Hanky Panky In The Kitchen

Part of the November declutter has involved a conscious decision to get rid of “Gadgets I got years ago but do not use much” – but some items are useful,  I just need to get them out and use them.

This morning I tackled all the ironing [whilst listening to Children In Need stuff on Radio 2] which included a pile of hankies. Then I moved on to cooking.

I got this minimorsels set in Lakeland 3 years ago, and have used it a fair bit since [see some ideas here]

I had to put the oven on to bake some garlic bread to go with the homemade soup we were having for lunch [the usual pre-Christmas using up random freezer contents] so I decided to experiment.

I warmed up a multi-grain tortilla in the microwave [the last one in the packet] and cut out circles with my small cutter.

I pushed the circles into the tin with the dibber that comes in the set. I chopped up the remaining trimmings and spread them in a foil tin.

These all baked for 6 minutes in a hot oven, till golden brown.

Then I filled the cooled ‘crostadas’ with some scrambled egg [I had 2 egg yolks to use up in the fridge] and garnished with snipped chives. [It is more ‘cheffy’ to say snipped rather than chopped chives!]

They tasted good – the shells were crisp and Bob says they look ‘properly home-made’

What on earth does that mean??

It was easier and quicker than faffing about making pastry!

Great for quick canapés come Christmas-time.

I tipped the trimmings onto a board and crushed them with my mini rolling pin.

 

And now I have some imitation ‘panko’. Panko is [are?] a sort of breadcrumbs popular in Japan – and very trendy right now. TV chefs like Nigella Lawson and Ina Garten keep on about them.

They will store well in an airtight container till I find a use for them.

Useful tip – I inverted the baking pan, to make an impromptu cooling rack for the garlic bread [thank you Real Simple for that tip]

I was going to call this post Hanky-Panko, or maybe Hanko-Panko, but both titles just sounded silly!