Stomachfill over Landfill: critical recycling efforts

I heard on the news the other night that the city of Seattle has decided to take recycling so seriously, it includes wasted food. Seattle is going to red tag garbage cans discovered to be filled with food when they are flipped over onto the truck.  The scarlet letter stands for our modern abomination of cavalierly wasting our most precious and vital resource when others nearby are sickened or dying from lack of it. Way to go Seattle Foodhawks!

Certainly besides your own compost pile, there are myriad ways to recycle food you can't use. Yes doing something more requires more effort than tossing it in the bin or grinding it in your disposal, but in this case more is not only less, it is a good karma deed. You can give food to a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, even a panhandler on the street since food is a far better offering than cash for drugs or drink. You can share your overflow with your neighbors--a prepayment against the moment you have to borrow a cup of sugar or ask for a favor.

You can recycle it in your own kitchen. The traditional term for food recycling is leftovers. Anyone who knows anything about them knows leftovers are generally the tastiest eating of all. Sometimes it's just that the flavors get more time to marinate, sometimes it's that new flavors mingle and explode. Leftovers do not have to mean reheating the same thing like instant replay. It can mean creating something entirely new, totally disguising a recycling effort.

One of the most brilliant second acts in the kitchen is the Italian arancini.  On the surface a fried rice ball. It is actually last night's risotto blended with an egg so it can rolled into golf sized balls. A hole is poked to the center where a small piece of mozzarella is inserted; it's going to melt all over that rice. Then the ball is dipped into a beaten egg, rolled in seasoned breadcrumbs and deep fried. Drain, salt and pop into your mouth for a delicious gooey treat. Serve them on a bed of oiled arugula for visual pleasure.

Another stroke of genius is never tossing out a true Parmesan rind. Never! Put it in a long simmering minestrone or stew. You will be rewarded with the an elegantly mysterious smoky flavor of delight you could not create any other way. Besides, while cooking, the rind breaks down into deliciously salty tidbits.  Many upscale shops now cheat by cutting off the rinds before they sell the cheese, then selling the rinds separately to those who know what a terrific treat they are.

I have written in the past on this blog about turning yesterday's bread into tomorrow's croutons. It's as easy as cutting it in bite size pieces, rolling them in garlic laced olive oil and baking them at 325º until dried out. Store in a tin and use in Caesar or Fattoush salad and in creamy soups. Italians also cleverly recycle "crouton" bread into bread salad, the famous Panzanella: bread, basil, tomatoes, olives, capers --I posted the recipe a year ago.

If you don't want to be bothered turning yesterday's bread into croutons, turn it into Ribolitta, the tasty Italian bread and cabbage soup. I've also posted that recipe earlier on this blog. But here it is again because timing is perfect for March market produce:

For 4-6

3 tbsp and 2 tsp olive oil

1 med onion, peeled and diced

1 lg garlic clove, peeled and minced

½ tsp dried rosemary leaves

2 sm or 1 lg celery stalks, finely chopped

1 lg carrot, peeled and finely chopped

½ Savoy cabbage, shredded

4 stalks red chard, stems removed and chopped

1 bunch Tuscan/lacinto/blue kale, stems removed and chopped

6-7 cups broth or water

salt and freshly ground black pepper to your taste

2 cans (14 oz) cannellini (white kidney) beans, drained

1-2 tbsp tomato paste

6 slices day or two old (i.e.stale) Tuscan or other dense crusty Italian bread

Fruity olive oil for final garnish

Optional: 1 sm parmesan rind

Coat bottom of a large heavy-gauge pot with 3 tbsp olive oil and heat on medium flame.  Add onion, garlic, rosemary, celery and carrots. Sauté until soft, 5 minutes.  Season with freshly ground black pepper to your taste.

Add Savoy cabbage and chard, stirring to blend, and cook until they wilt.

Add broth, salt and kale. Bring to boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover pot and simmer 40-45 minutes, until vegetables are soft. Timing does not have to be precise.

Purée 1 can of beans. Add puréed and whole beans to the soup along with the tomato paste. (suit yourself with how much) Stir to blend everything. Continue to simmer with lid on pot 15 minutes. Stir from time to time so nothing sticks to the bottom.  Taste for salt and correct if necessary.

At this point, you can be very Tuscan and get out a large earthenware casserole pot, then layer the bread and soup in it. Or you can simply add the bread to the soup pot you’re already using, trying to “layer” it in. In either case, remove soup from heat and let cool. Refrigerate overnight so it sets up.

To serve: stir in 2 tsp olive oil. Reheat on low flame or in the oven until hot enough to eat. Garnish with fruity olive oil.

  
On February 4, I posted a squash pancake recipe as the way to recycle leftover winter squash. As for all those annoying squash/pumpkin seeds, don't discard them in the compost or garbage. Scrape them out, wash them off--okay, this is a pain but think of it as gaining merit for a good deed--dry thoroughly. These seeds are a treasure chest of vital and scarce nutrients like zinc. They provide fiber. You can simply and quickly roast them with your favorite spices. My preference is for Ethiopian berbere combo (published in a 2014 post) but here's a simple one with just chili and lots of it to heat up your taste buds in the middle of February.

Chili Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
3 cups pumpkin seeds
2 tablespoons corn oil
1 1/2 tablespoons ancho chili powder
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon arbol chili powder

Preheat oven to 350º.
Place the pumpkin seeds in a large bowl and toss with the oil, ancho powder, salt, and arbol powder. Spread evenly on a baking sheet and bake 8 to 10 minutes, shaking once to prevent sticking or burning. Let cool and store in an airtight container.

  Don't discard beet greens! You'll be cheating yourself out of vitamins, iron and calcium. The greens have far more nutrients than the beets at their root.  They are no hardship to cook. I like to roast the beets-- particularly the orange ones which seem sweeter, tightly foil wrapped with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of sea salt, at 400º about 40 minutes until they are shiny and meltingly tender. I coarsely chop their greens. In olive oil flavored with a few fenugreek seeds and some freshly ground black pepper, I sauté a diced small red onion until it is wilted and add the beet greens with two minced garlic cloves. Over medium/low heat the greens cook about 5 minutes before they wilt. At this point, optionally I toss in a few walnut pieces for the crunch and protein and cook another minute or two. The greens should be soft and shiny. Now for the piece de resistance, I grate or chop in two of those lusciously roasted beets, heat everything, salt and serve as the perfect side dish for roast chicken, lentil soup or a vegetable frittata. 

Sometimes when you go to clean out your fridge you find wilted, unwanted carrot greens, flaccid celery and perhaps an onion you forgot about. Perhaps tomato skins or wilted herbs. Put them all in a medium pot of water with salt and a spritz of lemon juice and boil about 30 minutes. Strain out the veggies and you've got perfect vegetable stock to cook pasta or rice or start a soup. You've just saved yourself somewhere between $2.25 and $3.99 for vegetable stock sold in stores.

One great soup, invented by the French, is the potage. For this very forgiving soup, you take that stock above or any stock, put in any vegetables you have around, leftover beans and potatoes included as well as those now used carrot greens and celery. Add a few herbs like thyme, fresh parsley and perhaps a clove of garlic. Cook until the vegetables are soft and purée into a potage. Float a cheese topped crouton on top and serve with some freshly chopped cilantro or flat leaf parsley. 

I've recently read about one of the media darling whole hog chefs putting carrot greens in her pesto and then putting that pesto over cooked carrots with and without pasta. 

And finally there is what I love to call a "trash torte", an all greens pie. Spinach, chard, beet greens, turnip greens, radish greens, pea shoots, arugula, endive, radicchio--whatever you've got left that you can't figure out how to use: chop it all up in a large bowl. If you've got scallions around dice them in.  Add fresh dill and cilantro and mint, season with salt and pepper and a few red pepper flakes, crumble in some goat or feta cheese, bind it all up with an egg or two (depending on how many greens you have) and spread the mix out in a shallow oiled baking/quiche dish large or small enough so that the "pie" is no thicker than 1/2".  Top with a sprinkle of nutmeg and bake at 350º until it is firm enough to spring back to the touch (maybe 15-20 minutes). Slice in wedges and enjoy. 

Oh, and don't forget to pat yourself on the back for excellent recycling. Stomachfill over landfill!