Here’s another storecupboard-and-fridge-raider easy meal. This is one I serve cold during the warmer summer months, when I’ve often got some cooked new potatoes hanging around and there’s always a pack of ready-rolled puff pastry in the freezer. You will need:-
1 pack ready-rolled puff pastry
Half a dozen cooked new potatoes
1 small tin mixed vegetables
180g pack cooked shredded gammon
2 slices ham
Seasoning to taste
1 beaten egg to glaze
- Check the directions on your pack of pastry and heat your oven accordingly
- Chop your potatoes into rough dice and put them in a large bowl
- Drain your mixed vegetables and add them to the bowl along with the shredded gammon. Mix everything together thoroughly, taste and season
- Lay your pastry flat on a board then lay your slices of ham onto it as you would the pancakes in a Beef Wellington
- Pile the vegetable and meat mixture on top of the ham and shape it so that the whole mix resembles a very big sausage
- Draw up and seal the sides and ends of the pastry to form a cylinder shape, using the beaten egg to help make the joins firm and prevent leakage
- Roll the whole thing over onto a baking sheet, so that the joins are on the base
- Give the pastry a thorough coating of the remaining beaten egg, bake it in the pre-heated oven and leave it to cool down before serving
It’s very easy to come up with your own variations of the filling for this, so it’s a sort of “anything you like” Wellie, and if you’ve got some fresh chives around they give it a real lift, and it can be served to guests as well as family without any feelings of shame!