Turn Stale Food into Super Duper Dishes!

Wilful Waste makes Woeful Want!
Remember last Saturday’s blog on ‘Love Food Hate Waste’
Why be a victim of a woeful want. If after all that careful planning you are still left with food that has gone off, reinvent and make new dishes. Turn your woeful wants into super duper simple dishes.
Here are five simple ways to use common food that are pass their use-by date. They are not complicated recipes to follow, just simple recipes using store cupboard items.

1. Banana fritters.

Bananas lovely to eat but they either are too green or before you know it have gone too ripe to enjoy.
Just mash them, add some flour (a bit of baking powder to fluff them up) and sugar according to how battery or sugary you want it to be. How much or little sugar you add will not compromise the end product, so you can easily control the sugar content. Fry the batter by the spoonful in hot oil.  Enjoy a favourite tea snack of the east.

2. Homemade wholesome yoghurt

Milk can go off; sometimes even before the use-by date. However, do you realise that yoghurt never goes off as it is already fermented with culture.  Why not use your milk that is not going to last and make yoghurt.  Warm up the milk (finger hot), and add a tablespoon of any old unflavoured yoghurt. Put in a flask and keep overnight.  Wake up next morning to homemade creamy yoghurt. Note that the best yoghurt is made from full cream milk as some fat is needed.  However, it is healthier than store bought yoghurt as there are no additions to thicken the yoghurt. You can add your favourite fruits, honey, jam or granola for a perfect breakfast.

3. East-is-east spicy french toast

Bread – oh the bane of our lifes! Can’t do without it, don’t know what to do with it after a few days. It comes in 800 gm size most of the time and you end up not being able to finish it in time.  One option is to freeze it for future use. The other option is to enjoy the freshness of half the loaf and make the rest into:

• nice spicy East-is-East French toast – just add a teaspoon of garam masala to the egg and milk batter for a soft toast with a spicy lift.
• a pudding – summer pudding or bread and butter pudding – both easy recipes that requires just simply putting together the ingredients.
• croutons for soups and breadcrumbs (by the time the bread hardens). If need be, toast it in the oven and the bread will be just nice to cut into croutons or crunched into crumbs.

4. A Detox Soup

Vegetables.

This soup can use six or more different vegetables and as a bonus helps you detox and lose weight.

Sounds familiar -   iced or dried carrots, soft butternut squash, mushy courgettes, sprouting onions, squishy tomatoes and yellow headed broccoli? Put them into a pot; add vegetable stock, tomato puree and your favourite herbs. Boil and simmer until all contents are soft and can be pureed.

5. Stock both vegetarian or non-vegetarian – perfect to add to your casseroles, stir fry and noodles.

Kitchen leftovers, trimmings and bones. Simple put your leftovers, trimmings and peels especially onion peels for a lovely colour, or the carcass of your roast (be careful not to allow the bones to land on the eating plate to avoid saliva contamination) into a heavy bottom pot, add water and basic seasoning. Bring to boil and then simmer for about an hour. Strain and store your stock for future use.