I love serendipity cooking! Some call it bottom-of-the-fridge, some iffits (if it's there bung it in) but I like serendipity!
I suppose that there are many fridges in which things lurk. There's a slightly wilting pepper, the last four mushrooms, a couple of sticks of celery or whatever. Well, apart from the moral aspect of food waste, "whatever" cost money and I chose to buy it so it's going to get used.
A check on my fridge revealed that I had carrots, onions, celery, and peppers which wouldn't last much longer. There was a box of chestnut mushrooms, an aubergine and some roast peppers trying to look as if they weren't there. There were fours eggs in a box and some garlic eager to be used.
I hadn't any bread or breadcrumbs in either the fridge or the freezer but I had a box of sage and onion stuffing mix in the food cupboard and there were lots of nuts left from Christmas.
So I chopped the celery and onion and sweated them in a little oil with the garlic. I used the food processor and whizzed the mushroom, aubergine, nuts, peppers, carrots and stuffing mix and then added that to the softened celery and onions. I added stock and the eggs, mixed the whole lot and put it into a couple of lined loaf tins. Don't ask for quantities: this is serendipity cooking!
Then an hour at 180C, Gas mark 4, 360F. Basically it's a nut and mushroom roast. Even more basically, it tastes jolly good, even if I do say so myself wot shouldn't!
I have a special habit which I indulge in at this time of the year. It's unsubscribing! No, I'm not planning on stopping following anyone's blog, but I have taken my name off all sorts of mailing lists.
Whenever I buy something on-line the various companies take that as permission to send me invitations to buy more and more stuff. Special offers. Money off. Great value for money. All very tempting but what it all boils down to is they want to part me from my money! Well, as far as I am concerned I prefer money to be in my bank account rather than theirs.
When I want something I look around and find it and then leave it in the basket for a day or two while I think about it. As often as not the company will then offer me an incentive to buy - money off, free delivery, whatever. I also give myself thinking time to see if that is what I really want. Mailing lists are a way of getting us to shop without thinking.
One word of warning: if you come across a scam e mailer it is better to consign the email to junk or spam - if you "unsubscribe" you will simply confirming that you are really there when they have been phishing.
After six days I still haven't needed to go shopping but with food supplies like mine that is no deprivation
The fridge has gone from this
 |
| to this |
There are definite gaps but I doubt if I will starve.
Today I tackled the butternut squash which had been bottom right in the first picture and I made soup, using the squash, an onion, two potatoes a carrot, a wallop of chopped ginger and a spoonful of honey plus stock. Just the thing for a cold day.
If there was one everyday item which I used to waste a lot, it was milk. I know this isn't a problem for most people but in a household of one person who doesn't eat breakfast cereal and drinks her coffee black, it can be difficult.
I buy UHT milk to use for tea/coffee when guests call unexpectedly. If I know guests are coming I buy pasteurised milk. The UHT stuff comes in one litre containers but I can buy just a pint of pasteurised and sometimes even less. I can manage to use up the remains of a pint but a litre is a lot of milk!
So I make cottage cheese. Heat the milk to just below boiling point, add a generous squeeze of lemon juice and stir. The milk will curdle. (IT IS NOT THE SAME AS LEAVING MILK TO GO OFF!) Leave it to cool a little then strain it. I use muslin inside my sieve. Leave it until all the whey (a colourless liquid) has drained off then put the cheese to chill in a dish in the fridge. The whey can be used in baking.
It does not have the same texture as a commercially produced cottage cheese but it has more flavour. You may want to add salt.
Although my stated aim of doing this challenge is to keep food expenditure low for a few weeks, the real need is to minimise food waste. I think we've all become more aware of this issue over the past few years. Awareness of the need to respect the planet has been added to our consciousness of hungry people in our own country and abroad. Rising prices are driving the message home even in households with a "comfortable" income.
Fruit and vegetables which had been in plastic bags has now been transferred to dishes or net bags. Some of the vegetables have been transferred to the vegetable box in the conservatory/utility room so tat I can see better what is left in the fridge.
There was a head of calabrese which had been there for several days so it got made into soup. The pack of cooking bacon was cut into lardons: a few lardons were then cooked for salad and soup garnishes in the next couple of days while the rest were made into 100g packs and frozen. The chicken thighs have now been skinned and deboned and again frozen although the skin and bones are still simmering to make stock.
My main aim in organising the fridge is to make sure I can see everything so there is less chance things will be wasted. I threw away one apple and one courgette this morning.
