Common Sense with Leftover Food ~ apparently not a new idea!

I’ve recently started saving images of old cookbooks, as I find them, on Pinterest.

I am interested in them but not that interested! 

As with most cookbooks they tend to have the same recipes repeated over and over again (see here for more on this strange cookbook similarity) but, as you can imagine, I was intrigued to discover this.

I see that, like some cookbook writers today, the authors have cheekily added blank pages for the reader to add “My Own Receipts” thus making the book look more temptingly thick and full!

Other than that I am in complete agreement with the writers, Helen Carroll Clarke and Phoebe Deyo Rulon, from the start  …

Although I must say that, with my modern ideas, I am of the opinion that blokes may also benefit from advice on making the most of leftovers!

Some of the recipes are quite interesting;  one of the first in the book is called Fire Island Stew although it is simply a dish of macaroni and leftover roast beef in a tomato sauce.  In 1911, however, this may have been quite adventurous.

                                                                                                               

Mock Chicken Salad is strange as it’s actually a pork salad!, and this is a little odd too, whether it uses tinned baked beans or homemade ...

Obviously, due to differences of time (The Cook Book of Leftovers was published in 1911) and place (this is an American book) we are dealing with different ingredients, cooking methods and food storage.

Fundamentally, however, our ideas and principles are much the same. Probably that is because using leftover food to create delicious new dishes is bleeding obvious!

There is much I agree with and I find myself nodding sagely as I read the book.  This recipe for leftover cooked sweet potatoes …

... is a little like my recipe, in Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers for leftover raw sweet potatoes.

We are also similar with regard to pastry scraps and leftover cheese …

The Cook Book of Left-Overs ...

Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers ...

Read more about The Cook Book of Leftovers here and read more about my book Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers here. 

Tilda's BBQ Rice

I receive a few press releases and sometimes samples of foods and books and things to hopefully mention on my blog,  

A day or so before we left on our hols *** I received a pack of  Tilda's Limited Edition Barbecue Steamed Basmati so took it with me and contributed it to a meal my friend was cooking - sticky pork chops which were yum. I think she was pleased with it!

It is not my normal way to buy pre-cooked anything in general, and probably not something like rice in particular, but I can see that if you were that way inclined this would be a good purchase. The flavour is fragrant, smoky and spicy with fennel, chipotle, smoked paprika and my friends' 15 year old daughter Ruby thought she detected a hint of five spice.  Mind you she is not just any 15 year old, she is a Future Chef 2013 finalist so may well be right. 

Anyhoo Tilda Limited Edition Barbecue Rice has a warm complex taste and now I find myself looking at the other flavours in their range such as Coconut & Lime Leaf, Mexican Chilli, Lemon, British Curry, Egg Fried and Pilau.

In other news ...

***  I have fallen in love again - with the Highlands and Islands.  We had a superb time and I could wax lyrical but instead I have started a new Pinterest board.

Now I am home I hope to accumulate some new leftovers to play with and will report back asap.  

Sautéed Shrimp in Chilli & Lime Butter Sauce

This really is a short post - I have just eaten a most delicious meal which took me maybe 5 minutes to make and is something I often do when I am lucky enough to have shrimp or prawns.  It occurs to me that I really should pass this easy peasy idea on.

Sautéed Shrimp in Chilli & Lime Butter Sauce (or some such name)

a goodly handful of raw shrimp or prawns ***

a generous knob of butter

sweet chilli sauce which really should be in your storecupboard 

½ a lime or so

~   Melt the butter, add the shrimp and cook tossing or stirring till pink.

~   Drizzle over a little less sweet chilli sauce than you think you would like.

~   Squeeze over the lime juice.

~   Taste and adjust seasoning adding more chilli sauce as you think fit.

That’s it.  You should end up with your crustaceans bathed a sweet, hot, tangy buttery sauce. Serve with rice, fresh coriander if you happen to have some, and I added a few peas from the veg I was cooking for my real man’s dinner – Toad in the Crevasse. 

Shrimp vs. Prawns

***  Having lived in a country where American English was prevalent I now get confused about a few words.  Do we say skip or dumpster, trainers or sneakers and are shrimp the same as prawns?

In Tortola "shrimp"covered the whole gamut of these curly pink decapods but here I have a suspicion the word refers to the smaller of the specie.  

To complicate matters further I’ve just done a bit of research and see that there are there are real biological differences between the two.  

No matter, however, this works well for both of them and all sizes so long as you can get them in the pan.

Two Sweet Potato Recipes in one Bowl!

Looking through the fridge today I found some middle aged sweet potatoes, some of them turning grumpy, and remembered an old favourite I haven’t had for a while ...

Spicy Sweet Potato & Coconut Soup – serves at least 2

As you can see the coriander is optional.  I like it a lot but some people say it tastes like bed bugs - what mysterious lives they must lead.

1 med onions – thinly sliced

1 tablespoons of olive oil

1 small floury baking potato

1 large pink fleshed sweet potatoes

1 tsp Thai red curry paste or to taste

1 can coconut milk – do not shake; in fact try to keep it still for as long as poss before opening

a small bunch of fresh coriander

~   Heat the olive oil and toss together with the onions till they are coated.

~   Turn down the heat, cover the onions completely with a pieces of foil, pressing down onto the surface of the onions.

~   Put a lid on the pan and cook very gently till they are completely and utterly tender and are starting to caramelise a little.

~   Stir the curry paste into the onions and cook for a few minutes till it smells delicious and fragrant and looks a bit separated and oily.

~   Peel and slice the potatoes and add to the onions.

~   Open the coconut milk carefully, pour off the thick cream at the top of the can and set aside for later in the recipe.

~   Pour the coconut water over the potatoes to just cover them, augmenting with a little ordinary water or stock if necessary.

~   Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, cover and cook till tender.

~   Process or liquidise the soup together with the reserved coconut cream.

~   Season to taste and stir in the chopped fresh coriander if using.

This soup is gorgeous topped, as in my picture, with the eponymous …

Crunchy, Spicy, Salty Frazzled Sweet Potatoes

Pinterest friendly image
for easy reference!

These are extremely nibbly by nature and delicious even without any soup whatsoever.

1 good firm orange fleshed sweet potato

enough vegetable oil to deep fry *** see end of post for something important!

salt

~   Peel the sweet potato, discard the peel and then just continue peeling till you have a pile of thin strips of sweet potato.

~   Fry these in enough hot oil to cover for a minute or two till crisp and turning a little darker, watch carefully; the sugar in them means they turn colour quickly..  

~   Lift out of the oil with tongs or similar and drain on paper towel.

~   Toss with a little salt and maybe, if you fancy it, a smidgen of cayenne pepper.

Soup ~ Key Recipe

This soup is based, as are most of my soups, on my genius recipe about which I have written a book, Soup (almost) the Only Recipe you will Ever Need!

Read all about it here.

Plum Juice Spritzer

Whilst making this lovely lunch for myself I also made a plum crumble for our pud tonight and found myself with a little too much juice so … I  topped it up with some fizzy water, took a pretty picture and then had it as a sort of liquid dessert.

*** IMPORTANT - If you don’t have a deep fryer and are using a saucepan with oil in it NEVER, EVER, EVER fill the pan more than one-third with oil or you may have a disaster.