An Ode to What's Left

 I was made aware of a strange Human the other day – a man who doesn’t do Leftovers.

 Now I’m not talking won't-eat-3-day-old-dinner-because-germs-phobia leftovers, I’m talking about a will-throw-out-any-food-not-consumed; will-make-every-meal-from-scratch type of human. He even goes to a supermarket EACH DAY to buy something fresh for his lunch (say, a chicken breast and some veges) and will then cook it up and eat it for lunch. Every. Day. He apparently had to be almost pressured into eating food left from Christmas lunch for dinner that night (isn’t that the point of Christmas night dinner?). Though apparently eating a cake or biscuit The Day After is OK (phew!). Apparently it’s by-product of growing up with a father who ran a restaurant – he always had a meal made from scratch every night (nice for some)

This blew my mind. On SO MANY levels. So much so that I had to blog about it.

  Leftovers. For a word that sounds so second rate, in cooking it is a magical thing. I have already blogged about how awesome they can be (see here for a refresher). They’re like a little magical gift from your fridge, “I know you don’t feel much like cooking tonight, so here’s a meal you prepared earlier! Or some bits and pieces that (when combined) will make a really easy dinner!”.

 There are certain dishes that I love making because I know the recipe will make too much.

 Like my Speedy Tuna Pasta (that is the actual recipe name, not my iteration. Though it is super quick to make. This is why we love it). Or the risotto we had for dinner last night that I made for Saturday night’s dinner, knowing that it made enough for another dinner (We've got a school Bake Sale this weekend – I needed kitchen time for cookies and cakes not meat-and-three-veg). And when Husband makes a roast dinner (which, luckily for me, is fairly often during the cooler months), he deliberately buys too much meat and cooks too many veges. Which means we can have several meals out of one lot of cooking, as well as roast pork for yummy rolls for lunch.

(and on that – who doesn’t make their lunch the night before? You really should. We stumbled across this wonderful life hack back in the Before Kids days, as it meant an extra 10 minutes in bed in the morning. It also alleviates the “argh! We don’t have any bread” school morning chaos, as you’ve already discovered this anomaly the night before. Clever. And yes, even salad sandwiches are OK made the night before and stored in the fridge, as long as you have a barrier (such as cheese, spinach or avocado) between the tomato/cucumber and bread #learningstuff)

 Speaking of lunch, here is another point for Leftovers – the cost. Any financial planner worth his (Himalayan pink) salt will tell you one of the best ways to save money is to bring your lunch from home. When two sushi rolls or a lame sandwich and a drink from the café leave you with little change from $10, you know you’re on a good thing when you can make a week of lunches for the same prices. Not to boast but I can’t remember the last time I had to buy lunch for work. Most of this is due to a fantastic house husband who keeps me in rolls and salads, but I also have a stash of vege slice in the freezer for those Cant Be Bothered Days- like today!

Hmmm. Their freezer must be really neat and tidy without all the leftover meals sitting there. He’s also averse to frozen meat. Crazy.

 But back to dinners. We all have those dishes that taste better after a night in the fridge – gumbo, stroganoff, lasagna. But how would we know if they were thrown in the bin?

 And that’s another thing that really gets in my 21^st century craw – the Food Waste.

 Having a husband who works in fresh produce, we see how much food doesn’t even make it to be sold to the consumer (which is bad enough). But then to Throw Out anything unconsumed just leaves me aghast – all of the resources that went into creating that nourishing food, going to landfill.

 In our house, leftovers go in the fridge/freezer to be used again. Anything that’s not enough to make a meal or snack gets divided up between the chickens and the dog. And most other food waste goes in the compost bin, leaving only onion skins and citrus that actually makes it into the landfill bin.

 I could preach on and on about this, but as my packaging waste levels leave a bit to be desired,  I’ll get off my soapbox now. But one final thought – if we didn’t have leftovers, think of all the wonderful recipes that would never have been invented:  bread and butter pudding and pangrattato (using up stale bread), Shepherd’s Pie and Bubble and Squeak (using left over meat and veges), aracini (from "left over" risotto. I’ve heard such a thing exists – just not in my house!)

Granted you can makes these recipes using “fresh” ingredients (not leftovers), but where’s the fun in that? And I bet they wouldn't taste as good either.

 So in these days of Food Miles and Less Waste, I’d like to again champion those who do their best to make sure No Food gets left behind. We get creative and clever, and sometimes it's probably not a Meal as much as a Collection of Food objects, but we’re helping the planet (and our purse strings) just that little bit more.

In other Domestic Goddess news – I got a Kitchen Aid.

 A second hand one from a friend but still – it’s black and its beautiful. I took it for a spin yesterday and it made my cookies in less time, and made my chocolate cake so light and fluffy that it rose over the middle of the doughnut tin! Who knew how much quicker things would be when you don’t have to stand there and hold the mixer!

 I also got super enthused and cooked a cake for afternoon tea. I have NEVER done this before. But when your Son smells the cake you are making (for the bake sale) and raves about how great it smells, it does inspire you to make one for him. And serve it straight from the oven with butter melting into it – yum!

(Well I had to have one picture!) Honey Loaf with butter

Yule Do It Again (or Things go Better with Pork *)

* with apologies to my Jewish (and vegetarian) readers, this blog may contain genuflections at the Shrine of Swine.

 So, even with global warming and climate change, the earth keeps spinning and we still have our shortest day and longest night. Which means there is an excuse to get the Christmas decorations out mid-year and have another Yule Dinner! (click here for the reasons why this makes more sense in the Southern Hemisphere)

  As in previous years, we had The Roast – this year it was a “rolled turkey breast with cranberry stuffing”, not surprisingly, from a Delicious magazine ‘Christmas in July’ special. The stuffing began with cooked onion and fried pancetta, so I was pretty sure it was going to be yum (and it definitely smelt that way!). As well as this being a very festive recipe (the stuffing also included pistachio nuts and the aforementioned Cranberries), it had a separate recipe for gravy.

 Domestic Goddess Confession time: I am terrible at gravy. As I may (or may not) have mentioned before, it took me a long time to be comfortable with The Roast. For something that was such a stalwart of my childhood diet, and that I saw my mother/grandmother/ aunt/other sundry female relative/friend make over and over, I struggled getting it right. It took me many years and many different techniques before I finally found a bulletproof roast potato technique (I even bought frozen roast potatoes in my early days – the shame!!). I now have a few good Roast recipes under my belt, but gravy still seems to elude me. Maybe it was the ease at which my mum mixed up the Gravox and pan juices (which I then dutifully stirred while Dad carved). Mine always ended up lumpy/watery/ flavourless, so I have been a big fan of the pre-prepared pouches of gravy that you can buy in the supermarket. But as this recipe has separate instructions for gravy that did not rely on “pan juices” (and could be made earlier) I thought I would  give it a try. I’m happy to report it was a success; the technique was not unsimilar to making a roux for a white sauce, so maybe I’ve Learned Something for the next time I’m brave enough to try Gravy.

 Roast was suggested to be served with a “potato and porcini gratin” which sounded a bit fancy (and similar to last year’s tartiflette) so I went with the good ol’ duck fat potatoes, as well as some roasted sweet corn and Brussel sprouts.

 What?!? Brussel Sprouts!! No one likes Brussel sprouts!! – I hear you say. And up until a year ago I would have agreed with you, not being able to count on one hand the number of people I knew that admitted they liked them. My dad despised them with as much passion as you could despise a vegetable. He used to tell kids that if you left a Brussel spout on the window sill for a month that it would turn gross and mouldy which was Proof of the noxious poisons within. As such, my childhood was a Brussel sprout-free zone.

 But one grows older and realises that one’s parents are not the be all and end all of culinary experiences. And so I felt brave enough to try when hubby brought them home from the supermarket one day.

 And what do you know, I like them!! I think with most things it is the preparation that makes or breaks it. Brussel spouts are very susceptible to over cooking which will turn them into smelly slimy sludge. A quick dip in boiling water finished off with a knob of butter (or olive oil) is all they need. Or if you’re going to get a bit fancy and try and covert non-BS eaters, you par boil then, the fry up some bacon (or pancetta as I did this time) and fry them in the bacon fat for a bit before popping them in the oven to crisp up – delicious.

 Which brings me to another piece of Worldly Cooking Wisdom; things go better with Pork. There have been many dishes, especially lately which have been improved by the addition of bacon, chorizo, prosciutto or pancetta. It is magic in bolognaise sauces, lasagnes and pasta dishes, great in anything with eggs (like frittatas), even works in some salads, and always smells amazing while cooking. So this is by no means a hard and fast rule, but I do find it works more often than not.

 Pudding was actually a “pouding” – Pouding Chomeur, which I found in a 'Dessert Around the World' Delicious Mag special. It started life as French bread and butter pudding from Canada during the Great Depression (the name literally means “unemployed pudding”). But the main thing that enticed me (apart from cooking another French dish for our Frenchman) was that it contained pecans and maple syrup, which is one of my favorite combinations (I have made a maple-pecan ice cream which is divine). And I knew that dessert-fussy Hubby liked it too.

 So after an fair few hours of preparing and organising I did my traditional table setting; which, as I commented to hubby while deciding between variations on place settings, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth over doing”.

 

Full lighting

Festive candlelight

 No gingerbread boxes this year, but every place setting did have a little “gift” of a gingerbread tree and stars with a red Lindor ball (all tied up with red ribbon and a sprig of rosemary; totes festive). Throw in a few candles and some ivy with oranges/lemons and dried fruit/nuts and we were set for guests.

  I had decided to do baked camembert again as one of my guests was pregnant last year and wasn't really supposed to eat it (although we all agreed that baking it would probably kills the germs). I used an Australian camembert this year (to have one less trip to a different shopping centre) but prepared it in a similar way to last year (garlic and herbs and red wine O my!)  Interestingly, it turned out a lot thicker with an almost fondue-like consistency, compared to last years’ “deliciously oozy cheesy mess”. (apparently it is due to the fat content of the respective cheeses – thanks Mr Frenchman!) It was still super yum.  We also had foie gras, which was brought along by Mr Frenchman and Wife,  as they are much more knowledgeable about these things than I. It is a Christmas day tradition in his family so I thought we could borrow that tradition for ourselves. Plus, Wife of Other Couple has just come back from France and was probably missing French cuisine.

 So again, a fun time was had by all, including all the kids who managed to get to sleep by 10pm. We realized that there was another Ex Pat in our midst – from New Zealand, which means I now get to start researching how to create a Hangi (step one: dig a hole). We did end up with some left overs, which have been turned into a few extra meals and a rather awesome morning tea of baked camembert on toast. Plus a half bottle of champagne (blame those selfish people who switched to red wine with dinner), which is always tricky ingredient to use up . I did remember seeing a Nerdy Nummies Champagne Cupcakes recipe, but that only used half a cup. I have a great recipe (from French Women Don’t get Fat) for Chicken au Champagne (chicken cooked in champagne) but I didn't think it would last the few days it would take until I could cook dinner again. So I settled for the most sensible option…

 I drank it.

 So let’s raise a glass to the sun returning again and to old traditions with new friends.

Left Over but not Left Behind

 In these Austere and Dire financial times, there has been the swing back to the good ol’ days of making like the Oldies did. From knitting circles to slow cookers (for those cheaper cuts of meat), everyone seems to be following the ol’ Waste No Want Not mantra.

 
I have always been a fan of this way of thinking. Whether it was being brought up in the We Are The World era (“eat your dinner – there are children starving in Africa!”), or grandparents who lived through the Depression (and would still buy the largest size of everything “because it’s better value” even when there was only the two of them that would take 5 years to get through a catering sized tin of coffee), I’ve always been one to look at the weekly supermarket specials before deciding what we’re going to eat that week. The Buy in Bulk and Save option also appeals, but I haven’t succumbed to the allure of Costco yet (not enough storage room for 50 rolls of toilet paper). But this Popping it Aside for Later can backfire a little; especially when you do a freezer clean out and find 8 chicken fillets and not the mince you were relying on for dinner.  Also, being a family with 2 grown-ups and two kiddies (of intermittent fickle eating habits), I rarely cook a full recipe’s worth as most feed 6-8. So I find my freezer accumulates things like half a can of chopped tomatoes, or 250g pkts of mince and 350mls stock. So I do try to periodically Cook From the Freezer; get rid of all these odds and ends before I buy another  “oooh, but that’s good value for ……”.

 One other frugal way of cooking I have embraced in the last few weeks is the area of Left Overs. By this I don’t mean using roast veges for Bubble and Squeak (whatever that is exactly – seems like such an old English dish. And then I saw that you could buy it from the freezer section of the supermarket, which (from what I understand) is the exact opposite of what it should be), or Christmas ham in a thousand different ways over the summer holidays; but the little bits and pieces that you buy specifically for a recipe but don’t always use it all. It can lead you in all sorts of weird and wonderful directions, and becomes almost like a family tree (Abraham begat Isaac. Isaac begat Jacob. Jacob begat Judah etc).

 Let me use last weeks’ menu to demonstrate.

 At the weekend we had a dozen eggs (the wonderful side benefit from having lovely chickens) so I made a Frittata (Vineyard Cookbook – Josef Chromy Vineyard inTas), which gave me left over….

• Zucchini, which combined with some leftover mince from the freezer made Porcupine Meatballs (PMWU Cookbook, which I’m sure would have a Bubble and Squeak recipe)
 
• Cream and mushrooms, which led to an amped up Chicken and Porcini papardelle (Donna Hay “Simple Dinners” – and I actually used penne as I had an open half packet in the pantry – score!)

•   Pesto, which I will use at the weekend for Chicken and Pesto Risotto (called “Hulk-sotto” in our house because it’s all green)

• Red capsicum, who joined the green capsicum already in the fridge to make Quesadillas (“Jamies Dinner” Jamie Oliver) – which gave me left over roast chicken for some delicious sandwiches, as well as spring onions (I always have left over spring onions – why can’t you buy them individually?? I even looked at planting some in my garden. Though I did read somewhere that you can plant store-bought ones in the garden and that keeps them fresh for longer. Thankfully my Tupperware keeps them slime-free for a good few weeks)

 I then cooked (from scratch, no leftovers were involed in the cooking of this dish) Beef in Guinness with Dumplings (Vineyard Cookbook, Skillogalee Winery in SA)) on Saturday night for some friends who came over for dinner.  The recipe made a mountain of savoury dumplings (which was my first use of Suet!), meaning I was on the lookout for a beef dish with gravy/sauce to make use of the 40 odd I had left over. I settled on Southern Sausage Stew (“Jamie’s America” Jamie Oliver) and used the dumplings instead of the boiled rice that the dish called for. Which went brilliantly well, but (you guessed it) gave me left over green, red, yellow capsicum and celery; which I am happily going to use to make Gumbo (again “Jamie’s America) this weekend, as it will also use chorizo and bacon and clear up more freezer space!

 Now the jury is probably out on whether all of this Using Left Overs is really saving money as I usually need to pick up and ingredient or two, which, like yesterday at the Farmer’s Market can lead to it being three or four or nine (The Smoked Bacon man was there- I had to pick some up!!). But is certainly gets your brain thinking in different ways and cooking meals you may not have. Which, is never a bad thing.

  And as I am not one of those cooks who can stand at the fridge/pantry and conjure up a meal from random bits and pieces, I must say how much I love the trend in cook books to list recipes by ingredients (thankyou Delicious, Donna Hay and Jamie Oliver). In fact I have taken this even further and have created my own “What to Do With Extra….” Notebook (nerd alert!), where I list ingredients and recipes that can use them. So I know that when I have left-over roast chicken from a lunch date, that I can look forward to Mulligatawny Soup, or an Asian Omelette.

 Or perhaps just pop it in the freezer for Next Time.

PS – made another “Street Food” recipe at the weekend: Zapiekanka, which is a Polish open baguette sandwich with sautéed mushrooms, ham and cheese which is then grilled. Needless to say, it was awesome, even before slathering on ketchup and mayonnaise.

 Na zdrowie!! (or not – if you ate them every day J)