The Recycled Cook

The Recycled Cook Mushrooms on Toast (with a twist) A nice healthy vegetarian breakfast blog today (well healthyish), taking that old favourite, mushrooms on toast and giving it a bit of a twist. As with all of my recipes there are no formal rules or rigid quantities as much of it is down to what you happen to have in your fridge and your own creativity.  I used a mixture of Browncap and Field mushrooms but any variety that takes your fancy will work just as well. For me the best tasting are wild mushrooms and sometimes I will go and forage for them but it is not something you should do unless you are very familiar with picking them. I learnt by going out with experts but will still rely heavily on some very good reference books, even with them I take the view that if I am not certain of the variety I will leave it alone. My advice is do not pick your own unless you are either with someone who knows what they are doing or you take the trouble to learn thoroughly, gettin...

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 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 ...