Leftover week 10

 Cassoulet Ecosse (Valentine's dinner)....or posh sausage n'beans with a bit of lamb n' haggis!

The freezer is fit to bursting with leftover this and that so this week, the shopping has been severely cut and the leftovers shall be left over no more; we shall eat what is there and come up with some weird and wonderful ways to use up the bits and bobs of fresh food tying up the 'fridgerator shelves.

Saturday's Lemon Drizzle Cheering Up Cake for Susan

We shall purchase a chicken, some fresh vegetables and the basics of eggs, butter, milk and bread.   But that is all.   By the week end, the cupboards should be bare.   The following is a mix of dinners, lunches, breakfasts and snacks and may vary:-

Roast chicken with fresh veg and mashed/roast potatoes

Chicken and rice soup

Pasta with roasted tomatoes, pesto and Parmesan

Spaghetti with garlic, broccolli and chilli

Spicy chicken noodle soup

Tuna mayo salad with baked potato

Camembert cheese and pesto tart with pine nuts

Cassoulet with potato slices

Chicken and chorizo stew

Veg curry and naan

Carrot and lentil soup

Cannellini bean soup

Chicken with gravy and rice

Thai Stir fry

Pancakes

Lemon cake

Cupcakes

Last week's one dish roast chicken dinner!

 

I have a dinner on Friday night with my friends and am looking forward to sharing one recipe with you in particular; butternut squash soup with griddled scallops and girolles.   This has got to be one of the best dishes I've tasted in a long time.  

Butternut Squash soup with girolles, griddled scallops and Parmesan;

the most divine dish on the planet....this week!

I had a trial run with it on our Valentine's meal and it was sooooo delicious.   I had the remainder of the soup without the scallops the next day and it was still divine.   I couldn't recommend a dish more but there is a story behind the scallops.....

Lovely, hand dived scallops were on my shopping list and although they cost a lot of money, I was only buying three (you half each scallop for this dish).   Scallops are indeed expensive but even the best should not cost any more than £1.60 per shell.   Since I'd heard there was a new fish shop in our local area, I headed there first, happy in the knowledge that I'd probably be getting some first rate scallops.   

The scallops on show didn't look particularly wonderful but were fresh enough.  They were, however sitting in water rather than ice; scallops soak up water and since you get charged per weight, it's a fishmonger's trick and of course, when it's time to fry your scallops, you have the water oozing out, toughening up the skin.   I decided to try them anyway, having run out of time.   Since they were rather small, I asked for four; the lovely chap behind the counter bagged them up for me and mumbled an incoherent amount as I handed over a £10 note, distracted by the other items on view.   As he asked me if I wanted a bag, the cost had made impact with my brain and I found myself asking him to repeat how much; £6.76 came the reply.   

£1.69 per wee, water soaked, scrappy scallop?!   I don't think so.   Of course, having been brought up to behave in a way that Miss Manners herself would approve of, I kept all of that to myself and said instead "no thank you, that is way too expensive, could I have my money back please?".   Oddly enough, he didn't look that surprised.

Off to Marks and Sparks to find a packet of cloned, identical offspring for the price of a small mortgage payment so headed off to Tesco instead; their offering was frozen and at £6 for five toti wee scraps, I reluctantly decided against it, at least until Friday, when I could get to the proper fishmongers in Glasgow.   As we were passing Asda however, I popped in as their scallops are usually pretty good; they looked about the same quality as the local fishmongers however the cost was vastly different; £1.20 for four!   Yup.

"Run that past me again...." came my reply.   He smiled: "they're half price just now"...but wait, that would still have only been £2.20 for four.   "Ok, give me eight".   They were delicious.   Looking forward to some hand dived, plump, super fresh ones in their shell from the fishmongers in Glasgow for Friday though.

 Mmmm, we LOVE these breakfast cupcakes, 

sprinkled with sugar before going in the oven to give a crispy, crunchy topping.

It continues to be the coldest winter but the sun has shone that past few days, casting a lovely light over the land.   I've never been even mildly tempted by a holiday in the sun but this year...oh, this year my friends, our holiday must be filled with warmth, sunshine and swimming pools.   I'm hoping upon hope that the cold winter means a warm and pleasant summer and the deckchair can be cobwebbed off and dragged out into the garden, kicking and screaming. 

 This bizarre looking concoction was actually really tasty and was a trial run for Friday's dinner; 

Chicken Pesto Roulade on a bed of mashed potato topped with crispy courgettes and leeks, roasted basil leaves and a white wine mustard sauce.

I promise, the flourless orange cake is to come, the original recipe was torn out of a magazine and I need to find it.   The chicken goujons too!

Thank you so much to those wonderful bloggy friends who have given me awards recently; I'll be posting them up this week.