The Thrifty Cookbook: 476 Ways to Eat Well With Leftovers (18 page)

170g red chillies

120g caster sugar

50ml white wine vinegar

40ml liquid pectin (available from chemist’s or healthfood shops
)

Slice the chillies open lengthwise and run a teaspoon down the centre of each one to remove the seeds (discard these). Chop the chillies as finely as you can, or pulse them in a mini blender (but stop before you turn them into a paste). Put them into a small, heavy-based pan with the sugar and vinegar, bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the pectin and bring back to the boil. Simmer for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Allow to cool a little and then store in a sterilised jar (see
page 39
).

This is a Piedmontese salsa verde that goes beautifully with cold rare beef or lamb but is also extraordinarily good with fish such as cod, tuna or even mackerel, served cold. The point here is not to mince the ingredients so finely that they become a pesto-like paste but to keep a bit of hearty rusticity with slightly looser chopping, so that the ingredients maintain their own unique flavours and textures.

I would not make any salsa verde with the idea of keeping it, since its strong flavours and verdant colour will fade. Stored in an airtight plastic box, however, the sauce will keep in the fridge for a day or two.

a thick slice of white bread, crusts removed

2 tablespoons wine vinegar

leaves from a large handful of flat-leaf parsley, very finely chopped

10-15 salted capers, rinsed well and very finely chopped

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons finely chopped deseeded tomato, or 1 teaspoon tomato purée

2-4 anchovy fillets, according to taste, finely chopped

extra virgin olive oil

Soak the bread in the vinegar for a couple of minutes, then squeeze out the liquid (keep this) and chop the bread finely. Put it in a bowl, add all the other ingredients except the oil and vinegar and mix well. Slowly add enough olive oil to give the mixture a loose, spooning consistency rather than that of a pouring sauce. Finally drizzle the vinegar into the mixture.

A finely sliced shallot and/or garlic clove and/or a little finely chopped gherkin, according to your taste.

Other soft-leaved herbs, such as mint, dill, basil, tarragon and even coriander.

This is one of those easy pickles that transform simple rice and leftover meat. The recipe was given to me by Ashutosh Khandekar, who, as far as I can make out, throws nothing away in his kitchen. The quantities below make just one small pot, but it is powerful stuff and you need only a little. It will last for ages in the fridge. Make more or less according to how many carrots you have lying around.

250g carrots, diced

1 teaspoon salt

juice of 1 lime or lemon

1 tablespoon sunflower oil

a pinch of asafoetida, if you can get it – and it makes a difference

1 heaped teaspoon black mustard seeds

½ teaspoon ground turmeric

½ teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon red chilli powder

Mix the diced carrots with the salt and lime or lemon juice. Heat the oil in a pan, then add the asafoetida, if using, followed by the mustard seeds. Once the seeds begin to crackle, turn off the heat. Add the remaining spices and let them sizzle for a minute. Stir in the carrots, coating them well in the spicy oil.

Put the whole lot into a sterilised jar (see
page 39
) with a tight-fitting lid and leave in the fridge for a week or two before using.