Whether it’s because you’re moving house or because you can’t open your cupboard doors without fear of a jar of black bean paste falling on your head, from time to time it feels good to go through your supplies and use stuff up. From the unappealing multicoloured pasta you picked up in Rome circa 1999, to that jar of green chilli peppers that are beginning to fade faster than your carpets, it’s time to put some of the stuff you have amassed over the years to work.
• It might seem lavish, but home-curing fresh salmon is easy and surprisingly economical as a little goes a long way. What’s more, doing your own curing will use up that salt you bought on Île de Ré. Mix 1 part salt with 1½ parts sugar and rub liberally on your salmon. Sprinkle over some aromatics – black pepper, fennel seeds – and a splash of booze, such as gin. Pop in a sealable bag and put in the fridge, weighted down under something heavy, such as a casserole lid, for 2 days, turning regularly. Thinly slice and enjoy in a little gem salad with pumpkin seeds and a mustard dressing, or in rye-bread sandwiches with pickles and sliced boiled egg for a Scandi touch.
• At the Subway counter it can be easy to go wild for jaunty additions: a rogue olive here, a little jalepeno there … even wretched sweetcorn gets a look-in. So why not do the same at home? Add spice to your sarnies, and use up jars of green chillis, by chopping them up and throwing them into baguettes with chicken, grated carrot, romaine lettuce and mayo, or with cooked halloumi, shredded iceberg and cherry tomatoes. Or chop them very finely with a handful of fresh herbs such as parsley, mint or coriander. Add a glug of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, some grated zest, and a little garlic mashed into a paste with salt to make a salsa verde. Also good drizzled over salads or swirled into soups.
• Now that everyone is making preserves, chances are that your shelves are groaning with jars of homemade chutneys. Time to expand their remit beyond the cheese course: spoon into baked potatoes, have an odds-and-ends ploughman’s with leftover bits of meat, the odd crudite and some oatcakes, or use in bacon sarnies.
• A pizza and puff pastry tart hybrid – a puff pizza? a pizzart? a puzza? – is just the thing to use up that jar of crinkle-cut beetroot, sliced into rounds atop soft goat’s cheese on ready-rolled puff pastry. Top with fresh mint, salt and black pepper after 20 minutes in the oven.
• The most irritating cupboard lurkers are those packets of rice, couscous, pasta et al with not enough left in them to make a meal. A kitchari of sorts is the answer. How you cook this will depend on what you want to use up. In a suacepan, fry a sliced onion in olive oil then add a pinch of cinnamon and allspice. Add rinsed rice, couscous or bulgur, boiling water to cover (refer to packet instructions) and cook with the lid on until done. In a separate pan, boil any leftover pasta (little shapes are best, or spaghetti strands, snapped into bits) until cooked. Stir through the cooked onion-rice mix. Tinned chickpeas are a good addition and free up another few centimetres of precious cupboard real estate. Eat topped with chopped parsley and garlicky Greek yoghurt (mash garlic with salt and stir through yoghurt with a squeeze of lemon) plus a squeeze of chilli sauce.
- Caroline Craig and Sophie Missing are authors of The Little Book of Lunch (Square Peg)
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
Cupboard clearout: packed lunch ideas using food you've forgotten about
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment