The Thrifty Cookbook: 476 Ways to Eat Well With Leftovers (58 page)

Making simple cheeses when you have too much milk hanging around is not only easy but incredibly satisfying. Homemade cottage cheese actually tastes of something, and paneer, a denser, sliceable cheese, is just plain hard to get in most shops.

It is almost absurd to suggest what you might include in an omelette because, really, anything goes. Asian cooks take it for granted that yesterday’s leftovers can be bound with a fluffy egg to make a kind of deconstructed breakfast pancake.

There have been centuries of debate about how to cook the perfect omelette. For me, it boils down to keeping it small and cooking it fast: the general rule is about 45 seconds to 1 minute per egg. French omelettes should never be flipped like pancakes to cook on the second side. Instead they are folded into thirds; they will then finish cooking in their own heat in the time it takes to get them to the table.

Serves 1

2 eggs

a handful of grated hard cheese

a drop of milk (optional
)

butter for frying

salt and pepper

chopped herbs, to serve (optional
)

Break the eggs into a bowl, add the cheese, the milk if using, and some salt and pepper and mix very roughly with a fork.

Heat a small, heavy frying pan. Add a large knob of butter and wait for it to foam, but not brown. Pour in the mixture and for the first 10 seconds move it around with a wooden spoon or a spatula, as you would for scrambled eggs, until the eggs just begin to set. Then let it cook over a medium heat without stirring, gently pulling the sides away from the edge of the pan into the centre to let any liquid egg run from the centre to the empty edge.

After a minute or two, it should be cooked but still slightly shiny and runny on top. Fold one edge into the middle and then fold the opposite edge on top of that – in effect folding the whole thing into thirds. Slide on to a plate, scatter over herbs, if you like, and eat immediately.

Meat or fish leftovers
Finely shredded or diced cooked meat or fish, or crumbled bacon, can be added to the omelette mixture once you’ve stopped stirring and the eggs are cooking. Scatter chopped herbs over the omelette to serve.

Leftover vegetables
Dice leftover cooked vegetables finely and add to the mix at the start. The rule here is that there are no rules. Grated ends of cheese are good with the vegetables.

Canned tuna
This is lovely crumbled into the eggs once they are cooking, with a little very finely chopped shallot or onion and chopped parsley. Omit the cheese.

Store-cupboard ingredients
A few capers, a chopped anchovy fillet, sliced artichoke hearts, or Bottled Roasted Peppers or Dried Tomatoes (see
page 44
) are all delicious in a simple omelette, added once the eggs are beginning to cook.

Leftover potatoes
Make a faux tortilla by slicing and frying a few leftover potatoes first. Add a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard to the egg mixture and then drop the potatoes into the centre of the omelette just before it is cooked.

After Christmas
Diced turkey is very good with a few rinsed capers and sliced or diced mozzarella. Add them all to the pan once the eggs are beginning to cook.

Scrambled eggs
Scrambled eggs are also a great way of using up leftover chicken, fish or even vegetables. Cut them small and stir into scrambled eggs when they are just set.

Both Spain and Italy have traditional omelettes – tortilla in Spain and frittata in Italy – made with lots of eggs and cooked into a more solid, sliceable dish than a French omelette, eaten either hot or at room temperature. Tortillas are denser, using sliced potatoes, but both are fantastic vehicles for an infinite array of leftovers and ideal for picnics.

I’ve conflated the two slightly different dishes here to describe a basic process. You can use whatever ingredients you have to hand. This is where the store cupboard comes in very handy indeed: Bottled Roasted Peppers or Dried Tomatoes (see
page 44
) will add sweetness, while artichoke hearts from a jar will give you something to bite on. I prefer the taste of red onions to white, but have stopped using them because they turn weirdly blue inside their eggy casing.

Serves 2

5 eggs

1–2 teacups (about 200g) meat or vegetable leftovers (see
pages 194
–
5
for suggestions
)

a good pinch of salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, sliced

Whisk the eggs in a bowl and add the leftovers and the salt. Leave to rest for 5 minutes.

Heat the oil in a medium, heavy-based frying pan, then add the onion and cook, stirring, until it is just starting to colour. Pour over the egg mixture and cook over a medium heat until the base of the omelette is set and beginning to brown and the top is just a little runny. Now you need to flip the omelette over. The easiest way is to put a plate over the frying pan and invert the whole lot until the omelette is on the plate, cooked-side up. Then slide it back into the pan (raw-side down) and cook for a further couple of minutes to set the egg. Alternatively, put the pan under the grill to brown the uncooked top lightly.

Once cooked, slide the omelette out on to a clean plate and serve hot or cold, cut into wedges.