Friday pastry fun

"There is never enough crust." Nigel Slater

Somehow or other it is now almost a tradition that Friday is for pastry - usually a quiche. It is also true that by Friday I am using up leftovers, or even leftovers of leftovers. Like today. Pastry and leftovers offer an infinity of possibilities, and a fun challenge.

Behold today's challenge. What absolutely has to be used is the tiny bit of leftover vegetable toad-in-the-hole in the front. Actually the vegetables only consist of one potato, and the spinach that was mixed into the batter. Also I have to use the remains of the mustard sauce that accompanied it. The parsley is looking tired, and the broccolini and the rocket that you can barely see are also on the verge of looking tired. The spring onions are pretty much perfect, so I would like to use them, and there is also the end of a leek.

It's a lovely sunny day and I have just returned from a walk in the bracingly cool air. Sometimes I get depressed from needing to use leftovers, but today with the sun shining and aeroplanes flying overhead through the blue, blue sky to somewhere holiday like - which oddly cheered me rather than depressed me - I derived some pleasure from trying to work out a creative way of dealing with my ingredients as I walked.

My starting point - you need a starting point for this kind of thing - is the tiny bit of toad-in-the-hole. It's so small that I actually almost just threw it away, but then I thought at least it could be chopped and added to a fridge-raid omelette. So it was stored in the fridge, with the accompanying leftover sauce. Never throw out any kind of sauce - even if it too is very little - it can always be boosted up with other things or more liquid, or just added to almost anything.

The omelette idea is an easy and very common solution to leftover problems in this house, but I was feeling a little bit more adventurous, so I thought that it could be chopped up - to varying degrees, and toasted or fried to be sprinkled over something.

My next most 'got to be used' ingredients are the broccolini - and the rocket, which is even beginning to smell - it needs sorting - some will have to go to compost heaven. Some can be used - and as I walked I was thinking a pesto of some kind - perhaps with the parsley - to drizzle on top or combine into a quiche or a galette. Some of the rocket could just be added to the accompanying green salad of course.

But what to do with the broccolini? I thought that I had seen Jamie grating broccolini - or was it broccoli? Or you could chop it small, even blend it. But why would you? If you did any of those things you could of course make a cheesy sauce with it, just mix with your usual quiche custard mix or make into a pesto. But I think I'd already decided on the rocket for pesto - but then again you could combine the two into a quiche filling or a galette base ... So I set those thoughts aside for a while and pondered on galette versus quiche.

Quiche is my normal response to this kind of problem, but I have been feeling a bit same old, same old, this week and so I decided galette.

Although. And this is the simultaneously fun and marginally annoying thing about this kind of exercise. There is always yet another idea lurking - such as actually enclosing my inredients in pastry - for, as Nigel says you can never have enough pastry - as he explained in his introduction to this Steak, Stilton and thyme pie:

"The layer of puff, shortcrust or toasted crumbs seems plentiful till you bring your homemade pie to the table. It is only, as plates are passed round, that you realise your handiwork has its shortcomings, and the beloved layer of pastry, its topside crisp and dry, it's underside soaked with gravy, is inadequate. ... (so he made some extra pastry) a little thicker than is usual, creating a Stilton and thyme shortbread so good it could be eaten, in crumble wedges on its own."

This is one of the few things upon which David and I agree. Almost anything is improved by pastry in some form or another. But it won't be Stilton enhanced. I don't like blue cheese. Mind you I could add some cheese to my ordinary shortcrust pastry - or some herbs. You can never have too much cheese either.

But if I made some kind of covered pie or pasty I don't think my must have toad-in-the-hole would easily fit into that scenario.

So back to the galette idea. I have now made a few galettes, mostly from the Ottolenghi crew, but also from here and there. In fact I think it was Delia who first introduced me to the concept. They look glorious and are easier than a quiche because you don't have to do the cooking blind thing. Those Ottolenghi galettes, always have some kind of base on top of which you sit your main ingredient, and that base is often cheesy or puréed something. However, I also thought some almost caramelised onions would be good - maybe mixed with some feta cheese - I have some that needs using - or maybe mixed with that bit of mushroom and mustard sauce - with some more mushrooms.

So I went looking and found this Spring vegetable vegan galette from Citron and Citronella which looks sort of alright and has a cashew ricotta base - well it's vegan. I had also thought of peas to add to the mix and is that spring onion mixed with the broccolini. No it's asparagus - but it could be spring onion. However, the veggies look a bit overdone, and also difficult to eat don't they? Still I'm getting warm - and ticking off ways not to approach this.

Then there was this Broccoli and cheese galette from Daniel Gritzer of Serious Eats who also had a whole lot of advice on galettes in general. This was a whole other approach in that the vegetables were mixed with the sauce and then encased in the pastry. Well I suppose I could do that - particularly because of the discovery of the end of the leek that I found when I came to take my photograps on my return. And my mushroom sauce could be extended with more milk and cheese. "vegetables luxuriating in a bath of fat, cradled in more delicious fat. That's called a galette, FYI." say Daniel Gritzer. Well why not - I could sprinkle my toad-in-the-hole on top and drizzle with a bit of rocket pesto ...

Nigel also goes for this approach with his Cheesy green galette - even if the pastry in this case is filo. But this gave me pause for thought.

For tomorrow I am making Ottolenghi's Curried cauliflower and cheese filo pie which I have made many times before - and written about - and this looks very, very similar.

So I think I am going to return to my almost first idea. Shortcrust pastry with perhaps some herbs added to it. A base of almost caramelised onions and mushrooms - that leek too - topped with the broccolini - precooked with some peas, mixed with the sauce plus some cheddar and feta cheese, and then that topped with the toasted toad-in-the-hole crumbs. Cooked in the oven and drizzled with the rocket pesto before serving.

Now should I get some bacon in there to satisfy David's mild meat cravings? With the onions, mushrooms and leek on the base?

It's coming up for 4 o'clock. I wonder if I shall have changed my mind again before I actually cook it. One thing's for sure, there will be the toad-in-the-hole and the sauce, plus pastry as they are already warming a little on my kitchen bench. The rest is still a host of ideas swarming around in my brain. But it's been fun thinking about it. If it tastes good that will be even more fun.

"Hell it's only food. Just enjoy it." Jill Dupleix

And wine too - it's Friday. I'll try to remember to take a photograph of the finished result even if it's dreadful. After all we learn from our mistakes don't we?

YEARS GONE BY

May 22

2025 - Another problem first recipe

2024 - Nothing

2023 - The last plum

2022 - Scraps

2021 - Missing

2020 - Missing

2019 - Nothing

2018 - A sort of word from John Evelyn 1620- 1706

2017 - Nothing