The news that Britons throw away a third of their food presents a curious
anomaly. Ask any number of people to name their favourite dish and the
answers are bound to include shepherd’s pie or bread and butter pudding —
both traditionally made with leftovers. Today they are bought ready-made:
worlds away from their thrifty beginnings.
The vast majority of wasted food isn’t made from leftovers — it doesn’t even
get round to being cooked. Prepared items sail past their “use by” date;
fruit literally petrifies itself in the back of our vast fridges. We
constantly buy more than we need and use less than we should. To change
things, we have to look at the way we shop. Most of us head for the
supermarket, thinking that we are too time-poor for the alternatives but, as
convenient as it is, buying everything in one fell swoop is fraught with the
danger of wastage.
Impulse buying is one problem — easy to do when so much produce is laid out in
front of you. All that fruit and veg in the supermarket can send you into a
frenzy of five-portion mania. You buy a week’s worth of virtuous eating and
half of it has aged horribly by Friday.
Add to this all the other little “treats” you spy and it doesn’t seem so
unlikely that you will join the millions who consign 37 per cent of their
purchases to the bin. But there are ways you can reduce the chances of this.
You don’t need to deny yourself the odd treat and you don’t even need to be
too thrifty.
1. Next time you do a big shop don’t buy anything that won’t keep
medium to long term (that’s at least a month). Bulk up on good tinned things
— smoked meats and fish, staples such as pasta and rice — then use these as
starting points for meals. You can shop for the fresher, more perishable,
ingredients daily.
2. If you do need to buy fruit and vegetables weekly, try to follow the
local growing seasons as much as possible. The produce will have travelled
less far, been in storage shorter and is bound to cost less. And don’t write
off frozen veg! Peas picked and frozen in July from a field in Norfolk will
still have more goodness than something flown from Kenya.
3. Try to rely less on prime cuts of meat and fish all the time and go
for some good slow-cooking options. Making casseroles, hearty soups and
stews or pot roasts will make you a more confident cook, and freeze
brilliantly.
4. If you are able to start doing smaller daily shops, head for
greengrocers, fishmongers and butchers, who are usually happy to get in
items you request. The packaging in smaller retailers tends to be less
extravagant than the supermarkets, making your shopping even less wasteful.
Emma's Kitchen...
Fridge: Champagne; 1 pumpkin; 4 leeks; 2 lemons; red Leicester;
parmesan; tub of cream cheese; butter; processed chicken slices; sundried
tomatoes; eggs.
Store cupboard: Tinned tomatoes; garlic; dried mushrooms; tuna;
chickpeas; arborio, basmati and brown rice; pasta and macaroni; sweetcorn;
potatoes; assortment of herbs and spices, sauces and oils.
... and Tom’s suggestions
Emma has a challenging scenario as she has a family to feed. But she also has
some great store cupboard items. If she is fed up with seeing those
wonderful, smoky dried mushrooms ending up in a risotto, she could try
cooking them with the leeks, pumpkin and chickpeas, to make a great
vegetable casserole.
Soak a handful of the mushrooms in about a pint of hot water from the kettle
and set them aside. Peel and chop two cloves of garlic and fry them with the
leeks in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Meanwhile, peel and dice half
the pumpkin. Add it to the pot, swiftly followed by the drained chickpeas
and chopped tomatoes. Add the stock from the mushrooms, through a strainer
to catch any grit. Rinse the mushrooms, then chop them almost to a paste and
fold into the stew. Cook until the pumpkin is tender and the juices have
thickened slightly. It could take from about 40min to an hour. Season and
serve with fresh grated parmesan.
Now back to that pumpkin, which is almost always bigger than you need. Emma
could roast any leftover, before peeling it and puréeing. This freezes well
and can be used later.
Tinned fish is great to give children omega3. Emma could make a stuffed jacket
potato dish by chopping hard-boiled eggs and sundried tomatoes into the
tuna.
Red Leicester would be ideal for making macaroni cheese. Simply make the usual
white sauce while you boil the pasta. Then, when you fold in the cheese, add
a heaped tablespoon of grainy or Dijon mustard, which will not taste strong
but will intensify the savoury quality of the dish.
You could enrich it further by grating fresh parmesan — or perhaps a little
nutmeg — on to the top before grilling it.
Sacha’s kitchen...
Fridge: Half a pot of taramasalata; 1 avocado; block of cheddar cheese;
parmesan; broccoli; chillies; cream cheese; butter; half a bottle of vodka;
bottle of white wine; chorizo; pint of milk; 4 eggs.
Store cupboard: Pasta and rice; lentils; 2 cans cannellini beans; 4
cans chopped tomatoes; rye bread; garlic; onions; new potatoes; herbs,
spices, saucesand oils.
... and Tom’s suggestions
Sacha is well placed for expanding her repertoire. If she likes pasta but
wants to branch out from tomato sauce, she could try broccoli, chilli,
garlic and parmesan. While the pasta boils, heat olive oil very gently and
fry a clove or two of garlic and one of the chillies. Break the broccoli
into small florets and add to the garlic and chillies. Just before the pasta
is drained, add a couple of tablespoons of the water to the broccoli mix and
take it off the heat. Toss the broccoli and pasta with parmesan and butter.
Another item that catches my eye is the chorizo — it lasts ages and spruces up
simple ingredients. Here is a slightly ersatz version of a great Spanish
larder dish called gypsy eggs. Dice the chorizo and fry it; use the
paprika-rich fat to sweat a couple of deseeded chillies with an onion, then
add a tin of tomatoes and cook the sauce until it is ever so slightly jammy.
Transfer to a baking dish and preheat the oven to around 250C. Break two
eggs per person into the dish and bake until the yolks are only just set.
Serve with crusty bread or a pile of the new potatoes.
Lentils are fantastic. Sacha could try a spiced dish such Indian dhal. Pop a
handful of lentils per person into a pot and cover with water by about an
inch. Bring to a simmer and skim off any froth, then cook until tender. Dice
a couple of onions and fry briskly in oil and butter. Add a simple
combination of spices: I like cumin and dried ginger. You could also go for
coriander seeds or garam masala. Fold the onions and spices into the lentils
once fully cooked. Season and, if you have it, garnish with some coriander
leaves.
One more thing: dhal will thicken in the fridge overnight. So rather than lose
any leftovers, Sacha should keep it and spread over rye bread the next day.
Cupboard Love by Tom Norrington-Davies, £8.99, Hodder & Stoughton
One problem is the size of packages. If you live alone, which many people do, a lot of stuff is closed off unless you buy more than you need. If it won't freeze you either have to throw it away or go without. Many shops will not sell one or two of an item, or if they do it is excluded from any offers and ends up costing more. As an example I had to buy four small creamcakes because they were only available in a four pack, or go without. Two were stale before they could be eaten. I can't drink a 2 litre bottle of lemonade before it goes flat but the 1 litre is not available in the low cost version and so costs more. And why does a small tin of beans or tomatoes cost more than a large one?
Alexandria, Sheffield, UK