Use your leftovers

Leftover tips & recipes

Good morning fellow foodies. I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas? you are probably feeling a few kilo’s heavier & a few pounds lighter today!! To address the balance, here are a few tips & recipes to help you use up those leftovers. After all, do you really want your hard earned cash, dumped in the bin?

If you were up early enough, you will have heard me on The Graham Rogers, Morning Show BBC Radio Wiltshire at 8.50 this morning, sharing these ideas, with the good people of Wiltshire.

TURKEY  (cooked)

Left over turkey breast can be sliced into finger sized strips, dipped in beaten egg & tossed in a mixture of Polenta & grated parmesan. Leave in the fridge for 30mins. Fry lightly in olive oil, turning once & serve with a dip of pesto, mixed with mayonnaise, for the Italian touch.

If its Spicy you are after. Follow the above, but replace the ingredients as follows: Dip in beaten egg & a Tbspn Soy Sauce & coat in sesame seeds. Serve with sweet Chilli Sauce.

Boil some macaroni. Make up a cheese sauce, or use a can of Campbells condensed Tomato Sauce. Layer in a casserole, Macaroni, cooked turkey chunks, chopped peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, olives etc. Finish with a layer of macaroni. Pour over the sauce, or soup diluted with a little of the Macaroni cooking liquid & sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake in a medium oven for 20-30mins.

CHEESES – SALAMI – HAM ETC

Place left over cheeses in a food processor, with chives & some butter. Process until smooth. Pot in small ramekins, seal with clarified butter & serve as a spread. (For adults, use stilton & a couple of Tbspns Port)

Recipe for savoury Truffles can be found by clicking the blue link.

Savoury Truffles Love your Leftovers

VEG & SALAD

How about a different take on that Boxing Day Bubble & Squeak. Whisk yourself up a Breakfast Frittata

Left overs. Breakfast Frittata

Have you looked in the salad drawer? I bet a sad looking lettuce & cucumber, lurk there, together with a few spring onions, the odd pepper & that bag of healthy shoots, that would go with….. you can’t remember what!
Well dig them all out, heat some oil in a large saucepan & throw them all in. Saute for a few minutes with a tspn cumin, add some veggie or chicken stock & bring to the boil. Simmer for 30mins & blitz with a hand blender. Season & serve with a spoonful of Greek yogurt on top.

Left over Veg soup

CHRISTMAS PUD & CREAM
Got an ice-cream maker?
Make a basic custard mix, allow to cool, stir in 500ml double cream & 1 tbspn Brandy. Process according to your manufacturers instructions, 10 mins before the end of freezing time, crumble in Christmas Pudding, or any meringues you may have left over.

Christmas Bombe

That it foodies. Hope you have found some inspiration to use up those leftovers. Have a great Boxing Day & Happy New Year.

The Social

BBC Radio Wiltshire, Monday 7pm

Day 17 of Christmas Countdown. Have been invited to BBC Radio Wiltshire tonight, to have a chat on a lovely new programme called The Social, hosted by the lovely Sue Kinnear & jovial Tim Weeks.

The Social chat. BBC Radio Wiltshire

The Social is broadcast at 7pm on a Monday evening & explores the weird world of Wiltshire online. Sue & Tim invite vloggers, bloggers, podcasters and facebook groups who are making them click, to chat with them, on air, about what makes them tick.

So, dear foodies having a couple of large food orders to cook & deliver, before the interview, I just did not have time to post you a promised recipe. To compensate I would like to direct you to my sister site truffleiciousteaches.com 

For those of you, who are interested in The Low Fodmap diet or would like to know exactly what it is, you will find more information by clicking the blue link, above.

You will also be able to find more recipes on my Truffleicious Website

I will also be on The Graham Rogers Showing, give you ideas to deal with those Christmas leftovers on Boxing Day morning at 9.10am.

Until tomorrow, have a lovely evening.

Marzipan or Sugarpan?

Make your own Marzipan

Day 8 of my Christmas countdown, as promised yesterday in my Late Christmas Cake recipe  today’s recipe is for home made Marzipan.

Although I personally do not favour a traditional Christmas Cake, preferring something lighter & less sugary, I know, for a lot of people, Christmas would not be complete without one. The cake in yesterdays recipe is a variation on the good old traditional theme. Today’s marzipan recipe is prepared using fresh natural ingredients & also makes you aware of the additives & preservatives used in most store bought Marzipan or Almond paste, as it is also known.

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  A Christmas Classic?

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  Home make your Marzipan

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  Store bought Marzipan

Do you head to the super market & grab a pack of ready -made Marzipan? Have you read the small print on theback?  It should really be called Sugarpan, because the main ingredient is, guess what, SUGAR!!  OK, most recipes call for half ground almonds & half sugar, but even in the more respected stores, ground Almonds only account for 25% of the product, the rest being made up with the afore mentioned sugar & other additives. So here goes:

HOME MADE MARZIPAN

. G/F. V. Low Fodmap  Allergens: EGG. Cooking Time Nil. Covers 1 10cm Cake or smaller cake with enough left over to make chocolate marzipans.

Ingredients:

450g Ground Almonds (Good Quality)

225g Icing Sugar

225g Caster Sugar

2 Small Eggs

Juice of half a lemon

1. Tbspn Rum or Sherry

1.Tbspn Orange Flower Water

Few drops Almond Essence

METHOD

Place the dry ingredients in a large bowl & mix together well.

Pour in the lightly beaten eggs & add the other liquids, mixing with your hands, to form a smooth paste.

DO NOT USE A FOOD MIXER. When the ingredients have bound together, forming a smooth paste, wrap in cling film & chill for a couple of hours. Over working the paste will result in an oily paste, caused by the oil being released from the almonds. Ifyou do not wish to use alcohol in the recipe, replace with Elderflower Syrup.Use fresh, free range eggs, as the rich yellow yolks, produce a good coloured Marzipan.

Use as required, rolling out on a board which has been dusted with icing sugar, to prevent sticking.

Any left- over Marzipan can be rolled onto balls or cut into shapes & dipped in melted chocolate & used for decoration. If you are feeling creative, you can always whip up a boozy Christmas Stollen with your lovely home made Marzipan in the centre.

Until tomorrow, when the recipe will be “The Icing on the Cake”. Have a lovely evening

Christmas Stollen with Home made Marzipan

Quirky, creative Castle. Cornwall

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Read my review of The Camelot Castle Hotel, Tintagel, Cornwall on this blog next week.

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Hey check out this video I made with Quik: https://quik.gopro.com/v/qPkNjlkbHH/