Time on your hands and in the face of adversity …

… desperate times call for desperate measures! I don't mean to sound like a drama queen but may be we should be paying a little more attention to food that we waste – or more to the point, now more than ever, trying not to waste.

Do you know what's in your freezer? I think I have a rough idea but there's always a surprise or two if you dig deep enough. I have a habit of always prepping too much which, by definition, means I create leftovers.

I found a box of filling left over from a cheese, potato & onion pie I made recently. I'm about to show you that it can come in handy. There wasn't a huge amount - 270g ish – another rummage, this time in the fridge, produced a nugget – not of gold – but as good as – gruyere which, grated, gave me a grand total of 330g of filling. The only other ingredient required is a beaten egg.

Perfect for a Tiddy – a small pastry.

Okey dokey – I have the filling – what's next?

In the spirit of desperate measures and the crazy behaviour at the moment in the supermarkets I think it's time to make your own – in this case puff pastry – from scratch. Check the Pastry label for the Fast flaky pastry recipe. This is not difficult and it freezes well too so you can make it when you've a spare ten minutes and that's all the time it takes. All you have to remember is to weigh, wrap in foil and freeze your unsalted butter ahead of the game to give it time to chill.

When you've made your batch of pastry shape it into an oblong, then chill or freeze. Line a baking tray with baking parchment. “Glue” the parchment to the tray by greasing each corner lightly with a butter wrapper – I always keep one in the door of my fridge!

When you're ready to begin, flour your surface and roll out the pastry – take care to roll in the same direction to prevent stretching, otherwise the pastry will shrink, keeping the oblong shape or lengthways if you prefer! Cut into two strips - you're aiming for each strip to measure 30cms or 12” long and 8cms/3” wide, approximately, then lift each strip onto the lined baking tray.

Tip the filling and the added Gruyere into a medium mixing bowl and mix. The original filling contained small cubes of potato which were too big for this idea. I used an ordinary knife and fork and refined the size of the filling.

Divide the filling between the two strips placing it in the middle of each. Egg wash each edge and pinch the ends together. Lift the pastry edges to the filling, creating a sort of open “sausage roll”, egg wash the sides and ends of the pastry.

Fridge until you're ready to bake, together with the remaining egg wash.

Pre-heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Egg wash again and then bake for 30 minutes.

Voila – Tiddy pastries!

Just in case you haven't got a box of leftover filling in your freezer ...