A third of all food produced for human consumption around the world is wasted. If you love to cook you’re in a great position to do your small part to reduce food waste, one meal at a time. Bones and vegetable offcuts become stock, stale bread is blitzed into fresh breadcrumbs and coriander roots are cleaned up to pound into curry pastes – all of which freeze well. So before you go shopping, or bin food off-cuts, think about what delicious dishes you can make from what you have on hand. Here are my favourite no waste recipes.
Duck Fat Potatoes Duck fat potatoes are quite a delicacy in France – so when I had some rendered duck fat left over from frying duck breasts for duck à l’orange (see video below), I thought I’d make some. The verdict: easy and utterly delicious! The trick is to fry them for about 10 minutes […]
Vegetable Stock A good vegetable stock can be the base of great soups, risotto, casseroles and many other dishes. Roasting the vegetables before boiling them adds further flavour and depth. Stock freezes really well too, so you can always have some on hand. Once you see how simple it is, you’ll never buy stock again. […]
Chicken Stock A good chicken stock is the base for great soups, risotto, casseroles and many other dishes. Even seafood and red meat dishes often use chicken stock for its subtle flavour that adds depth without competing with the star Ingredients. Roasting the chicken bones before boiling them, to make what is called a brown […]
Miso & Sesame Cookies Japanese sweets often have an intriguing blend of sweet and savoury, and if you like the black sesame cookies in our Month of Japanese, you’ll love these miso-spiked ones too. I like white miso for its mild taste, but you can experiment with different ones if you like a more savoury […]
Tempura Tempura is an example of how the Japanese take inspiration from other cultures and make it their own. Battered fried seafood and vegetables was introduced to Japan by Portuguese missionaries in the 1700s – the Japanese lightened the batter, added a delicate dipping sauce and created what is now considered one of their most […]
Zabaglione Zabaglione is a deliciously frothy combination of egg, sugar and wine that’s best eaten as soon as it’s made. It originated in Italy hundreds of years ago and migrated to France where it became known as sabayon. Sicily’s famous fortified wine, Marsala, is often used to make zabaglione, though any dessert wine works well […]
Hamin Eggs with Cumin Salt I first tasted this dish in the mid ‘90s at Middle Eastern restaurant Fez in Darlinghurst, and it became my go-to breakfast dish. Years later I discovered that it’s the long slow cooking that gives hamin eggs their creamy texture and brown onion skins that add the beautiful colour. Find […]
Beetroot Pickled Turnips Pickled vegetables are always present on a Middle Eastern table. Olives, green chillies and turnips are most common but small eggplants, cucumbers and cauliflower are also popular. Beetroot pickled turnips, traditionally stained bright pink with beetroot juice, are the most distinctive – though commercial ones are usually artificially coloured these days. The […]
Shallot Pancakes Shallot pancakes are northern Chinese snacks that are irresistibly moreish and a great way to use up the green onion tops that so often end up in the bin. The method is a simple process of rolling the dough several times to create layers that puff up slightly when cooked. The most important […]
Crema Catalana One of my favourite Sardinian sweets is bianchini, moreish little meringues studded with toasted almonds and lemon zest. Making them (or any meringue) means leftover egg yolks and a perfect excuse to cook crema Catalana. This classic Spanish dessert is also very popular in Sardinia, a reminder of the Catalan influence there. The […]
