The Recycled Cook

The Recycled Cook By Adrian Sleeman Pickling Over the next few blogs we are going to look at the various ways we have available to us of preserving food, that will not only make the most of your fruit and vegetables but will also add that extra ingredient to add to your meals and give them that added zing. Red Cabbage pickle One of the easiest and most satisfying methods for preserving and enhancing fresh fruit and vegetables is the traditional art of pickling which seems to have found a new following amongst today's young chefs. I have been pickling fruit and vegetables for quite some time, it is one of the most satisfying and simple things to do in the kitchen and is far cheaper than shop bought.  If you are lucky enough to grow your own fruit and vegetables all the better but it is just as easy to do with the kind of fresh produce I spoke about in my last blog. Remember the allotments, they are a great source of ingredients for this. Our ancestors picked a...

The Recycled Cook By Adrian Sleeman Thinking ahead It might seem like a strange idea to buy with the idea of recycling in mind but the benefits, both in terms of flavour and value are worth the effort. An obvious example is chicken, why buy pieces of chicken, (breasts, legs, thighs) when you can buy a whole chicken for not much more. Apart from the fact that you are paying your supermarket to joint the chicken for you, you are also paying for all the individual packaging. I would also suggest that by doing this you afford to buy free range chickens rather than factory farmed ones, which personally I wont do. I might not be a vegetarian but I want to know that what I buy has been well treated. Getting back to the point of the exercise, buying a whole bird lets you plan ahead for several meals. After jointing the bird, you can freeze whatever meat is not going to be used immediately and break up the carcass to use for stock. The same of course applies to any cut of meat th...

The Recycled Cook By Adrian Sleeman Recycling food, a way of life Having had a break from writing this blog I have had time to look at the whole concept of recycling food in a new light. When I first started to write this blog it was based on the notion that past generations had always tried not to waste anything in the kitchen. Not only that but they seemed to be able to extract more flavour from simple foods. They didn't do it because they felt it was socially responsible or politically correct they did it because they had very little choice and could not afford to waste anything.  When I first started thinking about the whole idea of recycling food it was based on the nostalgia of remembering how good food used to taste when we were children growing up in Wales. Mostly, after the initial introduction to the idea of recycling I posted recipes for meals based on what I had available at the time. What I have now come to realise and will hopefully be reflected in where ...

The Recycled Cook By Adrian Sleeman Warm Liver, Potato and Ham Salad Now the winter months are here, what better supper dish could you wish for than a healthy warm salad. The possible combinations are endless but, as always with recycled meals, it depends on what you have available. The warm salad that I am going to make for you today is using liver, gammon, potato and shallot but use your imagination and create your own variation. To start with halve some small potatoes (new potatoes are best), leaving the skins on, add some sliced shallots if available or if not a small onion or that half a large onion you have left over in the fridge. Be careful with halved onions, always wrap them in cling film as they will otherwise absorb anything around them. Season well with salt and ground black pepper and then lightly fry these in olive oil. garlic cloves can be added at this point too but leave them in their skins to avoid the garlic burning and becoming bitter. Once the ...