London – It’s estimated that Britons threw away £64 million worth of food over the festive season.
But Christmas isn’t the only time we are wasteful. A recent government-funded study suggests many British families unwittingly throw away the equivalent of 24 meals a month. Here are clever tips to stretch the contents of your fridge and larder further.
Re-crisp your chips
Stale crisps, breakfast cereals and crackers can be revived with a couple of quick, 10-second blasts in the microwave until they crisp up again. Alternatively, five minutes in a hot oven will also give them back some crunch.
Hard loaves of bread can be zapped in the microwave, too – wrap in a slightly damp paper towel and heat for 10 seconds, or until the loaf feels soft again.
You can also pop stale cake slices in the microwave for 20 seconds to restore their normal texture.
Dry slices of bread can be cut into small squares and baked in the oven to make croutons.
Sprinkle the cubes with olive oil and season with salt and pepper or dried herbs, then place them into a hot oven and cook until they brown off and all moisture from the bread has evaporated. They are best used straight away, sprinkled on soups.
Old bread slices can also be tossed in a food processor to make breadcrumbs for coating fish or meat, or you can add herbs and use the crumbs in stuffing recipes.
Turn cream into butter
Stuck with a large pot of double cream nearing its use-by date?
Darina Allen, one of Ireland’s top cookery writers, suggests a surprisingly easy recipe for turning it into lovely, creamy, home-made butter.
Beat the cream with an electric mixer for five to seven minutes until it separates into a mix of solid butterfat globules (curds) and liquid buttermilk (whey).
Separate the curds from the whey over a big bowl using a sieve. Beat the curds again for a few minutes and sieve to ensure you have removed all the liquid.
Cover the curds with very cold water and squeeze to get the last dregs of whey out.
Drain and wash twice more with cold water before shaping into a ball or slab.
Put your butter on a sheet of greaseproof paper and roll up ready for use. It can be frozen, too.
Scrape your jars
Don’t waste those last scrapings of spreads and condiments in the bottom of glass jars.
Add a little olive oil, vinegar and herbs to an almost empty mayonnaise jar, replace the lid and give it a shake to create a delicious, creamy salad dressing.
A few slugs of olive oil added to a smeary pesto jar will create a delicious dressing, or give you basil-flavoured oil to add to your cooking. And warm milk poured into a Nutella jar and shaken will turn chocolate spread smears into a bedtime drink.
Turn floppy veg into stock
Keep a large plastic bag in the freezer and throw in rinsed and chopped vegetable “leftovers”.
Once the bag is full, defrost these leftovers, then add a cooked onion, garlic, water and herbs. Boil for 20 minutes and then strain to make a stock or liquidise to make a soup. Both can be used immediately or frozen in one pint portions until needed.
Eke out cheese
Found more cheese than you can eat in your fridge? Grate and freeze it to extend its shelf life.
Cheese tends to turn crumbly in the freezer, so use it over pasta and in cheese sauces or quiches once thawed.
Create herb bouquets
Don’t put packs of fresh herbs or bunches of watercress in the fridge. Extend their life by snipping off the bottom centimetre of the stalks as soon as you get them home and placing them in a glass or small vase of fresh water on the kitchen counter.
Change the water every couple of days and they’ll last for weeks.
Alternatively, you can invest in a Prepara Savor Herb Pod (£27.80) (R492), (amazon.co.uk). These are transparent plastic pods, in which you can stand your herbs or asparagus. Simply fill the base with water and shut the lid before placing in the door of your fridge.
Top up the water reservoir as necessary and your herbs should stay fresh for up to three weeks.
Clever cubes
Ice-cube trays (the ones with extra-large compartments are best) can be incredibly useful for preserving leftovers. Fill them with any of the following, then decant the cubes into freezer bags to use as needed.
* A large pot of yoghurt that’s almost reached its use-by date can be frozen into cubes to be added to smoothies and sauces, or defrosted to top a fresh fruit dessert at a later date.
* Crack open spare eggs, beat them with a little salt or sugar to stabilise the yolks and then freeze the raw egg mixture in an ice cube tray. Use within six months for omelettes, scrambled eggs and baking.
* White or red wine can be frozen in an ice-cube tray, then dropped into homemade stews or sauces for added flavour.
* If you have handfuls of fresh herbs left after a recipe, chop them finely, mix with olive oil or melted butter and freeze. Your herb cubes will work perfectly in omelettes, stews and sauces.
Know your nanas
One minute your bananas are a bit too green to eat, the next time you look they’ve turned brown and unappetising.
Of course, you can use overripe ones to make banana bread, but otherwise you can simply chop them up and freeze for later use.
Frozen banana pieces blended with milk make a delicious milkshake, or you can just process the frozen pieces on their own to make a healthy “ice cream”.
Store onions in your tights
Tie onions individually into the legs of an old, but clean, pair of tights (tie a knot in the tights between each one), then hang them up in a cool, dry, well-ventilated spot to extend the vegetables’ lifespan.
Salad secrets
Bagged salad leaves are one of our worst vices when it comes to food wastage. Pop a folded, paper kitchen towel in the bag before you reseal it; this will absorb excess moisture and keep the leftover salad fresh for longer.
Keep as much of your cucumber as you can covered in its plastic cover. According to the Cucumber Growers Association, shrink-wrapped cucumber will stay fresh up to three times longer than the unwrapped version.
Wrapping celery in aluminium foil and storing it in the fridge will keep it crisp for a minimum of two weeks. Foil works with celery because it preserves the vegetable’s moisture, but – because it’s not an airtight seal like cling film – allows any ethylene, the gas that causes fruit and veg to ripen and then rot, to escape.
Daily Mail