fridge rader tartiflette

Fridge raider tartiflette thing

- serves one hungry mouth quickly at lunchtime

contents -

butter – a wee lump

cold spud – a big one

cheese – big chunk

ham – one slice or two

spring onion – two

double cream

bread – a big hunk (or two if you’re hungry)

salt and pepper - tons

It starts with hunger and a quick glance around the kitchen

I am absolutely not kidding when I tell you how tasty this dish is. I sometimes describe it as a posh cheese on toast…with potatoes. It is warming, and comfy, and filling, and best of all? It is so simple. You are using just a frying pan and a grill. Sounds simple enough to me.

Whenever I have the time to roast a baked potato in the oven I will cook two. Leaving one in the fridge for later or the next day. This dish does not use anything that I didn’t have in my fridge to begin with, cream can sometimes be hit-or-miss, but a good substitute is crème fraiche mixed with a little milk. (Is it odd that I am more likely to have crème fraiche in my fridge than cream? I don’t think so).

Get your frying pan at the ready, preheat the grill, slice your hunk of bread, chop up the spring onion and the tattie and rip apart the ham.

Melt the butter in the pan and throw in the potato. It doesn’t matter if it goes all mushy here…that's what you want! Add the ham once it is mushy, followed by the spring onions and heat through. Then just add the cream, half of the cheese and loads and loads of salt and pepper and mix though until you think it’s relatively hot.

My goodness it is as simple as that. A few lines for a method is just what I like to hear.

Take the pan off the heat and toast one side of bread under the grill. Turn it over and mould the potato mixture onto the half-toasted bread. Top with the rest of the cheese and chuck it back under the grill.

The final product is a “carb avoiders” worst nightmare. What with both…bread and potatoes…cheese and double cream. I definitely don’t do things by half. Jumping in head first and not just putting a tip-toe in the water first like usual. It's proper comfort food, the kind of food that I love, and it suits so well.

I didn't really know what it was when I first made it. One of those 'I'm just going to chuck a few things together and see-what-happens' moments. I did a wee bit of reading for this post - isn't Google a wonderful thing? A tartiflette is pretty much what I had made. Slightly tweaked from just being a potato, lardons, cheese, cream and onion dish normally served with a bit of cooked gammon.

I like to keep the skin on the potato whenever possible. I do not see the point in spending extra time taking off the nutrient-rich skin when it tastes so yum. And even when I'm making mashed potatoes, leaving the skin on even just makes it look so much better!

Sometimes if I want to make this a little bit more fresh I like to add some spinach through the mixture, or just chuck some bits of lettuce on the side. It really, of course, depends on what you have in the fridge. I am not saying that I don't go out to the shops to buy things specifically for dishes, but this is a fridge raider blog, recipes utilising the foods you always have, but have never thought of using for dishes on their own.

I hope these posts can at least give you some ideas about quick and easy dishes which you can whip up really easily and also I think it can help to decrease your food wastage. These can be filling meals that don't cost you very much - because you already have the ingredients in the kitchen

sardines and tatties

sardines and tatties

serves one - with a little leftover

contents

butter – a blob

spuds – a few medium ones

onion – one

garlic – clove

spinach – a handful

sardines – one tin

cream

salt and pepper – to taste

It starts with hunger and a vague glance around the store cupboard.

One of the things I always have in my cupboard is a tin of sardines. I don’t think I need to mention the potatoes…surely they are a given? Now this is a proper comfy dish, it’s creamy, it’s warming and it’s filling. You can picture it; winter in the middle-of-nowhere – Scotland, huddled with a blanket and all the curtains shut.  Grabbing this yummy, bubbling creamy pile of goodness out of the oven and pairing it together with a good book, or, dare I say it, a massive glass of red wine?

I think I might have stolen the idea for this from dauphinoise potatoes, a relative staple in my little sisters eye. Something she always makes whenever she can. I have to say, I’m pretty rubbish at them. Which is a shame, but it just means that every time she makes them, they’re extra special. This dish is much quicker than “dolphin” potatoes (as both my sisters like to call them), or more quicker as this is for one person, whereas when cooking for the fam damn it’s helpful to make an even bigger amount than normal…just in case seconds are required.

Chop up the spuds into little bite size cubes, don’t bother taking the skin off and boil them for about 5 minutes. Melt the butter in a pan and add the potato cubes, sliced onions and chopped garlic. Move around the pan for a while until the potato is browned, season furiously, then take off the heat and add the spinach leaves to wilt them through the mix.

I’ve tried cutting the potatoes into bigger bitties and into matchsticks, but I think it’s easy that they are bite size and the cubes look pretty cute! The spinach in this dish makes it extra extra yummy. It also gives it a little bit of greenery.  I think probably spring onion or rocket leaves could be substitute if you don’t have any spinach. Or maybe even some quartered mushrooms if you have some.

Butter an oven-proof dish and break up the sardines and make a sparse layer in the bottom of the dish. Then place a layer of the potato and onion mix and repeat with a layer of sardines and the rest of the potato and onion mix. Top up with cream, add a little more seasoning and pop into the over for about 10 minutes at 180°C or until the cream is bubbling.

bubbling, warming, tasty dish with potatoes, cream, spinach and sardines

 

If you’re not a big fan of sardines you could substitute tinned mackerel or even fresh fish if you wanted. Or some ham if you have it or even some sweet corn if you don’t want to use meat. This is one of the things I truly believe in, testing and changing recipes and moulding them to suit your needs and wants, and of course, to suit whatever foodstuffs you have, or haven’t got.

Make sure you don’t put too much cream in it, it bubbles up a fair amount and evenly coats the potato cubes. Put in too much and it’ll just bubble over completely – a bit of a waste really – and it’s really no fun to clean burnt cream off an oven tray.

I admit it is annoying that this dish does involve a little more washing up than I prefer, but at least you can wash the pot and the frying pan whilst it is in the oven.

It is so definitely worth it though! I don’t think I can stress enough how yummy these creamy, sardine-y potatoes are. So yummy that as I have written this blog post I can’t stop thinking of them. So yummy that I need to go and make some right now before I explode.

Good night.

gills chicken fried rice.

gills chicken fried rice

– serves 1 (twice)

contents

walnut oil – a little

fresh ginger – a small lump roughly chopped

white onion, chopped – one

dried mushies (soaked, drained, chopped) - a few

fresh shiitake mushies - or whatever kind you have
chicken, chopped – one breast

shaohsing rice wine – one tbsp

egg – one

five spice powder – quarter tsp

dark soy – generous splosh

cashew nuts – handful

jasmine rice – one or two hundred g

light soy – two tbsp

toasted sesame oil – one tbsp

spring onions – two or three (or four)

black pepper – tons

It starts with hunger and a vague glance around the fridge. 

Some extra cooked rice from the night before? I always make extra. Well, actually I pretend to myself that I purposely do it...when really I just make far too much in the first place. By accident.

A defrosting chicken breast. I generally just take stuff out of the freezer without having a final plan.

A few scraggly spring onions in the cupboard under the sink next to a couple of white onions?

One girl. Armed with a wok.

Who doesn't own a wok? If you don't then I am not sure that I am capable of acknowledging your existence until you do. Seriously.

This haphazard recipe has pretty much evolved over the years to cope with what has been in my cupboards at the time. I don't really like eating Chinese takeaway food because it is most often greasy, salty and mushy. However there was once a wee place in Dundee that did some lovely Spicy Singapore noodles. It's not open any more. (/sadface)

I used to make it without the Chinese five-spice and also without the shaohsing rice wine. What was I thinking? There is something about those two ingredients that give a dish the wow factor. It can just taste authentic - even if you are cooking it in a kitchen in the middle of nowhere, Scotland. Chinese five-spice is an intriguing blend of cinnamon, Szechuan peppercorns, cloves, star anise and fennel. It should, as with most dried spices, be used sparingly, otherwise the end result can be an offensive assault on your tastebuds...and not in a good way.

If only people knew how easy it was to make chicken fried rice, then they wouldn’t have to settle for their local "British-Chinese" takeaway.

Heat the oil in your wok until it is absolutely roasting. Cooking in a wok is all about the heat and the speed. Then chuck in the ginger, onion and all the mushrooms. Stir around mindlessly and you can even cut up the chicken at the same time.

Don't forget to wash your hands, I don't want you to poison yourself.

Once the chicken is sealed splash in the rice wine and continue moving it around the wok until the chicken is cooked all the way through. Then make a pretty litte space in the middle and crack the egg into it. Start stirring straight away to save it from getting burnt to the bottom of the wok (that would equal more difficult cleaning).

The egg really does not need pre-whisked. What a severe waste of time doing that can be. It also adds more to the washing up pile next to the sink. Your wooden spoon is your friend (no, I don't believethey are as unhygienic as a certain celebrity chef would make out...cough cough James Martin) here and you just need to stir the eggs around as if you're making scrambled eggs. Well come on, I am from Scotland, what do you think I stir my porridge with?

Once the egg has scrambled you need to incorporate it into the rest of the contents of the wok. Then throw in the five-spice, dark soy, nuts and rice and fry for a good five minutes or so. If you don't have rice from the night before just make some fresh. It doesn't take very long at all, and you can have the rice simmering away whilst you are frying off all the other ingredients. Jasmine rice is the best alternative to proper Japanese sticky-rice (yes, that's how they use their chopsticks so perfectly, because it's not that dreaded basmati rice (boring!). Not to mention the fact that they've used chopsticks probably before they started walking.

At this point you can grab your beer out of the fridge and decide what tv channel to watch, unless like me you are firing through the Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide series, then just make sure your book is to hand. And don't forget the chopsticks, fork, spoon, spork, massive shovel or whatever your choice of cutlery may be.

The final addition of the light soy, toasted sesame oil and the spring onions are for extra flavour and crunch. They can go in just before you start stuffing your face. 

Don't forget to add a bucketload of pepper. Salt is not needed because the soy sauce and the toasted sesame oil have added enough salt to begin with. In case you were wondering about the difference between dark soy and light soy my educated guess is that dark soy is aged longer, therefore it is stronger and thicker and darker in colour. The light soy is lighter (funnily enough) I find it it can also be more salty.

And there you have it.

Perfect comfort food within a matter of minutes.

And no need to go to the shop. Leave the wok soaking for a few hours to make it easier to clean, and stick the leftovers in a tub in the fridge for lunch tomorrow. The strict food safety enthusiast in me is wanting you to put the leftovers in the fridge as soon as they are cold...between zero to five degrees...you remember now? (Bacillus Cereus and all that jazz). Feel free to browse the Food Standards Agency website here if you have no idea what I am on about. Get yourself educated please.

raiding the fridge...

So, you have found your way to my blog.

I’d like to welcome you with a wee post about what it’s all about.

This is a blog not just about cooking. It’s not just about recipes. Not about being fancy and doing posh dishes for dinner parties. It’s about grabbing whatever you have already and turning it into something tasty and easy. Cooking does not have to be difficult. You don’t need to go out to the shop to buy twenty different ingredients and follow a recipe exactly as it is. Don’t get me wrong, I do use recipes, but mainly for ideas, and if I don’t have one thing, it can easily be substituted for something else. Of course, when it comes to baking, recipes must always be followed. That is the one exception.

I guess this blog can be about cooking really quick and easy dishes, but it can also be about reducing waste. Using up leftovers in a productive way, instead of just using the bin, and creating some tasty dishes, which really are not difficult to make at all. 

the fridge in question

How often do you find yourself opening the fridge to have a glance around, hoping for some inspiration, but you end up just picking up a yoghurt, or, heaven forbid, even a chocolate bar? Wouldn’t you rather be able to grab a few of those everyday items and turn them into something completely different? Sorry that is not supposed to be a Monty Python reference! I’m hoping that this blog can at least give you a starting point, some little hints here and there to allow you to raid the contents of your fridge, store cupboard and freezer and emerge having made some easy and interesting dishes.

wee selection close to hand

ah, the spice rack!

Sure, sometimes dishes can go a bit squiffy, yesterday I made a vegetable noodle dish thing and it was far too spicy! I’ve still not quite got the hang of the strength of my home grown chillies. But it was mega tasty, and best of all, I didn’t have to go to the shop for anything. A tin of sweetcorn in the cupboard, some chorizo, spring onion and courgette in the fridge, a block of dried noodles and a stock cube in the cupboard and I turned it into this.

chorizo, courgette, spring onion, chilli and sweetcorn noodles

Even though it was a wee bit spicy, I had two bowls because it was so yummy. I guess it was kind of like a ramen dish, mixed with super noodles. Ha ha, I haven’t eaten super noodles in years, yet there’s a good reason why. Because they are simple enough to make them yourself and you can pack it full of tasty vegetables to fill you up and keep you healthy!

Taking this example and turning my ideas for quick and simple dishes into a blog will hopefully allow me to inspire a few people, or it can just be somewhere for me to store my ideas.

Save your breath to cool your porridge.

You can find my other blog here: a girl a kitchen and a camera

Feel free to tweet me @apttodo 

the limoncello, zubrovka and ice cream are safely stored in the freezer