The Use-It-All Cookbook - Bish Muir

A very handy book to help you with ideas for using up the contents of your fridge before it spoils. Make a note of what you have and use the A-Z guide to find a delicious recipe.

Do you have to throw away that single carrot? How can you make that cold chicken tasty? Can you use that half pot of yoghurt at the back of the fridge?

The Use-It-All Cookbook is packed with ideas for using your leftovers including that sad-looking carrot or hard cheese at the back of the fridge. Soups, stews, pies, and risottos sit alongside delicious quick recipes and tasty juices and smoothies.

It includes: an easy to use A-Z of leftover food and how to use it up basic recipes which can be adapted for a variety of leftovers quick and easy recipe ideas advice on planning, buying and storing food

With The Use-It-All Cookbook you can drastically reduce your food waste, save money and do your bit for the planet at the same time.

Shopping Techniques - Damage Limitation

Most of us have constraints on the amount of time that we can spend on planning our shopping. Here are some simple techniques to help avoid waste.

Step One: Shop regularly.

This way you are not pressured into over catering for ‘just in case’ situations. You will also have a better idea of what is lurking in your fridge if you left it there the day before.

Step Two: Buy small packs

Loaves of bread for example are now available in half sizes. Or alternatively, buy packs that can be broken down and frozen. Bulk packs may be cheaper but remember to factor in the cost of what you might be wasting.

Step Three: Stick to what you know.

A TV chef might have been demonstrating an exotic ingredient the night before but unless you know how and when you are going to use it avoid the impulse purchase.

Step Four: Check the ‘Use By’ date.

If you are shopping for one you have to be realistic about how quickly you will use an item up. There is nothing wrong with taking packs from the back of the display if an extra couple of day’s shelf life will make the difference between you eating it all or binning it.

Step Five: Avoid unrealistic resolutions.

Don’t stock up with healthy food if you are never going to get around to eating it. Keep a note of what you throw away and if you spot a pattern reduce what you buy and save money.

Step Six: Set yourself a budget.

Instead of using plastic to pay for your purchases just take out the amount of cash that you intend to spend. It is a guaranteed way to avoid buying items you do not want or need.

Step Seven: Don’t go shopping until you need to.

Will you really go hungry if you don’t shop, or, with a bit of imagination, can you use up what you have to make a tasty supper?

So you see, with a few simple techniques, you can stop wasting food and start saving money.

Finally, if your car boot is usually empty, keep a large cool bag or box in there (with some spare reusable shopping bags.) When packing your groceries in the shop, put all the chilled/frozen items together in the same bag, then pop the bag into the cool box. Having all the cold things together will keep them at a safe temperature for a while without an ice pack. The shopping stays cool until you get home - which on a warm day could make quite a difference to how long it lasts.

Leftover Makeovers - Victoria Shearer

Never again sit down to a warmed-over meal of the same old leftovers.

With more than 100 scrumptious recipes, this book offers a revolutionary approach to the world of meal preparation and leftovers.

Begin by choosing a core recipe, which makes enough to thoroughly satisfy and have leftovers. Each core recipe is followed by one or more original recipes that turn those leftovers into an entirely new delectable dish.

With Leftover Makeovers, last night's leftovers become fresh fare with international flavors and creative twists.

Over Salting and Burnt Rice - Remedies

1.    Over salting is a simple mistake, especially if you are reducing a liquid, or adding salty ingredients like bacon. As a rule, always add the salt at the end of the cooking process, tasting as you do, but if you have added too much do not despair.  Add some extra water and a raw, peeled potato and cook for an extra 20 minutes. The potato will reduce the salt. Other ways to disguise saltiness is by adding a small can of tomatoes or a little plain yoghurt, whichever is most suitable for the particular dish involved.

2.    If your stew is too thin, fish the solids out with a slotted spoon then reduce the sauce separately by boiling. If necessary mix a spoonful of corn flour with some cold water and stir in thoroughly away from the heat, then cook through. Adding breadcrumbs works to thicken rustic dishes.

3.    Been a bit heavy with the curry powder? Try adding some honey or some sweet sherry to balance it out. If you have added too much chilli drop in half a lemon and simmer (remove lemon before serving.)

4.    If you have a pan of stew or similar simmering on the stove, stir it every now and then to stop it sticking. If when you do you feel it starting to catch on the bottom loosen with the spoon and stir more frequently.

5.    Boiled rice on the other hand should only be stirred ONCE, when you add it to the water. Frequent stirring loosens the starch grains and makes it go sticky (which is what you DO want with risotto.)

6.    If a pan of rice starts to burn (when all the water has been absorbed or boiled off) take it off the heat and place a slice of white bread on the top of the rice and let it sit for a few minutes (5-10). The burnt taste will be gone but be sure not to scrape the bottom of the pan. The bread is for the birds I’m afraid as it holds the burnt flavours.

7.    Similarly, if you have left a pan of stew on the hob for too long and it has stuck, take it off the heat and rest the pan base in cold water to stop further burning. Carefully transfer the unburned bits to a new pan, add some more water and carry on cooking. If there is still a burned taste add something like Worcestershire sauce, tomato puree, spice or herbs to disguise it.

8.    To avoid the pan boiling dry when steaming vegetables place a glass marble in the bottom. If the water gets too low the rattling will alert you.

The Story of Lobby - Part 2

Liverpool is not the starting point of the Lobscouse story, merely a stopping off point. Here it can be traced back to Norwegian sailors who had a long tradition of trading with Northern English ports. The Norwegians have a dish called Lapskaus, virtually a national dish, that uses the weekend's remaining food, usually carrots, potatoes, pork sausages in slices or beef cut small and which is served with unleavened bread.

The Norwegian ships carried German crew members who would have been familiar with a dish known as Labskaus. At a time when sailing vessels remained at sea for weeks, months, or even years, the crew had to live on provisions which lasted for a long time such as salted meat, biscuits, pickles, potatoes and onions. The Smutje (Northern German for 'mucky pup' – the ship's cook) had to provide the crew with a filling, nourishing meal from whatever provisions that were left after a few weeks at sea. It was a common joke that if anything was lost on board it would eventually turn up in the Labskaus. Sometimes beetroot was blended in with the dish rather than served as an accompaniment giving it a lurid pink colour.

Labskaus is still a popular dish in Germany and can be found on restaurant menus particularly around Bremen, Hamburg and Lubeck. The dish tends to consist of salted meat or corned beef, onions and mashed potato, fried in lard. This is served with pickled herrings, beetroot and sometimes a fried egg or two on top. The basic recipe is similar to the British dish called Hash.

Lazarus Vegetables

I'm afraid there are all too many of us that have found something similar to this lurking at the bottom of our vegetable store....

This poor specimen was once a lovely parsnip but if there was an RSPC for vegetables then I would be looking at a life time ban for neglect. All it is fit for now is compost.......or is it?

Pop it in a galss of water and leave for 24 hours and.......

As if by magic it is rejuvenateed. It's not going to win anything at an agricultural show but it is now fit for supper.

Par boil for 10 minutes and drain, then while still steaming, roll in a mix of plain flour and grated parmesan cheese seasoned with a little salt and black pepper, Roast in a little oil for 30 mins at 180C, turning halfway through. Delicious!! Another meal reprieved.



The Perfect Shopper

‘When I go shopping I am in control. I know what I want, stick to a budget and that is all that I purchase.’

There are very few of us who can honestly say that this statement applies to them. In fact retailers spend a lot of money researching what influences our shopping habits and we are open to any number of strategies that target our distinct personality types.

That plastic reward card in your purse or wallet will have you tagged as a certain category of shopper. Supermarkets love the ‘Last Minute Dashers’ who rush through the shop on their way home from work, grabbing whatever looks the most tempting.

Less popular are the ‘Cherry Pickers’ who stalk the aisles hunting out the loss leaders and other bargains. The marketing gurus’ aim is to turn them into ‘Big Dippers’ who then blow their savings by splurging on luxury items as a reward for their bargain hunting.

As we are all different it is difficult to come up with a set of guidelines to help people shop smarter that applies to everyone.

So let us take the ideal scenario. You are an affluent, computer savvy, parent whose children eat whatever you put in front of them. You have a range of shopping options within easy reach, your own transport and a fully equipped modern kitchen with more than ample storage. Oh, and of course, you are a skilled cook with plenty of spare time.

So, at which point did you drop out of the picture?

Anyway, let us start with the impossibly perfect and then try and make it apply to the rest of us.

Step One: Make an inventory

Check out what you already have in stock. Have a look at what is likely to go out of date and plan to use these items first.

Step Two: Research

Supermarkets make us feel good by giving us special offers that encourage us to buy more in the first place, and then spend what we have saved.

You can find these offers on the internet at sites like Supermarket.co.uk . So why not plan ahead and check out these offers in advance. Then you are not faced with having to take decisions in the store where clever marketing is designed to cloud your judgement.

Step Three: Plan your meals

You now know what you have to use up and what bargains will be there to tempt you in store. Ideally, you should now plan a rolling menu for the week based on a batch cooked dish to which fresh ingredients can be added to making varied and exciting new meals over a number of days.

Step Four: Make a Shopping List

This is the best way to make sure that you buy everything you require and do not end up with items that will end up being wasted. It also avoids last minute return trips for missed items.

Step Five: Eat before you go shopping

A well balanced snack that will make you feel full for at least an hour is ideal. Avoid confectionary or processed carbohydrates that might lead to a blood sugar crash in the middle of your shop and leave you vulnerable to a snack attack. It’s a simple trick but highly effective.

Step Six: Avoid going shopping with the kids (which I do understand can be virtually impossible.) The reason is that advertisers see your children as third parties to help access your cash. We are all bombarded by adverts and young children are the most heavily influenced by them. Pester power can have a heavy influence on what we buy but does not guarantee that your kids will actually eat it when you get it home.

Step Seven: Stick to the List!

If you do not have too much to buy use a basket rather than a trolley. You are then less likely to overload yourself with extra items. Walking or taking public transport as opposed to using the car has a similar effect.

Do not be tempted by last minute bargains. If products with a short shelf life have been drastically reduced think carefully if you can actually either use them or process and store them. Having said that, short life produce can result in bargains and if you can use them it stops the Supermarkets from binning them instead.

Step Eight: Pay by cash

If you only carry enough cash for what you want to buy then you cannot overspend.

Congratulations, successful shopping mission accomplished.

Eating with our eyes

All food experts will tell you that we eat with our eyes. Rightly or wrongly, we make up our minds if we are going to like something within a few seconds of first catching sight of it. And of course, you don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression.

If what you serve up doesn’t look good then it has to taste twice as good to get people to enjoy it, if they even try it in the first place!

Serving up re-heated brown sludge is what gave recycled food the bad press in the first place. If all else fails, a covering of toasted cheese over the top of a dish will at least hide the worst of it.

But of course there are numerous other ways to make your dishes look attractive. Taking into account that yesterday’s food will tend to be well cooked, limp and often brown you may well have to resort to the culinary make-up box.

You may have noticed that Supermarkets always have their fruit and vegetables close to the front door. They are there to give a fresh and wholesome impression as you walk in. (Ideally they would be at the far end so that your grapes don’t get squashed at the bottom of your trolley.) So why not borrow a bit of their psychology and dress up your dish with some fresh salad, and keep your perishables turning over at the same time. Get inventive with what is in the fridge. Raw grated carrot adds a splash of colour and mixes with all manner of fruit and vegetables in salads and slaws for an attractive side dish.

 

Adding fresh vegetables and fruit to any dish is a great way to liven it up, and help you towards your five a day. Ideally you should be trawling through your fridge or veg cupboard before every meal and using up whatever you have to hand. Frozen vegetables can work just as well, with the advantage that you use just what you need and the rest stays in the packet. Using a mixture of fresh and frozen gives you the best of both worlds. Whatever you choose, some colourful fresh vegetables either steamed, stir fried or as a crunchy salad will immediately attract the eye.

Don’t be afraid to add fruit to savory dishes to help use it up. Pork loves a bit of sweetness. Apple is a classic combination, along with pears, but don’t forget stoned fruit such as peaches and plums or even prunes. Grapes also work well, especially with chicken dishes, and if they are from the bottom of the fruit bowl just peel them first.

The Story of Lobby - Part 1

Who would have thought that a traditional German dish made from leftovers served with pickled herrings and beetroot would have resulted in the colloquial name for Liverpudlians?

All this and more can be found in the history of Lobby, a traditional Staffordshire favourite.

Lobby is a classic leftovers dish. It is basically meat, animal bones and onions, boiled in a pot with some water. Whatever else was to hand went in to add flavour and nourishment. Lobby was a staple for the poorly paid workers in the local potteries who could not afford more than basic fare.  Inhabitants of the town of Leigh came to be known as ‘Lobby Gobblers;’ as opposed to their neighbours, the ‘Pie Eaters’ of Wigan.

Lobby is similar to any number of stews that you might find around Britain or indeed Europe.  It is the source of its name that can be traced back along the canals that the potters used to send their wares to Liverpool. There you can find a dish called Lobscouse from which Lobby was derived.

The traditional recipe for Lobscouse consists of a cheap cut of lamb, chopped up and browned in a large saucepan, to which is added chopped onion, carrots, and water or meat stock. The final ingredient is a large quantity of diced potato. The sauce is not thickened but relies on the potato starch to give it its consistency. Beetroot or red cabbage are the traditional accompaniments along with bread and butter to mop up the juices. A more impoverished variety of this dish was known as 'blind Scouse', Lobscouse without the meat.

Locally this potato stew was known as the shorter form, Scouse, from which the term Scousers was derived, meaning the people from Liverpool who ate the stew. (The accent allegedly comes from Irish migrants travelling to Liverpool to work in the polluted, rainy dockyards. Living in damp, crowded lodgings they promptly caught head colds and the Scouse twang developed – a Belfast accent spoken with a bunged up nose.)

With Liverpool being such an important trading port the dish of Lobscouse travelled along the inland waterways to different parts of Britain and is well known in North Wales as Lobsgows, a traditional ‘quarry supper’ in local villages and towns. Not surprisingly, leeks feature heavily in the Welsh version.

Margaret Atwood - the Amoeba's Tale

Here is the gist of Margaret Atwood's tale

At midday an amoeba is sealed into a test-tube full of food. The amoeba feeds and divides in two every two minutes. By midnight all the food is gone, the test-tube is full of amoebas and they start to die from starvation.

At what time would the amoeba realise that there was a problem? (That is if they were capable of rational thought.) Well, at two minutes to midnight they are still content in the knowledge that there is still half a test-tube of food left……

Unfortunately, Man’s relationship with the planet is not so straightforward. We are rushing towards our equivalent of two minutes to midnight on several fronts at the same time.

With the World population heading towards 9 Billion around 2050 this means that we will need to produce the same amount of food over the next 40 years as mankind has consumed to date.

We have been burning up fossil fuels produced over millions of years at an ever increasing rate. Not only do we rely on them to farm, transport and store our food, we are increasingly reliant on them for fertilisers and pesticides to maintain crop yields.

Even without Global Warming we are still heading towards water bankruptcy. About 70 major rivers around the world are close to being totally drained in order to supply water for irrigation and reservoirs.

We are also heading towards a peak demand in Phosphorous, an element essential to life. Most of the world’s resources are being used to improve farm land. It forms an irreplaceable part of cell membranes, energy transfer molecules and DNA – it is truly part of every living thing.

At least we do still have some time to act. Governments will take time and persuasion to they have an impact. Individuals have no such inertia. You could start to play your part today

Cooking Disasters & How To Avoid Them - No1

A big cause of food waste is the dreaded cooking disaster. Not only does the food go in the bin but you have wasted all the time and effort of preparing it. Here is No1 in a series of tips on how to avoid and get around these events and a few other food saving techniques as well.

• Don’t tell people what you are serving until it arrives at the table. If the food doesn’t turn out as expected invent a name that better describes what you have produced. For example, if the pastry on your pie burns, remove it and cover the pie with the cooked potatoes you were going to serve with it (mashed or sliced) and put it under the grill for a couple of minutes to brown. It is now Shepherds or Cottage Pie or whatever you fancy. Only you will know that wasn’t how it was intended.

This has saved me some embarrassment  on a number of occasions. I was once serving a dessert with a fruit sorbet and left it out of the freezer for too long. No time to re-freeze it so I called it a chilled coulis & was complemented and asked for the recipe.

Salad days

As the salad season starts avoid committing your lettuce and spring onions to a messy death in the crisper drawer of your fridge. Simply keep them in a glass of cold, clean water on the windowsill and they will stay crisp and fresh.

Always buy spring onions with the roots still attached. This not only keeps them fresher for longer, but when you are ready to eat them you can plant the root ends in earth and they will continue to grow into new plants. Free food!!

About the Author

I don’t know why I have always had a more intense fascination with food than most of my peers. Even from an early age one of my favourite programmes was the Galloping Gourmet, Grahame Kerr, cooking with a passion and exuberance that I immediately identified with. My mother fed us a great variety of home cooked meals including stuffed ox hearts and sheep’s’ tongue stew so I was lucky to be exposed to a great variety of tastes and flavours as were available then

I grew up in Leatherhead in Surrey and first got interested in catering during a summer job at Chessington Zoo. Yup, entertaining visitors from behind bars. We also waited on weddings and Jacobean banquets in the Burnt Stub function halls.

I then moved down to Bournemouth and spent 6 months at the Moat House Hotel before starting a three year catering course. My work experience was spent at the Little Grove Hotel on Jersey, a member of Relais Chateau. My food epiphany came in my final year when our Gastronomy lecturer, took us to visit his good friend Michel Roux at the legendary Waterside Inn. Food for me was never going to be the same again.

My daughter was born just after my course ended so instead of a poorly paid apprenticeship I sold my soul to the Big Mac and enrolled in Hamburger University.

After a few years I needed something more stimulating and switched to pubs, or to be more precise, the Gander on the Green in Bournemouth. A lively little place, well known as a music venue and home to two chapters of Hells Angels. Jan, the landlady (& ex-psychiatric nurse) taught me all she could & eventually I reluctantly headed off around London and the South on the relief circuit, providing holiday and sickness cover at numerous hostelries.

I eventually took on the Abbey, a pub/night club on the North Circular near Wembley, but this proved a step too far. A glazier used to call in on the off chance every Monday morning and there was usually enough work to make it worth his while. I left to pursue a career with a longer life expectancy.

My move took me to a company called Beeton Rumford, responsible for catering at all the events at Earls Court & Olympia Exhibition Centres. This was extreme catering with numbers totally off the scale to what I had previously encountered. For several years we set new records for the largest silver service banquets with up to 11,500 guests at one sitting. We also looked after most of the Royal family and other assorted dignitaries and every celebrity going. Hosting the Brit Awards each year was always good for name dropping. It also means that I have spent 6 months of my life at the Ideal Home Exhibition, enough for several lifetimes.

P&O, our parent company, sold off the Exhibition Centres but I had the opportunity to move to Sainsburys and join their New Product Development Team. This really was eating for a living. Working with the Fish team I drew up a rota that ensured that we sampled each product at least once every two weeks. High volume lines came in every couple of days. At 9.30am we looked at the raw products, sampling the ready to eat varieties such as smoked salmon and prawns. At 11am we returned to sample those that required cooking. We met up again for lunch and afterwards I would meet with suppliers to sample products in development or sample our competitor’s offerings. In the evenings we were encouraged to go out with the restaurant club to experience hot new trends as they hit the streets.

From Sainsburys I moved to Safeway and worked with the Brand Manager on a re-launch of their premium 'the Best’ range. This involved talking to suppliers about what made their product ‘the best and yes, more eating. Then Morrisons took over Safeway and it was time for another move.

I enjoyed my time with the Supermarkets and learned a lot about the dynamics involved in driving the business. However, I was never really comfortable with the power that we wielded over the suppliers. So, when I saw that London Rowing Club in Putney was after an events manager I leapt at the chance to return to catering. A beautiful Victorian boathouse, right on the river Thames, the Club hosts weddings, parties and conferences and then goes mad in March with the men’s and women’s Head of the River Races and the Varsity Boatrace. To start with my role involved cooking twice a week for about 25 people, the Rotary Club on a Monday and the Rowing Club ‘old boys’ on a Wednesday. This was ideal as I could practise a dish on the Monday to be sure of perfecting it for the Wednesday. I was proud of the fact that I did not repeat a weekly menu for the first 18 months.

A couple of years ago my wife and I decided to move to Wales to be close to her family. They mainly live around Abergavenny, a notoriously foodie area with Michelin stars, fantastic local produce and a huge annual food fair. So I did not need much persuading.

We decided to set up in business and chose a Lighterlife franchise as my wife was already a trained counsellor and we both believed in the product. So now I am poacher turned gamekeeper. I am learning all about obesity issues and encouraging people to lose weight by eating food packs and attending counselling sessions to re-establish a healthy relationship with food.

The Lighterlife work is very rewarding and we have seen some life changing transformations as some of our clients have lost more than half their original body weight. But this brings me on to a caveat for my campaign to avoid food waste. A frequent contributing factor to weight issues in people of a certain age has been their parent’s war time mentality that not to clear you plate was a sin. At times of rationing this was not an issue and the country was a lot healthier for it but we also hear stories of relatives who survived times of starvation who would break down in tears if they saw food being wasted.

These days with an overabundance of convenient, super-sized, instant gratification a lot of caution is required, but simple portion control can be one of our greatest weapons on all fronts.

Meanwhile I still cook from scratch and love entertaining at home but always with an eye on what food waste makes it through to the recycling bin.