Wednesday 3 February 2010

Waste Less, Use It Up!

My friend, Vivien, sends me newspaper articles now and then in the post. It apparently amuses her to share some of her findings and I take it as evidence that I'm being thought of, which is lovely. She always seems to hit on things I'm interested in, too.

One of the articles introduced me to the website Love Food Hate Waste. I'm still learning loads from it: tips on serving sizes, how to use up leftovers, how best to store food to make it keep. Mind, there are pictures of some really scary looking chefs on there. Don't let that put you off!

Another article she sent was a recipe for Apple Charlotte, which uses stale bread and breadcrumbs. We have lots of bread crusts because we make our own bread in a machine and it has no preservatives. Sometimes when we get to the end of a loaf it's just a bit tough, so I'll throw it into a plastic bag in the freezer. I use these bits to make Salmon Puff or I'll toast them to make croutons or put the toasted bits into the blender to make bread crumbs for various recipes.

I found the recipe again in Ellen's cookbook when looking for what to do with the multitude of blackberries cluttering up our freezer, only it was called Apple Blackberry Charlotte. I decided it was fate telling me I should make something called a Charlotte (apparently named after poor Queen Charlotte, the wife of mad King George III, the patron of apple-growers). It was sort of a success -- we ate it, anyhow. I'm glad to know about this recipe, as it lends itself to using all sorts of fruits and not having to make pastry. The main thing I gather is to have the filling fairly dry, not runny, and you can accomplish this by adding a couple of tablespoons of breadcrumbs. I didn't have a proper pan with sloping sides, so I used a large Pyrex mixing cup. I read elsewhere that this recipe is mentioned in To Kill a Mockingbird, which reminds me I should read it again sometime.
If you are interested in trying out Apple Charlotte, the recipe can be found here.

We just had a very nice but strange lunch, by the way. Tortillas are excellent for bundling up all sorts of leftovers and making them seem a bit more special, particularly if you sprinkle on a bit of grated cheese. I usually make tortillas as food on the go, and so the cheese goes inside; when eating at home, it's nice to have it on the outside. Our mixture of leftovers would have made Simon proud: beans (cooked with tinned tomatoes and onions), mashed swede, leftover cabbage leaves, boiled potato, mashed potato, turkey and BBQ sauce, and peas. There were only small bits of each, so it all got mixed together and put in tortillas with cheese. It was good, honest!

What do you do with leftovers?

3 comments:

Martha said...

I have the pan (both big size and 4 little ones -- which are great for soup -- the metal pan keeps the soup hot!)

But I've never made charlotte -- always mean to but never do -- did not know that was the charlotte that the charlotte was named after nor about the patron saint bit!

I try hard not to have leftovers fixing just the amount of meat or vegetables that we'll eat. If we DO have leftovers it's something like soup and we eat it for lunch until it is gone!

Anonymous said...

Leftovers! what are they? Rick makes sure there aren't any.

My " cobblers" always have too much juice in them, even though I try to drain off much extra as possible. I will try some bread crumbs as well next time.
Jo

Pauline Wiles said...

Leftovers can be a bit of a challenge, but I usually take them to work for lunch. Although I admit, if they're from a particularly tasty meal, they get yummed up as a snack long before then!