It’s hard to be the perfect host when you and your carefully planned dinner for six are thrown into a tizzy by the phone call early in the evening which asks if it is “alright to bring along a couple of dear friends who have just arrived from....” Well, it doesn’t really matter where they have arrived from, does it? And you probably have not heard anyway, because you are in a flat spin.
The parable of the loaves and fishes was perhaps a little economical with the actualité because the six roast quails you were planning for the main course will surely not stretch to eight. And what about the dentiċi fillets you had so neatly portioned to sear and serve on a lemon and courgette tagliatelle? And the six individual panna cotta?
Today, I pass on some ideas for dealing with such an eventuality, with suggestions for ingredients for the store cupboard and freezer and how to use them to extend a meal in such a way that no one will ever know that you had to change your menu at the last minute.
What about the six quails? Instead of roasting them, remove the breasts and as much leg meat as possible. Make stock with the carcasses. While that is simmering, mince the leg meat and mix it with well-seasoned sausage meat or crumbled black pudding. Add a few chopped, stoned prunes or diced apple, some sage, some finely chopped onion or shallot. If you have some mushrooms, so much the better. Slice and fry them lightly in a little butter. Chop them and add to the minced meat. Sear the quail breasts for a minute or two on each side in a hot pan and cut each breast in four lengthwise, giving you 24 strips.
Roll out a block of puff pastry and cut out 16 circles. On one round, spread a portion of the minced meat, leaving a one centi-metre border, which you brush with milk. Place three pieces of quail on top, place another pastry round over it and seal the edges. Brush with egg yolk beaten with milk for a lovely golden finish, pierce each pie once with a fork and place on a greased floured baking sheet. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 180 °C. Transfer to heated dinner plates and serve with the stock reduced to a flavoursome gravy with a splash of wine or Madeira. Voilà les tourtes aux cailles, messieurs’dames.
The six panna cotta can be spooned into a bowl and whizzed with a stick blender until smooth. Spoon the cream over sweet chestnut purée and top with chocolate shavings. You could call on fruit emergency rations and serve it with a layer of crushed amaretti between cream and fruit, and a splash of fruit or almond liqueur.
No emergency rations? Fold in grated lemon zest, add a dash of sweet white wine when whizzing, spoon into very elegant glasses, with a generous grating of nutmeg on top.
Generally, one can adapt recipes to the ingredients that one has to hand. Forgot to buy extra onions? Use the white of leeks, spring onion or shallots. No apples for the stuffing? Use firm pears tossed in lemon juice. It won’t taste the same, but you might even like it better than the original recipe.
With a little ingenuity and a trawl through refrigerator and store cupboard, you can come up with a variety of stylish and inexpensive dishes that retain a seasonal touch.
The following recipes will even add to the repertoire of keen cooks who already have their holiday cooking well-planned.
Freezer food
• Several types of pastry, such as filo, puff, shortcrust, both sweet and savoury, are invaluable for pies and pasties, which, with a few mushrooms, will allow you to stretch the boeuf à la bourguignonne to a rich beef and mushroom pie.
Defrosted prawns served with a Marie Rose sauce together with some sliced avocado and salad leaves will provide you with a speedy deconstructed version of the 1970s classic, avocado and prawns.
A plentiful supply of stock will enable you to whip up elegant soups in the time it takes to cook some vegetables; think squash and ginger soup, potato and lovage soup, marrow and Gorgonzola soup.
Food from the fridge
• Here you need all the obvious ingredients such as cream, plain yoghurt, Parma ham, salami of various types, pancetta (both diced and sliced is useful), chorizo, black pudding, plenty of eggs, Parmesan, ricotta, mascarpone, smoked salmon and jars of salmon or trout roe.
Two or three large pieces of cheese or whole cheeses are better and less wasteful than lots of smaller pieces. If the cheese is vacuum-packed, remove it from the wrapping, wrap then in baking parchment and finally in damp paper towels before placing in a box in the fridge or sealed plastic bag.
Food from the store cupboard
• Canned pulses, especially chick peas and white beans are invaluable for soups, for vegetarian dishes and also to stretch casseroles. Long-life milk, condensed and evaporated milk, will be useful for ices, rice puddings and simply emergency supplies for the coffee and, for goodness’ sake, plan not to run out of coffee.
Also think of rose water, dried fruit, dried mushrooms, capers, caper berries, sweetened chestnut purée (to make Mont Blanc with whipped cream and meringues), digestive biscuits (to make the base for cheesecakes), as well as mince meat, marzipan, nuts, ground almonds, dried chestnuts and pasta.
Fresh produce
• Lemons, limes, indeed all the citrus, mushrooms, good potatoes, pumpkin, tart apples and cranberries are seasonal essentials. Rocket keeps well when wrapped in damp kitchen towels and kept in a sealed box or plastic bag in the fridge.
Fresh spinach takes up a lot of space, so I cook it down, drain it well and freeze in useful portion sizes. Root vegetables should be kept in a cool, dry place.