The Thrifty Cookbook: 476 Ways to Eat Well With Leftovers (61 page)

This classic Italian version of the old-fashioned British posset or American eggnog is sumptuously rich and sweet. I think it’s perfect with just a few tart berries, such as redcurrants or early raspberries, if you can pick up a small punnet on the way home.

You don’t need a double boiler to make zabaglione – a ceramic or glass bowl over a pan of gently simmering water will do. Just make sure the water is not even close to touching the bottom of the bowl or you will make sweet scrambled eggs.

Serves 2

2 egg yolks (make sure there is no hint of egg white
)

2 tablespoons caster sugar

2 tablespoons Marsala (or sweet sherry, if you have no Marsala
)

Whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl until really light and fluffy. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk constantly (an electric whisk makes this easier) for about 5 minutes, until the mixture thickens and doubles in volume. Spoon or pour the shiny mixture into glasses and serve immediately.

What could be simpler than cheese on toast – and what better way to use up all the ends of cheese in the fridge? Though soft goat’s cheeses are lovely melted on to toast and served with salads or soups, for a filling dish on its own there’s nothing better than toasted mature English cheese, such as Cheddar, red Leicester and so on – cheeses with a slightly sharp edge. Ideally, use a really thick slice of nutty brown bread for this.

Serves 1

a thick slice of bread

a teacup or so of grated or sliced ends of cheese

Worcestershire sauce (optional
)

First toast one side of the bread under the grill. If you like Worcestershire sauce, mix up to a teaspoon (depending on your taste) into the grated cheese. Turn the bread over and squash the grated cheese over it in a layer about 1cm thick (or layer thin slices of cheese on it, if you prefer). Then simply grill the whole lot until the cheese is bubbling.

Welsh rabbit
Gently melt 110g grated cheese, 30g butter and ½ wineglass of brown ale until bubbling, then pour it over toast. Try it. It’s delicious.

Buck rabbit
Welsh rabbit with a poached egg on top.

Leek rabbit
Cook sliced leeks gently in a little oil until softened. Toast the bread on one side, spread the other side with a thin layer of Dijon mustard and put the leeks on top. Cover with a good strong Cheddar cheese and grill.

Cayenne
Use a pinch of cayenne pepper instead of Worcestershire sauce.

Anchovy paste, mustard or Marmite
These are lovely spread thinly under the cheese.

Croque Monsieur
This can be an open or a closed sandwich, toasted, with a slice of good ham between the toast and the cheese.

Mushrooms on toast
Lightly fry sliced mushrooms in butter with some finely chopped garlic and parsley, then spoon them over a thick piece of toast. Grate over a good layer of Parmesan and grill or bake for a couple of minutes until the cheese has melted. Though this is neither an egg nor a cheese dish, it is – at a long stretch of the imagination – a variation of cheese on toast, whipped up with just as little fuss.

Using up odds and ends of cheese
My grandmother thought nothing of keeping bits of cheese without their rinds until she had enough to melt slowly in a pan with a teaspoon of English or French mustard. She poured the molten cheese into a small ramekin (or pot), allowed it to cool and then covered it with a thin layer of melted butter. This she kept in the fridge for sandwiches. It’s actually a rather eighteenth-century idea, and a quick way to make toasted cheese.

My mother taught me how to make a basic soufflé when I was about ten years old and it never fazed me – then. I suppose I’d never heard the general stuff about disasters, so I just went ahead and did it confidently and I can’t remember it not working. As an adult, though, I carry all the normal baggage about soufflés: the fear of them not rising and the waste of food, time and effort if a runny sludge emerges from the oven rather than a gloriously adept puffball.

There is a science behind how eggs behave, so it’s important to know the rules. But if you follow them carefully, soufflés become quick fallbacks for suppers or lunches – a brilliant means of using up the last of the cheese, or even a cup of green vegetables left over from dinner the night before.

At the heart of a good soufflé are a creamy white sauce enriched with egg yolks and a separate bowl of egg whites whisked into firm peaks. Electric whisks tend to fly away with you: it’s harder to stop at the ‘peak’ stage and easy to beat all the air back out of the whites before you know it. Rotary whisks are much better for this.

You can make the yolky base a little in advance, but once you’ve whisked the whites, don’t leave them standing around. When you come to folding the two together, it’s a good idea to use a large metal spoon. First take a spoonful of the beaten egg white and stir it gently into the mixture to loosen it. Then fold in the rest of the whites gently but swiftly.

Once the soufflé is in the oven, leave it to do its thing uninterrupted: it’s true that it gets a fright if you open your oven too early, and might collapse. Always serve it as soon as it’s puffed up and ready.