Weekend Foodie: Waste not... two meals made up of the Christmas leftovers
In the days between Christmas and New Year, I often find myself staring at ingredients that were bought and didn’t get used for the main event. These are the extras we buy ‘just in case’.
- 2 sweet potatoes, cut into pieces
- 2 large Rooster potatoes, skin on, scrubbed and chopped
- 200g sprouting or normal broccoli florets
- 100g button mushrooms, halved
- 1 bunch scallions, trimmed and cut into lengths
- 2 tbsp fresh finely chopped mixed herbs
- 2 tbsp pitted black olives
- 1-2 tbsp pickled jalapeno chilli slices, to taste
- Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
- Juice of half a lemon
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 100g feta cheese, crumbled
- Place the prepared veggies in an ovenproof dish.
- Add chopped herbs, olives and jalapenos.
- Finally, drizzle generously with olive oil and squeeze over the lemon juice and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Toss thoroughly to mix all the ingredients together.
- Scatter with feta cheese, cover with foil and bake in a pre-heated oven, Gas 4 350F 200C for 25 minutes or until veggies are tender and caramelised. Remove foil five minutes before the end of cooking time.
- Serve up as part of a buffet spread along with lime-scented rice.
- 175g plain flour sifted with pinch of salt
- 100g chilled butter, in cubes
- 1 fresh free range egg
- 250mls cream
- 2 tbsp light Muscovado sugar
- 1 tbsp coffee essence
- 200g Dark Chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
- 25g butter, in chunks
- Halved pecan nuts, chopped pistachios and white chocolate for decoration
- Place all the pastry ingredients in a processor and whizz to form a ball.
- Remove, wrap in film and chill for about 20 minutes or until firm enough to roll out. Roll out pastry on a lightly floured board - not too thin.
- Use to line a well-buttered 20cm loose-bottomed fluted flan tin, neatly pressing into the curves at the sides of the tin. Drape excess over the side and roll a rolling pin over to trim the excess pastry away. Re-roll this into a ball and freeze for another time.
- Prick the base of the tart case lightly with the prongs of a fork, without going right through the pastry.
- Line flan case with baking parchment and fill with baking beans. Bake at Gas 5 375F 190C for 15 minutes, or until the case is startiing to set and turn golden.
- Remove the baking beans and parchment and return to oven to cook the case till golden and crisp.
- Remove and cool on wire rack. Carefully turn tart case out of tin and reserve.
- For the filling, heat the cream with the sugar and coffee essence in a pan.
- Pour mix over broken chocolate and butter in a bowl set over a pan of hot water.
- Stir till chocolate is melted and mix is smooth and well blended.
- Cool slightly but don’t let it set. It should be just warm and still pourable.
- Pour the mix into the crisp pastry case and leave to set in the fridge for about an hour, or until ready to eat.
- Remove from the fridge about half an hour before serving, to allow it to come to room temperature. Sprinkle over the nuts and grate over the chocolate.
- Serve with extra cream on the side.
App?
