Emptying the veg box in 2 dishes

Some weeks the veg box just gets away from me. An unplanned meal out, a craving for something different or a bunch of leftovers that need using up and all of a sudden the fridge is packed with vegetables that are slightly past their best.

I had one of those weeks recently. And I totally outdid myself by clearing the backlog in just two dishes.

I had some nice chicken stock made from the wingtips from my wings al ajillo, which always leads me towards a risotto. So half a marrow, a green onion, a big bunch of large broad beans and a handful of frozen peas went in that direction. It's a very good use for a marrow!

But of course, it meant I still had half a marrow. I also had half an aged butternut, a small cauliflower, another green onion and a couple of potatoes. I sliced it all up and put it in a pyrex dish, poured a mixture of cream, buttermilk and vermouth over it, then topped it with a really decadent bacon crumb topping (a couple of cloves of garlic, some bacon, some torn up bread and a spoonful of bacon jam, pulsed in the food processor until it is crumbly) and baked it until the veg was tender and the topping was crunchy and golden. Delicious. The crumb topping gave a real savoury punch, the buttermilk and vermouth added tang and cut through the richness a bit and the butternut and bacon kept it from being too blandly beige.

Bacon makes everything good