Corona Virus Crisis
- People around us are hoarding groceries and other food ingredients and are under severe food panic
- Awareness: People must buy only what is required so that others too can use these lifesaving resources.
- As a Chef and culinary expert, I have immense respect for food and therefore today I am going to share a few tips that would help you curate a new dishes which includes zero waste of food.
How to get to Zero-Waste?
Remember that food safety is our priority while we store stems, roots, leafs, crumbs and the list goes on…… appropriately which is of great significance.
Zero-waste cooking:
- To reduce packaging
- Utilizing max. percentage of food ingredients…
Eat every part of the ingredient you’re cooking with. This is nose-to-tail, root-to-stem cooking.
- Re-purposing the leftovers …..And
- Composting the rest
Tips that will definitely help:
- Store foods at proper / accurate temperatures in the refrigerators.
- Each set of ingredients need to be stored in different slots of refrigerator with the respective temperatures required.
- Place nuts and dry fruits in the refrigerator in airtight glass jars / bottles, this prevents it from going rancid.
- In fact I store grains, semolina and vermicelli too in the refrigerator.
There are times when we have leftover foods in our refrigerator and thinking that the leftover food will no longer serve a purpose, we discard it.
As a Chef and culinary expert, I have immense respect for food and therefore today I am going to share a few tips that would help you curate a new dish or use the leftover
food in such a way that everyone who eats it will simply love it. Remember that food safety is our priority while we are using leftovers; handling leftovers in an appropriate
way is of great significance.
Tips that help you with leftovers:
● You need to refrigerate the leftovers covered in airtight containers at an accurate temperature.
● Choose the right way of refrigerating/freezing food i.e. Mason Jars, Zip-Top freezer bags and many more.
● Consider the ingredients in the leftover food rather than considering the entire preparation.
● Vegetable scraps can be used for making vegetable stock.
● Indian Blackberry (Jamun) which is leftover in the refrigerator can be frozen and then in the future can be used to make Jamun Raita or Jamun Chutney.
●Bananas that are turning brown can be kept in a freezer and one can use it to make a smoothie, pancakes, Banana Bread, Banana Cakes and the list goes on.
● Leftover bread can be baked until it is dry, cool it down and prepare breadcrumbs or croutons and store them for further use. It could be for coating cutlets and can be used for topping gratinated dishes.
● You may also prepare bread pudding with stale bread.
● Leftover lemongrass can be added to the rice to give a great fragrance.
● Leftover cooked beetroot can make wonderful accompaniments like Beetroot Raita.
● You can prepare Arancini with leftover Arborio Rice. You can prepare Beetroot Arancini by using leftover cooked beetroot, leftover Arborio Rice and roll them in breadcrumbs prepared with leftover stale bread.
● Kadai Paneer / Paneer Makhani / Paneer Bhurji can be used to make a fantastic topping for a pizza.
● Leftover vegetables like squash, broccoli and cauliflower can be frozen and a scrumptious pureed soup can be prepared.
● One can prepare mind-boggling Biryani or fried rice with leftover rice.
● Leftover cooked beetroot and chickpeas can make some delectable Beetroot Falafel.
● Leftover cooked chicken can be used in salads, wraps, sandwiches, and rolls.
You can get more creative with various cooked/uncooked leftovers thus minimizing wasting food and also considering the Financial, Environmental and Social factors.
To keep yourself safe, it’s best to discard any food that looks or smells bad. One more very effective way of using leftovers that go bad is by putting them in a compost bin and turning it into a fertilizer for your evergreen garden at home.
What do you think?
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