Leftover Cheese Sandwich Pudding

The title of this sounds a bit gross I know and I have to say when my mum first suggested it I thought she had gone nuts but it was totally yummy and has now made me believe that any form of leftover can be made into something delicious. Which is true to a certain extent. I made cheese, ham and cucumber sandwiches for Ned's first birthday party (along with lots of other things) and there were some leftover which I was determined not to throw out. I ate the ham for lunch but really they would have been lovely in this but I was hungry. So there.

This is a hard recipe to write up as the amounts depend on how many sandwiches you have. It would also work well with lots of other kinds of sandwiches - ham, tomato... probably not cucumber... so don't feel restricted by the fact that this recipe is mainly cheese. You can also add whatever you like - my husband doesn't think something is cooking if it doesn't involve an onion. Garlic would be nice too but this is the basics - do with it as you will.

Leftover Cheese Sandwich Pudding

Leftover cheese sandwiches (I had about 20 which were quarter squares on a mix of white and brown bread)
2 eggs
¼ to ½ pint of milk
Cheese (preferably something tasty and melty - cheddar, red Leicester etc)
Parmesan
Salt and Pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5 and butter an ovenproof dish that will suit the amount of sandwiches you have - you want at least two layers of sandwiches in the bottom and enough room for this to rise a bit.

1. Layer the leftover sandwiches in the bottom of your buttered dish and squish them in a bit.

2. Beat the eggs in a bowl and add the milk. Beat a bit more and season with salt and pepper.

3. Pour the egg/milk mix over the sandwiches and leave to stand for half an hour or so.

4. Grate cheese over the top (I even splodged on some cream cheese that I wanted to use up) and cook for about half and hour or until the cheese is starting to go golden and it has puffed up a bit.

5. Serve with a salad and some chutney. It was delicious.

Leftover Cheese Sandwich Pudding

Panettone and Mincemeat Pudding

I was searching for something to do with my leftover panettone and mincemeat from Christmas and I not only found a fantastic recipe that uses both but the recipe was on a great website, Love Food Hate Waste. This incredibly useful website has storage ideas, recipes and foodie facts that are so useful - I really recommend it.

I've included Caroline Mason's (their cookery adviser) Christmas Panettone and Mincemeat pudding below which was absolutely delicious and really easy to make.

Christmas Panettone and Mincemeat Pudding

Serves 4-6

75g leftover mincemeat
Alcohol such as baileys, brandy, whiskey or rum (optional)
50g butter
1 panettone, sliced into small squares
100ml milk
375ml double cream
4 eggs
125g caster sugar
A few drops of vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas Mark 3. You will need a medium sized baking dish and a roasting tin to use as a ban marie. I used whiskey in my recipe as that's what I'd used in my mincemeat. This is basically like a bread and butter pudding so I think when it comes to the mincemeat and panettone you can use as much as you have.

1. Put the leftover mincemeat in a bowl, cover with the alcohol and leave to soak.

2. Melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat and fry the panettone slices for 2-3 minutes of until golden on both sides.

3. Arrange the panettone slices with the mincemeat, overlapping slightly in the baking dish.

4. Pour the milk and cream into a pan and bring slowly up to the boil. Whisk the eggs with the sugar until frothy and pale and then gradually add the milk and cream mixture to the eggs stirring continuously. Add the vanilla extract then pour the mixture over the panettone and set aside for 30 minutes to allow it to soak in.

5. Bake in a ban marie or roasting tin filled with hot water for 30-35 minutes or until just set in the middle. Serve with double cream.

Joe's Shredded Pork Salad

I spend quite a lot of time mocking Joe for putting on weight since we met but it's mostly my fault. Not only do I always manage to cook enough food for at least two other people I also hate leftover roast meat, which means I'll make enough for 4 and then have one helping and insist that he finishes the rest. Last weekend we were in Norfolk with the new Mr and Mrs Elliott and I cooked pork belly on Sunday. We ate until we felt ill but there were still a few leftovers which we took back to London and which I tried to persuade Joe to have in a sandwich at work... he refused saying he was going to make a salad that I would like... I doubted it.

I was wrong - I loved it. I still have a thing about cold roast meat that I'm not sure I'm going to get over any time soon, but this was so incredibly tasty that I would definitely have it again. Highly recommended if you don't know what to do with leftover pork.


Joe's Shredded Pork Salad


Serves 2


300g pork leftovers, including crackling
1 red pepper, cored and cut into thin slices

2 spring onions, finely slice into strips
Sugar snap peas, small handful, sliced
Half a cucumber cut into strips
100g bean sprouts
40g watercress

For the dressing
1 tsp olive oil
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sweet chili sauce
1/2 tsp sugar

1. Cut the crackling into strips and shred the pork, removing any bone. The easiest way to shred the pork is probably using two forks as you would shred crispy duck.

2. Mix up the dressing ingredients.

3. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a wok and fry the crackling, face down. Put the rest of the pork on top, grate some pepper over and cook for 1 minute without stirring. Then stir fry the pork for two minutes, turning the heat down if necessary.

4. Put the watercress in the bottom of a salad bowl, add the pork and then the rest of the salad ingredients. Toss the salad, pour over the dressing and toss again.

Watercress Soup

I'm not very good with numbers, although I have known this for years and have whole heatedly given myself over to my numerical incompetence every now and again it rears it's ugly head in the kitchen. When ordering the ingredients for the Salmon and Watercress salad last week I ordered 200g of Watercress rather than the necessary 100g which is why on the hottest day of the year so far I was to be found making Watercress soup. It was actually really tasty and because I put in the fridge after I made it, it meant that the next night I could just heat it up which was actually much nicer than slaving in the kitchen in the sweltering heat. This is incredibly easy...

Watercress Soup

Serves 2 or 4 as a little starter

4 new potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
1/2 pint stock, can be chicken or vegetable, I used Hugh F-W's souper mix which I had in the fridge
75g watercress
Milk
double cream if you have it
Butter
Olive Oil
salt and pepper

You just need a big pan for this and a blender.

1. Heat the oil and butter in the pan and sweat the onion until translucent - 5 or so minutes.

2. Add the potatoes and cook for a further 5 minutes without letting them get brown.

3. Add the watercress to the pan with the stock, season and then cover the pan and simmer it gently until the potatoes are tender. About 10 minutes.

4. Switch off the heat and allow the soup to cool a little before pouring it into the blender and whizzing it.

5. Clean the pan and return the blended soup to the heat and add enough milk to give it a nice consistency.

6. Bring to simmering point and then remove the pan from the heat, test the seasoning and serve in soup bowls with a swirl of the double cream and a few bits of chopped watercress if you've got any leftover.

Nigella's Spanish Chicken with Chorizo and Potatoes

As part of my Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home frenzy I cooked this the other night (actually to go with the Banoffee Cheesecake pudding) and it was yummy delicious in every way and highly recommended because it's incredibly easy, if slightly expensive which is fine really because it tastes amazing enough to be great for dinner parties but is just so simple to make that you can actually have a drink with your guests when they arrive rather than slaving in the kitchen (shock horror!). This makes a lot of food too so you get yummy leftovers for lunches the next day so really you are getting a couple of meals for your money.

What was so fantastic about making this with the cheesecake was that the pudding was made the night before and only had to be unleashed from its springform tin and drizzled with toffee sauce half an hour before we wanted it and the chicken and chorizo can be wedged in its tins covered with clingfilm and ready to go in the fridge so you only need to drizzle with olive and put in the pre-heated oven.

SPANISH CHICKEN WITH CHORIZO & POTATOES
Serves 6

2tbsp olive oil
12 chicken thighs, skin on, bone in
750g chorizo sausages, ideally the baby cooking ones
1kg new potatoes, halved
2 red onions, peeled and roughly chopped
2 teaspoons dried oregano
grated zest of 1 orange ( I do not include this - I'm sure it's yummy but no...)

Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas Mark 7. You will need two shallow roasting trays.

1. Put the oil in the bottom of the two roasting tins, 1 tbsp in each. Rub the skin of the chicken in the oil, then turn them skin side up, 6 in each tin.

2. Divide the chorizo sausages and new potatoes between the two tins. Sprinkle the onion and oregano over and, if you are using it, grate over the orange zest. As I don't use the orange juice I just gave a little extra drizzle of olive oil over it before I put it in the o

OK so raw chicken is never going to look that appealing

3. Cook for 1 hour, swapping the trays round and basting after 30 minutes.

This is minimum input maximum output and the left overs are to die for - I followed Nigella's instructions and made quesadilla's which were just fantastic. Dice up the leftovers, add some grated cheese (I use cheddar), cover half a tortilla with the mixture, fold in half and then griddle or fry. This is fantastic for a hangover.

I meant to take a picture of it daintily cut in half - but I ate it too fast

Chicken and Bacon Tart

This is great for leftover chicken and in fact you can make it with anything you have hanging about in the fridge as long as you use the egg/sour cream filler anything can go in. The important thing about tarts is to season them enough - I know people are scared of salt but you can have a little taste of the filling before you pour it in and see. It's really too sad to have an under-seasoned tart. If you don't have chicken then a cheddar cheese and bacon version of this is great and you can always stick a leek in instead of onion.


CHICKEN & BACON TART
Serves 4

For the pastry:
220g plain flour
110g unsalted butter, cold and cubed
pinch of salt
1-2 tbsp chilled water

For the filling:

Chicken and bacon (on a small plate)

2 cooked chicken breasts or left over roast chicken
4 rashers of bacon
1 onion - or whatever you have. I like using large shallots and a bunch of 6 or so spring onions
2 tbsp olive oil
2 eggs
A handful of tarragon, chopped finely
300ml creme fraiche or sour cream
salt and pepper
A tiny pinch of garlic salt if you want

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. You will need a fluted tart tin - I'm not entirely confident of the size of mine but I think probably about 23cm. This is also good if you want to make the pastry up before hand. The pasty does have to rest quite a bit and then you bake the base blind so it's not the speediest recipe in the world.

1. Make the pastry by sifting the flour and the salt into a large mixing bowl, adding the cubed butter and rubbing it into the flour like you are making some sort of strange double handed sign for money. You want the mixture to resemble breadcrumbs when you finished and you want as much air in it as possible so lift the mixture up in your hands as you rub the butter into the flour.

2. Wrap the pastry in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for at least half an hour. Roll it out so it is larger than you tin and then line the tin with it using a rolling pin rolled over the top of the tart tin to give you neat edges. Then put in the fridge for a further 20 mins to rest.

Neat pastry case

3. Prick the bottom of the pastry case with a from, line with baking paper, fill with baking balls and then bake blind for 12-15 mins. When it's done leave it to cool and make the filling.

Baking balls!

4. Heat the oil in the pan and cook the onions over a medium heat until they are soft and translucent, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat and add the shredded chicken and bacon and tip into the prepared pastry case.

Chicken and bacon in pastry case

5. Whisk together the eggs, creme fraiche, tarragon, salt or garlic salt, and pepper and pour over the tart.

6. Cook in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden on top. Serve with salad and onion marmalade or chutney.

Finished Tart

Leftover Bolognese Pancake Bake

So, what to do when you've had yummy bolognese or tortilla wraps and you have left over mince? Well sometimes I make quesadilla's but not if we've had tortilla's already - if that's the case I make a sort of pancake bake crossed with cannelloni. In fact you really could use cannelloni tubes if you have some hanging about in the cupboard but for this one we defrosted some pancakes and so really, apart from doing a bit of whisking with the white sauce, this couldn't have been an easier supper. You can assemble before hand and then just heat up when you need it which is also handy.

Leftover Bolognese Pancake Bake

Serves 4

Approx. 200g leftover bolognese (see Tortilla Wraps with Beef Mince)
4-6 pancakes (we used ready made ones but you can make your own)
Cheddar, grated
Parmesan, grated

For the white sauce:
40g butter
25g plain flour
425ml cold milk
grated nutmeg
salt and pepper

I used a reasonably small, rectangular oven proof dish for this and preheated the oven to 200C/400F/ Gas Mark 6.

1. Layout each pancake and fill with a large spoonful of the bolognese/mince. The amount of Bologna's you have leftover will dictate how much you use for each pancake... obviously.

2. Roll the pancakes up and put them seam-side down in the dish.

3. Now you can make the white sauce how you would like but for this one I just put the butter, flour and cold milk in a saucepan and whisk over a medium heat until the sauce bubbles and thickens. Reduce the heat right down and cook for 5 minutes to get rid of any floury taste and then season with the nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.

4. Pour the white sauce over the pancakes and then sprinkle with the grated cheeses.

Grated Cheese

5. Bake for about 30 mins or until bubbling and golden. For a crispy top you can finish it under the grill quickly.

Finished pancake bake