Note to self

[shapeofthings]

Things to do with the unused fruit and veg from last week:

 

• Cream of broccoli soup
  • ½ head of tired broccoli
  • ½ bunch droopy asparagus
  • Outer leaves of un-touched sugarloaf cabbage
  • Remaining pecorino reggiano
  • A couple of cloves of garlic from the sole remaining bulb
  • Cream (need to buy), milk (in fridge) or evaporated milk (in cupboard, with added carrageenans)
  • Assorted herbs & spices (see garden and spice cupboard for available options

It’s soup, you don’t need cooking instructions. Freeze.

 

• Parsnip puree
  • 3 large parsnips, wilting in the crisper
  • Olive oil, herbs and spices
  • Remaining sliver of vintage smoked cheddar

Roast parsnips in seasoned olive oil until soft. Put in mini food processor. Add cheese and enough of that bottle of fancy olive oil to blend to a paste. Freeze in small lots (good for making soups, sauces, dips, etc).

 

• Stone fruit jam
  • Bowl full of peaches, nectarines and plums that never ripened properly
  • Demerara or muscovado sugar
  • Vanilla & cinnamon
  • Juice from the last sad lemon
  • Gelatine from the packet that has sat in the cupboard for at least 6 months

Dice fruit and poach with cinnamon and vanilla (and port, if you can justify buying some – come on, you can poach the last 2 pears with it. And maybe those two huge nashis. Mmm, port-poached nashi…) in sugar syrup until mushy. Strain and blend to a jammy consistency. Reduce strained liquid to sugar syrup and add lemon juice to taste. Thicken to jammy consistency with gelatine. Store in the last empty preserving jar.

 

• Mushroom stock
  • Bowl of not-so-fresh mushrooms from crisper
  • The last onion
  • The last shallot
  • The last fresh bay leaves
  • Port (if you gave in and bought it) or a nip of cooking sherry
  • Assorted herbs and spices

Finely chop veggies and place in stock pot. Add water until just covered and bring to a simmer. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for an hour or three until it’s all reduced to a rich stock. Fish out bay leaves, pour into take-away containers and freeze. Use as veggie stock or a sauce/gravy base, or add cream to make mushroom soup.

 

• Fancy poached pears
  • 2 Williams pears and 2 huge nashi pears languishing in the fruit bowl
  • Sugar (we’ve got brown, white, raw castor, Demerara, muscovado and vanilla-steeped coffee crystals – be adventurous)
  • Port (if arm sufficiently rubbery) or red wine (remember to stock up on that cleanskin shiraz – they’re not getting any more in)
  • Star anise, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla

Peel and core pears. Place in saucepan and add water, port/wine, spices and sugar (to taste) until fruit is just about covered. Simmer gently, turning fruit regularly, until fruit is cooked through. Remove fruit and reduce liquid to form sugar syrup. Store pears and strained syrup in fridge, or serve immediately, warm, because they’re damn good.

 

Right, that just leaves us with:

• 1 sugarloaf cabbage – will keep another week. Make oriental-style cabbage rolls and a stir-fry.
• ½ kg carrots – will keep another week. Am not making carrot cake.
• Lots of eggplant – stir-fry, Japanese-style eggplant with miso, pasta sauce or eggplant ragout. Mmm, aubergine stew.
• 1 sad grapefruit – I feel ambivalent towards said grapefruit. Leave until Alex eventually eats it.
• Mix of pumpkin, sweet potato, potato and beetroot – more roast vegetable salad!
• Assorted salad leaves (lettuce, spinach and the mysterious “Asian mix”) – more roast vegetable salad! More compost!
• 2 cobs of corn from Dad’s garden – cook, butter, salt, eat.
• 1 coconut – look accusingly at Alex. It’s his damned coconut.

 

And that should just about clean out the fridge!