At a recent dinner party I gave, the one item no one could get enough
of was made of ingredients that almost went into the garbage. How can
that be, you ask?
Some days earlier I had boiled an entire head of
cauliflower as a side dish, and accidentally let it sit in the pot for
too long. The result? An extremely well-cooked to the point of being
mushy head of cauliflower. We survived it for one meal, but no one in
the house could bring himself to reheat it, and there it sat in the
fridge for one, two, four days.
Came the morning of the dinner party, and I needed
the pot from the cauliflower to cook rice in, and as I paused over the
trash bin, I thought what a shame to toss it all out. What if there
was something I could do with it?
In a flash, I suddenly saw what was possible.
Throwing the cauliflower heads into a big bowl, I mashed them with a
fork until they were a paste. Adding some chopped onion, grated
carrot, a beaten egg and a handful of flour, I stirred the mixture and
seasoned with salt, parsley, cumin and oregano. Hmmm. I still wasn't
sure if I had on my hands a masterpiece or a disaster.
I covered the bottom of a large frying pan with
vegetable oil, and dropped spoonfuls of the mixture into the sizzling
oil, waiting until they were brown on one side and then flipping them
over. The smell was out of this world delicious, and the taste of the
tiny fritters was even better. Who would have believed that some tired
old cooked vegetable from the back of my refrigerator could become
such a culinary delight?
The experience has caused me to think twice before
tossing anything out. Is it truly beyond salvage? Can it not be saved
or recycled or transformed into something else? I've been amazed to
discover what is possible to do with items I once would have discarded
without thought. Here are some ideas for you to try:
-
Bits and ends of old cheese that have gone hard
from exposure to the inside of the refrigerator can be used in
omelets and quiches or melted on top of sandwiches, vegetables or
burgers and no one is the wiser.
-
Leftover chicken is practically versatile enough
to demand its own cookbook. What on earth can't be done with
leftover chicken? It can be diced and added at the end of cooking to
stir-fried vegetables for an Oriental-style dish. It can be chopped
and combined with some mayonnaise, celery and curry powder for a
delicious chicken salad. It can be thrown into a bowl of instant
soup or Ramen noodles to turn a snack into a meal.
-
Leftover hamburger meat can be crumbled into a
saucepan with tomato sauce, heated, and served on a roll for a
sloppy Joe. Or you can add beans and chili powder to create a bowl
of instant chili con carne.
-
Leftover condiments can be a challenge. Members
of my family like to open new jars of mayonnaise before the old ones
are empty. This drives me absolutely nuts, because once a new jar
has been opened, there is no way anyone will take from the old. So
what have I recently discovered can be done? Add a bit of water,
crushed garlic, salt and pepper, and a dash of spices and then give
a shake. Voila! You have a jar of homemade salad dressing that is
good to the very last drop. And the jar itself can be saved and
reused.
A similar practice can save the last bit of honey
in the jar from being wasted. Add hot water this time and stir, and
you have a sweetener that is perfect for lemonade, ice tea or other
cold drinks that sugar won't dissolve in.
These are just a few ideas to start you off. Soon
you'll be discovering your own ways of turning leftovers and near
discards from the back of your refrigerator into dishes that will have
everyone clamoring for the recipes.
