Once again – I have made mashed potatoes with a twist. I tastes devine, it is full of vitamins and it cooks easy with potatoes.

Ingredients

1 kg potatoes (floury potatoes)

150 g celery

120 ml cream

80 g butter

1 clove minced garlic

1/4 tsp nutmeg

40 g grated cheese (optional)

salt and pepper

Method

Peel the potatoes and celery and cut dice them evenly. Add them to salted boiling water (enough to cover) and let them cook for about 30 minutes or until they let go of a fork. Drain and return to the pot. Whisk the potatoes/celery with a hand mixer adding butter, cream, garlic, nutmeg, salt and pepper until it is all melted, blended and fluffy. If you would like, add a bit of cheese. Any will do. Parmesan cheese or gruyere would be excellent. I grated a bit of left over Gouda which also added a twist 😉

Generally – cheese is not needed – it just adds a bit of texture and a twist.

Stir fries are some of those easy “left over” dishes that can be made of whatever you have in the fridge…sort of. Of course it depends on what you have in the fridge but stir fries are pretty versatile and easy to cook.

In this one I used:

Ingredients

Peeled and left over chicken from a roasted chicken…about 250 grams

4 stalks of celery

4 carrots

1 red capsicum

1 yellow capsicum

150 g snow peas

2 cloves of finely diced/chopped garlic

a few slices of fresh ginger, finely chopped

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp sesame seeds (for topping)

a sprinkle of chili flakes if you would like to give it an extra kick

salt and pepper

…but really – you can use whatever you have, – brocolli, cauliflower, asparges, baby corn etc.

Method:

Peel your chicken and cut what ever pieces you have into smaller pieces.

Slice your carrots diagonally fairly thinly (2-3 mm. thick). Slice the celery diagonally keeping them fairly thick (2 cm thick). Slice the capsicum length wise at about 5 mm thick. Keep you snow peas whole. Finely chop your garlic and ginger.

If you have a wok – use this. Otherwise a frying pan is fine. Add 1/2 of the coconut oil and heat it up for a minute or two. Add your garlic and ginger and fry for a few minutes. Add the chicken and frý this a long for another 5 minutes. Remove the garlic, ginger and chicken while frying the vegetables.

Add a bit more coconut oil to the frying pan and fry the vegetables – all together. (This explains why I cut and slice the vegetables in different sizes. Thickly sliced carrots would need longer cooking than your celery and capsicum.) Fry the vegetables for about 5-8 minutes. I like them crunchy – so I would not overdo it. I usually look at the celery as a guideline. As soon as they turn “see through” in color – they have had enough for my taste.

Add the chicken, garlic and ginger to the vegetables. Add the sesame oil salt and pepper and mix well. Turn on to a dish and sprinkle with sesame seeds and chili if you like.

Serve with rice! Yum!

Here is another one – or rather just another example of a soup which is delicious. You can make soups of anything basically – and as said quite often to friends and on this site – soups are a great way to use up left over vegetables, scraps and veggies which might have seen better days. I might just collect it all in a bag and after a few days, I will have enough for a soup. This time I had:

Ingredients

2 spring onions,

2 cloves of garlic

1 onion,

approximately 200 g pumpkin

a handful of leftover stirfried green beens

the stem of a broccoli, peeled and trimmed

the core of a zucchini (left over when carving zucchinis for another dish)

2 tbsp oil

a lump of butter

2 tbsp flour

750 ml chicken stock

200 ml cream

2 sprigs of fresh or dried whole sage

salt, pepper and a dash of paprika

Method

Chop the onion and garlic. Heat up oil in a big pot. Add the onion and garlic and stir fry for a few minutes. Chop all of the remaining ingredients – no need to be particular meticulous – and add them to the pot. Stir fry for another 5 minutes.

Add the butter and let it melt. Add the flour and let it cook for a few minutes while stirring. Add the chicken stock and sage leaves and let the soup simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove the sage leaves. They were added just to give taste.

With a handheld blender, blend the soup while still in the pot. But be careful to keep the blender well submerged in the soup to avoid a severe burn. Re-heat adding the cream, salt and pepper and paprika.