Raiding the freezer

One of the things about cooking is that you often have leftovers. Especially if, like me, you grew up in a large, rambunctious Caribbean family where anyone might drop by and be included in the meal. 

Personally, I love leftovers because they make life that much easier on days when I am too tired/busy/late to cook. As I attempt to empty my freezer so I can fill it up with game, a lot of my bentos are going to involve defrosted leftovers.

The main leftover component in today’s bento is sardine fishcakes. I made these a couple of weeks ago from 150g mashed potato and one fresh sardine which I brushed with a little olive oil, sprinkled with chilli flakes, grilled, flaked and stirred into the mash with salt and pepper. The fishcakes have also been rolled in breadcrumbs to make them look more professional.

The other leftover component is cubed potato, leftover from earlier in the week, which I used to make a quick Spanish-style omelette. I really love Spanish tortilla and I think this is a nice way to make a single-portion one. You just need one egg, 25g cubed potato, ¼ clove of garlic and a tablespoon of onion or similar (I didn’t have onion this time so I used a bit of chopped leek).  I don’t even use oil – I just heat the pan (I get it quite hot so that the egg ‘takes’ immediately and doesn’t ooze out of the mould) pour the egg + veg mix into the mould and turn down the heat.

The not-so-leftover bit was buttered leeks which I made specially for this bento.