I’m pretty pleased with myself this week. On my three allocated days for making dinner for the family, I made three very tasty meals; but more than that, I used up some rather old food items which would otherwise have had to be thrown out.
On Sunday night it was the four skinny cutlets left over from a few days before for the girls’ dinner; they definitely wouldn’t have lasted another day. I served that with a delicious Jamie Oliver salad of baked carrot, avocado (again, using up what I could salvage from some avocados that wouldn’t have had another day in them); wilted rocket leaves, and the last few spoonfulls of the tub of yoghurt with a dressing of pounded cumin, thyme and garlic thickening olive oil mixed with orange and lemon juice. The recipe suggested heritage carrots which are available in whites, purples as well as a range of yellows and oranges, but it worked very well with three-week-old dried up standard carrots. We all cleaned our cutlets to the bone.
For dessert, I served broken up chocolate muffins that Steve and the girls had made that morning, mixed with whipped cream and pieces of baked pears (notice that I saved energy by baking the pears at the same time as the carrots). Also delicious.
Tuesday night, after my day off, I made a Jamie Oliver noodle stir fry. For this vegetarian meal, for which the recipe is handily available as an app, I used up some radishes that had been in the fridge for many weeks, some mushrooms that were so old they appeared dehydrated, another limp carrot, the rest of an iceberg lettuce I had bought at least two weeks before for another recipe (I love the crunch and it lasts surprisingly well after you have peeled off the outer leaves), some old beans instead of the listed bean sprouts, and an egg (used by date: that same day) instead of the suggested tofu. The ginger was a shrivelled mushroom-like specimen decaying in the fridge door. I did have fresh mint and coriander though. Again, yummy for adults, and I was satisfied that the girls just helped themselves to the noodles because I had filled them up with carrots that they had cut up themselves just before dinner. (I did forget to sprinkle on the toasted sesame seeds I have had sitting on the bench for a couple of weeks now: another time).
We enjoyed a cut up passionfruit each for dessert: the big, sweet ones called Panama Gold (mine was a bit sour to be honest, but not too bad).
Wednesday night, another Jamie Oliver creation, this one a risotto with purple onion, zucchini (I used up the rest of a huge one Maggie had given us many weeks before from her garden), mint (the rest of the bunch now) and a large ball of five-day-old buffalo mozzarella with grated parmesan. No dessert that night.
I am not always so good at using up leftovers, even though we do plan meals. Somehow there often seems to be missed ingredients or leftovers that languish in the fridge for two or three weeks and go off, mouldy or sour. Most fortnights when I replenish the fridge I find at least five bags or containers of food that need to be thrown out. As I have found this week when using up a smaller number of items in the fridge, if the fridge isn’t crowded you can see what you have and are less likely to waste food (or money). I wasn’t brought up to waste food; and with an increasing world population with depleting resources, there is an imperative for everyone to waste much less (foodwise.com.au points out that the average Australian household discards up to 20% of the food they purchase, costing an average of more than $1,000 per year).
I have surveyed the fridge for tomorrow’s lunch. I can’t wait to get out those uneaten cheese sandwich quarters retrieved from a week’s worth of lunches from the girls’ school lunchboxes. I’ll toast them in the toasted sandwich maker. Maybe sprinkled inside with toasted sesame seeds, with leftover chickpea salad from tonight’s dinner on the side.
Note: this isn’t just an ad for Jamie Oliver food, though I do think he is a genius. Recipes below if you’re tempted.
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Serves 4 |
| Preheat the oven to `80 degrees. Parboil your carrots in boiling, salted water for 10 minutes, until they are very nearly cooked, then drain and put them into a roasting tray. You should flavour them while they’re steaming hot, so while the carrots are cooking get a pestle and mortar and smash up the cumin seeds, chillies, salt and pepper. Add the garlic and thyme leaves and smash up again until you have a kind of paste. Ad enough extra virgin olive oil to generously cover the paste, and a good swig of vinegar. Stir together, then pour over the carrots in the tray, coating them well. Add the orange and lemon halves, cut-side down. These will roast along with the carrots, and their juice can be used as the basis of the dressing. Place in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden.While the carrots are roasting, halve and peel your avocados, discarding the stones, then cut them into wedges lengthwise and place in a big bowl. Remove the carrots from the oven and add them to the avocados. Squeeze (using tongs) the roasted orange and lemon juice into a bowl and add the same amount of extra virgin olive oil and a little swig of red wine vinegar. Season, and pour this dressing over the carrots and avocados. Mix together. Toast or griddle your ciabatta slices. Tear the toasted bread into little pieces and add to the dressed carrot and avocado. Mix together, toss in the salad leaves and cress and transfer to a big platter or divide between individual plates. Spoon over a nice dollop of soured cream, sprinkle over your toasted seeds and drizzle over some extra virgin olive oil. | 500g medium differently coloured carrots2 level teaspoons whole cumin seeds1 or 2 small dried chillies, crumbledSea salt and freshly ground black pepper2 cloves of garlic, peeled
4 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked Extra virgin olive oil Red or white wine vinegar 1 orange, halved 1 lemon, halved 3 ripe avocados 4 x 1cm thick slices of ciabatta or other good-quality bread 2 handfulls of interesting mixed winter salad (like Treviso, rocket, radicchio or cavolo nero tops) 2 punnets of cress 1x142ml pot of soured cream (I used yoghurt) 4 tablespoons mixed seeds, toasted |
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Serves 4 |
| Fill your kettle and put it on to boil. Fill the saucepan with the boiling water and place on a high heat. Once boiling, add a pinch of salt, the noodles and the teabag. Separate the noodles using tongs so they don’t stick together and cook according to packet instructions. Meanwhile peel your carrots with the speed peeler then shave the carrots into ribbons. Place in a mixing bowl and add the beansprouts. Separate the lettuce leaves then wash and spin dry. Trim and slice the radishes as finely as possible and finely chop the lettuce. Add to the mixing bowl and put aside. Place a wok on medium heat. Peel and finely slice the red onion. Thickly slice the mushrooms. Peel and chop the ginger. Pick the mint and coriander leaves and roughly chop them, discard the stalks. When the noodles are cooked, drain in the colander and run under cold running water to cool. Discard the teabag, then tip the noodles into a separate mixing bowl. Toss the noodles with a little sesame oil and a splash of soy sauce and put to one side. Cut the lemon in half. Add a splash of vegetable oil to the hot wok with the slice onions, ginger and mushrooms and stir-fry until just beginning to soften. Break the tofu into bite-sized chunks directly into the wok and stir-fry carefully until warm through. Add a splash of soy sauce and a squeeze of lemon juice then take off the heat. Serve the noodles, vegetables and dressing and top with chopped coriander and mint. Finish with a final squeeze of lemon juice. | 400g firm tofu150g shitake mushrooms1 green teabag2 small carrots300g dried egg noodles
200g beansprouts 6 radishes 2 lemons 4cm fresh ginger 1 small bunch fresh mint Sesame oil Soy sauce Vegetable oil Sea salt |
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Serves 4 |
| Place a large saucepan on a low to medium heat. Peel the onion and trim the celery sticks then finely chop or coarsely grate them. Add the butter to the hot pan with the onion and celery, a splash of olive oil, and a splash of water. Cook over a low heat for around 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until softened. Meanwhile trim the ends of the courgette then slice lengthways into quarters. Cut into chunks. Bring the stock to the boil in a medium saucepan, then turn the heat down to low. Pick the leaves off the mint stalks and put them to one side. Add the stalks to the saucepan of stock. Finely grate the parmesan. Once your vegetables are very soft but not browned, add the rice to the pan. Stir and fry the rice for a minute until translucent, then add the wine and keep stirring until all the wine has been absorbed by the rice. Turn the heat under the rice up to medium then add a ladleful of hot stock, avoiding the mint stalks – these are there to add flavour but not to be eaten. Stir constantly and continue adding stock, a ladle at a time, waiting for the rice to soak it all up before adding the next ladleful. Continue until you’ve used two-thirds of the stock. Meanwhile finely chop the mint leaves and the chilli (deseeded if you don’t like things too spicy).Stir the chopped courgettes into the stock, and keep adding it until the risotto has a nice oozy consistency. If you run out of stock use boiling water. Take the pan of risotto off the heat. Tear the ball of mozzarella into pieces and stir into the pan with half of the chopped mint leaves. Stir through half of your grated parmesan. Season and cover with a lid. Serve topped with the remaining parmesan, a sprinkle of chopped mint and fresh chilli then tuck in. | 2 small courgettes1 small bunch fresh mint2x250g ball buffalo mozzarella1 red onion2 sticks celery
1 knob butter 300g risotto rice 800ml vegetable stock 200ml white wine 1 medium red chilli 50g parmesan cheese Olive oil Sea salt Black pepper
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