Nigel Slater’s recipes for festive leftovers: soup and panettone custard
This is the fridge’s best hour. A bowl of cranberry sauce full to the brim; shards of chilly roast goose, turkey maybe; some chilly roast potatoes, craggy and golden, and, pleasure of joys, a saucer of chilly pigs-in-blankets. There is bread sauce in a gravy boat, a chunk of chilly salmon, brandy butter and even a jug of Marsala-laced gravy. Treats past measure.
There is nothing, merely nothing, I like doing within the kitchen greater than selecting at leftovers. Those bowls with saucers for lids, conserving the buried treasure protected till we’re able to eat. A ready-made breakfast, a midnight deal with, bounty to choose at for the quiet days that observe the feast.
There are not any guidelines. (Though I ought to warn you to smell all the pieces first.) If you need to add a dollop of cranberry sauce to a fry-up of chilly roast potatoes and sprouts, go for it. Likewise bread sauce as a dip for crisp-fried turkey pores and skin or the final of the nut roast crumbled right into a pilaf.
A fry-up does appear essentially the most sincere reply to the conundrums at present residing within the fridge. The deliciousness will increase if there may be any kind of gravy or roasting juices. (That jelly lurking beneath the bones is pure gold.) Try effervescent a surfeit of gravy and the juices which have set within the roasting tin collectively in a shallow pan then including shredded greens served on mashed potato or potato truffles.
Sweet leftover favourites embody brandy butter unfold on toasted panettone; Christmas pudding crumbled right into a frying pan with a glass of brandy and bubbled up as a dressing for vanilla ice-cream, and mince pies mashed and folded into chilly custard (good once you’ve had a bit an excessive amount of to drink). Best of all is torn panettone baked with eggs, sugar, cream and candied peel – bread and butter pudding with its Christmas hat on.
Bones, beans, bits and bobs
No matter what number of aromatics you place in, it’s the bones that make the broth. Ideally there will likely be a ham bone to share the pot with onions, carrots, thyme and garlic, however these of the roasted turkey or goose will do. Bones give the soup a satisfyingly silken high quality. If I’ve time, the beans will likely be dried, soaked in a single day, then boiled and simmered with bay and peppercorns. If not, a can will do.
Care is required in what else we add, however any recent greens – cabbage, broccoli, chard and the like – are welcome, as are cooked carrots, parsnips and potatoes. A chilly chipolata or two can be like discovering buried treasure in your soup and the identical with bacon, however this isn’t the place to chuck something and all the pieces.
The primary addition can be a lump of rind from the parmesan, which is able to quietly add a delightful back-note of umami whereas it simmers. Serves 6
onions 2, medium
goose fats or olive oil 3 tbsp
carrot 1, roughly chopped
celery 1 rib, chopped
bacon 150g
hen, turkey or goose inventory 2 litres
thyme 6 springs
bay leaves 3
rosemary 3 sprigs
bones (equivalent to turkey leg or carcass) 1 or 2
peppercorns 8
parmesan rind (optionally available) a 5-10cm piece
butter beans 2 x 400g tins
Pesto, to complete:
garlic 2 cloves, peeled
basil leaves 50g
pine nuts 45g
olive oil 150ml
parmesan 30g, grated
Peel and chop the onions. Warm the goose fats in a casserole over a average warmth, add the onions, chopped carrot and celery and cook dinner till mushy and pale gold. Cut the bacon into small items, cooking it till the fats is gold, then pour within the inventory and add the thyme, bay and rosemary. Submerge the bones, add any meat juices or jelly, the peppercorns and a chunk of parmesan rind when you have it, then deliver to the boil. Lower the warmth to light simmer for 45-60 minutes.
Crush the garlic to a paste with a pinch of sea salt then mash within the basil leaves, pine nuts and olive oil, then the parmesan.
Add the beans to the soup and proceed cooking for an extra 10 minutes. At this level you’ll be able to skim off the fats if you want, however I don’t – as a substitute, relishing the silkiness it lends to the soup. Ladle into bowls and stir within the basil sauce.
Panettone custard
I like this bread and butter pudding when it’s barely set, so that you get spoonfuls of just-set pudding and slightly trickle of custard, for which I recommend a baking time of 35-40 minutes. If you like your pudding overrated – extra of a wobble than a quiver – then I recommend 40-45. Serves 6
For the custard:
eggs 4
full-fat milk 125ml
double cream 500ml
caster sugar 50g
panettone 300g
golden sultanas 50g
candied peel (optionally available) 3 tbsp
pistachios 2 tbsp, shelled
orange zest of 1
You may also want a 2 litre baking dish.
Set the oven at 160C/fuel mark 3. Break the eggs right into a bowl and beat till blended. Add the milk, cream and caster sugar; beat all the pieces calmly along with a whisk. Tear or slice the panettone into giant items and place within the baking dish.
Scatter the sultanas and peel among the many panettone. Finely chop the pistachios and sprinkle excessive. Pour the custard into the dish, soaking all the panettone. Grate the zest of the orange over the floor, then bake for 35-45 minutes till calmly set. To verify the pudding is prepared, shake the dish – the custard ought to quiver within the center. Take it from the oven and depart to settle for quarter-hour earlier than serving.
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