Leftover surprise!

One of the biggest kitchen management jobs is dealing with leftovers. Food loses its appetising appeal after a few hours in the fridge and it is all too tempting and so much easier to treat the dog or to send it to the rubbish. Indeed there are many occasions where you simply have no option. However some foods are particularly good reinvented and it is handy to have a leftover recipe in your repertoire.
The most frequent leftover ingredients to be found in my fridge are cooked chicken and cold boiled potatoes.
Last week in the cookery class, we made a few tasty recipes from leftovers that the students can whip up if they are hungry at home and have a fridge of yesterday's dinner!

Chicken

Roast or cooked chicken is rarely finished on the first serving in our house, so here are two easy ways to use it up.
1. Chop the chicken into small dice and mix with enough  mayonnaise to coat the chicken, (couple of tablespoons at the most) and add a pinch of salt and pepper and a squeeze of lime juice. This is served with tortilla chips or even toast or a salad.

2. Cover some bread with mayonnaise, top with the cooked chicken and a few slices of avocado and a piece of bacon if you have it, but that's optional. Then grate on some cheddar cheese. Toast under a grill until the cheese starts to bubble.

Potatoes.

1. Chop the potatoes into dice and add finely chopped red onion or scallions, a couple of chopped hard boiled eggs and a couple of tablespoons of mayonnaise. Season to taste (potatoes can take a lot of salt, but take it easy for the sake of your heart!) Stir well

2 Mash the spuds and add some melted butter, salt and pepper. Then add an egg and a handful or two of plain flour. You just want enough to make a soft dough. Season and make into patties. You could add grated cheese, or mustard, or bacon bits or chopped scallion, or chives to the dough if you fancy.
Fry for a minute or two on either side in some butter and serve with a salad or baked beans.

Pasta

1. Mix in a nice pesto from the shop (I recommend the Sacla one) or you could whip up your own if you have the ingredients. Into a food processor put 100g basil, two cloves of garlic 100g grated fresh parmesan, 25g pine nuts, 150 ml olive oil, and I add a squeeze of lemon juice if it is a bit oily. Blitz until the basil has pureed down and serve. Easy! Cooked chicken or chery tomatoes also go well mixed into the pasta and pesto.

2. Mix a tin of tuna with 2 T mayo and a half tin of sweetcorn and mix into cooked pasta. Season to taste.
This is a real lunchbox friendly creation too, so next time hang onto all the superflouos pasta!


I suggest a good website too for leftovers,
lovefoodhatewaste.com

It is a well laid out website and has some fantastic recipes.

See you all soon!