Rollover meals

I am now flipping through the tagine book picking up the ones I missed, mainly because they were unseasonal when I did the first round.  This week we had a creamy shellfish tagine with prawns & mussels.  For 2 steam a dozen mussels in your usual way.  We use a little wine. Reserve the liquor for later.  Shell the mussels & chop them up a little if you like, but leave a few on the half shell to be decorative.
Heat some olive oil in a pan or tagine. Stir in 3 finely chopped shallots & 1/2 a fennel bulb.  Stir in 1 tsp harissa paste - we were lucky enough to be given a jar of homemade harissa at Christmas & this is just the right warmth.  Pour in 150 mls of the reserved liquor & bring to the boil.  Stir in 75 mls cream, the juice of 1/2 a lemon & a dozen prawns.  Simmer gently until the prawns are cooked.  Season with salt & lost of black pepper & return the mussels to the pan to warm through.  Sprinkle with parsley to serve.
As so often happens one small thought leads to an entire meal.  The thought was  - I need to use up those little gem lettuces before they go to seed.  What about peas & lettuce - otherwise known as petit pois a la Francaise?  That goes nicely with roast chicken.  And we do have some carrots that are ready to pick.  Enter baked chicken with lemon, potato & green olives served with petit pois & steamed baby carrots.
I didn't want to roast a whole chicken so we did Maryland pieces.  Cut some roasting potatoes into smallish chunks & lay in the roasting dish.  Scatter over quartered red onion, a handful of green olives, some slices of lemon, a few chunks of pancetta & a couple of bay leaves.  Stir 1 tbsp each tomato paste & balsamic vinegar into 75 mls chicken stock & pour over potatoes.  Lay the chicken pieces on top, skin up & drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt & pepper.  Roast for 50 minutes then test the chicken to ensure the juices run clear.  Transfer the chicken to a plate to keep warm & whack the oven up to 220.  Return the veg to the oven until the potatoes are cooked through & beginning to colour. 
And you'll see we make good use of leftovers.  The potatoes go in the weekday salads & the peas & carrots are reserved for Monday's soup.
Chop the fennel left over from Saturday, a stick of celery, 2 spring onions, & a couple of courgettes into small dice.  Heat a pan & add a little olive oil &  knob of butter.  Add the veg except for the courgettes & cook 10 minutes or so until soft.  Add 500g vegetable or chicken stock & when it has come to the boil add the courgettes.  Cook for a minute & add 100g peas & broad beans - I would use fresh in spring but frozen is good.  Cook for another couple of minutes & add Sunday's leftover peas & lettuce plus the chopped carrots. Add a little more shredded lettuce if you like.  Simmer another minute, add chopped herbs then season.  Serve with grilled sourdough.
We planted a few buttercrunch lettuces & one of them grew into the biggest lettuce I have ever seen.  We have been having it for lunches.
The winter veg have arrived and it is hard to know which to choose.  Put together about 400g of vegetables - shallots, carrots, parsnip, pumpkin, beetroot, potato.  Chop them into chunks or thick slices with the slower cooking items in smaller pieces.  Put them into an ovenproof dish.  Add 1 finely chopped clove of garlic, olive oil, salt & papper.  Roast the veg at 190 until all are cooked through & beginning to caramelise. 
Beat 6 eggs with chopped herbs & season.  Pour over the vegetables & scatter over grated cheese.  Return to the oven for 10-15 minutes until the egg is set & the cheese is golden. Serve with a salad to try & get through some of the giant lettuce & use the leftovers in lunch salads.  It slices nicely & is good warm or cold.
Thursday we had that pinto chilli.  There was part of the tin of pintos and part of the tin of tomatoes left over so I heated those through with the left over lunch lentils & a splash of balsamic then served on sourdough toast topped with a poached egg for Saturday brunch.
During the week I had such a treat.  One of you kind readers, having read last week's entry, turned up on my doorstep with 2 kilos of green tomatoes.  I have made the chutney and will be delivering some to the tomato donor in the morning.  Phoebe will also be delighted because a jar or 2 will be wending its way to her this week.