Love food, hate waste!

I was sent an email this week about the love food hate waste campaign and I definitely had a little twinge of conscience. I think I’m pretty good about avoiding food waste, I try not to be suckered into the buy one get one free offers unless I really think I can use the second before it dies on me, I consider the use by dates when I buy items and when practically I will be consuming them and all my leftover food goes into the green bin. But I could do more, for example, really my green bin should only contain egg shells, vegetables peelings and the odd exhausted tea bag. It shouldn’t have whole slices of bread, forgotten rashers of bacon and strangely green furry bits of chicken thigh. I hang my head in shame; I guess the rule should be - if I buy it to eat it, I should actually eat it – otherwise I could cut out the middle man and chuck a few pounds straight into the bin. And then of course the conundrum would be which container to put it in, could it go in the black box with the bottles and cans? If I just decide it’s a fiver, does that go with the paper in the blue bag or the white bag for the plastic bottles, foil and card? The answer is that I should pay attention to the love food hate waste five sure fire ways to save money off the weekly food bill and then I don’t have to throw away any money. I can't promise to improve the lot of the 2.8 million tomatoes we throw away every day, but at least I can promise not to add to the discarded tomato heap, I just won't ever buy any!

1. Get familiar with you fridge & friendly with your freezer

This is where my best intentions occasionally flounder, I have definite plans to concoct greatness from some well chosen items and then I eat out or work late or horror of horrors get attracted to something more sparkly on the way home and eat that instead and let other things expire in my fridge.

2. Storecupboard savvy

I probably fare a little better here but there is the perennial habit of bulk buying exotic whatnots when I am abroad or lured into purchasing a small basil mustard mountain at a food show and then letting them languish in the back of the cupboard until a decade has passed. So I guess a regular spring clean should be in operation so a) I don’t just stockpile needlessly and b) just as important I don’t run out of the critical stuff.

3. Carb control

Apparently this is a common offence and we throw away 7 million slices of bread and 5.1 million potatoes every day. And yes I can be accused of the bread crime, it is hard to believe for a well-known bread monster but I don’t generally get through a loaf before it’s growing some exciting new culture. The first problem is that I don’t really like the crusts, but then M&S do a half loaf that doesn’t have the two crusts so I should confine my loaf buying habits to just that particular one. And then as sometimes I don't really want all that bread, I should always (rather than occasionally) spilt the loaf in half and freeze some for toasting later. It is helpful when you can buy one or two potatoes to whip up a little mash or a small handful of Jersey Royals for a potato salad but loaves are more 'one size fits all'.

4. Lovely leftovers

I’ve mentioned on various occasions that I enjoy the challenge of revitalising some jewels from a previous meal and repurpose the remainder into a new delight. For example my recent foray into risotto resurrecting, my joy at a well turned bubble and squeak and turning some delicious remnants into an oeuf en cocotte or scrambled eggs. But occasionally you look at the remains and wonder if you should just put them out of their misery, so again I need to take a leaf out of Rose Prince's fabulous new book and always recycle.

5. It pays to plan!

I do occasionally stick a list of the items in my latest Ocado order and an eat-by-date to the fridge to remind myself of what lies within, but still get the odd surprise when I find an inadvertently unopened packet of salad complete with a brown sludgy liquid lurking at the back of my fridge so I must do better!

With all these tips in mind I was determined not to succumb to shiny new food today but see if I could conjure up a feast from a few sad pieces. Firstly the question of the salad, as it was indeed questionable. But with a new found zeal I washed it thoroughly and span it in the salad spinner until it was positively dizzy and it did seem to bring it back from the brink. I had some stems of purple sprouting broccoli remaining and hoped they could join the party but they were way too furry and no amount of mouth to mouth resuscitation would persuade me to eat them - so straight in the green bin. They were a few remaining rashers of smoky bacon left after the canapés on horseback the other night so they got snipped into a a frying pan. A few cubes of slightly over-mature Cheddar and a golden yolk oozing over the Balsamic drizzled resurrected lamb's lettuce later and a new dish was born!

And rather dashing did it look on my new RE-found objects cutlery-printed linen table mats. It seemed very appropriate as re-found specialise in REmarkable, REcycled, REscued and REstored objects which seem entirely in keeping with the theme of today's salvaged salad.

The return of the risotto

I’ve particularly enjoyed the latest offering from delicious and olive this month. I generally find a couple of things to inspire me as I eagerly flick through the colourful pages but they’ve both themed their magazines this time around and they’re both a winner. For May, olive has gone all British again which I’ve admired in previous years. And to counteract that delicious have embraced all that is Italian, and it just looks, well bellisimo. Having some leftover dense potato and leek risotto from the dinner party the other night burning a hole in my fridge, I pounce on the Cheese and ham rice cakes recipe.

Traditionally your remaining risotto is shaped into little Arancini di riso but my abhorrence towards deep frying makes this unlikely. And it’s not deep fried food I object to but me wrestling with rivers of hot oil in my bijou and incredibly flammable kitchen. But these little risotto beauties are baked in the oven, no nasty combustible oil.

Last time I wanted to recycle some remaining risotto I pan-fried them which worked okay but the act of turning the cakes in the oil proved tricky and bits made a bid for freedom, so this ‘leave alone’ in the oven option might be a little safer.

The recipe used either freshly made or leftover risotto, and it suggested adding ham, mozzarella and an egg to the cooled risotto. I decided to serve my egg on the side instead and not having any mozzarella or ham to hand I just decided to stick to the tasty Jersey Royals and leek already in the risotto. With dampened hands I shaped my risotto into balls and then flatten into discs, popped them onto a baking tray, cling wrapped and slid into the fridge for 20 minutes. As the original risotto had been more robust than your average one, I think I was able to forgo the egg successfully. However if the original dish has been more all’onda as it should have been, I guess the eggy glue would have been more relevant.

The oven was set to 200^o C, the cakes removed from the fridge and dipped first in flour, then beaten egg and finally some fine dried breadcrumbs. The risotto cakes were returned to the baking tray and baked for 10-15 minutes until a lovely golden brown.

And the result was truly delicious, next time I might bury a morsel of torn mozzarella or even a spoonful of pesto before shaping into cakes. Who need deep-frying?

Mozzarella in carrozza

We’d spotted the idea whilst flicking through a stack of our old favourites – Olive, Delicious and Waitrose Food Illustrated and when I mentioned to D that I didn’t think I’d ever had eggy bread she thought we really should address this. I suspect this particular version first came to my attention when Nigella extolled the virtues of these soggy and pulpy mozzarella in a carriage (a bread one, I assume) on Nigella Bites when it first hit our screens. She recommended using ‘white plastic bread’ as the texture does rather lend itself to squelching the two halves together in the eggy, milky mixture. Be prepared to get a little messy!

We made some sliced mozzarella sandwiches out of our crustless white bread and dipped each side into a little flour. Then the floury sandwich was flipped over in a shallow dish of beaten egg, milk and black pepper. The whole sandwich was fried in a little oil and butter until tinged with golden brown.

The recipe did suggest perhaps a little leftover Parma ham could be added to the sandwich before anointing in the egg-blushed bath, but the likelihood of there being any leftover meat products in this house was slim and none and today was no exception.

A purple dinner

I’ve been left alone to decorate the table whilst D tends to the incredible roasted shoulder of lamb with smashed veg and greens from Jamie Oliver’s wonderful Jamie at Home book. And to celebrate that we’ve supplemented the purple crockery and platter collection I go slightly purple crazy! The purple hued layered runners are supplemented with the sparkly magenta napkins and purple sparkly napkin rings for the girls and purple not so sparkly with silver stars for the boys. D’s new purple satin handbags and shoe Christmas decorations are removed form the tree and transferred to the table, with the purple shiny ex-Mardi Gras beads, mirrored candles and the metal snowflakes strewn randomly (?) in the gaps in between.

Everyone has got customised cutlery for tonight - D her purple set (of course!), LLcT with iron weapons forged in a volcano fire by Thor, MC with his Christmas Global-esque knife and fork, E(D) with dinky little dusty sized (aka baby’s first) cutlery and me with my ever so elegant new today LLB silverware.

I was determined not to waste the remaining lobster and whipped up the tiniest starters of puff pastry cases stuffed to the brim with creamy lobster and remaining seafood goodies. These I topped with puff pastry initials which I did unfortunately singe a tad. But everything was polished off rather sharpish so I don’t think anyone really minded.

The main event of the evening was the juicy Mr. Knibbs’ lamb, which is slashed, anointed with oil and then slow roasted for four hours on a bed of large sprigs of rosemary and unpeeled garlic cloves. The stunning woolly beast is served with gently sautéed cabbage and potatoes, Swedes and carrots all smashed together. The popular piquant sauce is capers, chicken stock, a large bunch of mint and red vinegar. Jamie is right, the shredded lamb is incredible and melt-in-the mouth and the vegetables aren't too bad either.

A purple-tastic meal indeed!

Bubble

One of us was delighted that there was leftover mashed potato and Brussels sprouts from Christmas Day because then a fat bubble and squeak could be made and then pan-fried alongside a sunny-yolked egg. One of us didn’t really fancy the mash and sprouts the first time round. Hmmm!

But how could anyone resist a bit of bubble? Personally I think it looks very fine indeed!

Four and twenty blackbirds...

I’m not really sure how I ended up with a flock of blackbird pie funnels. I don’t exactly have four and twenty but I have ‘accidentally’ ended up with more than is really deemed necessary. The urge to procure my first pie funnel was when I watching Mark Hix making his magnificent Rabbit and Crayfish Stargazy pie on the Great British Menu and I pondered how I could have managed so long without one. Then a casual glance on eBay with D whilst she was looking for some Clarence Cliff pieces allowed my beady eye to spot a fine Clarence Cliff blackbird funnel, hmmm I really should bid for that little birdy. But when this one flew in, I really felt that it probably should be kept as a thing of beauty and not baked in anything. It is rather old after all and has been well looked after by one careful owner. So I went back to eBay for one with less esteemed provenance and somehow managed to bag a job lot of them. It was an accident I can assure you! But in the usual fashion of eBay browsing I also espied a Royal Worchester darling black bird pie funnel which was unusual as the elegant sculptural bird is inserted into the plain white ceramic funnel after baking. The advantage being that the gorgeous bird doesn’t suffer the ministrations of an unforgiving oven and it adds a certain stateliness to the pie proceedings you must admit.

I had threatened that my next pie would feature all my burgeoning collection of pie funnels randomly gulping for air above the pie crust but I resisted. This elegant bird is my favourite after all, it is rather a little black beauty!

Making a ‘proper’ pie, one with a funnel and all I am immediately transported back to the homely and grown-up kitchen of the fabulous R & G. After a hard day’s work it was so comforting to arrive there and exchange a large bunch of flowers for a fat wodge of the finest of steak and kidney pies. Sat around their antique table, we’d drink wine; listen to music and gossip about just about everything! Happy days!

But what about my pie? I don't have some steak and kidney begging to be given one of the worthiest of treatments so it was rather a let’s use up those bits lurking around the bottom of the fridge again. The filling was finely sliced sautéed leek rounds, chunks of the last of the unsmoked back bacon, sliced hard boiled eggs, one large field mushroom, some double cream and a little thyme, now more dry than fresh. The pie top was fashioned out of the rather stiff leftover puff pastry. It had gotten somewhat dry in the fridge and when I attempted to unfurl it the pastry snapped into four useless slivers. So I had to resort to re-rolling the puff pastry and hoping it would forgive me. I figured that it wouldn’t puff as much as it should but that’s fine, the P - I - E adornments wouldn’t balloon and swell out of all proportions as you’d expect with un-mucked about with puff pastry. I also dampened the pastry a little with a very squeezed out sheet of kitchen towel, I know, you bakers out there are now reading this with eye wide open in terror. I had initially pinched the edges of the pie together in the usual way but then I rather randomly forked around the pie dish also. Hence the extra rustic appearance of my egg and bacon pie. Ah well, I’ll never get a job at Bighams’, Pie Minister or Pukka and I'm sure R & G would be shocked but it was rather gorgeous, extremely delicious and my sweet little bird got to spread its wings for the first time.
Wasn't that a dainty dish to serve before J?

The chicken part 2

I don’t want to have the same dinner as yesterday but I have exactly the same ingredients so I need a little re-imagining. The chicken is already baked so it gets chopped up topping and all has a light sauté. The vegetables and new potatoes are steamed and then sliced and added to the chicken. The whole lot is anointed double cream and some grainy mustard.
The resultant dish is actually rather good!

Secret garden

We are off to a life on the ocean waves today and I thought we should have something a little heartier as we've got quite a while until we get to eat again. I had promised my ever present standby now an oeuf en cocotte, and just thought I'd use what was left in my almost bare fridge. I didn't really consider I was preparing this for an infamous vegetable dodger as I chopped up my remaining organic leeks, added the last sliver of Parma ham and top with grated Cheddar and and an egg. This was finished off with some buttered toasted soldiers for dunking.
Whoops, sorry about all those leeks M, you can have two weeks of vegetable avoiding if you like!

The meal after the Sunday lunch before

I’ve always been quite excited by the prospect of creating something new, fabulous and of course extremely tasty from a previous meals leftovers. Obviously the main criterion is that the original meal must have been pretty fine in the first place otherwise it’s rather an uphill struggle. I remember attempting to resurrect some smoked gammon that started off way too salty (a poor purchase I have to admit) and all the subsequent attempts to revive it produced more and more salty dishes. Big mistake!

But this time I had the remaining chicken from Sunday lunch, some bacon, another elderly leek and a couple of new potatoes that I thought might be for composting but they were just salvageable. Often the re-imagined meal isn’t as attractive as the original was but it’s all about taste - think corned beef hash, bubble & squeak or a shepherd's pie. Not that shepherd's pie isn't a wonderful thing but the mash potato topping can disguise a multitude of sins. I have always been partial to a fish pie, cottage pie or shepherd's pie. I guess the irony is that a dish that was probably first created to use up leftovers of cod, beef or lamb respectively is now a real gourmet treat with the finest fresh ingredients and not a way of reworking the Sunday joint. A quotation I've seen attributed to several people on the subject is "The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found." I don't seem to have any childhood traumas of the same food be re-presented for several meals, I've certainly never had to endure an infamous turkey curry (not that wild horses would have made me eat it!) so I don't feel oppressed by a few second-hand fridge inhabitants, instead I see it as an exciting challenge.
This time is was everything in the big sauté pan for the second meal, finished with a touch of double cream to ensure it remained moist and of course served with the ever-present mâche curling gently at the edge of the plate. Not a bad rehash at all!

Well I didn't want to waste it...

I thought I might as well use the remaining wild mushroom and Parmesan topping from Gordon’s mushroom topped steaks recipe last night to have some luscious extravagant scrambled eggs. It worked very well and I had the satisfaction of not wasting any of the fabulous mixture.

Apparently I was addicted to scrambled eggs as a baby then I wouldn’t eat them for many a year though I'd happily cook them for others and now I just love them. Especially when they’re this good!

The day after the night before...

Today is for leftovers. I don’t mind this as often something extremely tasty comes from re-imagining a previous meal. In fact I had set my heart on whipping up some bubble and squeak from the fabulous Brussels sprouts, pancetta and chestnuts but M was a little too keen in the clean up and they got black bagged before I could secure them. Shame!

First it was a little more of the yummy PIMM’S Winter drink. This was made with 3 parts apple juice, 1 part PIMM’s No.3 Winter warmed gently on the stove with a few slices of red apple (though apparently slices of orange is a good choice as well). Oooh I feel Christmassy already!

And then it was an M speciality – a meal of canapés! We polished off the remaining lobster, hot smoked salmon and prawn spoons and also the ever-lovely mini coquilles St. Jacques – both from M&S. The miniature scallops wasn’t strictly a leftover, as we hadn’t served them yesterday. But we did finish off with the cheese (finally) and more ginger chocolate pots.

Risotto - take two

I've never been really successful with previous attempts at revitalising leftover risotto before, but I was determined to give it another go. The most common recipe for using up yesterday's risotto is to make arancini - deep dried balls of risotto, sometimes containing some meat ragù or a cube of cheese. But I have a deep-seated deep-frying anxiety! And before you think that this is on health grounds and that this j has been swapped with an alternate j from a parallel blog who worries about such issues, I’ll explain. For me, it's more about the practicalities of all that hot, hot oil. I could never consider deep-frying anything in my tiny, windowless (but well-loved!) kitchen - everything is just a bit too flammable! I think I saw the public information film about the danger of chip pans too many times and I am also slightly related to a fireman to risk all that hot fat. In addition, I've always worried about what you do with the oil once you've finished all that deep-frying. I guess if you know someone who could recycle it into bio fuel and drive his or her car with it, that would be rather a green solution! Or I seem to recall that you can make some tasty treat for the bird table with fat, a coconut shell and some nuts. But I don't have a bird table or for that matter - a coconut shell. So I need to find some alternate ways of cooking the remaining risotto and turn it into something fabulous.

Giorgio Locatelli suggests baking the remaining risotto in a torta (cake or pie) in the oven until brown on top. Alternatively, he suggests frying the risotto in a little olive oil, patting it down into a round cake shape. This is cooked for 4-5 minutes until golden brown and then is turned over and sautéed until golden brown on the other side.

The lovely Italian Cenzina who is hosting the risotto themed 'hey, hey it's Donna Hay day' on her gorgeous site il cavoletto di Bruxelles (if only I could read Italian!) suggests a very similar treatment...

- Risotto is at it’s best al momento, if you have leftovers, try this Italian style recycling: instead of microwaving, just put your risotto in a non stick pan with a spoon of melted butter, spreading it to make a 1cm thick fritter, let cook until golden on both sides, and you’ll have riso al salto. Great with a green salad on the side.

I decided to go with Cenzina’s version and in honour of her website (which I think translates as 'Brussels sprout', I accompanied my risotto cake with some of the aforementioned baby cabbage. It worked okay but it’s very difficult to keep the cake in a cake shape and not just end up with a messy heap of risotto grains. I think next time I would mix the cooked risotto with an egg, not only would this keep the mixture together better but taste good also!

It was very tasty - not at good at risotto the first time round but a close second! If I have an excess of risotto next time, I would try this again or maybe I’d have a go at Giorgio’s grandmother’s method in the oven. I also found some suggestions for stuffing birds or vegetables with leftover risotto and even a suggestion to use it to thicken a soup. Hmmm, it’s almost worth making extra on purpose every time.
I have no fear of leftover risotto now - I embrace it!