Leftovers Lunch

4 into 1

Hello everyone - firstly a quick word about Everyday Pressure Cooking. It is out a week today and I am hearing that some of you have already had your copies delivered from the likes of Hive, Bookshop.org and Waterstones. I hope you are all enjoying it! If you haven’t yet ordered it, here is a useful link which works for pre orders. And of course your independent bookshop will be happy to do so as well.

Last night we had a yen for potstickers and as I never know when I want to make them at short notice, I always keep packets of wrappers in the freezer. I do prefer to make them myself, but for a quick meal, they just take too much time, so the packets, sold in most Korean and Chinese supermarkets and pretty much just flour and water, no nasties, are a reliable standby. Fillings always take moments to prepare, then if you have someone to help (I often have Adam), filling and folding the dumplings seems to take no time at all.

So yes, last night was prawn and cabbage potstickers, steam/fried in the pressure cooker of course, followed by Gado Gado (more on this another time). The night before was an EPIC cauliflower cheese. Sometimes, I use all the odds and ends of cheese I always seem to accumulate to make things like cauliflower cheese, but sometimes I want to make a big deal of it and this was one of those times. I had been Neal’s Yard Dairy earlier in the day, which unexpectedly felt a bit under siege because of all the camera crews doorstopping customers about this dreadful story. I think we’ve all been very shocked by it. Horrible to happen to anyone of course, but NYD are such an honourable company and do so much for the UK’s cheese industry it somehow feels much worse. Deeply upsetting. The staff in there were as wonderful as always - I love the endless patience, enthusiasm (collective oohs, over my choice of cheeses for the cauliflower cheese), the knowledge, and the discussions we always have about which cheeses to use in the myriad cheese based dishes I make.

So the cauliflower cheese ended up being a mixture of cheddar curds for stretch (not soft curd cheese, but the fresh, squeaky curd used for poutine), Ogelshield for flavour and excellent soft, stretchy melting ability and Westcombe cheddar (who also make the curds) to flavour the sauce. If you’ve never tried the Westcombe cheddar you really should - it has a wonderfully rich creamy finish that really lingers. The curds also have a really excellent flavour and are so buttery. I made a proper bechamel, pressure cooked the vegetables, combined the lot and then browned in the oven. The vegetables were simply a case of melting butter, stirring around some thickly sliced leeks until glossy, adding florets and leaves from a small cauliflower and a small romesco, then HP zero minutes fast release.

I made easily enough for 6 generous portions, expecting leftovers, but actually having more leftovers than I expected because I didn’t realise that my dad has recently stopped eating cauliflower (and broccoli) so had to quickly improvise something else for him.

Now onto the leftovers…

There are two things I love to use leftover cauliflower cheese in. The first, most obvious, is a soup. A bit of chicken stock, some wholegrain mustard, a few more vegetables if you like, and that’s all you need. I put everything in the pressure cooker, and do zero minutes, natural release and then blitz.

Secondly, I mash leftovers and spread into a croque monsieur - so cheese sauce and cauliflower in place of the bechamel. The cheese sauce always has bay leaf and a hint of allspice, both of which I always want in a croque monsieur. It works really well, especially if you stir in a touch of tarragon. I have been seasoning so much with tarragon salt from Fitz Fine Foods at Borough Market which has an amazingly intense flavour. You can try in a cheese toastie too. I love.

This third idea is completely new and ended up being a combination of a few things.

I had:

Leftover wrappers

Leftover cauliflower cheese

Stale bread

Smoked tomato flavoured olive oil (from the jarred IoW oak smoked tomatoes)

So - and this was Shariq’s idea, he got very excited and literally pestered me about it until I agreed - I made cauliflower cheese potstickers, with a pangrattato to dress it.

Pressure cooking dumplings is really fast and means you can churn out several batches quite quickly. How long they need cooking for depends on how thick the wrappers are (the filling always cooks very fast) and whether you are cooking in the base of the pressure cooker or in a steamer basket.

For potstickers, you need the fry/steam combination. I find that even with a well heated stainless steel base, they stick and sometimes burn before they have managed to steam properly on top, so I put a round of Bake-o-glide in the base (a double layer of baking parchment would also work), add oil and heat - the extra layer of insulation does the trick. Then in go the dumplings, they sear for a minute or two, then I splash in water and close the lid. For the thinnest of wrappers, 2 minutes fast release is plenty. For thicker wrappers, you might need up to 4 minutes.

So here is the recipe, vague on quantities, because it is leftovers. I had 16 wrappers so needed 16 heaped teaspoons of cauliflower cheese.

Cauliflower Cheese Dumplings

For the dumplings:

Gyoza or dumpling wrappers

leftover cauliflower cheese, chopped a bit if very large

1-2 tbsp olive oil

For the pangrattato:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 large piece stale bread, blitzed into fairly coarse crumbs

1 garlic clove

A small handful of fresh herbs - I used a few sprigs of parsley and coriander

A little smoked paprika

A pinch of chilli flakes

A drizzle of tomato oil (optional)

First make the pangrattato. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the bread. Fry until golden and glossy, then stir in the garlic. Cook for a further minute, then remove from the heat. When it has cooled a little, stir in the herbs, paprika and chilli flakes. Season with salt and pepper.

Make the dumplings. Put a heaped teaspoon of the cauliflower cheese in the centre of each wrapper, moisten the edges with water then fold over and pleat. Put a round of bake-o-glide or similar in the base of your pressure cooker. Heat for a couple of minutes then add the oil. Add the dumplings and leave to fry for a minute or two, then splash in some water (50ml usually more than enough), close the lid and bring up to high pressure. Cook for 2 minutes for very fine wrappers, up to 4 minutes for thicker ones. Fast release. If you have quite a lot of dumplings to make, you might have to do this in several batches. If I am churning them out I usually nab a dumpling or two from each batch before serving so I don’t miss out (they always go fast).

Arrange the dumplings over plates and sprinkle over the pangrattato. Drizzle over a little tomato oil if you have it.

The other thing that is very good to do with the dumplings is just poach them in a little broth. If you have any kind of stock, season it well, then add the dumplings. I usually find that zero minutes, fast release is enough because the dumplings will cook in the time it takes for the cooker to come up to pressure - any finely chopped vegetables will cook in that time too. And yes, it is still worth using the pressure cooker for this as it would take much longer conventionally.

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