Leftover Amuse Bouche – Mushroom and Potato a la Crème

Having made the Veau a la Crème after our lovely visit to Ludlow, I had a little of the ‘crème’ leftover, and couldn’t bear to throw it away as it was so thick, sticky and yummy. So, I scraped it from the pan and put it in a pot, doing to same with the leftover roast new potatoes.

The next morning, the OH ‘found’ said pot, and looked in disgust: “What’s This? Are we going to eat it?” After being convinced it would actually be ok, and that I wasn’t going to force it down his throat for breakfast, his worries receded. So, before our evening meal (I can’t say dinner, as I’m a Northerner and haven’t worked out yet if, ‘down here’, Dinner is lunch or tea, those being my two preferred words. Again though, just to stray from the original point a little more, when I ask friends to come for ‘tea’, I have to qualify that with “You know, your tea – food,” otherwise they turn up having eaten or prepared a dinner, thinking ‘tea’ was just that!)…I’ll begin that last sentence again so you don’t have the struggle of finding whence it began!

So, before our evening meal, I chopped the new potatoes, spooned them into the sauce, and reheated the lot in the microwave until bubbling. If you’re making this from scratch, simply fry off some sliced mushrooms in butter until browned, remove from pan and fry finely chopped shallots. Return the mushrooms, add a splash of dry sherry, or white wine, lots of salt and pepper and double cream, or crème fraiche for a lighter version. A sprinkle of freshly chopped parsley will lighten it further. A small blob of each went onto each amuse-bouche server and was promptly delivered to the table. The OH’s reaction was much better than the original, and it was a great way to use up that little drizzle of sauce and three new potatoes that would otherwise have been wasted. Not a great waste I know, but better to use it up, all the same.