Tuesday, 2 September 2025

Mish - Mash

In her book "Kitchen", Nigella ends many recipes with a paragraph entitled "making leftovers right". I fully endorse such notions of ZeroWaste and thrift. As we were going away to Manchester, I weanted to ensure I had used up as much as possible of our fresh produce. I checked the fridge and

I had a sweet potato, a regular potato, three small red potatoes, 1½carrots and a handful of beans.
Plus two brioche buns and the end of packs of peas and corn in the freezer. Further scrabbling around revealed a lock'n'lock with 'pineapple pieces' in it [bought in error by Bob who thought he was buying chunks to put on sticks with cheese, for the Shed Mardle] 
The leftover chicken from Monday had already been made into pie filling with mushrooms, a small onion and some of the stock - and I had a pack of puff pastry ready to encase it.
I thought I might make some sort of pudding with the brioche and pineapple, but had no eggs, and limited milk - but I did find a tin of custard lurking in the cupboard. The pastry was rolled out into a pasty shape and filled with chicken mixture, the root veg chopped and put to boil, with the green veg and corn in a steamer over them. The brioche buns were puttered and cut into chunks, and combined with custard and drained pineapple in a Pyrex dish. I mashed all the root veg together, with some butter - and served the lunch. Chicken Galette with steamed vegetables and root mash, followed by Pineapple Brioche Pudding.

I had not crimped the pasty well enough - so it burst open. And I'm calling it a galette! The filling was a bit sloppy, so extra gravy was not needed. A very filling and satisfying lunch, mostly leftovers.
The tinned custard was Waitrose Essentials - and is way thicker and creamier than my usual supermarket budget range [also more expensive] It made a very unctuous pudding. Leftover galette went into the freezer, for a light supper on our return from Manchester.

Jill in Dorset - still waiting for you to email me about the Noahs ark panel!






26 comments:

  1. Left-overs are my favourite meal. Those of the can't-cook-won't-cook persuasion do not know the joy of finding random left-overs in the fridge/freezer and realising you have enough for three - albeit small - courses.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those preprepared meal kits which are currently popular don't leave the opportunity for leftover delights

      Delete
    2. The packaging on those kits gets to me.... Also they seem very expensive!
      This is a great meal, well done!
      I don't really meal plan and we usually eat an assortment of vegetables with something else. I'm not a dessert fan so we don't really eat them that much. That said, there's so many blackberries around that I need to make some fruit amber!

      Delete
    3. Loads of blackberries this summer

      Delete
  2. We love leftovers, they often make the best meals. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall produced a very useful cookbook about them which I picked up in a charity shop for £1 a few years ago, a good source of ideas.
    You actually need to be quite a good cook, or at least understand cooking well, in order to make the best use of leftovers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've got the HFW book too, a very useful resource as you say

      Delete
  3. You made very good use of your leftovers. I'm looking forward to baking pastries, etc., once the weather cools down enough to put the oven on (it was 38C, here, on Monday; same forecast for Tuesday, too).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, in hot weather I don't want to put .y oven on either

      Delete
  4. I too love leftovers - some of my favourite meals have been a bit of this and a bit of that, making for a delicious concoction. Very inventive pudding my husband would love it. Anything with custard is an improvement in his book. Hope you have a great time in Manchester. Regards Sue H

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mish - mash sounds much better than a ‘fridge bottom’ meal!

    ReplyDelete
  6. That is brilliant use of all your bits and pieces, and that mixed vegetable mash looks lovely, I doubt I would have thought of that. I love leftovers. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There used to be a restaurant in Leicester whose menu was based around interesting "mixed veg" mash, which is where I first got the idea. And any leftover mash can be made into patties and fried (a good alternative to a breakfast hash brown(

      Delete
  7. Your meal looks delicious, so resourceful. I think the way the Galette cooked adds charm.
    Alison in Devon x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't think anyone has ever said my food is "charming" before!!!!

      Delete
  8. So many times these spontaneous leftover meals turn out to be fantastic, like a personal pot luck ! It's fun to think on your feet like that!
    JanF

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is pot luck. Sometimes fab, sometimes failure

      Delete
  9. What a great use of your leftovers. We have YS Lambs Liver tonight, which Alec loves and I will eat. I'm going to top it with the last two strips of bacon left in the packet. Enjoy your Manchester trip. Xx

    ReplyDelete
  10. Looks like you made something delicious from all those bits and pieces in the fridge. Nice to come home from being away to have a meal ready to go.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did a burst of tidying up before we left so the house will be welcoming when we get back

      Delete
  11. That lunch looks really delicious! I love creating soups, and I realized that none of them are reproducible because they are so random in ingredients and seasoning, but that is part of the fun.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it's hard to reproduce last month's success if you don't have a record of what you used

      Delete

Always glad to hear from you - thanks for stopping by!
I am blocking anonymous comments now, due to excessive spam!