Here is an example of how you can use pears which are no longer attractive as they are…pear pie. Always a success in the family.

Ingredients:

2 large pears (maybe 3 depending on the size of the pears)

150 g cold butter

240 g flour

125 g sugar (I used cane sugar, but you can use ordinary white sugar)

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 egg

Topping – a bit of cold water and sprinkle with sugar.

Method:

There is no need to peel the pears. Up to you! Generally, I am quite lazy, – I keep the peel. And the pears I use, are always a bit over ripe and soft. I only make pear pie, when I have pears that have not been eaten while they are still crunchy.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celcius.

Dice the butter and crumble it together with the flour. Add the sugar, vanilla and ginger and mix it by hand. Add the egg and vanilla essence and mix by hand until combined. Cover and cool for approximately 1 hour in the fridge. Meanwhile, rinse the pears and cut them in half and then again – depending on the size, in halves or even 3’s. Core them.

Butter a pie dish of about 27 cm. in diameter.

Take out the pastry and divide in two – approximately 1/3 for the lid and 2/3’s for the base. Roll out the pastry and line the pastry dish with the bigger portion. Place the pears in a circle. Add the remaining 1/3 as a lid using you fingers to close the edge. Gently add a bit of water with you fingers and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes depending on your oven. Mine in the picture is slightly dark – could have baked for a few minutes less.

Serve as it is or perhaps with some vanilla ice cream or sour cream.

As I had a bit of left over pastry and pear, I actually ended up lining a second small pie dish with this pastry. I cut up a bit of pear that I had left over, whisked an egg with 1 tbsp of sugar, 20 grams chopped nuts, poured it over the chopped pear and baked this together with the other pie. It was delicious! Adding up the amounts by 3 – I could have made a second pie just like that.

The base of this dish is …potatoes. I had a few left over the other night however, instead of throwing them out or feeding the dog, I kept them for a small side – this time a “salad”-

Ingredients

15 small cooked and cooled potatoes

1 or 1/2 diced ripe avocado

1/4 red onion, finely sliced

50 g crumbled feta cheese

1 handful olives

2 tbsp finely chopped dill

2 tbsp finely chopped chives

Sauce

1 tsp dijon mustard

70 ml (1/3 cup) olive oil

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 finely crushed clove garlic

salt and pepper

Method

As mentioned – this recipe was intended as a suggestion to what you can use left over potatoes for and therefore I assume of course, that you have cooked potatoes on hand 😉 If not – start by cooking some potatoes, but make sure to cool them off before cutting them! Best is to have them cool off for a few hours at least preferably in the fridge.

Depending on the size of the potatoes, – quarter them or perhaps cut them into 6 pieces. Usually, we eat them with the peel as this is both nutritious and tasty. Of course – if they are all dirty or spotted, you would want to peel them.

Dice the avocado, finely slice the onion, crumble the feta cheese and mix together the ingredients with the handful of olives.

Now prepare the sauce by mixing the mustard, oil, lemon, garlic, salt and pepper until emulsified. Finally add the freshly chopped herbs and toss it all with the potato mix.

Generally, you can really add anything you want – this was just a light version. You could also add fried bacon, omit the feta cheese, add spring onion, some finely diced cucumber…there are really no limits.