Leftover Panettone Bread and Butter Pudding

[glinda]

I came across this recipe last week when I was looking for recipes for using up leftovers, the BBC food website has a whole exciting section on using up Xmas leftovers, that I'm unlikely to use, but are fun to browse and make me hungry. I'd inexplicably ended up with three different types of cream alongside more cheese than was perhaps reasonable, so I was looking for a nicely decadent vegetable bake, which I don't think I actually found in the end. I came across Leftover Panettone Bread and Butter Pudding and bookmarked it as I did in fact have a panettone that was bigger than it needed to be. (It was on special offer, I can't resist a bargain.)

As I had the oven on anyway this evening, I decided today was the day to make this recipe before both cream and panettone had expired/gone stale on me. It was refreshingly quick and straight forward to make, which is not often the case with baked puddings. I made a few tweaks to the recipe, as I did not have a full panettone left, I scaled down the cream, sugar and eggs - ie I didn't bother with the extra egg yolk. Also because it was a chocolate chip panettone I didn't use fruit preserve, I just buttered the slices, however about half-way through the pour overs, I liberally sprinkled the whole thing with nutmeg. My scaled down version is probably enough to serve four rather than six, as long as I can resist going back for seconds...

Mod note:

[conuly]

I've been adding tags to entries, but it's more efficient if you can do it. If anybody has suggestions for tags, please leave them in the comments here.

Additionally, if anybody would like to create a community icon, I'd be thrilled to have it.

Slow cooker leg of lamb

[conuly]

( Recipe )

I completely forgot to do anything with a lemon. After I seared the lamb I browned some onions in the same skillet, put them on the potatoes (and then put the lamb on top), and deglazed the skillet with the stock.

The recipe suggests several other herbs you could use, and on the general idea of "yay, more" I added sage, thyme, and oregano to the mix. I also increased the garlic somewhat.

This is a very solid meal. I'm glad I upped the herbs, though! My mother was the only one with leftovers, which I gave to the dogs. The dogs didn't complain!

General Question

[mama_kestrel]

I have a lot of vintage recipes that I've marked but haven't actually tried. Like the Tomato Soup Cake, they make different assumptions about existing knowledge, or for that matter about cooking equipment. Reading a 1910 cookbook, for example, you can tell that ovens didn't have thermostats yet.

Would people be interested in my exploring those recipes in particular?

Celery+Cucumber Salad

[ioplokon]

So, I've been cooking out of Joshua McFadden's Six Seasons cookbook for a couple of years. However, I fell into a bit of a comfort zone where I would just revisit my favorite recipes over and over, without branching out into anything new. One of the best things about this cookbook was that his braised celery finally gave me a way to prepare celery that I actually liked. I used this challenge to push me to try one of the other recipes, a cucumber and celery salad. I was a bit nervous about it, since after all, it's raw celery, but it turned out great!

Note: we're in a pandemic & also I just generally cook with a lot of substitutions, so I'll mention my alterations as well as the original recipe. Anyway, in my opinion a lot of these recipes are more about the cooking techniques & preparations than the finished product, so I don't feel like adapting them is overly risky (& heck, I'm a vegetarian so for like 60% of the recipes in here I'm substituting out the meat)

1 large cucumber - peel the skin if it is hard/waxy, cut on a sharp angle into thin slices. Put in a strainer and salt to make a quick salt pickle (20 mins)

2-3 stalks celery - trim & reserve leaves if you're able to. Cut horizontally to divide into halves or thirds, depending on length. Then cut on an angle into long, thin, stick-like slices. Place in a bowl of ice water (10 mins)

1 clove garlic - smash and peel. Place in a bowl with dried apricots (I used raisins) Cover with red wine vinegar & let sit (10 mins)

1/2 cup toasted pistachios, chopped (I used walnuts - also just adjust the measurement to taste)

Chopped celery leaves, parsley, mint, and basil (~1/2 cup each, loosely packed - adjust based on the eye test) + red pepper flakes. (I used celery leaves and cilantro + red pepper flakes)

Drain celery and pat dry, then add it to your serving bowl. Pat the salted cucumbers dry & add them to the celery. Remove the garlic from the red wine vinegar + dried fruit, then add this mix to the cucumbers and celery. Add toasted nuts, herbs, and drizzle olive oil on top. Add salt and red pepper flakes to taste. Serve.

The result is a really nice, simple salad. Because the celery is cut so thin and because you cut diagonally across the ribs, the texture is not stringy and the flavor is not overwhelming. The simple cucumber pickles are also surprisingly flavorful. I think it would be nice with some fresh apple on top or maybe persimmons, too - especially if you end up making an herb-lite version like I did.

tortilla pie

[zhelana]

I tried my first stashed recipe today. It was tortilla pie. It involved browning some meat and mixing in rotel tomatoes and various spices and chili powder. Then mixing ricotta cheese and mozzarella. then layering these things with four tortillas, two layers of meat, and a layer of cheese. I thought it was alright but needed more chili powder than I used. My husband didn't like it because he is apparently opposed to rotel tomatoes. However, when I put it into my calorie tracker on SparkPeople, it was over 1,200 calories for one pie, which was about what I ate. I won't be doing this one again. :(