Allotments 4 All
Produce => Recipes => Topic started by: PurpleHeather on March 20, 2010, 18:07:34
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We recently went to a dinner party and one foody whom we had never ever met before was there. Dominating the conversation (as they do) and trying to be polite for the host's sake. We kept our mouths shut for quite a while. Then madam announced (note at this stage her partner/husband had been quiet too) She never ever reused unused food. If it had not been eaten at one meal, it would be thrown away.
She announced 'I cook every meal fresh'.
I found that quite unacceptable. Hate waste and most of all think that some dishes I have made with -left overs- have turned out better than the original. OH loves my lamb stew made with the left over lamb from a roast and makes sure when we buy lamb it is always a large joint so that there is enough to make it.
The debate did not get heated but she did go quiet when after I put my two penneth in and said I always use every thing others agreed, they did the same.
Her partner opened his mouth and said he always loved a certain dish his mother made with left over beef from a roast.
Fortunately, wine made the conversation with others flow and we never heard any more from Madam foody on the subject.
My personal view is that it takes a lot of skill and imagination to use left overs.
What do you think?
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Absolutely...I totally agree!..In our family we are not big meat eaters so most of our left overs involve around cheese, veg and few meaty bits..
...that means omelettes, pasta this and that, allsorts on toast, salad with..., boiled/steamed potatoes following somesort of potatobake or fry-up..
I like to read recipes but do not really have chance to follow them up..there is always something to use up in fridge.
As I grow most of the things myself and have chickens for eggs there is not that much to buy anyway..just something to liven up the menu..
The "madam" sounds like somebody I know..for her horrow I'm not shy to take left overs with me..."something for the dog".. ::) ;)
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We don't waste anything if we can help it. The crusts off the seedy loaf go into the freezer and get taken out for bread pudding.
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I also agree, she would be better off to keep her mouth shut.
She needs a taste of real life, obviously she has had life too good.
I f she has so much money that she can afford to live like that why doesn't she help poor souls that are hungry, instead of showing off.
What a nasty person she must be........grrrr.. qahtan
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What a nasty person she must be........grrrr.. qahtan
I love left overs too but why does this make her a nasty person? ???
Duke
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In answer to your question - I eat them ;D ;D ;D
Sounds like she was talking a load of old cobblers to me, so well done for saying something
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The flavour gets deeper & deeper!
Either you plan so that nothing is left over - not easy - or you allow/plan for the next meal - no easier!
But - as we all know - a good Chicken will give 2 people 4 modest, but different meals - Devil, Fricassée, Pilau, Jambalaya, Coronation...........etc? And Stock.
I could never be proud over binning good food.
= Tim
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I think she must be nasty to show off like that when so many have nothing...... qahtan
What a nasty person she must be........grrrr.. qahtan
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I love left overs too but why does this make her a nasty person? ???
Duke
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Ooops I must be a nasty woman, because I hate leftovers too and do cook fresh every day. If I have left overs that can be frozen and added to mixed soup I will save them. I don't want to eat re heated food or frozen cooked food other than soup and really hate it if I have to. Never eat pub grub and very little restaraunt food as much it is frozen. Apart from soup I never freeze ready cooked meals. I do freeze cake with frosting on as John uses that as a cut and come again dessert. I freeze my own veggies but use them in soups mostly not as veggies with a dinner(except peas)
Sorry folks,, but I is nasty too..mind you I wouldn't have dominated a dinner conversation by saying it in the manner that the lady did.
I freeze ready to cook bread dough and baked stuff, and just realised I do use leftover lamb in shepherds pie, Chicken would be used by John in sandwiches but not me.
XX Jeannine
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For me the joy of leftovers or stuff that needs to be used up is being creative with them. Takes all sorts, I suppose.
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I do always use leftovers when possible. Always use any leftover meat (more money than sense if you throw that away). I try to use leftover veggies in soups etc. We are worse for throwing out things that get out of date before we eat them like yoghurts etc.
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For me the joy of leftovers or stuff that needs to be used up is being creative with them. Takes all sorts, I suppose.
Oh I so like that ready steady cook moment when you look what's leftover and plan a supper.
The only downside is you can seldom replicate something fab from leftovers 'cos you don't always have the same stuff leftover :-\
Roasties in an omlette ,pasta with mackeral in a salad,leftover meat in a spicy stir fry.Mmm is it too late to start cooking :)
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Now let us be honest.
Steak and kidney.......Certain stews and curries actually need to be cooked cooled and then reheated to give them the authentic taste.
Yes, reheated meats do taste different. That is the part of the recipe with some dishes and it does take an expert cook to make them right.
Some things do not reheat but, as an example rice has to be cold to turn it into a good stir fry. Pasta makes a good cold salad. Chicken and mushroom pie needs to be made from cooked chicken or it tasts rubbery.
A lot of people drain their vegetables and throw away the 'water'. It is in fact stock and can be used to again cook vegetables and then used for a soup base or better still make up gravey with it.
Personally I think that if you can not use food for human consumption, offer it to the birds or feed it to the dogs, it should be composted. Forget about it attracting rats. They are already eating the bread you throw out for the birds anyway.
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It was her manner that got to me.....;-))))
sorry jeannine, wasn't being nasty to you... qahtan
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Depends on what you mean by leftovers. If it's been on my plate I feel queasy about saving it, but tbh I ate everything anyway. If it's half a pie that's yet to be served or some dish in a pan, well we always have it the next day. Don't tend to make it into a new dish though.
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Bubble and squeak - the best leftovers meal ever, we love it in our house :)
Lushy x
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If I cook a steak and kidneypie, I par cook my meat on the same day specifically for the pie, it doesn't get cold so isn't re heated,chicken pie is the same , steak and kidney pudding I steam from raw, after it is browne in a fry pan,stews and curries are cooked from raw till done, any left overs from those I don't eat.Pork pie or game pie I cook from raw and eat it cold the first day only.
I use cooked rice to make a Chinese rice dish but cook it on the same day, I let it cool but not get cold and I wouldn't warm it up again. Personally I dislike pasta salads but if I was to make one as I do sometimes for other people , I cook, cool and use. I don't use the day before pastas.
I tend to gauge carefully what I cook and John will eat some leftovers especially pie or most desserts and he will eat day old bread. I will use roast beef in a sandwich or on a cold plate as I would any cold meat, and I would cook ham or fried chicken to have cold as I would a Scotch Egg but with the exception of lamb for a shepherds pie I wouldn't reheat anything the next day. I rarely eat cooked sliced meat after the second day.It is getting harder now as there is only 2 of us and Christmas means having a lot of doggie bags ready as I hate turkey and warmed up or cold is even worse to me, even if I buy crab or other seafood I have to cook it myself, and eat as soon as cool.
I don't eat day old bread either, I make it almost every day, on the days I don't bake it I don't eat it. same with pastry, cold pastry I think is horrible but John will eat it. I also parcook fries and finish them off when needed.
However having said all this, I do not waste food, I rarely throw anything away, and it is simply an opinion, for me most food changes flavour as it cools and again if re heated and mostly I don't like the taste. I can't eat Donner meat either it is the same with any cooked frozen ready meals, don't even like tinned stuff although I do use some,however I do can my own salmon but again would only eat it the day I opened it.
Qahtan, you silly thing, I know that. I was teasing you XX
I guess I am just odd or different and I admit to being fussy, I make lots of soup, chili and spaghetti sauce freeze it and I do manage to eat that but I have to admit it is rather like a penance as I much prefer it freshly cooked....I am not clucking at anyone here and I don't for 1 second feel that anyone who likes their food other ways is wrong, we each have our own preferences so for all of us it is right. I cook a lot of Balti but I choose not to precook the meat , but everything else is very authentic even to grinding my own spices.
I am a bit puzzled as to what defines an expert cook though?
Having crab tonight, he is still kicking in the sink at the moment,also fresh bread and home grown mixed salad greens with Banoffi Pie for dessert..ahh cooked condensed milk LOL
XX Jeannine
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I suppose that being brought up by grand mothers who had gone through rationing in two world wars and a mother who had experienced about 10 years of rationing and shortages during WWII and school dinners where we were told by the teachers supervising meals that we could not leave anything because there were thousands starving in Africa. (never did find out how us eating food cured famine in Africa) I suppose that I am indoctrinated and it is not only food which I hate to throw out either.
Plastic tubs, jars and bottles all get a thought, even with the recycling we thankfully can now do, I often reuse them first. In fact I only buy ice cream which is in those nice strong plastic containers. Yes, it is true, I am the one who buys for the container not the flavour...(sad)
I agree with Tim about the flavour deepening, that is a lovely way to put it. The kids always said my chicken curry tasted better the second time round. Freezing short crust pastry before baking and Victoria sponges after baking changes and improves the end result in, not only, my view.
Jeannine is so right about reheated turkey it tastes to me, like BO smells.
When I first moved to Lancashire, I was amazed to find that the hot pot was more often made with tinned corned beef, no doubt another war time introduction but it is very tasty. I used to love Greggs' corned beef pasties but they stopped doing them.
Has any one any ideas for using for second hand buttons?
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Yes...they are very "in vogue" as embellishments on clothing...or your wellies if you prefer!!
My Mum must have sent a lot of food to the starving kids in Africa too!!
I too find a use for most things and I do a corn beef thingy too, it is mostly onions and spuds, lots of pepper,cooked together till it all becomes one stodgy mash, sounds disgusting but I love it. I was taught this by a man in Scotland who told me it was how his Mum made stovies..of course I found out later it is nothing like stovies but I like it so I call it Yorkshire Stovies to avoid upsetting the inlaws on John's side.
Ice cream ostly comes in gallon buckets here,,,very handy but I miss the oval ones from the UK.
XX Jeannine
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Ok...so what do you do with a over cooked sourdough bread???...almost burned... >:(
While I have been reading all messages....I was only going to spend 5 minutes ::)...and waiting for bread to bake..my bloody 5 minutes turned to a hour :o.
Now I have truly properly crusty bread and I can forget using breadknife..more like sircular saw job >:( >:( >:(
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Ok...so what do you do with a over cooked sourdough bread???...almost burned... >:(
While I have been reading all messages....I was only going to spend 5 minutes ::)...and waiting for bread to bake..my bloody 5 minutes turned to a hour :o.
Now I have truly properly crusty bread and I can forget using breadknife..more like sircular saw job >:( >:( >:(
;D ;D ;D :(
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Use it as a doorstop..my first attempt at Russian rye bread served that purpose for ages XX Jeannine
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There was a fashion once where bread was over cooked and clear varnished, then used as an ornament. Bakers sometimes use them to decorate their windows overnight when all the fresh food was sold.
I have no idea if it can be redeemed by soaking it in water and then squeezing out to make a bread pudding or if it will soften enough to slice up and make into a bread and butter pudding.
Using as a blunt instrument ???
I can imagine the headlines. 'Woman wards off intruder with Loaf'
Door stop is probably the best idea.
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I am about to make meat balls with the frozen leftovers of a hog roast. If I had some burnt bread, I would soak it in water to soften it, squeeze out the liquid while removing the most burnt bits, and squish the rest into the meat and onion mixture plus an egg.
As it is, I have a bag in the freezer into which I put crusts and dried bits of bread, and do the same with them - and a bag of homemade breadcrumbs ready for coating meat or fish, or topping bakes.
I respect Jeannine's position, but I was a war baby and I cannot throw food away. I also enjoy, as others say, making something tasty out of unpromising ingredients.
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I was a war baby too LOL XX Jeannine
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"If I had some burnt bread, I would soak it in water to soften it"
Of all the water in the world...it would not do..we are talking proper rocks now.. :o.. I'll make rockery....!!! ;D
I can't even throw it away...might kill some body..would not do that even to my pigeons :-\
Anyway, new batch is nicely bubling...yep, russian style ryebread...it is heavy and tuff bread anyway without burning/ drying it...
I like it dried, but it needs slicing first, dunked into home made potato soup..yum,yum
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I don't waste food were possible, I was another told to eat her food cos somewhere kids are starving and was made to eat all my dinner no matter how long it took or how cold the food got. Then there was the 'If you don't eat it all today you will get it for breakfast' threat.
I save bread crusts to make breadcrumbs.
When I make, spag bogs, chillies and curries, there is nearly always some left over, I freeze it and use it at a later date. I made a huge vegetable curry not long ago, added more veg and chicken to it, it made 4 meals for me.
As a student I made all sorts of weird and wonderful food :P my favourite and I still occasionally make it is corned beef spaghetti bolognase, very tasty.
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I like left over food ;D (not the stuff scrapped from my plate) If I have a roast and there is enough left, I love having it next day either cold with salad or jacket potato etc or reheated in the microwave with left over veggies and gravy :o
I often cook more than I need so I can put a portion or two in the freezer, its nice not to have to cook sometimes. I don't buy ready made meals as I don't much like them. When I make a curry or caserole I always seem to cook enough for the county so its lucky I enjoy having it on another day! I eat lots of soup and often make up a big batch to freeze in individual portions. I've usually got about 5 or 6 sorts to choose from in the freezer, I often have soup for lunch tho so its good to have a bit of choice.
I don't freeze many veg (peas mainly, a few sweetcorn, some peppers and chillies) as I much prefer eating them fresh from the plot. and if I have to wait 10 months to eat them again, I think they just taste all the nicer.
I also usually scrape any suitable food scrapes either into the dogs bowl or the chickens!
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Bubble and squeak with warmed up left over beef in gravy.
Goes down a treat with the family.
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I always think those tiny joints they sell are too small to make a proper roast and wonder if, for people who do not dislike re-warmed meat and gravy it is not just as good to buy a couple of slices of roast beef from the deli, per person. Heat it up with a good gravy and serve it with freshly roasted spuds and yorshire pud Or even Aunt Bessies....
I know a lot of pubs and even some restaurants roast their meat ahead of time allow it to go cold to make slicing easier and and more economical. Then re-heat it. Just a matter of getting the timing right.
We seem to be in a world full of instant foods. Just how many would notice the difference?
I know there will be several who will reply to this and say they would and no doubt they will shout loudest but most people, I suggest, would not have a clue in a taste test.
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:-X
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AHHHHH but you amit to liking tinned corned beef re-cooked..........
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but the tin is opened for that purpose and I only use 1/3rd of a tin, I don't eat any leftovers from the mash and I don't eat the corn beef either..I actually don't like it but it is good in this reipe in very small amounts.Oh and for my tastes there is a huge massive difference beteween deli roast beef which is old and full of preservatives and fresh roast beef. I don't buy the deli stuff for anything. I will eat my own home cooked roast beef cold in a sandwich on the day after itis cooked only but not re heatsed and not after the second day, I don't eat any deli meats.Don't eat shop bought pizza either.Don't eat cooked prawns but will buy live ones, same with lobster , oysters , mussells and and clams.
BUT i don't waste anything.
xx Jeannine
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Having been served Aunt Bessies 'yorkshire puddings' a couple of times, I'd defy anyone to take a blindfold taste test and correctly identify what they're chewing; for me, there's no taste there at all.
I sometimes buy a little beef joint. Make wonderful pot roasts. Also agree that there's an unmistakeable difference in taste+texture between deli cooked beef and the Real Thing.
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I think cooking fresh ingredients from scratch works better for smaller households.
For myself, I'm a huge fan of leftovers. When my two strapping lads are home from uni, I have a household of five to feed and it makes sense to create large batches of food, some of which will then be used - with due respect for food hygiene and our tastebuds - in another recipe the following day.
Yesterday's roast duck is today's stir-fry, and the carcase is used to make stock or soup.
Crusts of bread are turned into puddings or are used to coat fishcakes or perhaps incorporated into stuffings.
If I've had the oven on, I may make a double batch of pudding or cake, some to be served immediately and some to be devoured by the giant mice who descend on the kitchen at 11 pm. It makes sense to cater simply for the range of appetites in your household.
A shoulder of pork is an invitation to get creative and freeze some slow-cooked meat, to add to a Chinese meal another day: dishes such as this can turn a hastily-prepared dinner into something closer to a banquet - or certainly, more of a treat than the vegetable stir-fry I might otherwise have done. I have saved a fortune on meat by cooking large, economical cuts with a judicious eye for future meals, not to mention cutting down on shopping trips and food packaging waste.
As a food writer, I really value leftovers because the ingredients I made them from were fresh and of good quality. It's a pity, as someone else has said, that it's hard to reproduce the tastiest leftover meals, and I can add that it's even harder to write recipes for them. Having said that, Rose Prince has a very laudable book on just this subject: The New English Kitchen.
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http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/save_time_and_money
Duke :)~ not that any of you need it but something to look at during your coffee break
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I was another told to eat her food cos somewhere kids are starving and was made to eat all my dinner no matter how long it took or how cold the food got. Then there was the 'If you don't eat it all today you will get it for breakfast' threat.
Me too! Remember mealtimes being a battleground as my parents and dinner ladies at school tried to force me to eat horrid 1970s food. Its had the opposite effect on me though - if I dont like something and it can't be turned into something tasty then it goes in the bin/compost.
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Kids during the 1970s were spoilt. You should have had the school dinners we had in the 1950s.
Mouldy Mouldy custard
Snot and bogey pie
Dead dog's giblets
Squashed cat's eye
Red blood sandwiches
Spread on thick
All washed down
With a cup of cold sick.
That was what we used to chant about them.
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That sounds like the halloween menu my mum put on in her school kitchen :P
Jeannine - if it wasn't so very rude I think we'd all be inviting ourselves round for dinner! Reading through your posts is making me hungry despite dinner & pudding. Sounds like you have a very productive and creative kitchen ;D
Personally I can't think of anything better than a lovely chicken roast dinner on a sunday with leftover mash & veg covered with cheese (I now deliberately cook more although I know that's not the idea!) and reheated for monday lunch at work, with cold sliced chicken and chips for tea. Mmmmm.
Can't manage to only cook for two. Always end up with approx half a portion left over of whatever it is. Happily this just gives me some more interesting lunch to take to work the next day. Have no problem with reheating stuff, although we almost never eat ready meals. Far too much salt, fat and unnatural preservatives in them.
As for best before dates - these have lead to the highest number of kitchen skirmishes in our house. My rule is if it's not green/furry/smells a bit wierd then it's almost certainly fine ;D
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Mrs Gumboot if you are going to Jeannine for Sunday Lunch, you better set off on Friday night and take Monday off work to get back. Although I am sure it will be well worth the journey.
I think Tim was right when he said that the flavours deepen when reheated or left to go cold and then reused. It is all a matter of personal taste. Like hanging meat for ages and letting game and cheeses get maggoty before using them, not for me. Nor the coffee which has to pass through goats and I do not fancy authentic birds nest soup either.
However, Some of the people who do go to extremes for some of these so called delicacies are often the ones who will look down at budget strained mother making a single portion of left over roast beef into a meat and potato pie to feed six.
The hot spicy curry, or so I once read, was invented to camouflage the taste of the rotting meat.
Indian food is certainly popular in Britain and versions of curries have been found in Medieval recipes, so it has been round at least as long as the spud (chips) which we claim as part of a national dish.
In fact our English Breakfast is often composed of
Californian orange juice
Danish Bacon
Irish sausages
Italian tomato sauce in the beans
Canadian bread wheat
Indian Tea or Coffee from Brazil.
I always feel slightly embarrassed when one of those several pages long menus from the local take away arrives through the letter box and see that tiny selection of English dishes. I never get a take away, I just look through for ideas of what I can 'make for a change'.
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Oy, you forgot the Belguin pancakes covered in Canadian Maple syrup LOL
XX Jeannine
PS we ate KFC tonight, John's idea of him cooking dinner cos I was off my legs today..Chicken was OK, french fries had to have a second fry,pasta salad, potato salad and coleslaw I passed on same with the gravy.. John got a good treat though,, it also had a diet Pepsi,, does it always taste like disinfectant.
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Someone buys DANISH bacon??
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I thought coke was disinfectant or at least a toilet cleaner. I certainly would never drink it. If you have any left overs and no metal which needs cleaning ( another thing it works well on) pour it down the loo. I wondered why it was displayed with the soft drinks instead of between the to the Domestos and Toilet Duck.
You never get Belgian pancakes and Maple syrup with an English Breakfast in the UK. You might get Welsh pancakes and golden syrup for tea in the afternoon.
I can not bear those dreadful 'fries' either. I think I have only ever had KFC once it was in 1966 or 1967. I liked the taste, they have probably changed the recipe since. We did not eat things like pasta salad and cole slaw in those days, not round our way at least. Eating mayonnaise instead of salad cream was exotic and people made coffee with a teaspoon full from a bottle of Camp and hot milk.
Tim's got a good point. You used to be able to identify Danish Bacon by the tram lines on the rind but these days bacon almost always has the rind cut off it. I am going to be checking bacon packs in the supermarkets now.......
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Mrs Gumboot if you are going to Jeannine for Sunday Lunch, you better set off on Friday night and take Monday off work to get back. Although I am sure it will be well worth the journey.
I am aware Jeannine doesn't live close. However, I reckon all that salivating on the plane would make the time whizz by ;D
Have to admit I'm partial to the odd macdonalds every now and again! Guilty pleasures!
Bacon comes from the local farmers market. Actually made of pig not water. Tastes beautiful. Would never buy supermarket bacon again.
Having seen what a bottle of Ribena 'toothkind' did to a supermarket floor a few years back I think I'll take my chances with the coke :-\
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Whats a left over ;D
With 7 dogs nothing much gets thrown away here.
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Interestingly, my totally unscientific research reveals that we Brits are eating more Dutch bacon these days.
Canal water or what ever. I just hate those water filled rashers too. Some time ago, I tested two bacon rashers. Weighed them and then pressed them between kitchen paper. Which had also been weighed.
I weighed the wet paper and found that it had increased in weight by half the weight of the bacon. So is double the price actually dearer ? Hard to say since I did not repeat my experiment with dry cured.
Go on then tell me dry cured has water added to .......
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Go on then tell me dry cured has water added to .......
They'll add water to anything just to bulk up the weight so being cynical I should think it probably does! NO other basis for that opinion mind ;D
Don't have to weight it to see the difference - hardly any liquid comes out when you cook it. Happily, the pork man on the market doesn't charge a great deal more than you'd pay in the supermarket, in fact the streaky rashers are way cheaper and they're lovely an long so great for wrapping over roast chicken and the like. Plus if you're using it chopped up, in pasta or whatever, you don't need to use so much as it's all meat.
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On the subject of freezing veg but not meals - it's a good rule for some things (mainly stuff that has a real skin on it - pea and bean seeds, tomatoes, peppers) but the opposite is true for many others...
We've tried freezing beans (french and runner pods) with various amounts of 'blanching' - but too little sometimes go 'fishy' and too much goes tasteless (like the frozen ones in the shops).
We now cook them with just a little tomato, oil, onion and garlic and then freeze them - when we defrost they are indistinguishable from the freshly-cooked version, and infinitely better than the same meal made with frozen beans.
The same goes tenfold for courgettes: frozen alone - awful, frozen as ratatouille - excellent.
Cheers.
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That is a good idea for the runner and french beans and I will certainly try that this year.
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I agree totally about courgettes in tomato sauce for the freezer - delicious! :)
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I have slowly begun to notice this too.... We can't always get through a whole cabbage, so I have been freezing it in a garlic cream sauce and it is absolutely lovely when it comes out again.
At the moment I have a huge winter squash (Crown Prince) lounging in the kitchen looking beautiful but I hesitate to cut into him because a) my husband does not like squash, b) I'll only be able to eat 1/5th of him however hard I try, and I dread ruining the texture and flavour by freezing raw.
Any ideas about a way of cooking him that will survive the freezer as brilliantly as cabbage does?
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What about souping him? I've only done it with butternut squash, but that freezes beautifully as soup.
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Thanks, but we drink gallons of soup in this house and I am looking for something more solid....
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I never have left overs, I always cook a big batches and freeze it in individual tubs for microwaving on another day.