Food waste – Grow. Cook. Eat.

January 19, 2011

Half as Much (Recipe: Asian Slaw)

In the back corner of the produce section, there’s a cooler filled with convenience products – sliced pepper medley, peeled and cubed butternut squash, shredded cabbage and washed salad blends. I shudder everytime I walk past it… it’s really not that hard to cut a pepper, or even peel a butternut squash. Last week, I walked back to the main produce aisle, grabbed a small red cabbage and tossed it into my cart.

When I got home, I started shredding the cabbage for an Asian slaw. After cutting up half, I realized I had more than enough for the 3 people I was cooking for, with ample leftovers. I wrapped up the second half and now will plan to make braised red cabbage later in the week.

After three days of eating cabbage slaw, I had my fill. The first night, I ate it with the char. The second two days, I served it with Claypot Chicken. Sadly, the remainder went into the compost bin. Suddenly, the value of pre-chopped cabbage became more appealing. I can purchase a more manageable quantity. Perhaps I pay a little more, but there’s comfort in not wasting.

Which is the lesser evil? Wasting food or purchasing pre-cut veggies? Or should I not make cabbage unless I’m serving a crowd?

What would you have done?

Asian Red Cabbage Slaw

serves at least 6

½ red cabbage
6 scallions
2 tbs. canola oil
1 tbs. sesame oil
¼ cup sliced almonds
¼ cup raw sesame seeds
1 tbs. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 -3 tbs. rice vinegar

1.    Cut the core out of the cabbage and slice as thinly as possible
2.    Julienne the scallions. Put in a mix bowl with the cabbage.
3.    Heat the oils in a skillet over medium heat. Add the almonds and sesame seeds. Cook, stirring frequently until the nuts begin to brown. Immediately pour over the cabbage.
4.    To the cabbage add the sugar, salt and vinegar. Mix well. Let sit for 10 minutes so the flavors can meld.

August 4, 2010

Will You Be My Number Two?? (Recipe: Stuffed Cubanelles)

When I pick a sprig of basil from my garden, I usually don’t think much about throwing a leaf or two into the compost bin if I don’t use it. After all, the basil plant benefits from a consistent snipping to increase its production. But when I’m visiting my friend Brett at his farm, Even’ Star, he berates me. Brett uses every last bit of food.

I went down to the farm this week for my annual tomato canning extravaganza. When I arrived, Brett had set aside tomatoes for me to use – cases and cases of #2 tomatoes. These are the tomatoes that have blemishes – slightly bruised, bug-holed and perhaps a little moldy. If you cut away the bad parts (and give those to the chickens), the tomatoes are perfectly wonderful – just as sweet and flavorful as the more perfect looking #1s. Because the tomatoes are cooked down and pureed into sauce, their initial appearance becomes irrelevant. He tries to sell these tomatoes to his customers at deep discounts, but he still has cases more which are destined as chicken food if I don’t use them.

The same philosophy of utilizing every scrap holds true at meal time too… even though the walk-in cooler is bursting with fresh produce to be sold at the farmers markets and through his CSA, we still use the #2 veggies to cook our own meals and meals for the work crew. In addition to using the #2’s, I try to use up all the bits and pieces of leftovers.

After canning my stewed tomatoes, I still had a little sauce left. I also had some leftover corn from the chowder. I foraged in the refrigerator and found rice, Monterey jack cheese and a Ziploc bag of blemished Cubanelle peppers… all the fixings for stuffed peppers!

Because cubanelle peppers are more tubular than the standard-stuffing bell pepper, they require a roasting before stuffing. This softens the flesh and makes stuffing much easier. Their smaller size also means the stuffing will heat/cook more quickly, so a pre-roasting of the peppers, means the final roasting will only take 10 – 15 minutes, tops.

Roasted Stuffed Cubanelles

8 cubanelles
1 tbs. plain oil
1/2 cup cooked rice
1 cup raw or cooked corn kernels
½ cup grated Monterey jack cheese
Optional additions and flavorings: jalapenos, basil, scallions, black beans, leftover cooked chicken
Tomato sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Toss peppers in oil and lay out in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Roast peppers at 400F for 15 minutes or until the skin starts to blister and turn light brown. Take them out of the oven and let cool.

2. Meanwhile, mix together the rice, corn, cheese and any other desired flavorings. Check seasoning for salt and pepper.

3. Cut the tops off the peppers and scoop out the seeds. Stuff the filling into the cavity of the pepper.

4. Return the stuffed peppers to the oven and bake for 10 – 15 minutes.
5. Serve with tomato sauce.

March 29, 2010

Brick Oven Pizza at Home

“Brick-oven” pizzas are revered because the brick bottomed ovens get screaming hot and retain heat very well. And, in fact, all pizza ovens are set at about 700F, some getting as hot as 800F. This high heat gets the crust extra-crispy, and prevents the toppings from sogging up the dough.

Getting a crispy crust at home is more challenging. Most ovens max out at 500F. Pizza stones mimic the pizza oven floor in that they absorb heat and will get that much hotter than the ambient air of the oven.

I don’t have a pizza stone, but still have a few tricks up my sleeve for getting a crispy crust:

The first, I pre-fry the dough in canola oil before topping and baking the pizza. During the baking process, the oil releases itself from the dough helping to further crisp the crust. This has been my default, but it does have a few drawbacks – mainly that it adds extra fat along with the extra step.

Lately, I’ve been baking my pizzas on the floor of the oven. This gives the crust direct, intense heat as opposed to the ambient heat of baking the pizza on a lower shelf. With this method, the crust crisps up in about 5 minutes. You can then move the pizza to a higher shelf to finish browning the toppings.

Pizza is a great way to use up left-overs. From last night’s dinner, I had some eggplant and smoked tomato coulis. With the addition of fresh mozzarella, I had a perfect dinner for both kids and adults!

There is no "perfect" recipe for pizza. It's really a matter of what you're in the mood for and what you have on hand. Here's my recipe for pizza dough.

Dough
1 cup water
1 tsp. yeast
2 cups bread flour
1/2 cup semolina
2 tbs. olive oil
1 ½ tsp salt
1/2 tsp. sugar

1. Heat water to 105F. Dissolve yeast in water. In a separate bowl, combine flour, semolina, salt and sugar.

2. Using a dough hook, combine flours, yeasted water and olive oil. Knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place dough in oiled bowl, cover with plastic and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch down and form into pizza rounds.

Place dough on cookie sheet before topping.

February 18, 2010

Getting Bang for Your Duck (Recipe: Duck Confit)

Roasting the bird whole is perhaps the easiest way to contend with it. The perennial problem with this method is that the breasts cook quicker than the legs. And legs need to be cooked through, whereas the breasts are best medium or medium rare. If you break down the bird you can give each part its proper attention. Consistent in the cooking methods of each part of the bird is rendering the fat. This extremely fatty bird can render as much as 2 cups of fat.

I butcher the bird into 4 parts – the breasts, the legs, the carcass and the excess fat.

I reserve the carcass for duck stock. But before I even think about the stock, I shove it in the oven at 350 for an hour. The bones roast golden brown, which will add depth of flavor to the eventual stock, and the fat that coats the bones renders away. The stock will be much leaner for this extra step. I then throw the bones into a pot with a carrot, onion and celery stalk; a few sprigs of parsley, a pinch of salt and a twist of pepper. The whole thing is covered in water, and back into the oven for several hours. The stock can be used to make a sauce, soup or even to make risotto.

My favorite way to prepare duck legs is to confit them. If I’m organized, I start the process at least 1 day in advance. Classically, confit means “to cook in its own fat.” Chefs have taken liberties with the word to mean, braised in fat. If you’ve even seen “tomato confit” on a menu you can see what I mean. Obviously, a tomato doesn’t have its own fat, so in order to confit it, it is slowly roasted in olive oil. For duck legs, the long, slow cooking tenderizes the meat, melts away the excess fat, gives the meat a chance to absorb the flavors of the marinade and keeps it moist and succulent. The legs get rubbed with salt, plenty of garlic and warm spices, including cinnamon, cumin and ground ginger. I place them in a pyrex dish, skin side up, and put the excess fat on top. After 24 hours, of marinade, I cook them slowly in a 250F oven… at least 3 hours, but 6 hours is better. The fat melts away and creates a broth in which to braise the legs.

The breasts get broken down further, separating the skin from the meat. The skin goes into the oven at 350. This renders out the fat, leaving crackling, crisp skin. After a little marination in soy sauce and vanilla, I sear the breasts to medium rare, a process that takes only ten minutes.

A single bird is enough to serve four people a gracious meal of “Duck Three Ways”

Duck Confit
This recipe is adapted from Madeleine Kamman's recipe

4 Duck legs
1/2 tsp. each cumin, coriander, cinnamon
1/4 tsp. each allspice, dried thyme
pinch cloves
1/4 tsp. each cardamom ginger nutmeg
lots of garlic, chopped
half "a lot" of shallots, chopped
salt and pepper
duck fat (or fat trimming from whole duck)

1. Combine spices.

2. Season duck generously with salt, pepper and spice mix on the flesh side.

3. Toss with garlic and shallots.

4. Let sit for at least 24 hours.

5. Cook duck legs in 250 oven covered in duck fat for 2-3 hours, or until meat is very tender, and skin pulls away from the tip of the leg bone.

6. Store in fat until ready to serve.

February 12, 2010

Comfort (and Joy)

Cultures around the world have tricks for re-purposing leftovers into something delicious… The British recycle Sunday dinner into Bubble and Squeak – potato and cabbage patties with leftover mashers and braised cabbage. The Chinese fry day-old rice to refresh it with scraps of meats and vegetables. And Americans mix together all the Thanksgiving leftovers to come up with pot pie.

Is it coincidence that these dishes represent comfort food?

Of course, I didn’t make pot pie at Thanksgiving – though it would have been perfect with leftover pie dough scraps, creamed mushrooms, turkey, green beans and gravy all mixed together. Instead, I waited until a weekend when I hunkered down to cook.

I was cooking for a friend who recently lost her husband after a long battle of with MS.

I sensed she hadn’t been eating well, so I devised a strategy to provide both nourishment and a restorative. A nice meal always lifts my spirits, so I opted for my new favorite lobster dish that she could enjoy on the evening I stopped by. I made a quart of chicken soup to feed the soul, and a few pot pies to offer a little comfort.

Pot pie is the perfect freezer food as it can be made in individual ramekins and baked without defrosting. I was able to use up broccoli stems, some carrots and a few random mushrooms. You can use whatever vegetables you like. Once assembled, I put them in the freezer so they can be baked whenever you’re in need of a little comfort.

Chicken Pot Pie
This isn’t so much a recipe as it is a suggestion.
1 – 2 potatoes
3 tbs. butter
3 tbs. flour
¼ cup white wine
3 cups liquid – a combination of chicken broth, cream and/or milk.
Cooked chicken, cut into ½ bite size pieces
Diced carrots
Broccoli or peas
Mushrooms
Pie dough – frozen or use your favorite recipe
Salt and pepper
Fresh herbs like parsley, thyme or basil

1. Cut potatoes into ½ inch dice. Put in a pot of cold water. Add salt. Bring to a boil and cook for 2 minutes. Drain.
2. In a medium pot over medium heat, melt butter. Whisk in flour and cook for two minutes or until butter bubbles up again. Add wine first then the liquid slowly, whisking constantly.
3. When liquid is incorporated, bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to simmer.
4. Add vegetables and chicken. Check the seasoning for salt and pepper. Add fresh herbs.
5. Put filing in ramekins.
6. Cut pie dough to match the ramekins in size. Top each ramekin with dough.
7. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until tops are golden brown and the filling is bubbling.
8. Serve with a salad.

January 15, 2010

The Economics of Cooking

If I recall correctly from my micro-economics class, pricing in a competitive marketplace is set by “supply and demand”. A greater demand for a product will command a higher price. And by contrast, a greater supply will lower the price. The supply and demand model finds the equilibrium between these two forces to set the price. Whole Foods is defying all models by selling beef tenderloin for $28 (!!) a pound. How could there possibly be any demand at that price??

Certainly no demand from me, despite a craving for the buttery texture and flavor from this prime cut.

Instead, I found an alternative source for beef tenderloin (a local place like Costco). The only hitch is that I have to purchase the full cut and trim it myself. At $10.50 per pound, it seemed worth the “extra” effort. It doesn’t take much to trim a beef tenderloin – I need to pull of the chain (a side muscle that is not as tender, but plenty flavorful), and trim off the silver skin – a thin, shiny membrane that covers the muscle. When it’s cleaned, I cut it into individual portions. And now that I’ve cleaned out the freezer a bit, I have room for more “leftovers.”

photo credit: Scott Phillips

The silver skin goes into the dog-bowl, and the chain goes into the meat grinder. In the end, it cost me $15 per pound for fully trimmed beef tenderloin, with a bonus pound of ground beef.

The beef tenderloin was used for the Beef En Rollo. I added the ground beef to a jar of tomato sauce for a quick Bolognese.

If you look closely at the photo, you may notice two kinds of pasta in the bowl – fusilli and orecchiette. I had about a half serving of pasta in each box. In the spirit of using up leftovers, I combined the two. Of course, they didn’t cook at the same rate… the orecchiette required 14 minutes, and the fusilli 12. So I put the orecchiette in the boiling water, set the timer for 2 minutes, and then added the fusilli. From there, I cooked it 11 minutes more. Yes, that’s one minute less than the recommended cooking time. I like to finish cooking the pasta in its destination sauce – I find the pasta absorbs more of the flavor and the sauce clings better.

June 4, 2009

Dear Whole Foods: Get it Together!

A few years ago, Whole Foods came out with a line of “Two-Bite” confections: two-bite cupcakes, two-bite brownies, two-bite macaroons. As someone who truly wants only a bite or two of sweets, these were the perfect treats! I regularly purchased the chocolate cupcakes – they were moist with a perfect crumb, and the buttercream frosting was rich and creamy – perfect! I developed a pack-a-week habit. I would bring them to friends’ houses for after-dinner treats, or keep them around my place for a mid-day sugar kick.

To fill this demand, Whole Foods went into mass production and that’s when the quality dropped off. On several occasions, I would get home only to discover the cupcakes’ expiration date had already passed. I started double checking dates while still in the store, and always alerted the store manager when I found some past their prime. Phase two of the downfall – I would get home with unexpired cupcakes and they were already stale. You can tell from the crumb – it was dry. Again, I would return to the store and alert the manager.

After a few more purchases of pre-expired stale cupcakes, I stopped buying them. Clearly, all my attempts to help them with quality control fell on deaf ears.

Fast-forward two years… I’m at Whole Foods again, craving sugar, and notice a beautiful display of the famed (or is it, infamous?) two-bite chocolate cupcakes. Whole Foods continue to sell them; obviously people must still be buying them, so surely they must have gotten their acts together.

Not a chance! Stale, with two weeks to go until they “expire.”

I was too tired to complain again; previous attempts achieved nothing. But I didn’t want to waste them either.

The solution: BABKA! I mushed up the cupcakes…

…and used them as a filling for a challah with chocolate swirls. How’s that for recycling?

May 26, 2009

Mole, Take II

After the enchiladas, I had left-overs of everything except the chicken and the slaw. What better way to utilize everything than to make nachos. I cut the tortillas into pie-shaped wedges, fried them in a little canola oil and then topped them with the leftovers. It hardly felt recycled.

March 8, 2009

Wasted Food – Revisited

My name is Julia and I’m a recovering food-waster. I’ve been reducing my food- waste for nine months.

This change in behavior was inspired by an article by Jonathan Bloom in the New York Times about wasted food. Before I had my moment of enlightenment, I had a notorious habit of food-shopping without a plan, then devising a plan for my meals which invariably involved ingredients I hadn’t yet purchased, and then shopping a second time. This amounted to a huge pile of wasted food that went into my compost bin. Good for my garden, I suppose, but not good for my wallet. And especially bad as I work towards, “reducing, reusing, and recycling.”

One key success factor in my behavior modifications was utilizing my freezer more. Whenever I had leftovers that I didn’t think I could consume within a few days, I’d pop them in a ziploc bag or Tupperware and into the freezer. But as I discovered the other night, my freezer was PACKED!
I just returned from a few days out of town. Needless to say, the refrigerator was bare. Being tired from my travels, I didn’t want to grocery shop. I knew I had things in the freezer, and after unpacking, I realized I could make a simple, complete meal including green vegetables and protein.

The answer: Fried Rice (and Quinoa) with Edamame.

The quinoa was leftover from the Black Bean Salad (yes, a few quarts of black beans still line the freezer shelves) and the edamame was from…. from…. gosh, I can’t even tell you. And carrots, ginger and garlic lay in the bottom of the refrigerator crisper drawer – still crisp.

I also found some squash puree that will be lunch tomorrow and apple sauce that will be a little snack as soon as I finish this post!

My recipe for fried rice combines the elements of Eileen Yin-Fei Lo’s recipe with a Balinese twist.

Leftover Fried Rice
1 tbs. peanut or canola oil
2 tsp. fresh minced ginger
2 tsp. minced garlic
3 cups cooked rice and/or quinoa, cooled
¼ cup shredded white cabbage or carrots
¼ cup chopped tomatoes or edamame
2 tbs. fried shallots

Sauce
1 tbs. soy sauce
1 tbs. Chinese Rice Wine
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
½ tbs. oyster sauce
1 tsp. sesame oil
1-2 tbs. srirachi chili sauce (depending on taste)

1. Combine ingredients for the sauce.

2. Heat skillet on high heat. Add 1-2 tbs. oil. Add garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant, but not browned (you may need to add more oil to the pan). Add ½ of the fried shallots, cabbage and tomatoes (or carrots and edamame). Cook for 1 minutes more. Add rice. Break up and stir fry until slightly brown and heated through. Stir in the sauce.

3. Remove rice from pan and put on a serving dish. Garnish rice with remaining fried shallots

January 28, 2009

Whole Foods, Whole Packaging

I went to the store the other day to buy mesclun for my Thai Chicken Salad. Much to my displeasure, Whole Foods/Prospect Street has done away with the bulk bins of lettuce. Instead they only sell prepackaged, pre-cut, prewashed lettuce. The smallest package was 6 ounces.

Worse yet, the lettuce was bagged and then packaged in a second plastic container.

Ironically, it also says on the outer plastic container:

Locally Packaged for Maximum Freshness

If it were packaged locally, wouldn't we need less plastic. And considering the flimsy bag I would have purchased bulk lettuce in versus the industrial strength packaging that it now used, it was probably three of four times as much packaging. I’m not sure which irritated me more – being forced to buy more lettuce or more packaging than was needed or necessary.