Coming back from Corsica I decided to have a “clear the freezer” week. Having checked my bank balance upon my return, I ws sent into a state of shock to see we’d spent far, far too much money and that Hubby and I were going to have to live much more frugally for the rest of the summer. How we managed to spend so much I don’t know, I didn’t even think Corsica was expensive compared to the South of France or even some places in Lyon! I think maybe mischievous TomTom had got hold of our Carte Bleue too?
So clearing the freezer seemed like a good idea, a better option than bread and pasta in any case. We have one of those American style fridge-freezers (do the Americans call them American fridges too? Anyone?) and the freezer is always bursting full of frozen goodies from Picard, home cooking, frozen veggies and other bits and pieces including 3 bottles of vodka!
After much reflexion, I decided the vodka could stay as I’m sure it’s not very healthy living on vodka for a week and started to attack the rest of the contents vigorously in order to make some type of meal plan. A freezer week normally means for some weird and wonderful meals and sees me having quite an ad hoc approach to cooking.
Unfortunately on this occasion we had some bad family news and my Beaux-Parents came to stay unexpectedly. As I was still trying to live off the freezer I had a route around to see what I could find. I have already spoken of the Belle-Mere’s excellent cooking here so I had to be careful not to disappoint and to ensure that everyone was fed correctly as they needed it.
Some puff pastry, beef burgers and chicken pieces were found so along with the tomatoes in the garden and some mustard from the fridge, I was able to make a bizarre, but tasty meal of tomato tart served with either beef burger or chicken. I think the tart would make a better dish on its own with some fresh salad but that wasn’t an option I had.
So, if you have some tomatoes, some pastry and some mustard here’s something really easy you can try your hand at:
Tomato Tart
Serves 4 – 6 people
What you need:
6 tomatoes (enough to cover the pastry) or enough of any type of fresh t’s you can get your hands on
1 Roll of pastry (shortcrust or puff, its the pastry that you buy already rolled out in a circle)
French mustard
Salt & Pepper
Herbes de Provence or other to taste.
What you need to do:
1. Place the pastry on a tray or in a quiche dish. Roll up the edges slightly to form a crust when cooking it.
2. Slice the tomatoes removing any excess juice and pips as you go along.
3. Paste a thin spread of mustard over the pastry.
4. Cover the pastry base with the sliced tomatoes.
5. Season to taste.
6. Cook in the oven at 180 degrees (or as per pastry instruction) for approx 30 minutes or until pastry is golden
You can also add some goats cheese on top but I’m not sure how traditional that is.
Do you have any frugal, fridge/freezer clearing recipes?
Who cares about tradition?! Sprinkle on some goats cheese! Yup. Goats cheese. Before I got to that point in your post I was thinking “hmm, some goats cheese on that would be great!” Tradition be damned!
With a salad, that tart would make an amazing meal too.
Oh, how about some fresh basil? Or sundried t’s? Is it lunchtime yet? 🙂
another hour before we can say it’s lunch time! So what will you be having for lunch today? 🙂
I lurrvvvveee goats cheese too but try and avoid cheese at the moment in my quest to shift the kilos 😦
Tomato tartes usually do have mustard which is really good. I’m sure everyone loved your experiment. Good for you for cleaning out your freezer.
My Belle-Mere always uses Mustard, maybe not the strong stuff I used mind 🙂
I’m sure everyone loved it too – there was certainly none left!
“(do the Americans call them American fridges too? Anyone?)” Just “the fridge.” But now that I am an American in Paris, I call the huge fridges “American-style fridges,” too! 🙂
I like the creativity of clean the cupboard/clean the fridge meals. It’s inspirational to read yours. That tomato tart looks wonderful, Piglet!
Our go-to recipe for cleaning out the cupboards is tuna and rice. Make rice. Open a can of tuna, drain and stir it in. Eat it with mayonnaise, and other toppings. Grated cheese is one. A splash of soy sauce is another. Spicy Thai chili paste works, as does Louisiana hot sauce for those who like a little kick.
If you have some canned peas you can throw those in… Just about anything works!
I only found out about these fridges a few years ago when my Belle-Mere started talking about Le frigo american all the time and how much she wanted one. Now I don’t think I could live without it, it’s so useful for water, ice cubes everything, I just love it!
We started having weeks clearing out the cupboards as I buy so much stuff and then forget about it, I think if we were to empty all the fridge, freezer and cupboards we could be eating for well over a month. But I really want to get my freezer right down as I like to freeze home cooked meals for when I’m lazy and don’t feel like cooking.
Your go to recipe sounds good. We often use rice and things like tuna for salads for picnics and lunches, very practical! Although I try and hold off on the mayo, just some balsamic vinegar or tabasco for me:)
The tomato tart looks delicious…definitely one I’m going to try! I am forced to live frugally most of the time these days, so I make a lot of soups and casseroles from leftovers. I find a whole chicken very economical because you can make so many different meals from one…and the dogs get the bones!
Pasta is also versatile and cheap…a sauce can be made from practically anything you have in the fridge or cupboard.
I love pasta too! We eat a lot of pasta and I was really hoping that I was going to have great big basil plants so I could make plenty of pesto sauce but for some reason they have barely grown this year.
The whole chicken idea is a good one, I know my parents do this too and it is very economical. I’m not sure if I could fit a whole chicken in my oven (it’s ridiculous) and I have to admit that I am scared of bones…
No doubt I’ll have some more recipes soon 🙂
That looks lush! It’s made my mouth water. Chapeau!
We’re currently trying to reduce the courgette mountain – six of them, all football size. Made a very good soup today; next on the list will be courgette chocolate cake.
mmmm, I wish I had some more pastry and then I could make another one… I really should learn how to make pastry myself!
How did you make the courgette soup? Just courgettes or other things too?
Is the courgette chocolate cake for real? I’ve never heard of this, do tell us how you got on please!
I’m going to try my hand at a Corsican recipe for Beignets de Courgettes tonight, I have never tried anything like this before but I love the mint and courgette combination.
Hi
Pastry is really easy to make!
2oz porco de banho(lard)
4 oz margarine
11oz plain flour
Salt and pepper (for savory tarts)
Cold water
Rub ingredients together until they resemble a crumb mixture. Gradually add water until mixture resembles a dough. Leave to rest in Fridge for 1hr.
(To make your pastry more “short” just increase the amount of marg used.) Do not overwork pastry as it will become hard.
Voilá!
Once you are happy with the above you can always make extra and freeze.
Je n’aime pas les tomates… mais ceci paraît grand!!!
merci Fifi. Les tomates de mon jardin sont extras, pas trop acide et bien sucre comme il le faut !
Yumm. Are you sure that was the result of a fridge raid?
oh yes! Okay, the tomatoes I have lots of in the garden so they didn’t come out of the fridge/freezer but everything else did.
I often see special deals for pastry where three packs of rolled out pastry are bundled together for the cheaper price so I nearly always have pastry in the freezer. Except for now because I’ve used it all!
OMG that tomato tart looks amazing. I’m sure the secret is all in the lovely flavour of the home grown tomatoes? We were doing really well with sunshine etc in the UK until the last week when it’s started to feel pretty autumnal – especially in the evenings.
We really enjoy your blog here in the office – gives us a great insight into ex-pat lifestyle in France. Keep up the good work.
Looking forward to more freezer finds. PS the vodka reminded me I need to strain off my sloes, from the sloe gin made last autumn and get that in the freezer too!
It’s wonderful to have such nice comments! I’m glad my ramblings are a source of enjoyment, my life sometimes feels so random and boring, not quite what you’d expect about living abroad but it’s realistic!
The weather wasn’t too great here either last week, but I compared temperatures with my brother who’s still in the UK and he had nearly 10 degress less than us! So I am certainly not complaining. I do not miss the English summers that’s for sure…
My Dad used to make Sloe Gin I’m pretty sure, I’ve never tried myself and wouldn’t know where to start to be honest. I’m glad my vodka has helped remind you!
Thank you again for stopping by.
That’s one fine-looking tomato tart. I hope I can have a clean-out fridge day that produces the same results. Thanks for sharing the recipe; think that tarts are quite easy to make & really perfect for summer. Love the cherry tomato addition as well, that’s one I’d like to try..
Cherry tomatoes were all I had in the garden, they were lovely and sweet so I think I prefer this version to normal tomatoes 🙂
I’ve had some pretty dire meals as well which I haven’t shared.
My tomato tarte looks very similar – I just put some grated parmesan on top.
How do you keep the pastry from getting soggy? It happens to me sometimes, but I still haven’t found out why and when exactly.
I would normally serve with some fresh grated parmesan shavings when I dish it up but I didn’t have any this time 😦
The tomatoes make the pastry go soggy so I precook a bit first and then add the tomatoes, normally it works…
The annual debagging of the freezer is known to the family as UFO season…Unidentified Frozen Object.
My method is to get out one at a time, defrost, identify, then distirbute to
a…kitchen
b…dog
c..chickens
depending on what a vote of those present decides that it is.
LOL! This sounds like a very fun, hilarious event! I’m sure it causes much amusement but at least you don’t have any waste!
I will now be calling the items I get out UFO’s – I’ve been convinced they exist for years and now I have proof, they’re in the freezer!
Oh damn, Piglet! Why has nobody ever told me that living on Vodka for a week is unhealthy! And I thought I was doing a good thing because that’s what I found in my freezer!
I love tomato tart and we always put goat cheese on it down here. You can also make a tart with courgettes as well. And I too have a recipe for courgette cake among about a million other recipes for courgettes. I’ll have to dig them up because people keep giving them to me…just as they did in the U.S.!
LOL! I guess we’ll have to find another way to empty those vodka bottles in the freezer. Vodka jellies anyone? (seriously though, I did make some vodka jellies for a fun thing for some French friends, you should have seen their faces!)
I will definitely be putting goats cheese on top next time 🙂 any excuse!
I have a recipe for courgette and goats cheese cake but am intrigued by the chocolate aspect. I would love to see some of your other recipes 🙂
I would have enjoyed that tart. Sounds like a good idea. I did that a few months ago.