Leftover Veg Fritti

Leftover Veg Fritti

by | May 4, 2019 | Lazy afternoon cooking, Leftover crushing snacks, Lots of little leftovers, Main meal, Recipes, Sad fruit, Soft Vegetables, Vegetarian recipes

Leftover green bean fritti

Deep frying used to terrify me. Tracey Barlow setting the house on fire. 1990s fat worries. Public safety films.

My ex-husband taught me the ways of deep frying; he grew up with home-made scotch eggs and battered courgettes. Everything’s good fried, right?

Well, yes. A recent Food Programme talked about how deep frying can be part of a healthy diet. Don’t use the same oil too many times. Eat lots of veg. The terribly boring message of ‘all in moderation’ that is realistic yet not headline grabbing.

This Rachel Roddy recipe is amazing and perfect if you have leftover egg whites. I love her instruction to give the cook a beer or a prosecco, and have people sat to take the fritti piece by piece. The first time I did this, and as I drank the prescribed prosecco, I got more and more excited (yes and a little drunk) –  I can deep fry mushrooms! Tiny sausage balls! Leftover spaghetti! Everything was excellent, as is always the way with Rachel’s recipes…

So enjoy deep frying your green beans, and anything else. Enjoy watching the bubbles pop and the crunch of the batter. Don’t be like Tracey, no chip pan fires here, but a happy cook making sure no small leftover are wasted? Perfection.

Print Recipe

Battered lovely veggies

Adapted, barely, from Rachel Roddy, 'Five Quarters', p49.
The recipe says it takes a couple of hours; that is only to let the batter rest for an hour.
Prep Time1 hr 20 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Total Time1 hr 40 mins
Author: Ann Storr

Ingredients

  • lots of leftover green beans, mushroom, cauliflower, broccoli...
  • 100 grams plain/strong white flour
  • 50 grams wholemeal flour you can just use 150 grams plain flour; amazingly I didn't have any, and this was a lovely combo
  • 200 ml water
  • pinch salt
  • 2 egg whites
  • little piece of white bread
  • vegetable oil, for frying

Tools

  • 2 bowls
  • scales
  • measuring jug
  • electric whisk, or balloon whisk and strong arms
  • metal spoon for folding egg whites into batter
  • deep saucepan
  • funnel and sieve, and jar for storing deep frying oil for another time

Instructions

About and hour and a half before you want to eat

  • Make the batter by beating the flour, olive oil, pinch of salt and water into a thick cream. Use the electric whisk or your strong arms. Allow to rest in the fridge for at least an hour.

When you're ready to cook (and eat)

  • With a clean bowl and whisk, beat the egg whites into soft peaks. Fold the egg whites through the batter.
  • Pour enough oil into your pan so that you've got about 3-4cm deep. Turn the heat on and after a couple of minutes add the little piece of bread. Once it fizzles and pops, the heat is correct.
  • Dip each green bean in the batter so that it gets a lovely thick coating. Don't fry more than about 7 or 8 at a time.
  • Be like Rachel - hand out little fritte, blowing on them, dipping in a little salt and enjoying a cold beer or prosecco at the same time.

The oil

  • When the oil is cool, get your funnel, jar and little sieve. Place the funnel carefully on the jar and the sieve over (to catch little pieces of batter). Carefully pour the oil into the jar. Label the jar with how many times you have used the oil - after 4 uses it's too heavy in oxygen, will taste stale and saturate more quickly. 

 

Print Recipe

Leftover sausage and bacon stuffed potatoes

Servings: 4

Ingredients

  • 4 large potatoes or 8 small...
  • 1 rasher leftover bacon
  • 2 leftover sausages (around 400 grams)
  • 2 eggs
  • 50 grams butter
  • 200 grams cheese

Tools

  • Scales
  • Chopping board
  • Knife
  • Potato masher/fork
  • Whisk/fork
  • Oven-proof dish
  • Dessert spoon
  • Cheese grater
  • Optional: metal skewer

Instructions

Prep

  • Crumble the sausage into small pieces and chop bacon into small pieces

Method

  • Turn the oven to 180c
  • Prick the potatoes all over with a skewer/fork else they will explode!
  • If you have a metal skewers place them through the potatoes, as this conducts the heat through the middle and saves a lot of time and electricity
  • Depending on the size of your potatoes, they will take between 40m & 2 hours... you can start them off in a microwave if you like (WITHOUT the skewer...)

When the potatoes are cooked

  • When the potatoes are squashy to touch, take them out and *carefully* cut into them; try to cut them through their fat side, so it’s easier to fill them/cover with a lot of cheese.
  • PLEASE BE CAREFUL! THERE WILL BE A LOT OF STEAM READY TO GUSH OUT AND STEAM BURNS ARE PAINFUL
  • Scoop all the soft potato into a mixing bowl and break up with a potato masher/fork. Add the crumbled meat, season, and give a good stir
  • Whisk the eggs, and pour into the potato mixture. Stir again.
  • Place the potato skins in the dish. Using a regular eating spoon, put the potato mixture into the potato skins. Grate cheese all over the top.
  • Return to the oven for between 20 & 40m (depending on the size of your potatoes). They are done when they feel firm.

Storage

  • They will keep for a day or two in the fridge. As you have re-heated the meat once already, be careful! Smell and taste, and if you must re-heat ensure that fucker is piping hot all the way through.

Leftover Celery Stuffing

Leftover Celery Stuffing

by | Apr 7, 2019 | Cooking with kids, Freezer friendly, Lazy afternoon cooking, Lots of little leftovers, Main meal, Recipes, Sad fruit, Skill, Soft Vegetables, Vegetarian recipes

Leftover Celery Stuffing

Stuffing, like Christmas turkey, pop music and Bonfire Night, did not occur in my childhood. “Tasteless” my parents would say and I didn’t even understand what it was. What how when and why was something stuffed? It was only a Christmas day with my then-in-laws coming that I realised I needed to learn, because they needed bird, stuffing, bread sauce – all the things I didn’t grow up eating.

I mixed and mashed herbs and chestnuts and dried fruits, pushing the fruity mixture into the chicken. I got it. Like pasta, Yorkshire puddings and a million other delicious carbs, stuffing has been used to bulk out expensive meat and veg.

This recipe is barely adapted from a Jane Grigson. I dialled the butter down a little, and, when I make it again, I’ll add in double the parsley, if I have it. Any herbs like parsley, tarragon, fennel fronds will all go in fine here. Even carrot tops, when they come in season in a few weeks, will work. Wild garlic, in the spring would be immense. Other than that, a batch of this stuffing will clear out your freezer of breadcrumbs, so it’s a double win.

The original recipe made mounds of stuffing; I’ve got my leftovers in the freezer, ready for a lazy Sunday lunch. Got loads of celery? Make a double batch and freeze, extending your celery for another week or month, ready to feed lots of family or friends, on your zero waste, leftover loving celery stuffing.

Print Recipe

Leftover Celery Stuffing

Barely adapted from Jane Grigson 'Good Things'
Author: Ann Storr

Ingredients

  • 150 grams onion around a medium size but anything between 100 and 180 grams will be fine...)
  • 150 grams celery
  • 50 grams unsalted butter
  • 250 grams fresh breadcrumbs
  • grated zst & juice of half a lemon
  • 4 tablespoons parsley/tarragon/chervil/wild garlic
  • 1 egg
  • salt & pepper

Tools

  • Scales
  • Chopping board and knife
  • Saucepan with lid
  • Mixing bowl
  • Whisk/fork (for the egg)
  • Optional: tray for baking stuffing, if not stuffing a chicken/turkey extra sunflower/ground nut oil for cooking

Instructions

  • Melt the butter in the saucepan
  • Dice the onion and celery and add to the pan. Cook the onion and celery over a low heat for about 20 minutes until they are soft and translucent - do not let them brown.
  • Whilst the celery and onion are cooking, finely chop the herbs and whisk the egg. 
  • When the food is cooked, remove the pan from the heat. Mix all the ingredients together. Season to taste.
  • Either stuff in the bird or roll into satsuma sized balls and bake, basting with oil from the roasting bird or, for vegetarians, a vegetable oil

Leftover porridge bread

Leftover porridge bread

by | Mar 31, 2019 | Breakfast, Cooking with kids, Freezer friendly, Leftover baking, Leftover crushing snacks, Lots of little leftovers, Midweek recipes, Recipes, Sad fruit, Skill, Vegetarian recipes

Leftover Porridge Bread

My eldest brother and I share a love of baking (and eating bread), and I’ve learned a lot from him.  He’s bought me endless books because, chez Storr, all the best presents are rectangles. Learning that a loaf of bread requires only a ratio was eye-opening. So I could use up that remaining 165 grams of brown flour and yesterday’s porridge and top it up with strong bread flour?! Hell. Yes.

If you’ve got 250g of porridge or 100g it doesn’t matter: just make sure that the total weight of porridge & flour is 700g.  That’s it. The amount of salt and yeast will stay the same, the water might vary a little. Got 250 grams of porridge? You might want to go up to a total weight of 800 grams of porridge and flour (8 grams of yeast 16 of salt). It’s that simple. And – poof! – you’ve made something delicious out of a food you were about to waste.

Some people might query adding eggs, flour and fat to what is a cheap ingredient.  Those oats have been sown (ahem). You’ve spent money on them. Soil has been fertilised and petrol burned to transport. So have fun and use that claggy old porridge that you cared to buy and cared to cook to be the inspiration for tomorrow’s lunch. Or toast.

 

Print Recipe

Leftover Porridge Bread

Turn cold, claggy, leftover porridge into soft buns
Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Proving time3 hrs
Total Time35 mins
Keyword: eating on a budget
Servings: 12 buns

Ingredients

  • up to 200 grams leftover porridge
  • up to 600 grams strong white bread flour (flour + porridge weighs 700 grams)
  • 7 grams fast action yeast
  • 14 grams salt
  • around 400 ml water or milk (it will vary depending on how much porridge goes into your dough)
  • optional: 1 egg

Tools

  • Scales
  • Large mixing bowl
  • Measuring jug
  • Clean tea-towel
  • Roasting tin or oven dish
  • Greaseproof paper
  • Dough scraper or large knife
  • Wire cooling rack

Instructions

  • Weigh the porridge. Then add enough strong bread flour to take the porridge + flour to 700 grams. So, 150 grams porridge + 550 grams flour, for example.
  • Mix the flour, salt and yeast together in the large mixing bowl. Crumble the porridge into the bread flour so that there are no lumps.
  • If using an egg, whisk it into 200ml of the milk/water. Pour this mixture into the flour mixture. Give the ingredients a good mix with a metal spoon. or your hands. It should be quite a wet dough. Add more milk/water until you have a dough where all the flour is fully saturated.
  • Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured or wet surface * and *gently* knead it: push it away from you, pick that end up, pop it back on top, turn the dough 45 degrees and go again. Do this for about 10 minutes, or until you hear pops and crackles coming from the dough - that's the carbon dioxide forming.
  • Cover the dough with a clean, damp tea towel. Leave it to one side for about an hour. The dough need to double in size; in my cold kitchen takes about 2 hours.

Forming the buns

  • Lightly flour the counter and turn the dough out.
  • Weigh the dough; it should weigh around 1.2 kg, ish. Buns are around 100g and I like to weigh the dough. You can just eyeball 12 buns but I find it quicker to just through bits of dough into the scale and make sure that I will have buns of an equal size.
  • Line the oven tin with a piece of greaseproof paper.
  • Lightly flour your counter. Place each piece of dough on the flour. Once you have pieces of dough ready and waiting, take one and form it into a roll by turning it around your hands into a round ball. Tuck each ball into the tin, around 3cm apart.
  • When all the rolls are in the tin, cover with the clean tea towel and leave to rise again for about another half an hour.
  • Turn the oven to 180 degrees.
  • When the rolls have doubled in size, place them gently in the oven and bake for around 20 minutes, or until they are golden brown.
  • When they are cooked, gently slip them out of the tin and leave to cool.

Storage

  • I keep my rolls in a very un-sexy giant tupperware. They will keep fine for a couple of days.
  •  If you want fresh rolls every day, split the rolls and place in the freezer; they will defrost more quickly if you freeze them with the cut in place.
  • * Experienced bakers like to use the wet method where you knead over a wet surface rather than a floured. This is a great technique but takes a little practice.

Leftover porridge muffins

Leftover porridge muffins

by | Mar 28, 2019 | Breakfast, Cooking with kids, Freezer friendly, Leftover baking, Leftover crushing snacks, Lots of little leftovers, Midweek recipes, Recipes, Sad fruit, Skill, Vegetarian recipes

Leftover Porridge Muffins

During the ‘lean years’, childcare took most of my 3 figure a month salary. The nursery was necessary but so expensive. I couldn’t not work.  Life was dull. It was 2008. Food prices rose every week. One night, my ex and I went on a rare night out with child-free friends. This may or may not have been the night I found buttons in my purse rather than cash.

I started telling a friend about these amazing leftover porridge muffins that I’d read about and made for my family – “I don’t even waste porridge!”. “But porridge is so cheap!” he replied.  I talked about food waste but really, I was embarrassed to say that I didn’t have the money to be scraping any food in the bin – that I could see the money going into the bin. I couldn’t articulate that any saving like this, where old sad breakfast becomes warm and tasty tea-time, was necessary. I felt humiliated. I didn’t need to, but being skint is humiliating – if you’re there right now, I’m sorry, it’s shit.

As with the porridge pancakes you’ll be amazed at the softness. Use whatever chocolate, fruits or nuts you like/have handy; these are a template to hoover up little leftovers sitting around the cupboard.  I have used milk chocolate because my eldest has a sweet tooth to rival Winnie the Pooh. This batch were walnut and dried raspberry, which I loved.

Those skint years? The nursery was later closed for ‘financial irregularities’. I now have a talented friend who cuts hair for a good price. I no longer wear the maternity coat. I earn better money doing work that I love.  I still don’t waste leftover porridge.

Print Recipe

Leftover Porridge Muffins

Based on Oatmeal Muffins by Molly Wizenburg & Amanda Blake Soule
Prep Time20 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Total Time40 mins

Ingredients

  • around 150 grams leftover porridge
  • around 225 grams plain flour
  • 75 grams sugar
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 100 grams chocolate, nuts, or dried fruit
  • 1 large egg
  • 120 ml milk
  • 30 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Tools

  • scales
  • mixing bowl
  • measuring jug
  • muffin tin
  • muffin papers
  • whisk/fork
  • ideally, balloon whisk
  • teaspoon/measuring spoon
  • saucepan/oven-proof bowl

Instructions

  • Turn the oven on to 180 degrees. Place the butter in an ovenproof bowl and leave to melt as the oven warms up. Remove from the oven once melted and leave to cool
  • Line a 12 muffin tin with liners or lightly grease
  • Mix the flour, salt, baking powder, sugar and add-ins together in a large bowl
  • Crumble the porridge through the flour mixture to avoid lumps
  • Whisk the egg, milk and butter together
  • Pour the wet mixture into the dry; using a balloon whisk or spoon, mix together with between 8 and 12 strokes
  • Add spoonfuls of batter evenly to the muffin wells and bake for between 15 and 20 minutes
  • Serve warm

Storage

  • These really are best eaten warm and on the day. 
  • Warmed through, and maybe split with a little salted butter, they are good the next day or two - just store them in an airtight container.
  • If you can't eat 12 muffins at once, freeze when at room temperature for up to 3 months.

Blood orange & lemon jellies

Blood orange & lemon jellies

by | Mar 15, 2019 | Cooking with kids, Lazy afternoon cooking, Lots of little leftovers, Midweek recipes, Puddings, Recipes, Sad fruit, Skill

Home made gelatine jellies

Using up leftover gelatine wasn’t the easiest of challenges. I wasn’t about to start investigating the heritage of American jelly salads, though I’m sure they’re dear to people’s hearts. Our gelatine recipe choices are sweet, fun – and there’s no avoiding some sugar. Tamar Adlar does have set jelly salads in her latest book, though they’re more sun ripened tomatoes in aspic than tuna in pineapple jelly.  I’ll try them in the summer when it’s not stormy and not horizontal rain and bedsocks in the day.

Making these home-made jelly sweets was easy and fun. I tried using a shop-bought juice but the flavour, to me, was too dull and flat. I wanted something sharper and with the 10930825 lemons I had leftover from a Hubbub pancake day workshop, the decision was easy. Any leftover, sharp fruit or fruit juice would be excellent but I’d default to freshly squeezed or pulped if poss.

These jellies aren’t as set as a haribo but that’s what I like. They’re oddly satisfying. One or two after lunch and my sweet tooth is satisfied.  Are they good for gut health? A lot of wellness bloggers are talking about gelatine and gut health. I dunno, and I eat for joy and fun not wellness bullshit. These little guys used my citrus, they used my lovely Reduction Raider gelatine and they are tasty.

Note: don’t try to make these like fruit pastilles and roll in sugar; the sugar causes the set to melt and isn’t pretty. Like a sticky blood bath TBH.

So a little grown up sweetie, a hot cuppa and we have a zero waste, low-ish sugar, sweet. Which is hot pink. HOT PINK. You’re welcome.

 

 

 

 

Print Recipe

Citrus jellies

Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time25 mins
Total Time35 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 pint freshly squeezed citrus/grapefruit (you need something with bite - orange juice won't cut it)
  • 8 leaves leaf gelatine
  • 90 grams caster sugar

Tools

  • Measuring jug
  • Bowl
  • Scissors
  • Saucepan
  • Whisk
  • Cake tin or plastic pot

Instructions

  • Cut the gelatine strips into pieces. Place them in the bowl and cover with cold water for 5 minutes
  • Whilst the gelatine softens, warm the juice and sugar in the saucepan. 
  • Use the whisk to make sure that the sugar is dissolved. Taste the juice. If it's super sharp you might want to add a little more.
  • After 5 minutes, squish the water out of the gelatine. Place it into the warm juice and whisk, baby.
  • When the gelatine has fully disolved, pour the mixture into the tub/tin. Leave to cool to room temperature then refrigerate.
  • When set, cut into little pieces and enjoy!

Got a question? Ingredient you need help with? Get in touch:

ann@storrcupboard.com

Fruity jelly

Fruity jelly

by | Mar 12, 2019 | Cooking with kids, Lots of little leftovers, Midweek recipes, Puddings, Quick Quick, Recipes, Sad fruit, Skill

Leftover gelatine jelly

A few weeks back, the most wonderful Laura Reduction Rader messaged me and asked if I’d like to take ownership of a packet of leaf gelatine from a recent Olio stash that she had.  As a vegan, that was one leftover Laura couldn’t shift and lucky me, I got it! Hoo-bloody-ra!

A packet of way outta date gelatine arrived and, like anyone a little stumped, I put it on my desk and had a think. And a think.

I didn’t research about whether or not the gelatine was safe. A product so highly processed and stable (i.e. it’s not ‘live’ like yoghurt, more like a spice or pasta) and still sealed in its original packaging … honestly I’ve probably eaten ancient gelatine many times. I’m in full health and have a lifetime of eating questionable s=food stuffs. If pregnant, or poorly or elderly or feeding little ones, use your own judgement.

When my kids were little I’d sometimes make them jelly from scratch because I was always trying to make sure they ate more fruit & veg (and, honestly, trying to avoid sugar. Now the eldest eats it from a packet with a spoon…). Homemade jelly, often with some segments of orange stirred through, would be made once, and then not again for yonks. It just felt an effort, and juice isn’t that cheap.

But sometimes we buy a pack of gelatine, or feta, or peppers, for *one* thing and then the rest is just a proper pain in the arse. So this week we’re all about gelatine (yes, if you’d asked me 20, 15 or even 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have thought my life would rely so much on leftovers).

If you’ve ever experimented with jelly, and like some fruit juice, get creative and make layers and have fun. Or be like me. Just make it and add hundreds and thousands and eat it at 11am when you should be working but the jelly is calling…

 

 

Print Recipe

Fruit Jelly

Use up your leftover gelatine to make this healthy-ish, fruity jelly
Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time4 hrs
Total Time4 hrs 15 mins

Ingredients

  • for every 1 leaf gelatine
  • you need 140ml fruit juice

Tools

  • Measuring jug
  • Saucepan
  • Plate/shallow bowl
  • Bowls for jelly!

Ratio

  • If you have 2 leaves of gelatine, you'll need around 280 ml juice, 3 leaves 420 ml and so on

Instructions

  • Take the gelatine leaves, snip them up
  • Place them on a plate/shallow bowl and cover with cold water. Leave for 5 minutes
  • In a saucepan, gently heat the juice. Don't let it boil as boiled fruit tastes nasty
  • After 5 minutes squeeze the water from the gelatine. Place the gelatine leaves into the hot juice
  • Using a whisk or spoon, stir the gelatine in until fully melted
  • Pour into the serving bowl and leave to cool to room temperature
  • When room temperature, place in the fridge & leave to set

Storage

  • Will keep for up to a week or so but best eaten within a couple of days