#32 Scraps

Very quickly I would like to say an enormous thank you for your support last week - I was terrified of putting out a paid subscription option for this little newsletter. I’m just so grateful to those of you who are cheerleading me on and helping towards making it possible for me to continue writing and sharing my recipes over here, it means the absolute world! LOVE to you all! XXX

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ABOUT THIS WEEK

It’s been a spoon in the peanut butter jar kinda week (tell me you know what I mean when I say this?)… if you’ve seen Bridget Jones, peanut butter has been to me what Branston Pickle© is to Bridge!

It’s just been an odd one and I won’t lie, I’ve not felt FULL of sparkle. I stumbled into Monday and immediately felt a bit lethargic and for some reason, out of control, which sounds incredibly ungrateful given the love and support you all gave me last weekend.

What’s worse is that there seems to be so much hope and promise all around me - the whiff of Spring (cue the obligatory blossom photo - below - that is guaranteed to make you smile), the brighter days, I’ve received so many lovely messages from you guys, eaten yummy food, had some great coffee, sat in Waterstones staring at all of the cookery books I want to buy (think Matilda in the library - THAT’S ME), caught up with a friend and every day I fall in love with Olive a little bit more… but I’ve just felt a bit… off.

As I’ve mentioned countless times before, when I’m viewing life through a murky lens, everything feels a bit overwhelming - including writing THIS. This week, a lot of my discomfort centred around providing enough, valuable, engaging, and useful content for you over here. Despite having a head full of ideas and things I wanted to share with you over the forthcoming weeks, I didn’t know how to harness or make sense of them. Another crisis of confidence hit and there were tears - the puffy eye look was trending.

By Wednesday afternoon, I was getting really anxious that having just asked for more of your support, I was already failing; I had nothing to report other than the fact that I felt a bit rubbish and I didn't have much in the way of exciting news or recipes to share with you.

Having spent the best part of three days feeling a bit sorry for myself and simply trawling my way through leftovers - if you follow my Insta stories, you’d have noticed that, amongst other bits and bobs, my Croissant content really peaked early in the week - it suddenly dawned on me, whilst sampling a special little almond, cherry cake - made from leftover almond cream used during my almond croissant experiments - that actually my week had been filled with some epic foodie discoveries that really celebrated leftovers… literally I had multiple ‘Scraps’ of comfort to share.
Half pots of ingredients, odds and ends of fruit and veg, or Tupperware’s stashed with bits of cake batter/custards, lurking in the fridge all FILL me with anxiety. Reimagining (hate this word but it seems pertinent) these leftovers, and creating something new from them, is not only often a level up on the original, but also is particularly gratifying exercise, not to mention it can be a great money saver!

So, this week centres around a kind of ‘make do… and mend’ attitude to life and the concept of using up leftovers. I realise the ingredients I have used this week are kinda niche, but the premise still stands, that using up what was potentially destined for the bin is a magical exercise… and one that I THOROUGHLY recommend!

Honouring Leftovers

Almond Croissants

Last week, I mentioned to you that I had embarked on a lengthy but very rewarding, homemade croissant mission (as you can imagine it was a heavenly few days). Despite being quite satisfied with the results, there is definitely room for improvement and, predictably, I had countless questions; did I laminate the dough correctly? - was I too firm with my rolling, did the butter get too warm (or cold) and why did my croissants feel a bit… heavy once baked? - I enjoy that ethereal lightness that I get from ones I buy from a bakery or dare I say it, supermarket - is that purely down to the fact that I made mine too big, was it a shaping error or was it to do with my handling of the dough in the first place - all things I need to discover!!!

Anyway, on Monday, it was time for a croissant level up - I’m talking almond croissants - or croissant aux amandes if you're in France. Originally, almond croissants were devised by bakeries as a way to give leftover croissants a new lease of life and offer them for sale again the next day. They are simply croissants filled with crème d’amandes (almond cream/Frangipane*), sprinkled with sliced almonds, and baked again until the cream has set and the ‘elbows’ (or ends in this case) of the croissant have crisped up. What a marvellous concept?

*I’m not sure if this is of interest to anyone but I recently learned (from my Pastry encyclopaedia) that whilst Almond cream and Frangipane are often used interchangeably in recipes, they are in fact different things. Almond cream refers to the standard mix of butter, sugar, eggs, ground almonds, and sometimes flour, whilst frangipane is comprised of almond cream mixed with pastry cream.

Now I’m well aware that making croissants isn’t something that we all have time for in our busy lives - they are a real labour of love and to be honest, the thought of making them terrifies me a bit - but Almond croissants - well that’s another story. You can make these with croissants from your local cafe/bakery or even a supermarket (I’ve done a little research on this and echoed by a Guardian article I read, Waitrose NO.1 croissants are pretty damn good!). It’s advisable that your croissants are a day old or closer to their use by if from a supermarket! Let me know if you try them!

Ingredients

4 stale croissants - mine were a day/2 days old - if shop bought, just edge a bit closer towards their use by date

Sugar syrup

30g Caster sugar
100ml Water
15ml Amaretto or Rum

Almond cream filling

50g Soft butter
50g Caster sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract - I like mine almond-y, you can pare this back to 1/4 tsp if you like a more subtle flavour.
1 Large egg (50g of egg - weight once out of shell)
60g Ground almonds
10g (approx 1 tbsp) plain flour (sifted)

To finish

20g Flaked almonds
Icing sugar

Method

First prepare the syrup, combine the sugar and water in a saucepan, place over a medium heat, once the sugar has dissolved, bring to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer to a small bowl, add the Amaretto/Rum and set aside to cool.

For the almond cream, combine the butter, almond extract and sugar in a bowl, using an electric hand whisk or a stand mixer, beat until fluffy and paler in colour - a couple of minutes - add the egg incrementally beating well between each addition, next on a low speed beat in the ground almonds until combined, finally fold through the sifted flour until just combined - cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

When ready to make your almond croissants, preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan. Use a bread knife to cut the croissants open leaving a hinge on one side so they are not completely split. Brush the insides of each croissant generously with the syrup - I used about 1 tbsp per croissant. Next spread around 35g of almond cream inside each croissant, secure the top and spread 15g of almond cream across the top of each croissant. Place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper, sprinkle the top of each croissant with 5g of flaked almonds, then bake in the oven for around 15-17 minutes or until golden. Once cooled, dust liberally with icing sugar.

Mini Almond & cherry Cupcakes

Ok so… my first attempt at almond croissants was good, but I wasn’t happy with my almond cream consistency, so obviously I went in for a second go… however, by this point, I had just one sad croissant remaining. I made a full batch of almond cream, filled said croissant, baked it and was delighted with the outcome. However, I was now left with remaining almond cream… (ironic given that the aim had been to use up leftovers, not generate more!) In the spirit of not wasting things, I baked off the remaining almond cream as cupcakes, filled them with a jewel of a cherry in the centre and smeared them with icing once cooled. Honestly, I just love happy accidents like this - they were really quite marvellous.

Ingredients

FULL Almond cream mixture from above
4 Frozen cherries

Icing

50g Icing sugar
1/2 tbsp water
1/4 tsp Almond extract

To finish

Toasted flaked almonds to sprinkle

Method

The full batch of almond cream batter from above yields four cupcakes, if you have half of the almond cream leftover from above, you would have just 2 cupcakes worth to bake here and amend the icing/almonds accordingly - make sense?

Portion 50g of almond cream batter into each cupcake cases, pop one Frozen cherry in the centre of each ‘cake’ (you could use raspberries or blueberries) and bake at 180C/160C fan for around 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the icing, combine the icing sugar and almond extract, add the water gradually - remember you can add more but can’t take a way - and mix to a THICK paste. Dollop on top of your cakes and smooth with the back of a spoon. Sprinkle over toasted flaked almonds - (I was too impatient to toast mine, but I highly recommend that you DO) and tuck in! These little cakes keep fabulously in an airtight container.

Spinach and Ricotta parcels with Tommy sauce

OK, so this is a RIGHT tale of using up multiple BITS so bear with me.

Firstly, I really don’t rate myself as a cheffy whizz kid, and, echoing my point last week, I feel (even more of) a fraud when I tip-toe from baking into the ‘cooking’ World, but this meal both used up leftovers which always feels productive AND IMO tasted pretty damn good, so I’m sharing it and hiding behind my hands if you hate it - you can also pick and choose elements of this dish and use them as you wish.

Firstly, let’s start with the pasta - I first made my own egg pasta during lockdown thanks to the tutorship of an old school friend and cheffing Maestro Ellie - incidentally, she’s now part of the MOB gang; she showcases some of her amazing recipes over on their socials - go check her out!). Having made it once, I became totally obsessed and subsequently made pasta daily for about a week, I was basically an Italian Nonna (or so I thought) - thankfully the lockdown flour siege didn’t include 00 flour in my Waitrose store, so I was able to feed my newfound obsession.

To this day, I still find it to be one of the most mindful little kitchen projects. There’s something incredibly cathartic about kneading the dough, rolling it out and shaping it… I then MARVEL (still) when it comes to cooking it, adding some sauce, and ultimately slurping it up - for a VERY brief moment I’m Julia Roberts in Eat Pray Love, eating Spaghetti in Rome, and I’m like I MADE THIS AND I’M VERY HAPPY! If there’s one thing you do this week, grab an egg and some flour, combine it, knead it a bit, rest it for 20 mins (you can rest too), roll it thin, cut shapes, cook for 4-5 mins, dunk it into some sauce - shop bought pesto or tomato sauce would be ace - cover it in grated parmesan and thank me later, I swear it will be better than any hour of therapy!

Below I suggest you use 00 flour, it’s not strictly necessary but it’s a finer grain of Italian flour that, having experimented, I find does yield a better result than plain flour. Sorry to be a pain, but if you can get 00, you’ll be rewarded, I promise. Like shortbread, egg pasta seems to have a standard recipe which people then adapt to suit their preferences, so it’s generally 100g flour to 1 large egg (you can scale it up accordingly), adaptations come with using just yolks or a combination of yolks and whole egg, the addition of oil and alternative flours or flavourings. I generally like to keep things simple because it’s pretty great as it is. A pasta roller is a huge aid but it’s not essential, a rolling pin more than suffices, and you can buy fancy pasta cutters that give you crinkled edges, but a knife or some round cookie cutters do the trick. Simples!

Next, in this case, was a filling for my pasta parcels, which was the basis of the dish in the first place - I had leftover ricotta that needed using. I have to admit I’m a creature of habit when it comes to certain dishes, in particular filled pasta - I favour veggies and for me, spinach and ricotta is the OG - tucking into a bowl of S&R pasta brings all the feelings of foodie nostalgia that serve to amplify the cosy and comforting vibe it gives off! I’ve recently adapted my ratio of spinach to ricotta following the guidance of Genaro Contaldo (superhero Italian Chef), making it much more spinach-y which I find yields a fabulous balance between the sweet ricotta and earthy spinach, but you can taste the filling as you go and use a bit more ricotta than I suggest if you would like it a bit more creamy. I also HIGHLY recommend using frozen spinach just drain it VERY VERY WELL (you’ve been warned) - it’s superior in flavour and cheaper so it’s a no brainer as far as I’m concerned.

Finally, there’s the sauce - again I had an annoying half tin of tomatoes lurking in the fridge, and I love a tomato sauce with pasta, (think spinach and ricotta cannelloni). I cooked down the tomatoes for 20 mins with a shallot, garlic, some tomato puree, and a healthy glug of oil, it was a bit of magic.

Before I get started with my rendition - I would like to take this opportunity to shout about people I follow who are actual WIZARDS with pasta, I hope you enjoy my cowboy effort here, but if you want something a bit more refined and indulgent, check out: Rosie, Thomas (currently doing a series of pasta dishes on his Insta and YouTube), Jordon , the Pasta Grannies and Mateo… there are so many more people I haven’t mentioned here but these are a few of my faves.

OK… lets get cracking with my rendition…

**Please excuse my chronic photography and plating skills above - I can’t bear hot food going cold so I’m useless at photo-ing my meals!!

Ingredients

Serves 2

Homemade pasta

100g 00 flour
1 Large egg (60g out of shell)
Semolina for dusting

Spinach and Ricotta filling

210g Frozen spinach (defrosted and drained of liquid - make sure you yield approx 75g once thoroughly drained)
75g Ricotta
15g Grated parmesan
1/4 tsp flaky salt
Freshly grated nutmeg - to taste - approx 1/4 of a nutmeg globe
Black pepper
Pinch of Lemon zest

Tomato sauce

2 tsp Olive oil
1 small shallot finely chopped
1 garlic clove grated
1 tsp Tomato puree
1/2 tin Crushed tomatoes (I like Mutti)

Reserved Pasta water

Grated parmesan to serve

Method

For the pasta, measure the flour into a mixing bowl or in a heap on a clean work surface, make a well in the centre and crack the egg into it. Using a fork, gradually mix the flour and eggs together, then knead for 5 minutes with your hands to make a smooth dough - you can also do this in a food processor, add the flour to a processor and with the mixer running, add the egg, mix until a dough forms, dump out onto a surface and give it a quick knead until smooth. Shape into a ball, cover with a clean, damp tea towel and leave to rest for about 30 minutes, once rested either use immediately or wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate until required.

While the pasta dough rests, prepare the filling. Finely chop the defrosted drained spinach and combine it with the ricotta, grated Parmesan, nutmeg, lemon and a little salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

For the tomato sauce, add the oil to a pan and place over a medium heat, add the chopped shallot and cook for 10 minutes or until translucent. Add the grated garlic and cook for a further 30 seconds, then add the puree and cook for another 30 seconds before adding the tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes or until reduced and rich. I like to let it sit for a few hours - because somehow it gains flavour, but this isn’t strictly necessary.

When ready to prepare the pasta parcels, roll out the pasta dough on a lightly floured surface until it is wafer-thin - if you have a pasta roller I go to level 5 on my kitchen aid attachment. Cut out 8cm round circles of dough using a round pastry cutter (about 16 rounds), rerolling the offcuts as you go. If you don’t have a pastry cutter, you can just cut squares of a similar size. Place balls of the spinach/ricotta mixture - approx. 8g in weight - in the centre of each round. Then fold over to make a half-moon shape, press firmly to seal, a teeny dab of water can help - to create more of a tortellini shape (totally unnecessary), you can pinch the two bottom sides of the moon shape together. Make sure you heavily flour, or better still, Semolina the surface your pasta parcels sit on prior to cooking - if I prepare them in advance, I literally DOUSE a plate in semolina and toss them in some semolina too to stop them sticking to each other or the plate!)

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, then add the parcels and cook for about 5 minutes until cooked through (reserve a cup of starchy pasta water for the sauce).

Meanwhile, reheat the sauce until simmering. Once the pasta is cooked, use a slotted spoon to remove the parcels from the boiling water, add to the tomato sauce along with a splash or two of the pasta water to loosen a touch, gently mix together until the pasta is covered and saucy! Remove from the heat and serve with heaps of grated Parmesan. Enjoy!

NOTES

• I always always always re-roll ALL of my pasta dough - I literally had about 30g of leftover pasta dough that I re-rolled and made into tagliatelle - I cooked it as an appetiser before my meal and ate it drizzled in olive oil and sprinkled with parmesan - basic but OH SO GOOD!

  

• Another sauce option is something like a sage butter - also v.v.good… while the pasta cooks, melt 50g of butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat, then add around 5 sage leaves and a dash of the hot pasta cooking water. Cook until the butter has melted and the water has largely evaporated - you create an emulsion here which yields a glossy rich sauce. Add the cooked pasta parcels to your sauce, stir to coat and serve.

Other bits… Sorry if you’re already asleep!!

• Tuesday afternoon I felt particularly pants… about myself and in myself! I’m not quite sure where the motivation came from but I hauled myself upstairs at 2 in the afternoon, washed my hair and changed my bed - two mammoth operations, I’m sure we can all agree - and I briefly felt like a changed woman - so… note to self (and you) if you’re feeling rubbish, wash your hair and change your bed sheets, it may help a touch!

• I’m delighted that we have been blessed with lighter evenings and generally brighter days, and it’s officially Spring now right? However, I have two MINOR issues with this time of year… one is that we lose a WHOLE hour today and frankly that feels unacceptable - JET LAG!!! And two, as the evenings are now considerably brighter, it no longer feels quite as acceptable to change into my pyjamas at 5:30 in the evening… which is v.sad!

• Onions (I can’t write or say Onions without thinking of Shrek - Onions have LAYYY-ERRRS) - I’ve seen some chat (aka scientific studies) that suggest that Onions could be beneficial for bone health… and given my compromised little bones, I’m lobbing them into as many meals as possible - don’t worry, I haven’t tried to make a cake that features onions (YET)… nor are they in my porridge!

• I get bored SO easily - I took Olive for a groom on Wednesday and popped for a coffee while she was being pampered, (on that note - if you are in the Chester area and looking for a groomer - Alex, aka Pooches and Cream - is UNBELIEVABLE, a real lovely woman, dog lover and all round boss!), I sat in this cafe, coffee in front of me and I was like - what do I do with myself, I had no signal on my phone so I couldn’t entertain myself with that, I rarely sit still at home without something to read or entertain my fingers - and I didn’t have a book… or a mixing bowl and oven to knock up a cake, so it was just me and my thoughts. I found myself getting very invested in the one other person in the cafe, building an imaginary picture of what his life must be like - an older gentleman, hydrating with a coffee and tucking into a teacake - with butter no jam - he was listening to something on his phone; work or sport was my guess and I guessed this late afternoon jaunt was a change of scenery from home where he had likely been for the rest of the day. At the point where I thought my interest was verging on over-staring/stalking, I literally necked my slightly too warm coffee, paid, and departed, I swear I was in there about 5 minutes - so much for a relaxing drink, what am I like?

Right, I swear I could waffle on all day here - but my neck is getting stiff and I’m quite sure you are all bored.. or running to the nearest baker for a croissant that you can almond-ify!

I hope you are all doing ok, if you too have had a bit of a wobbly week, don’t despair, let’s hope for a better week to come, and I’m sending you a big old hug!

Loads of love,

Steph x

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