Leftovers Nigel Slater's Simple Suppers

Heaven is opening the fridge

and finding the remains of Sunday's chicken.

In my book, leftovers should be a joy, not a chore.

With all this chicken, I'm going to make a salad for Monday night.

But not just one of those salads

that's a bit of leftover meat and leaves. Something interesting.

I want it to have some substance to it.

I could use rice or lentils or cracked wheat,

but I'm actually going to use couscous.

So my Monday night supper

is a warm chicken salad with couscous.

As my main ingredient is the leftover chicken,

it's really going to need some help to make it into a tasty dish.

Now, these are leftovers,

and it's very important that they don't taste like leftovers.

I want something very vibrant and very bright

to really shake them up.

So I'm going to make a dressing for this salad with citrus juice.

Squeeze into a new bowl the juice of a lemon and two oranges.

Add some oil and season with salt and pepper.

I'm going to pour the dressing onto the couscous

and just let that soak it up.

To compliment the tangy dressing, add some good-sized chunks of orange.

When you use leftovers,

the whole generosity thing is important,

or it looks mean and you're aware

it's something you found in the fridge.

I want them to be big, juicy pieces when I'm eating my salad.

I always grow fresh herbs.

Really easy to do and it makes such a difference.

Chives and basil are ideal for this dish.

If you like lots of basil or lots of coriander, then put lots in.

It's your supper and it's up to you.

Put everything into the same bowl and mix gently.

It's that easy.

But don't over mix.

It's all about a lightness of touch.

I'm quite happy with that, but I just feel it needs

something very lush and green and fresh-tasting,

and I've got some pea shoots outside.

You can grow all sorts of fresh ingredients in pots

that can make a real difference.

Sprouted seeds are one of my favourites.

There's always been pea shoots for as long as there's been peas,

but nobody seems to have thought to eat them.

They're so easy to grow.

You just pop the dried peas in a bit of soil,

water them, then a few weeks later,

you've got wonderful little shoots.

When you use a pea shoot,

it's just as if you've potted a pea

and you're eating that lovely, fresh garden pea.

It's a wonderful flavour.

And I could just mix them all up with the salad,

but I think it's nicer

to have them as a bed for the chicken and the couscous

so you find them at the bottom.

It's just about adding something really green and fresh and vibrant...

..to the chicken you found in the fridge.

What really makes this salad work

are the fresh elements I've added,

making the leftover chicken really sing.

I've used the chicken meat,

so why not now make a stock from what's left?

Bung it into a pot, add any veg, some water,

then just simmer to make a delicious stock.

And if you freeze the stock, it will last for a good while.

I really don't mind spending money on food.

I'm happy to pay for good food.

But I do like to use every little bit of it.

I hate the idea of wasting things.

There's always something in the fridge that needs using up.

I know there's some mashed potato in the fridge.

I could put anything in that.

I could make them into spicy cakes

with just a few onions and some spices.

I always seem to have leftover mash in the fridge,

so tonight I'm going to make bubble and squeak cakes.

I want some sort of savoury base for my mashed potato.

Simply add spring onions to a hot pan with a good wedge of butter.

Add a drop of olive oil to stop the butter from burning.

I want something spicy to offset the sweet butteriness of the onions.

Not hot, just something warm and aromatic.

First up, some cardamom.

Break out the black seeds and grind them finely.

I'm using a pestle and mortar.

You can use a plastic bag and rolling pin.

Then follow with some coriander seeds and some cumin.

I don't want these to be too fine.

I don't want them to be ground to a complete powder.

I want that nuttiness and that texture.

I love coming across a bit of coarsely-ground spice.

I'm just going to pop those in.

Cook everything together until the onion is a pale golden brown,

but before they start to burn and crisp up.

Mix in the mashed potato and make some little potato cakes.

I want them to get a little bit crisp on the outside.

So I put them back in the pan.

These are wonderful with bacon.

You can grill some bacon rashers or even one of those gammon steaks.

And just have these on the side.

Cook the cakes till crisp and brown on each side.

Literally a few minutes, that's all.

I could serve these as they are, but I fancy something extra.

I'd like just some sort of sauce with those.

It's got to go with the spices.

Sometimes you go to so much trouble to make a sauce.

And other times you want something that is just so simple.

I'm going to put freshly-chopped coriander and cream into a hot pan.

Pretty much all there is to it.

Some herbs, cream, salt, pepper.

It's almost a cheek to call it a sauce.

The warm, aromatic spices in these cakes

are what makes this dish so delicious.

Don't shortcut the spices.

'Leftovers aren't just about what you have left.

'The real art to making the most of them is planning ahead.

'Today, I'm going to cook enough rhubarb

'to make sure I have plenty for the week.'

If I come back from the allotment with a load of rhubarb,

then it's worth cooking it all at once.

It's very easy to think of rhubarb as something just to put in a crumble.

It's an incredibly versatile and useful thing to have around.

You don't do anything fancy with it.

It's just quite simply rhubarb, sugar and a little bit of water

so that you do get some juice.

I'm just going to put it into the oven

and leave it until it's soft enough to take the point of a knife.

Tonight, I'm cooking a rhubarb tart with mascarpone cream.

For the base of my tart, all I need is some sweet puff pastry.

And I love making pastry.

But I haven't got time for it always, and certainly not during the week,

so I use frozen pastry.

If you buy the good stuff, which has butter in it, it's fine.

In fact, they've even rolled it out for you.

But I actually roll it again, just so it's even a little bit thinner.

For each of your tarts, create a rectangle to sit your fruit in

by using a knife to score the pastry.

Then brush the juice from your roasted rhubarb around the edges

to give the pastry a shine.

Pop it in a hot oven. It's going to take about 20 minutes to cook.

Just enough time to create its perfect companion.

So I want something that's got a very creamy texture

to go with the crispness of the pastry and the quite sour fruit,

but I also want it to have a lovely vanilla flavour

like if you made your own custard.

So I'm going to make a sort of custard-flavoured cream.

To do that, drop two tablespoonfuls of sugar

and a couple of egg yolks in a mixing bowl.

Keep the whites for later.

To the eggs and sugar, I'm just going to add some mascarpone.

It's just that cool, vanilla-y, creamy smell.

And to provide a really deep flavour,

add a generous few drops of vanilla extract.

It smells like cheesecake.

It's that smell of sugar and cream and vanilla

that smells like somebody's baking a gorgeous cheesecake.

Then beat the egg whites from earlier until thick and fluffy

and fold them into the cream.

You can make plenty of this and keep it in the fridge for a few days.

Perfect for cake or these warm rhubarb tarts.

This really works for me because it's basically two ingredients.

It's pastry and rhubarb.

The key to this dish is its simplicity,

which makes it quick, easy and absolutely delicious.

My challenge tonight is to find a partner for my rhubarb.

At least once a week, I make myself a little treat.

And I really fancy some fish.

My favourite fish is probably the cheapest of them all - mackerel.

I love the colour - beautiful shimmering blues and silvers.

But when you cook it, it gets really smoky and the skin goes crisp.

And for me, it's the biggest treat of all.

The British Isles is abundant with mackerel,

making it a cheap fish,

and there's so much you can do with it.

You can grill it, you can bake it,

you can barbecue it, you can souse it, you can eat it raw.

There's so many ways to enjoy a mackerel.

Matthew Stevens has been selling freshly-caught fish in Cornwall

since the '60s.

This mackerel was caught in St Ives Bay today.

I mean, look at it. Look at the colours on it.

Look at the greens, blacks, blues, silvers.

I call them the tiger of the sea, cos that's exactly what they are.

For me, the best mackerel is line-caught,

because the fish aren't squashed into nets.

This technique is still a popular way of fishing off our coast.

With this one in particular, we've just gutted it.

It looks nice on a plate. Even barbecuing.

Fantastic time to barbecue mackerel.

Here's another process we do.

We take two fillets off a fish,

which is a very popular way of doing it these days.

Another way we do mackerel is butterfly them,

where we take the whole fish and more or less leave it whole,

and leave the tail on because it looks so nice on a plate like that.

For my dinner tonight, I'm cooking fried mackerel and roasted rhubarb.

I usually coat my mackerel with a little flour

and lightly fry it with some oil and rosemary.

But tonight, I want to try something a bit different.

I'm combining it with rhubarb.

It's not an obvious partner,

but the strong flavours work really well together.

And it's one of those ingredients like gooseberries or lemon

that is really sharp and it will just cut the richness of the fish.

And it does sound a bit strange, but it really works.

I'm going to put just a few capers in there,

only because I love them and the vinegariness of them.

I've got sharp flavours.

I feel I want something a little bit mellow.

I want something quite rich to go in this,

some sherry vinegar.

I'm just going to put the tiniest little drop in.

Just a little bit.

There we are.

I'm going to add some of this rhubarb juice.

Just so that I can dissolve the crusty bits that are on the pan,

all the little bits that have caught from the skin, and...

..where all that flavour is.

It's not a sauce, it's just the juices from the pan.

Sweet and savoury.

Absolutely delicious and a cheap midweek treat.

-Can I have a bunch of carrots?

-Yep.

When I do go shopping, there's a few items I always stock up on

so that I know I can open my pantry and have something to cook with.

Couscous, beans and risotto rice are a few of my favourites.

My fall-back thing is always risotto.

There's always rice in the larder

and there will be something that I can use to flavour it with.

My Friday night supper is a leek risotto.

It's a fabulous dish to use up leftovers with.

I'm using up the chicken stock I made at the beginning of the week.

Leek risotto has all the comfort qualities of a risotto,

but it's also got that freshness because of the green leeks.

The important thing with cooking leeks

is that you never let them brown.

So they need to be cooked very slowly, and with a leek risotto,

I start them off in a little bit of melted butter.

Scatter all the chopped leeks into the pot with some butter,

and for flavour, add some tarragon.

I reckon, because I don't measure rice when I make risotto,

it's a good spilling handful of rice per person,

and that's what I use.

Then I add white wine. Leeks and white wine go together beautifully.

They really do.

Gently stir your risotto as it simmers.

And then little by little, add your stock.

You really need to add the stock gradually.

A couple of ladlefuls at a time is really as far as you should go.

And as the rice absorbs the stock and gets plumper

and the liquid's starting to diminish in the pan,

then you can add some more.

At the end of the day, I can't think of many things I'd rather do

than just stand very quietly with a glass of wine in one hand

and a wooden spoon in the other, just gently stirring the risotto.

There's something very peaceful about it and very calming,

and it's like all the stuff of the day

just seems to fade into insignificance

because I'm just stirring my supper.

Then I start to make my little parmesan crisps,

and all they are are parmesan.

It's very finely grated,

put into a non-stick pan

and flattened slightly, so it looks like a biscuit.

And I just leave it over a low heat

and what happens is the parmesan melts and it forms a little crust.

Once it's crisp on the bottom,

you very carefully flip it over and cook the other side.

Risotto's so creamy and soothing and voluptuous.

It's just one of those really useful, really comforting meals

that's very cheap.

And somehow it seems to hit every spot.

It just ticks all the boxes that I need at the end of the day.

The trick with parmesan crisps is to cook them on a very low heat.

Don't rush them and they'll turn out just fine.

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