An article called ‘Leftovers are a cheaper, greener option’ at the Daily Telegraph reminded me of a snack/starter I hadn’t made for some time. Croquetas – croquettes or croquets in English, are a tasty way of using up small amounts of leftovers.

The Telegraph’s recipe differs slightly from my own in that it adds egg and butter to the base sauce. It also differs in that the article is now behind a paywall!

This isn’t a recipe as such, more a guideline as to how to make them

I make a white sauce with 50gm flour, 50gm butter and 280gm milk. Season, bring to a boil stirring, it will become very thick. Continue to stir it on the lowest heat for about 4-5 minutes. Stir constantly. Add a handful of grated cheese and very finely chopped ham.

You could also make them with chicken, mushrooms, vegetables or fish. You can omit the cheese, or add other things like chopped chilli.

My favourite is fish. They’re particularly good with plaice and parsley.

You leave this mixture to go completely cold and ‘rubber-like’; then, taking pieces about the size of a walnut, dip them into seasoned flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs – shape into balls or ‘cork shapes’.

Do the egg and breadcrumb bit again, then put them into the fridge for about an hour to firm up.

Deep fry them till golden.

You can add finely ground cream crackers to the breadcrumbs. They ensure a well sealed coating and you will only need to breadcrumb once.

Having made the sausagemeat for rolls it’s a fairly simple task to make it into sausage rolls.

I prefer to use a rough puff pastry rather than a shortcrust or shop-bought puff pastry but these could also be used. I make the pastry using this quick rough puff pastry recipe.

I’ve dropped a clanger by not taking a photo of the sheet of pastry after it’s rolled out but I roll it to approx 250mm (10″) by 400mm (16 “). Square the edge off that’s nearest you. I will make 2 long rolls from this that I’ll then divide each one into 4 individual sausage rolls.

For approximately 100gm rolls use 170gm of sausage meat and roll pieces to form a long sausage to lay along the nearest edge. Then, lifting the pastry, roll it to just encase the meat. At this stage dampen the next inch or so of pastry with water (I think that water is better than egg wash for this) and roll the meat/pastry roll onto this. The roll can be cut away from the sheet at this stage.

The 150gm rolls that I made had roughly the same amount of pastry but had more than double the amount of sausage meat – I used about 370gm. I prefer the ratio of meat to pastry in the smaller ones.

You could use a thicker pastry for the larger ones by only rolling it 300mm – 325mm (12″-13″) wide and cutting 3 individual rolls from each long one. If you do this, use 230gm of meat per long roll.

It’s then just a case of cutting each long roll into four.

Then brushing them with eggwash; I used just egg yolk.

I cooked them in the fan oven at 190°C (375°F) for 30 minutes.

These are best eaten cold. For hot/warm ones I’d increase the spices/herbs in the sausage meat.

You can, of course, use this recipe to make smaller rolls for buffets etc.

A friend brought me some samosas from a shop on Green Lane Road, Leicester to try and they are superb. Mind you, the tamarind dip which accompanied them about blew my brains out!

I’ve made my own samosas in the past using a combination of recipes from Madhur Jaffrey and Pat Chapman of the Curry Club. I’ve been pleased with the results and far prefer the homemade pastry to that on many of the bought ones. They take time though as rolling the pastry and making cone shapes and then filling them is a bit fiddly.

It’s best to make the filling well in advance to give it time to go completely cold.

Ingredients
For filling:
1½ lb boiled potatoes
A good handful of frozen peas – cooked
1 small onion finely chopped
1 or 2 (or more) small green chillis finely chopped
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 heaped teaspoon ground coriander
1 heaped teaspoon ground roasted cumin seeds
1 heaped teaspoon garam masala
chilli powder to taste
1½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice

For Pastry:
12 oz plain flour
¾ teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cooking oil
5 tablespoons (approx) water

Filling:
Fry the onion until soft in about 3 tablespoons of cooking oil, chop the peas up a bit and add them along with the rest of the ingredients except the lemon juice. Mash the potatoes up a bit in the pan and mix everything together well – add a touch of water if it seems too dry, but only a couple of tablespoons or so. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Add the lemon juice and adjust the seasoning to taste with salt and/or lemon juice.

Pastry:
Mix flour and salt, rub in the oil and then add enough water and mix to a stiff dough. Knead for about 10 minutes. Mould into a ball and rub with a tiny amount of oil, wrap and put aside in a cool place.

Assembly:
Make a loose paste of about 1 tablespoon of flour with water – this is used to seal the pastry.
Divide the pastry into 8 pieces and roll out each very thinly into a 7 – 8 inch circle. Cut a circle using a 7-inch plate/pie tin as a template and then cut each circle in half.

Form cones from each semi-circle of pastry overlapping the edges by about ½ inch at the top and sealing them well using either a drop of water or a small amount of the paste made earlier.

Fill the cones with about 2½ teaspoons of the filling mix. Seal the tops well using the water/paste and crimp if you want to.

Deep fry slowly at about 170°C turning them frequently until nicely brown. Drain, leave to cool a bit, then enjoy on their own or with a dipping sauce of your choice!