The Thrifty Cookbook: 476 Ways to Eat Well With Leftovers (63 page)

Leftover fish flaked with some roughly chopped tomatoes, a finely chopped shallot, some good black olives, a minced anchovy fillet and a garlicky dressing is not quite Niçoise, but it’s just as deliciously filling. Home-made Paneer or Cottage Cheese (see
page 206
), with a handful of windowsill herbs torn over it, is virtually food for free as well as being good for you, while the last slice of bacon or even just its rind, quickly crisped up in a frying pan and crumbled over a salad of leftover boiled potatoes, transforms both humble ingredients into something really tasty. I’ve included some warm salads here too, as an alternative to green leaves – they are just brilliant for using up all sorts of languishing food.

Dressings made of oil and vinegar (or lemon juice) are great carriers for the added flavours of garlic, chopped herbs, mustard or even chilli. In general the ratio of oil to astringent should be three or four to one. Home-made mayonnaise also comes in handy – see
page 34
.

In the summer, when there are gluts of courgettes, beetroot, peppers, asparagus, French beans, new potatoes and so on (and when they are cheap in the shops), it’s worth cooking a bit more than you need so that you can combine them all in a stunning leftover salad – what our eighteenth-century ancestors would have called a Russian salad.

Ideally, make this salad from a combination of all the vegetables mentioned above, each cooked until only just tender. Otherwise work with what you have to hand. You can also add your own roasted tomatoes or peppers (see
page 44
), or bottled artichoke hearts cut into large chunks. Arrange the cooked vegetables on a plate. If you’ve taken them from the fridge, leave them to reach room temperature.

Either use home-made mayonnaise for the dressing (see
page 34
) or make something more astringent by mixing 3 or 4 parts extra virgin olive oil to 1 part red wine vinegar. Add good coarse salt and a grinding of pepper to taste. Toss with the vegetables, check the seasoning, add fresh herbs to taste and serve with warm crusty bread, garlic-rubbed toast, toasted flatbreads or whatever you like best.

The principle here is to take any uncooked vegetables left in the fridge, toss them in olive oil and then roast them until they are cooked through (see
page 102
). The lovely thing is that the vegetable sugars caramelise, rather like the sticky, sweet outside of roast meat, adding punch to the flavour of your dish. If you are looking for inspiration, some of the combinations for roast vegetables on
pages 102
–
3
will be helpful.

Rather than fresh leaves, the roast vegetables (served warm or tepid) form the bedrock of this salad, though you can add a few good salad leaves if you have them to hand. Then simply top the lot with a handful of meat per person and toss with your favourite dressing. You could also add some toasted nuts or seeds – sesame, pumpkin, pine nut and walnut are particularly good – or chopped herbs such as mint, coriander, parsley or basil. If you have chicken, duck or other poultry left over, I think it’s best to pull it apart with your hands so that it shreds across its natural grain. Unlike the Christmas turkey, there’s so little flesh on a duck that there’s rarely enough of the deliciously dense meat left over for more than one person: what better reason to have lunch alone? Oh, and there’s nothing stopping you from using this recipe for other kinds of meat or fish either.

Pesto
Lovely with almost any poultry or fish – see
page 139
.

For leftover turkey
Use 3 or 4 parts olive oil to 1 part white wine vinegar or tarragon vinegar, with a little Dijon mustard.

For duck
Try a mixture of olive oil, sesame oil, a squeeze of lime, a dash of soy sauce and some chopped garlic and grated chilli (top tip: if you don’t feel like chopping, deseeding or peeling chilli, ginger or garlic, you can rub them through a microplane grater – the skin and seeds will be left on top).

For chicken
A classic dressing of 3 or 4 parts olive oil to 1 part balsamic vinegar, plus crushed garlic to taste and a pinch of dried mustard powder.

For beef
Olive oil, a squeeze of lime and a little horseradish, over a base of roast potatoes.

For pork
A classic combination with Bottled Roasted Peppers (see
page 44
). Add toasted pine nuts, capers and herbs to the salad before dressing with a simple vinaigrette blitzed with some Bottled Dried Tomatoes (see
page 44
).

For oily fish
For mackerel or smoked salmon, use oil, lemon juice and a little horseradish or chopped dill. This is particularly nice on roast fennel or celery.

For lamb
Use oil, lemon juice, chopped mint and/or ½ teaspoon of harissa. Roast parsnips and sweet potatoes would be lovely here.

For cheese
Adding cheese to the salad, along with shredded meat or even instead of it, is a great way of using Cottage Cheese or Paneer (see
page 206
) or the ends of almost any cheese. Consider crumbling soft goat’s cheese, ricotta or feta over the warm roast vegetables, or pare Parmesan or Cheddar into fine slices with a potato peeler. The best vinaigrette for cheese is a fruity olive oil and a drizzle of really rich aged balsamic vinegar, with a grinding of coarse black pepper and a scattering of sea salt.

Potted Christmas turkey
As an alternative to serving strips of meat with a roast vegetable salad, you could ‘pot’ the meat and serve with separate salad leaves and crusty bread. Simply whiz up the leftover meat in a food processor with a good spoonful of butter, some salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice to taste. The consistency should be not dry but moist, like a pâté. Put the mixture in a pot and chill before serving.

These two crunchy salads are real fridge clearers. You need only a handful of raw vegetables and another of bean sprouts or almonds to bring them brightly alive.