Mighty fine Sunday dinner left overs this evening....Bubble & Squeak with poached eggs

Now, the millions of readers of Yesterdays post are probably eagerly awaiting my follow up....Monday night Bubble & Squeak. I appreciate this is somewhat late in the evening for a 'what to cook for dinner' post but as my Mum is my main reader and she happens to be on a cruise at the moment I think I can be forgiven!

Bubble & Squeak, the old school Sunday evening dish of wonder. I absolutely loved it, Grandad (Nunks) frying up the leftover potatoes and veg, cooking up a few sausages and adding a dollop of HP sauce. Et voila, the not so naked chef had created a dish of homely delight. And then I grew up, forgot about it and resigned the leftovers to the dog/food composting bin. Until now, B & S is back and better than ever.

The original recipe (bottom of page) called for bacon to be added. I don't eat bacon so we had poached eggs on top instead. Any road up really.

Here is the finished product:

Now, I will be the first to admit it hardly seems worthy of its own blog post. But it is, I promise, it really is!

Ingredients:

2 x cloves of garlic

1 x medium onion

1 x dessertspoon of oil of your choice

Seasoning

Any herbs or spices you fancy - we went with Aromat and smoked paprika 

Left over vegetables and boiled/mashed potatoes

Method:

1. Heat a frying pan over a medium flame and add oil

2. Add minced garlic and chopped onion

3. Mash left over veg and potatoes together using a potato masher

4. When garlic and onion are beginning to brown add veg/potato mix to pan

5. Pat down to flatten mix (and allow for browning the underside)

6. Season to taste and add any additional flavourings you fancy- go wild, YOLO

7. Turn mix with spatula and pat down again

8. When mix is piping hot with lots of crispy, fried patches turn out onto plate

I am going to be making more effort to use our 'leftovers' in creative and tasty ways. All to often in the past they have hit the bin and I am determined that won't happen anymore. We have some left over beef from lunch which I am going to be using tomorrow night to make homemade rissoles. 

The original (if slightly more methodical recipe) can be found here:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/164622/bubble-and-squeak

12.5kg sack of desiree potatoes for £2 at Morrisons! Let the potato recipes roll....

Well, the title says it all really! I am not usually a Morrisons shopper but in the name of research decided to try it out. In general it was 'okay'. Just okay. Most of the products were more expensive than Asda in my opinion and the product range was not as good. But, there were deals to be found for sure as the big sack of spuds that Mr Frugal lugged to the car show!

So, firstly the potatoes are unwashed. My poor paws! But in all seriousness, hardly a massive inconvienence to wash a few tatties!

Secondly, the date on these is fairly short for a huge 12.5kg sack. As mentioned in my post on dates (see previous post!) I don't take too much notice of dates anyway. To store keep them in a cool dark place and all should be well with the world. You can also store in fridge but that will give you a slightly sweeter potato as the starch turns to sugar at a lower temperature. In either case I will be using some to freeze down in various ways-more to come on that as it happens!

The potatoes are Desiree, an excellent floury all rounder suitable for roasting, mashing, boiling and using in creamy potato dishes. More info for the potato conscious can be found here: http://www.homelife.com.au/recipe/how+to+choose+potatoes,4596

Incase you are impatient to get cooking I will post below some of the recipes I will be following today. I will report my success back. I will be adding lots of potato recipes over the next week (as I have a lot of potatoes!) One thing is for sure, we will all end up with an Irish accent within the next week or so.... Top of the morning to ya

Recipes for Sunday

With today being Sunday it stands to reason my first recipe is going to be the good ol' roastie:

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/6009/perfect+roast+potatoes

Followed by the traditional Bubble & Squeak for dinner (or if we are too full it will be Monday night dinner)

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/164622/bubble-and-squeak

Simply the best (and cheapest) pizza/pasta sauce ever!

I am not often excited about tinned tomatoes. In fact, Yesterday was probably the only day I have ever been excited about them in my life. They are usually fine to use in chilli/stew/spag bol etc but I think they taste rather 'tinny'. If they are not well disguised in a sauce the tinned tomato flavour really ruins the dish for me. But, alas, no more! Tinned tomatoes have become a 'yum' food, a delicious, ruby red beautiful sauce that could be eaten by the spoonful it is that good. It puts me in mind of a gorgeous Lloyd Grossman sauce that I tasted a few years ago (when the jar was on offer and Mr Frugal was cooking the meal!) I never thought such a simple recipe could taste so good!

Ingredients

2 x tins of plum tomatoes (or any tinned toms that you have to hand)
1 x tablespoons of olive oil
2 x cloves of garlic
1 x bunch or handful of basil- picked and torn (this is where a herb planter saves some cash!)
Seasoning

Method

1. Heat a non stick pan and add the olive oil
2. Add the garlic (minced or finely sliced) and brown slightly
3, Add the basil and tomatoes and use a potato masher to 'squash' the juice out of the tomatoes
4. Season to taste
5. Bring to the boil and then remove from the heat
6. Strain the sauce into a bowl through a sieve, pushing the tomatoes through the sieve with the back       of a wooden spoon so that as little as possible is lost- scrape back of sieve into bowl too!
7. Pop sauce back in pan and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Sauce will thicken up nicely and this is when       it is done.

You can use this gorgeous little sauce on pizza or pasta, as a spaghetti bol sauce or in any way that your imagination allows really! I really find that having a well stocked, windowsill herb pot allows me to create delicious, cheap, family favourites. You could combine the sauce with my quick dough pizza recipe. Cheaper than Pizza Hut and for sure a darn site healthier!

Apologies for the lack of photo- will update the next time I make this lovely little gem :)

Kate