A smallholder takes on board war on waste in the kitchen (From Smallholder)

A smallholder takes on board war on waste in the kitchen

8:40am Thursday 15th April 2010 in

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What's cooking...

In my own personal war on waste I want to share the smugness I feel in making a turkey into so many meals.

I was in Waitrose and they had free range turkeys in the cheap shelf, half price, so I bought one for a treat. They were £11.75p. I removed the giblets, and cooked this turkey slowly and it was, of course delicious. I made gravy from the giblets which is ridiculously easy. The following day we had cold turkey which was lovely, with new potatoes and garden mint. The day after we had turkey crumble with the rest of the carcase, cooked in the remainder of the gravy and a topping made from flour, butter (I use butter and don't apologise for this fact!) and left over from Christmas Stilton cheese. It really did melt in the mouth. In addition we had sandwiches and I made three large stock pots from the bones plus the cats had an unexpected treat from gristly bits. So thats six main meals, two lunches and the basis for more meals for £11.75 - suddenly it looks cheap. I think to reduce food waste we have to be confident in using left overs in interesting ways. I love cooking with left overs because it means I don't have to think about what to cook - I am completely guided by what is in the fridge. I've still been using up the Stilton (it was a big piece) so last night we had Cauliflower Cheese with stilton and duck eggs. You don't need recipes, just let your imagination guide you and your feel for the food. I've never had anything "go wrong" and I am a really casual cook. I don't even know where my scales are. I love cooking because I love food. A word on Waitrose. We don't have a Waitrose in Fenland but because my father in law has been unwell, I have driven past two Waitroses rather a lot lately, one at Ely and one at Newmarket. I do like looking round Waitrose as they have so much local produce and their products often give me ideas to use my own produce. Here in Fenland we have Aldi and Lidl's, I do find that Lidl's have a good range of MSC approved fish and sutstainable fish is something I am getting fussier and fussier about. We also have a Co-op who do a good job but recently they went beyond the call of duty. I was buying a chocolate pudding (again from the cheap shelf - there's a pattern emerging here!) and the cashier said to me, "you can make that yourself in the microwave" and then proceeded to write down the recipe which I will share with you.

The "two" pudding Two ounces flour, two ounces of sugar, two ounces of margerine and one free range egg. Mix together and cook in microwave.

Thank you Hazel. I think this would work well with home picked soft fruits either as a plain sponge or incorporated into the mix. I've given it as she gave it to me. If you want to do it in metric it becomes the 57 grams pudding which isn't so tongue tripping. Or I would probably do it as the two tablespoons pudding and just hope for the best. I'll let you know!

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