What can I do with....? The food waste reduction thread.

[Hawkfeathers]

Re: What can I do with....? The food waste reduction thread.

I chop celery and green peppers and wrap in small packages to freeze. Doing a lot of peppers now to get through the winter. The stores will still have them, but these are Farmers Market ones, much better.

[Rae'ya]

Re: What can I do with....? The food waste reduction thread.

Does anyone know a reliable way to keep lemon zest without it losing it's... well it's zest?

Last night I made a Lemon Delicious with duck eggs and some lovely homegrown lemonades that were given to me by a client. I used the juice from six of them, but the zest of only two. And it felt such an enormous waste throwing the rest of the skins in the bin and wasting all that luscious zest. (But I'll tell you they are AWESOME for juicing! There was no flesh left after I juiced them and even though they are only the size of limes they gave me 2/3 cup of juice... after I wasted half of one by rolling it on the bench too hard and splitting it's guts all over the place lol).

And on that subject... egg yolks. I know you can freeze egg whites, but what about yolks that you don't use? Any grand ideas for storing or using up the 1-2 egg yolks left over when you use more whites than yolks?

[Tylluan Penry]

Re: What can I do with....? The food waste reduction thread.

Can always add an extra egg to scrambled eggs

[Jembru]

Re: What can I do with....? The food waste reduction thread.

Ask me again what I think about celery in soup, when I'm not still on the cabbage soup diet! On the bright side, I've been wasting very little fresh stuff.

Jem have you tried making pickles or jam yet? For all the cooking I can do and do do it saddens me to admit I don't seem to have a green thumb. Or at least I feel like I don't. I would love to have a small potted garden but I am also terrified I would kill it all.

Haven't had a chance. I ended up roasting the last batch, but then my dad dropped off more on Saturday morning. I know what you mean about gardening. I'm getting gradually better, but I'm pretty bad. I was watering pots of weeds for most of the summer. I also have a pot of rosemary grown in the shape of a tree. It was two plants wound together and one died over the winter. I didn't know what to do about the dead bit so I've had a half-dead plant growing in my yard all summer.

[Tylluan Penry]

Re: What can I do with....? The food waste reduction thread.

Can always add an extra egg to scrambled eggs

[thalassa]

Re: What can I do with....? The food waste reduction thread.

I'm gonna add freeze greens and put them in smoothies again.

I put my "mixed greens" in spicy smoothies all the time--add some carrots, tomato, cilantro, lemon or lime, peppers, celery, onions and/or garlic, and a quarter of an avocado (along with some chili powder and cayenne), and mmmmmmmmmmmmm....spicy veggie smoothie!

[DanieMarie]

Re: What can I do with....? The food waste reduction thread.

Does anyone know a reliable way to keep lemon zest without it losing it's... well it's zest?

Last night I made a Lemon Delicious with duck eggs and some lovely homegrown lemonades that were given to me by a client. I used the juice from six of them, but the zest of only two. And it felt such an enormous waste throwing the rest of the skins in the bin and wasting all that luscious zest. (But I'll tell you they are AWESOME for juicing! There was no flesh left after I juiced them and even though they are only the size of limes they gave me 2/3 cup of juice... after I wasted half of one by rolling it on the bench too hard and splitting it's guts all over the place lol).

And on that subject... egg yolks. I know you can freeze egg whites, but what about yolks that you don't use? Any grand ideas for storing or using up the 1-2 egg yolks left over when you use more whites than yolks?

I dry it and use it in baking projects. It holds much of its flavour through the drying process.

You could also try making candied lemon peel. It's quite a nice treat.

As for yolks, I'll usually just throw them in an omelette or something like that. Unless it's Christmas, and then I make this: http://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/91956...stecherle.html (sorry, but this is something I only know in German! Google translate would be helpful here, I think) You need more than 1 or 2 for that though. My family's recipe uses five egg yolks!

[thalassa]

Re: What can I do with....? The food waste reduction thread.

(sorry, but this is something I only know in German! Google translate would be helpful here, I think) You need more than 1 or 2 for that though. My family's recipe uses five egg yolks!

First off...yum

Second, I think you might appreciate this: Sharkbait is trying to teach himself German. He does this by asking people if they speak German and then asking them how to say whatever word passes his fancy at the moment. Plus, he's 6 and his pronunciation is iffy in English sometimes... Anyhow, he no longer tells people "good-bye" he tells them (phonetically, because he doesn't have the pronunciation down yet) "Otter Wiener-zane".

[DanieMarie]

Re: What can I do with....? The food waste reduction thread.

First off...yum

Second, I think you might appreciate this: Sharkbait is trying to teach himself German. He does this by asking people if they speak German and then asking them how to say whatever word passes his fancy at the moment. Plus, he's 6 and his pronunciation is iffy in English sometimes... Anyhow, he no longer tells people "good-bye" he tells them (phonetically, because he doesn't have the pronunciation down yet) "Otter Wiener-zane".

Haha that's adorable!

[kalynraye]

Re: What can I do with....? The food waste reduction thread.

Does anyone know a reliable way to keep lemon zest without it losing it's... well it's zest?

Last night I made a Lemon Delicious with duck eggs and some lovely homegrown lemonades that were given to me by a client. I used the juice from six of them, but the zest of only two. And it felt such an enormous waste throwing the rest of the skins in the bin and wasting all that luscious zest. (But I'll tell you they are AWESOME for juicing! There was no flesh left after I juiced them and even though they are only the size of limes they gave me 2/3 cup of juice... after I wasted half of one by rolling it on the bench too hard and splitting it's guts all over the place lol).

And on that subject... egg yolks. I know you can freeze egg whites, but what about yolks that you don't use? Any grand ideas for storing or using up the 1-2 egg yolks left over when you use more whites than yolks?

Preserve the lemon zest in salt. We do a lot of preserved meyer lemons at work. The flavor is fantastic, or candy it. I know I say that a lot but i'm all for canning and preserving. As for yolks I have to think of something you can do with them. You can freeze them and yes you can even preserve them. They will dry out and look like an apricot(and it does take a long time) but grated on a cheese grater over salad is delicious. Your aren't much into dessert right? Or overly sweet stuff but you could make a lovely curd with those yolks if you've got juice of a citrus fruit.

[Rae'ya]

Re: What can I do with....? The food waste reduction thread.

Preserve the lemon zest in salt. We do a lot of preserved meyer lemons at work. The flavor is fantastic, or candy it. I know I say that a lot but i'm all for canning and preserving. As for yolks I have to think of something you can do with them. You can freeze them and yes you can even preserve them. They will dry out and look like an apricot(and it does take a long time) but grated on a cheese grater over salad is delicious. Your aren't much into dessert right? Or overly sweet stuff but you could make a lovely curd with those yolks if you've got juice of a citrus fruit.

I love citrus and berry type deserts (and bitter chocolate and salted caramel), and I do make my own curd and icecream from scratch. This time I had 2 yolks left over from a desert (had a 2-yr-old-niece-helping-me mishap when beating the whites so had to redo them and therefore didn't need the yolks). I hate chucking them out, but I didn't know how to save them to use in another desert another day!

Does salt preserved lemon zest taste salty? I can preserve lemons for use in my tagine later, but the zest on it's own I wasn't sure. And I love to use lemon zest in cakes and deserts, so I wouldn't want to change the flavour much.

[kalynraye]

Re: What can I do with....? The food waste reduction thread.

Yes I remember you mentioning you like the citrus desserts. Just like your preserved lemons that you use in your tagine(btw props to you for using one!!!) they will become salty. So I would agree with Dannie and candy them if you want to keep them sweet and use in your cakes and desserts. It doesn't take to long. Either leave the lemon zest in big chunks or slice it super thin. so that all you have to do is throw it right in. I picked KP's brain for other uses of the peel and he said you could make a lemon oil out of it.

[DanieMarie]

Re: What can I do with....? The food waste reduction thread.

I read this today on NPR and thought I'd share: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/...ntent=20150923

A lot of it I already knew, but I picked up a few good tips such as storing cheese in wax paper.

[thalassa]

Re: What can I do with....? The food waste reduction thread.

If you like to use fresh ginger and grate it into things when you cook, freeze it. First, it actually grates better when frozen. Second, you don't waste it in the fridge or on the counter.

You can also plant it and grow your own (not after you freeze it, obviously), and freeze what you harvest...though it takes quite a bit of ginger to get enough to harvest each year.

[thalassa]

Re: What can I do with....? The food waste reduction thread.

So....things to do with old bread besides bread pudding, croutons, etc...

I used to have.a.recipe for making Seligman from bread (actual bread, not flour) but I can't find it and Googlemancy is not jiving right now. But...here are some ideas (I figured since I was looking for ideas, I'd share):

http://blog.pianetadonna.it/naturalmentefelice/2014/02/10-modi-per-usare-il-pane-secco-10-ways-to-use-stale-bread.html

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/85194/semmelknoedel-bread-dumplings/

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/warm-bread-tomato-ham
http://thequincetree65.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/leftover%20bread

Whatever you do...don't feed it to wildlife!


Though I have to say, our home rarely has old bread...I freeze mine when I come home from the store and take the loaf out when I need it.
...dang if this isn't annoying on my kindle....