the tomatoes and the bouquet garni and leave to simmer.

Add the bacon, carrots, onion, tomatoes and herbs

 (If you are using soaked beans, this needs to simmer for an hour).

Leave to simmer

3. Meanwhile, cut the belly pork and duck legs into smaller portions.

Cut the duck legs into portions

4. Brown in a large frying pan.

Brown the pork and duck

5. Twist the sausages into smaller ones,

Portion up the Toulouse sausages

and fry them until golden.

Fry in a large pan

6. In a large ovenproof dish, place a layer of beans (seasoning as you go), then a layer of meat, and another layer of beans etc, finishing up with some meat on the top.

Layer up your stew and season well

7. Put the Cassoulet into an oven at 160 degrees and leave to cook for 1-2 hours until you are ready to eat.
8. For the last 15 minutes, add a sprinkling of crispy breadcrumbs and serve when golden.

Cassoulet à la façon de Claudine

The dish freezes really well but you can use the leftovers in a variety of ways.

Add them to bulk out a dish of Barbecued Beans- I make this with an assortment of different tinned beans- haricot, cannellini or butter beans. Slowly simmer in a slowcooker or in the oven with some softened onion, garlic and chilli, a tablespoon of black treacle, 2 tablespoons of tomato ketchup, 1 dessertspoon of mustard, a splash of balsamic vinegar, a splash of Worcester sauce 

( and any 'bottom of the bottle' sauces from the storecupboard such as chutney, brown sauce,

sweet chilli, Hoisin).

Add treacle, mustard, ketchup- and anything else you fancy to the sauce!

Barbecue Baked Beans

Or you can make Cheese and Bean Quesdadillas:

Pitta Cheese and Bean Quesadillas

Or kick up the spice a bit more with some more chilli, and bake in the oven with an egg to make Huevos Rancheros

Huevos Rancheros

Well, that's it for now. Thanks to all my cookery workshop friends. It's bean fun!

Article from 'La Ruche'

Trad Burns Night

I have done many variations on a Burns theme- Vegan Burns, fusion Franco-Scots Burns, Burns Night out of a tin and Burns Supper leftovers. Just search 'haggis' in the list on the right hand side of this blog for a plethora of recipes.





This year, I decided to go traditional- with haggis, neeps and tatties and Cranachan for dessert.
A couple of problems though...would the haggis make it through security in my hand luggage?
As it turns out, yes, no problem. Nestled happily in a cool bag, ne'er an eyebrow was raised by the customs men. ( Well, perhaps Rabbie's ghost was guiding them as a former excise man himself)

Our village in the snow

Next problem- as we arrived in the Auvergne, so did the snow.
No chance of taking the little Peugeot to the nearest supermarket. It was the village store or nothing.

Loulou's Shop in sunnier times

We all moan about the village shopkeeper, with his out-of-date and overpriced stock- but when it snows..boy are we glad he's there.
He even had neeps.

So,with neeps, tatties and haggis I was ready for the main course and a pumpkin from the cellar gave us a warming soup accompanied by cheese scones.

Cheese Scones (makes 10)
225g flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp fromage frais or natural yoghurt
60g butter
100g grated cheese
pinch salt
1 tsp mustard
milk to mix

1. Put the flour, salt, baking powder and butter in a food processor and blitz to crumbs ( or rub in with your fingertips)
2. Add the cheese, mustard and yoghurt and blitz to a soft dough, adding a little milk if too dry.

Scone dough in the processor

3. Tip out onto a floured board and press to a thickness of 3-4 cm.
4. Cut out rounds using a cutter or jar lid.

Cut out round shapes 3-4 cm thick

4. Place on a greased baking tray, brush with milk and sprinkle with either more grated cheese, paprika or seeds and bake at 175 degrees for 15 minutes or so until risen and golden.

Cheese Scones

I jazzed up the main course with an onion gravy:

1. Chop an onion or 2-3 shallots finely and place in a saucepan with a little oil, a knob of butter and a pinch each of sugar and salt.

2. Cover with a butter paper cartouche and leave to caramelize and soften.

Cover simmering onions with a butter paper

3. Add a tbsp of balsamic vinegar and 150 ml of red wine and boil for 5 minutes until reduced.

4. Add 250ml of water and leave to simmer until you are ready to eat.

5. Adjust seasoning and thicken with cornflour or gravy granules.

Glossy onion gravy

Pudding however gave me problem number 3.
Loulous store yielded no oats, no porridge, not even muesli. A frantic rummage in the larder netted me two packets of Oats so Simple and a bit of muesli..  Could they fix it? Yes, they could.

I toasted the various oats in the oven on a baking dish, mixed with 2 tbsp honey and a knob of butter.
For the Cranachan dessert, I whipped up 250 ml of whipping cream with a sachet of vanilla sugar and 2 tsp of whisky.
In dessert glasses, I layered up oaty crumbs, raspberries ( some peaches too as I didn't have a lot of raspberries left in the freezer) and whipped cream.
This was all topped off with more oaty crumbs and a few whole raspberries. Yum!

Cranachan

And so ends my annual  homage to the Scottish bard. I hope you've enjoyed the few extra recipes I have added here to enhance the usual triumvirate of haggis, neeps and tatties.

Now for a tot of whisky to toast the man himself... but which one to choose?

Slainte!

Christmas Crumbs

   

Christmas can be a time of overshopping, overspending and overeating. Consequently we feel the strain on our wallets, waist lines and -alas- on our waste bins as well.

Too much is bought, only to be thrown away. Bread and cakes are no exception- going stale or just losing their appeal after so much rich food.



This year's Christmas blog is all about making use of leftover bread, brioche or biscuits.
The first recipe uses up brioche rolls or slices- but you could easily make the recipe with any cake crumbs.

Prune and Lemon Tart

Sweet pastry case baked 'blind'

You will need  a sweet pastry case, baked blind at 180 degrees.
10-12 stoned prunes ( soaked overnight in tea)
If you don't like prunes, use figs or raisins soaked in rum/tea  or chocolate chips.
150 ml milk
150 ml cream
1 egg
zest of 1 lemon ( plus a dash of Limoncello if you feel like it)
100g blitzed brioche or cake crumbs
Vanilla sugar to top
1. Blitz up the brioche or cake into crumbs

Blitzed brioche crumbs

2. Chop the soaked prunes and place in a layer on the pastry case

Place prunes in the case

3. Whisk together the milk, cream, egg, lemon zest, Limoncello and crumbs and leave to stand until the liquid has been largely absorbed

Whisk together the ingredients and leave to stand

4. Spoon over the prunes in the case, smooth level and top with the vanilla sugar.
5. Bake for half an hour or so at 180 degrees.

Prune and Lemon Tart

Can I also recommend my Caramel Clementine Upside Down Cake?

Caramel Clementine Upside Down Cake
http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.com/search?q=christmas+puddings

If you have room in your freezer, then you need never throw away stale bread- simply blitz it into breadcrumbs and store for when you need it.
Like for coating arancini as here

Arancini with Dipping Sauce
http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/week-40-crunchy.html

 or use leftover fish pie and breadcrumbs to make fish cakes:

Fish Pie
http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.com/search/label/fish%20pie

I do make a good fish pie - and the leftovers go brilliantly in fish cakes. Add a little extra seasoning to your cold pie ( chopped spring onion, capers, green olives or chilli to your taste) Simply shape the cold mash and fish mixture into patties and then line up two saucers - one with beaten egg and one with blitzed breadcrumbs or biscottes.

Roll the patties first in egg and then coat thoroughly with crumbs. Leave to chill in the fridge for a an hour before frying in hot oil.

Fry patties in hot oil

Drain and serve.

Crispy Fish Cakes

These go really well with a Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce.

Mix 1 cup of cider vinegar with 1 cup of light brown sugar, 2 tbsp of tomato puree, 1 cup of water,  1 diced red chilli and 1 tin of chopped pineapple in juice ( or fresh pineapple with 1 cup of whatever fruit juice you have to hand  eg. apple or orange).
Heat the ingredients until the sugar is dissolved, taste and adjust to your taste ( more vinegar or sugar as required). Mix 2 tsp cornflour with water in a cup and add to the mixture in the pan. Stir until thickened.

Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce

Finally, if you have stale biscuits to use up, try this old favourite-

 

Breton Biscuit Cake
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/28/cooking-with-stale-recipes-bread-panzanela-migas

Whether you eat like a sparrow or a sparrow hawk, hopefully these crumbs will bring you comfort this Christmas.

Best wishes for 2019!