It is always a pain to carry a big bin bag out to your weekly trash collection. Today, we have come to reduce your weekly burden. No longer will you have to carry such a big bag. By reducing your food wastes with our menu ideas, hopefully we can lessen the weight that create your backpains.
Food waste generates greenhouse gases which then causes the climate change. By cooking with zero or minimal waste, each of us can easily contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases. Basically, below are the ideas of how you can utilise as many different parts of the food ingredient as possible to reduce food waste. Here are 5 menu ideas:
Let us start with an apple, my favourite fruit.
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Caramelised apples: apple flesh
This recipe makes a big portion of caramelised apples enough for a group of 2 to 3 people.
What will you need? For the caramelised apple pieces
3 red apples (gala or granny smith)
120 g. of sugar divided into 3 bowls (by eye is fine)
35 g. of butter
A pinch of salt
1 stick of cinnamon, halved
1 to 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
Instructions:
Peel and core your apples
Cut each apple into 6 equal pieces
Wet some tissues and wrap the apples. Leave in the fridge so that they do not brown because of oxidation.
Add 40 g. of sugar to pan. Spread sugar throughout the area of the pan.
Turn on the stove, low heat. Do not stir.
Once sugar starts to melt, tilt pan around so that all is melted equally. Sugar solids will start to turn to syrup. Then syrup will turn brown.
When brown syrup starts to bubble, add butter and move the pan around to decrease the heat a little. Add apples and also move pan around so that syrup covers the apples’ skin.
Add the halved cinnamon stick and a pinch of salt. Cover the pan with a lid.
Check the apple pieces every 2 to 3 minutes so that they do not burn. Caramel easily burns.
Turn the apple pieces with a spatula or a spoon to cover all sides with syrup.
The apples should cook after about 20 to 30 mins. This can be checked with a knife. Use a knife to pierce the apple pieces, if they feel thoroughly soft then they are ready to be served.
Add some lemon juice to your liking and mix thoroughly before serving.
Caramelised apples go very well with pork steaks. They can also be eaten on their own. Now that we have made some snacks out of the apple flesh, we are left with apple scraps; the apple cores and peels. Apple peels can be made into both a side dish or into crisps to be eaten as snacks.
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Apple crisps: apple peels
What will you need?
Apple peels
2 tablespoons of sugar
A pinch of cinnamon powder
Instructions:
Turn on the oven at 150°C to preheat. This should take about 10 to 20 minutes.
While waiting for the oven to heat up, line the baking tray with some baking sheets.
Cut apple peel to desired crisp sizes.
Now mix about 2 tablespoons of sugar and a pinch of cinnamon powder together. Be careful with cinnamon, adding too much can be over powering.
Use this sugar mix to toss the apple peels so that sugar mix are spread evenly on apple skins.
Spread the apple peels onto the baking sheet.
Bake for 30 minutes. Taking the tray out midway to flip the crisps so that they are cooked evenly on both sides.
Now we are left with the apple cores. Apple syrup can be used to pour over pancakes or for making drinks.
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Apple syrup: apple cores What will you need?
Apple core
sugar
Instructions:
Put apple cores in a pot.
Add enough water so that all the apple cores are covered by at least an inch.
Put the pot on stove and bring to boil.
Lower heat down to simmer for about 1 hour. At this point you should notice that the apple juice is now fragrant.
Remove the cores, measure how much apple juice there is.
Add 7 parts out of 10 of sugar to the juice in the pot. Bring to boil until all is melted. Stirring is OK.
Let cool in a different container or over ice.
For storage purposes, the apple syrup is best stored in an air tight container such as a jar. Put the jar in a fridge. Consume within a month at its best. Of course, there are still lemons left from the caramelised apples. Lemon zest can be kept in the freezer for a maximum of 6 months if kept in an airtight zipper bag. Lemon zest can be made into many different desserts. However, let us move onto some main course.
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Lemon risotto: Lemon zest and juice For this you will need:
5 g. Lemon zest (1 lemon)
80 g. Arborio rice (for making risotto)
Parmezan cheese grated (a handful)
2 tablespoons olive oil
30 g. finely chopped onions
60 g. white wine
About 1 litre of chicken stock
To make your own chicken stock, boil chicken carcass with enough water to cover, along with some diced onion, carrots and celery for 4 to 6 hours. Drain, cool over ice. Portion the stock and keep in the freezer. They will keep for 3-4 days in the fridge and 4 months approximately in the freezer. For choosing white wine, choose the wine that you already like drinking. The logic is if you like it on its own, then it would also taste great in cooking. Although Parmezan is typically used in risotto, adding or also using other types of cheese is totally OK, depending on your preferences or if you are experimental. Afterall, cooking is all about being creative. A note on onion chopping, it should be chopped as finely as possible so that the size of the onion is similar to that of a grain of rice. In the cooking world, this is called ‘ciseler’ in French. Now, let us start!
Instructions:
In a pot, warm the chicken stock. Keep it warm.
Add olive oil to pan. Heat up the pan and add chopped onions.
With a pinch of salt, stir and cook the onions so the pieces become transparent.
Once this is achieved, add the rice, cook the rice, stir regularly to so that it is equally cooked.
After some time, the tips of the rice will change to an opaque white which is what we are looking for. With this, add the wine.
Keep cooking till the wine is reduced to two thirds of its original volume. Then add a ladle of chicken stock.
At this point, rice will slowly cook. The heat should be kept low so that rice grains do not break and keep their shapes. Keep cooking rice without letting the pan to dry out.
When the pan dries, add more chicken stock. The whole process should take about 40 minutes.
After 20 to 30 minutes, add butter and parmesan cheese.
Every time the pan dries, check whether, rice is cooked through. Taste for the desired consistency and texture. If it is still too hard, cook for longer. Make sure to cook enough so that right consistency of rice is obtained and that there is no more stock in the risotto pan.
Add all of the lemon zest prepared. Add half a table spoon of lemon juice at a time to your liking.
What we are looking for at the end, is a risotto that is not liquid. Now it is ready to serve. Vegetable soup: left over vegetables from making stock As for starter, left over vegetables that were strained out of the stock can be blended to make soup. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Chicken stock can be added back to this thick paste to add more character to the soup. Sprinkle left over meat or vegetables on top for style.
We hope, you have enjoyed cooking with us today.
Note from author:
Know that by cooking with zero waste or minimal waste, you are thereby making your very own contribution to combat the climate change situation by causing less methane, a powerful greenhouse gas to be produced. This gas is a by product of food waste from landfills. Methane is great at absorbing heat, thus, has a great effect on climate.
Remember by cooking efficiently, you are also saving money. When previously the food you have paid for would go to the bin, they will now fill your stomach or even better, your friends’.
Having the opportunity to write to those who are also passionate in cooking is a pleasure. I am a barista and a cook. Cooking has been both a career path and a hobby for me. Creativity is encouraged in the kitchen. You follow recipes for the first time only. Other times, you can make your own creations. I hope I have inspired you today.
My name is Rean, see you in the kitchen!
Writer: Isara Thanadumrongsuk
Editor: Naphat Phongpheat
Banner Creator: Supachai Mongkolnit
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