What can I do with..... a tin of tomatoes?

Regular readers will know that I'm a staunch supporter of making the most of things. If there's even a small amount of food (and sometimes other things) leftover I will find something tasty to do with it. Sometimes though, you don't have leftovers, and you have to raid your store cupboard for inspiration. But the contents of your cupboard might not always be inspiring. Not to worry. Here's some ideas for using the humble tinned tomato.

• Italian sauce base. It's the absolute essential ingredient for any kind of pasta sauce, from a simple pomodoro to puttanesca. You can add almost anything to it, but you must have garlic, black pepper and herbs (basil, oregano, thyme) as a minimum. Then you can put in whatever else you fancy.
• Pizza topping. If you drain the tomatoes first you can make a much thicker 'sauce' that's perfect for a pizza. Remember to keep the juice because it has lots of uses itself.
• Salsa. Drain the tomatoes and reserve the juice for another dish. Add chilli flakes or finely chopped fresh chilli, a squeeze of lime juice, chopped leaf coriander, and crushed garlic.
• Nacho sauce. Make some salsa. Tip a pack of nacho chips into a heat-proof bowl. Pour the salsa over them and top with grated cheese. Grill until the cheese melts. Enjoy!
• Vegetable pie. Drain the tomatoes and reserve the juice for another dish. Roughly chop the tomatoes and add mixed cooked vegetables. Whatever you have. Pile the lot into an oven-proof dish and sprinkle breadcrumbs and grated cheese over the top. Bake for about 20 minutes at 200C, until the top turns brown and crunchy.
• On toast. It's a simple but tasty, easy-to-prepare meal. If you add grated cheese it's even nicer!
• Pizza toasts. Use the pizza topping, as above, but don't bother with the hassle of making bases. Use thick toast or French bread.

Stuff to do with the juice

• Drink it. Some people like tomato juice as a drink. It's full of vitamins and very good for you. Spice it up with celery salt, black pepper, a splash of tabasco.
• Bloody Mary. That's tomato juice with added vodka!
• Soup. You can make great tomato-based soups by simmering the juice with some vegetables and herbs, then thickening the resultant mixture with some cornflour and cold water.
• Vegetable stew. Make a nice thick soup and add pasta shapes about 10-15 minutes before you thicken it. Chunks of potato work too!
• As an ingredient. Add to any meat-based casserole for added depth of flavour.
• For cleaning. Honestly. You can clean copper with it - but not too often or you'll dissolve your copper away. Tomato juice is very acidic and cleans the grot off copper and brass quite easily if you apply it with a cloth. Try a small area of the item first though, preferably where it doesn't show.
• To deal with skunk spray. Apparently it's a myth. The tomato smell disguises the skunk smell but doesn't actually remove it.

Borsch - an East European treat

Beetroot is plentiful right now and you can pick up huge bunches of it quite cheaply. This traditional East European soup is a lovely way to use it.

You will need:
Beetroot
Potato
Carrot (or swede)
Onion (or a couple of shallots)
Dill
Chicken stock
Lemon zest and juice
Plenty of black pepper
About a teaspoon of oil
Sour cream (or yoghurt) for serving

 

Peel the vegetables and chop them (quite chunky will do). You'll need to be careful with the beetroot because it'll stain your hands. Wash your hands straight away in plenty of cold water.

Put the oil in a pan and heat it, add the vegetables and sweat* them for a couple of minutes. Everything will go beetroot colour - don't worry. Add the chicken stock, black pepper, lemon juice and zest and the dill and PUT A LID ON THE PAN! Bring to the boil. As soon as it boils, reduce the heat and let it simmer for an hour or so. Check from time to time to make sure it isn't reducing too far. 

When it looks like the second picture and the veg are very soft, allow it to cool and put it through a food processor or liquidiser. Test for seasoning and adjust as necessary. Warm it up and serve it with a swirl of soured cream or yoghurt.

*Sweating vegetables just means cooking them for a few minutes in oil, over quite a high heat, until they start to look shiny.

Smoked fish chowder

It doesn't have to be smoked fish at all really. Any old fish will do. It's just that this recipe was done with the leftovers from a seafood feast bought at the Port of Lancaster Smokehouse in Glasson Dock, Lancashire.


The stock
The leftovers from a seafood feast: prawn shells, mackerel skins, crab legs, mussel shells, whatever inedible bits you have left.
Lemon slices
Black pepper
Pinch of salt
Water

Put it all in a covered saucepan and bring to the boil. Turn it down to a simmer and keep it going for at least half an hour. Check occasionally to make sure it isn't boiling dry.

Strain the liquid into a jug and keep to one side. Throw away the wreckage.

The chowder
1 small onion (diced)
1 small potato (diced)
a crushed garlic clove
vegetable oil
tomato puree
pinch of dried herbs
small glass of white wine
lemon juice/white wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
Yoghurt, cream or soft cheese (at a pinch)
Leftover bits of edible fish can be added if you have any.

In a saucepan, add diced potato, onion and crushed garlic, add vegetable oil and fry gently until the onion starts to look translucent. Add the stock, the wine, a good squeeze of tomato puree and the dried herbs. Bring up to a simmer and taste. Add salt and pepper if necessary and lemon juice/vinegar if you think it needs it. Simmer until the colour deepens. It'll be quite orange at first but the tomato puree starts to darken as it cooks. If in doubt, give it 20 minutes. Add a good dollop of something creamy (the yoghurt, cream or cheese) and stir it round. Add the fishy bits. Bring it back up to temperature and serve immediately.

A week by the sea

Auntie Anne has recently returned from a self catering holiday and it seems like a good idea to let you know what was packed for the trip - and why.  We always take a hamper with us so that we don't have to
worry too much about finding something to eat in an area we haven't got to know yet.

The trip was for a week at the seaside and we checked before we went that there would be a good supply of seafood. Sorry to anyone who doesn't like ocean fodder - this will be a distinctly fishy post!

The supplies box contained:
tin of tomatoes
bottle of easy drinking red wine
bottle of dry white wine
small bottle of olive oil
small bottle of cooking oil
small bottle of white wine vinegar
salt
pepper
dried mixed herbs
curry powder
dried chilli flakes
'longlife' orange juice  (aka UHT)
pack of dried spaghetti (or other pasta shapes if you like)
jar of cockles
tin of olives with garlic
butter
teabags
coffee
sugar
'longlife' milk
jar of marmalade
jar of home made chutney

We also checked what was left in the house that wouldn't last the week. So there was some fresh food in
the box too. We took an onion and a couple of tomatoes and the remains of a head of garlic with us.
There was also a carrot or two and a large courgette.

On the journey we found a grocer's and bought a bunch of flat leaved parsley, a large lemon, some
cucumber, button mushrooms, loaf of bread and some fresh fruit.

First night we were there we hadn't found the local pub yet (and it didn't serve food when we DID find
it) so we made spaghetti vongole.   You can buy proper vongole with their shells still on if you like but you don't have to.  In a smallish pan put some finely chopped onion and a bit of cooking oil, a crushed garlic clove or two and a pinch of dried chilli flakes. Sweat the onion until it starts to turn transparent and throw in a couple of chopped tomatoes. stir it round a bit and add a good glug of white wine. Drain and rinse the cockles then chuck them into the mix.

Meanwhile boil some pasta. When it's done, pour it in the pan with the rest of the mix and stir it round a couple of times. Turn into a couple of large, warm bowls and sprinkle it with chopped parsley,

The following morning, breakfast consisted of a fresh fruit platter with coffee and toast and marmalade.

That day we visited the local fish market and came back with big raw prawns, small smoked prawns, a couple of scallops, roll mops, potted shrimps and a crab. So dinner was easy. Seafood selection. Fry the big prawns in butter and garlic. Clean and slice the scallops crosswise to give you flat disks of meat. (The fishmonger will clean them for you if you don't know how.)  Fry with sliced mushrooms and some garlic.
Smoked prawns in a dish. Crab on a plate. Roll mops on a plate. Potted shrimps warmed up and served in a small heatproof dish. Chunks of bread, butter, tomato salad, cucumber salad. Lemon wedges. Help yourselves.

Leftover crab
There was some crab left. So I bought a small pot of cream and another bottle of white wine. Chop half an onion and boil it in a good slug of white wine to remove the alcohol and reduce to about half the volume. Add a good squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of curry powder then lower the heat. Stir in the crabmeat - don't let it boil now. Finish it with some cream and a sprinkling of parsley.  Chunks of bread and butter. Yummy!

The carrots ended up being grated and turned into a salad to accompany some local cheeses. The courgette was sliced thinly, steamed for a few minutes, plunged into cold water, drained, then dressed with a vinaigrette made from olive oil, white wine vinegar and a pinch of dried herbs, salt and pepper.

I make a good soup



Introducing Potato Pete. He was a character from WWII who was designed to help people make more of the food that was available to them. Back then it was because enemy action prevented boats from bringing in supplies of foreign foods. These days it's useful to know because money's tight and getting tighter by the hour.

Luckily spuds are still cheap and plentiful and the weather's still cold enough to appreciate a bowl of soup. Soup's easy and even if you don't use potatoes as the main ingredient you can still use them to thicken other types.

BASIC SOUP RECIPE (serves 2)

1 onion, peeled and chopped

2 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 pint of stock (any kind)

1 tablespoon of flour

Glug of cooking oil

Salt and pepper

A few dried herbs (any you like)

Heat the oil in a heavy based saucepan and add the onions and potato. Fry gently for a few minutes until the onions start to soften. Add the flour and continue cooking for another minute or so. Stir well with a wooden spoon while you are doing that. 

Now add a splash of the stock and keep stirring until it blends in. Keep adding the stock a little at a time until it's all in the pan. If you don't add it a bit at a time and you don't stir well it will all go lumpy.

Sprinkle in the dried herbs and add salt and pepper.

Cover the pan and simmer the whole thing for about 20-30 minutes until the potatoes are soft. Allow to cool slightly then put it through a blender. Serve with a swirl of yoghurt or a sprinkling of grated cheese and a good chunk of bread.

VARIATIONS

* You can add any kind of vegetables you like at the frying stage. Leeks work well in place of the onion. Carrots give an interesting colour. Celery is good. Sprouts are great - add a few chopped walnuts at the end and see how that tastes.

* If you don't like the finished soup colour, put it back in the pan, add a squeeze of tomato puree and cook it for another couple of minutes.

* If you've used a meat stock you can add chopped meat after the blender stage. Heat the soup thoroughly before eating. Chicken is good. Use sage as your flavouring herb and you'll have a hearty bowlful!

* You can also add chopped cooked vegetables after the blender stage. Cooked pulses go well at this stage too. Small tin of chick peas or similar.

* Add some tomato puree to the blended soup and simmer for a couple of minutes then throw in some cooked pasta shapes. Small ones work best.

Weekend soup

Yesterday morning we went shopping and when we came back from the supermarket we put everything away, as usual. Of course, as always happens, we had to move out the old bits to make way for fresh food.

As usual I turned the leftovers into soup for lunch. It's quick, easy and, if you were planning on throwing the old food out, free!

You can make weekend soup out of any old raw and cooked vegetables but this one consisted of:

Half a head of chinese leaf (it was Chinese New Year during the week and it didn't fit in the stir fry)
The tail end of a swede
An onion

I chopped it all up then threw it into a saucepan with a tablespoon of oil and a couple of cloves of garlic. (Start with raw vegetables only. If you're including cooked ones they go in later.)

First thing to do is sweat it all down until the veg starts to wilt and the onions start to go translucent.
 
 When you've done it right it will look sort of like this: (That dark green stuff is lemon thyme that I happened to have around.)

Then you need to add some thickening.  If your leftover vegetables included potatoes you won't need to do this bit because the starch in the spuds will do it for you. If not, add some flour and then cook it for a couple of minutes longer, stirring it all the time so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

Once it starts to look thick and sticky you need to add liquid. You can add either water or stock. Add the cooked veg at this stage if you're using them. Add enough liquid to cover the veg. Bring the whole thing to the boil and then turn down the heat to a simmer. Let it cook for about 10 to 15 minutes then taste it. If it's short on flavour add something to make it tastier.  This one was a bit thin so I added a sprinkling of Chinese five spice powder and a good splash of soy sauce. (But you can add chilli, curry powder, herbs, Worcester sauce, leftover meat, tomato puree, celery salt, anything you like.)

Once you're happy you can blast it through a blender. You might find you need to cool it down before you do, then heat it up again before you eat it. Pour it into bowls and if you want to be really swank you can swirl in some cream or yoghurt and sprinkle it with a few fresh herbs (like in the top picture).

You see - there IS such a thing as a free lunch!

Seafood Feast the Auntie Anne way

One thing we love in our house is seafood. One thing we don't like is having to pay a small fortune for seafood platters in a restaurant.
Seafood is easy to prepare - especially if you have a friendly fishmonger!

This weekend we had a bit of a banquet. We went out and bought:

• Half a dozen small scallops
• About half a pound of mussels
• A bag of shell-on prawns
• 4 raw crevettes
• A nice, plump,dressed crab
• Some good crusty bread
• Some button mushrooms
• A small pot of single cream
• A small bottle of cider
• A large bottle of white wine
• Parsley
• Lemons

We already have in the house:

• Freshly ground black pepper
• Onions
• Butter
• Olive Oil
• Garlic
• Mayonnaise

Begin by placing the dressed crab on a plate and surrounding it with a few lemon wedges.
Give it a bit of fresh black pepper if that's your taste.

Put the prawns into a large bowl.

Wash the mussels, scrape off any barnacles and remove the "beards". That's the hairy bit sticking out from betweeen the shells. Just pull and they'll detach very easily. Discard any mussels that are open at this stage. (Slightly open is OK but fully open isn't.) If you want more help with preparing the mussels see here.

Find a big pan with a lid,
a small saucepan without a lid
a small frying pan.

Chop up a small onion very finely and place it with two sliced cloves of garlic, a good glug of cider and some chopped parsley into the pan with a lid and put it on a low-to-medium heat.

Slice your scallops into 1/2cm thick rounds. Include the orange corals. Put them in the small saucepan with some crushed garlic, sliced mushrooms and a glug of white wine. Don't turn the heat on yet!

Put heat under the small frying pan and add a crushed garlic clove and some olive oil. Now add the crevettes, then listen for them beginning to sizzle.

Put heat under the scallops and get the white wine simmering.

Sling your cleaned mussels into the lidded pan and put the lid back on.

Turn over your sizzling crevettes to cook the other side.

Take your scallops off the heat and let them cool slightly.

Pick up the lidded pan and give it a good shake. Lift the lid. The mussels should be nicely open by now. Pour the whole lot into a big bowl.

Your crevettes should now be nicely pink. Tip them onto a plate. (If they're still a bit blue give them a minute longer while you finish off the scallops.)

Add a generous helping of single cream to the scallops and tip the mixture into a bowl.

Serve all of it with good bread and butter. Black pepper to taste. Bowl of mayonnaise to dip the prawns in.

Don't forget plenty of napkins, a big empty bowl for the wreckage and some REALLY nice, dry white wine. Chilled mineral water helps too.

What can I do with the leftovers?

When you're done you'll probably find there's plenty of mussel juice left and quite a bit of the cream sauce from the scallops. Do not throw them away! Mix together and refrigerate then serve as soup the following day.
Leftover prawns will make sandwiches, prawn cocktail or even go into a fish pie if you have any "fishy" fish available. Or mix them with scrambled egg for breakfast.
Leftover mussels can be frozen and kept for fish pie. (They've been cooked so it's OK.)
Leftover crab can be turned into crab cakes. Just mix it with bread crumbs and any seasoning you like. Thai sauce and coriander; Worcester sauce; mustard; lemon juice and thyme; curry powder; whatever you like. Add a bit of mayonnaise or some olive oil if the mixture is a little dry.  Shape into rounds, flour lightly and then shallow fry in a little groundnut oil.