If You Like Fried Pickles, You Might Like Fried Green Cherry Tomatoes

A few days ago, I shared that if you grow tomatoes, you should go rescue those last green tomatoes and bring them in before the freeze. There are still so many things you can do with those green tomatoes to prevent food (and the fruits - pun intended! - of your labor) from going to waste.

First, keep those green tomatoes in a paper bag. If you have an apple, toss it in there too. The ethylene from the apple will off-gas and help the tomatoes ripen faster. Even without an apple, these are my tomatoes after about 4 days in the bag. You can see that some of tomatoes have ripened! And some more will over the next couple weeks. Be sure to check the bag every few days to retrieve ripe tomatoes and discard any that inevitably spoil.

Second, put those green tomatoes to use! There are several recipes out there for green tomatoes, both full size and cherry. This week, I tried a new recipe for Fried Green Cherry Tomatoes, using up about 3 cups of my surplus. Start by measuring, rinsing, and drying your fruit.

Coat them first in flour, then in egg white, then in a breadcrumb/cornmeal mix.

Deep fry your coated tomatoes at 375 degrees for about 2 minutes until golden.

 

LET THESE BABIES COOL for a few minutes as the juices inside will be quite hot, and then dip in your favorite sauce. I made this awesome remoulade which felt appropriate for southern-inspired food, but ranch would also be good.

Now, these tomatoes were much more tart than their full size counterparts. If you like fried pickles or even salt and vinegar potato chips, than these are for you. If you are expecting the sweetness of a ripe cherry tomato, you are in for a bit of a sour shock!

Having experienced the flavors here, I'm now thinking that green tomatoes would also make for great pickles or salsa. Here's to getting the most out of your garden, and not letting any of that goodness go to waste.

Happy Early Birthday!

Do you like surprises? Do you like discounts? That sounds to me like a celebration!

Who wouldn't want this delicious giant (hand for scale) snicker doodle for 67% off?

There's an app for that! Too Good To Go knows that restaurants, bakeries, and grocery stores have leftover items at the end of the day that they don't want to sell as "day old" or nearing their best by date. For most stores, this means those food items go into the trash.

So why not help those businesses recoup some of those losses, prevent that food waste, and reward us customers for participating with a 50%+ discount? This isn't a foreign concept - apparel stores do sales at the end of a season, right?

The idea: businesses list their leftovers in "surprise bags" at the end of the day. You get a fun surprise and enjoy a steep discount for taking the risk of not knowing exactly what you're going to get (check them out if you have few dietary restrictions and love adventure!). I used to get surprise bags at my favorite olive oil store, and love that this idea is expanding to other food businesses. 

Here's a peek at the app experience (and click the link above to download the app yourself, or visit your smartphone's app store):

 

Here you can see I'm viewing a local cafe whose surprise bag is valued at $12 and being sold for $4 (a 67%) discount. It also shows a pickup window, usually an hour or so before closing the same day, or reserve ahead for the next day. I know this cafe, and am expecting pastries in the bag, although some of the stores describe the contents a bit. For example, a grocery store shares that it will include prepared salads from their deli.

 

You simply click the reserve button, and pre-pay. When you arrive for pick up, you just show the app and click a couple buttons to acknowledge the pickup. 

I was super pleased with the contents of my surprise bag: 4 large pastries, including the snicker doodle at the beginning of this post and...

this gorgeous berry fritter,

and this savory bacon cheese scone,

and this still-super-moist crumble coffee cake.

Hungry yet? Go sign up for a surprise bag. :) I definitely think I got over $12 of value, and was thrilled to eat my $1 scone for lunch yesterday, and $1 coffee cake for breakfast today.

As you purchase from Too Good to Go, you can feel good as they send you confirmation emails that let you know about your positive impact:

Thank you for saving your first Surprise Bag. For each one rescued, you save 5.5lbs of CO2e - the same amount that would be emitted if a lightbulb was left on for 29 days. 

Today there are 16 deals within 5 miles of me (outside Seattle) and 142 deals within 15 miles of me (includes downtown Seattle and Bellevue). I can't wait for more businesses to get on board!

Making the Most of Summer Strawberries

Nothing says early summer like some ripe juicy strawberries. 

To make the most of your strawberries, first, change the way you are cutting the tops off. If you are still cutting straight across the top, you are losing quite a bit of that juicy goodness. 

Switch to a strawberry huller like this:

(Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

A huller is super easy to use. Simply push the button to expand the claw, insert into the top of the strawberry, release the button to close the claw, and twist to remove the leaves and a small amount of white pulp.

Next, you can use the stems too! The leaves have been studied for nutritional value, and are not only edible by humans, but also contain vitamins, antioxidents, and digestive benefits. 

So how should you use them? 

Blend: use the whole strawberry when you make a smoothie, or incorporate the greens into a pesto.

Infuse: add the tops to simple syrup or vinegar for extra flavor.

Soak: use the fresh tops in infused water, or dried tops as tea.

This 16oz glass of water has 5 strawberry tops, leaving a light refreshing strawberry taste after about 10 minutes.

Cheers to the summer fruit season!

Digest: 20 Tips to Stretch Your Food

To say I love food is an understatement. Taste is my favorite of the senses, cooking is a creative outlet for me, and eating a treasured hobby. 

Therefore, my fridge is always full, and there are always leftover meals or ingredients to get creative with. It should come as no surprise that over the years, we've gathered all of the following posts and tips to make the most of your food: 

Use Up Raw Ingredients

Preserve your end-of-season tomatoes by making sauce. 

Clean out your fridge after a holiday feast and make something completely brand new.  

Portion that tomato paste for future recipes.

Produce subscriptions connect you to "ugly" produce at a discount.  

Make your own spice mixes on demand. 

 

Reinvent Cooked Foods

Leftover mashed potatoes turn into a gourmet breakfast. 

Reinvent your Thanksgiving turkey and veggies with this cheesy pot pie.  

Use Scrap Parts

Most vegetable greens can make for a good pesto.

Reuse pickle brine for more pickles!

Don't throw out the oils from your jarred marinated veggies. 

Use whole foods (fennel fronds and lemons with rind!) for a flavor-packed entree.

Who knew bean juice was so versatile? 

Turn cobs and shells into a delicious broth for soups, risottos, and more.

Eggs shells make a good supplement for your plants. 

Keep your marshmallows fresh with a heel of bread.  

 Peel those (broccoli) stems for use in soups, stir fry, and more. 

Gardening

Regrow lettuce from it's core. 

Potatoes and tomatoes are easy to start in a home garden. 

 

Motivation

Get inspired by watching top chefs get creative with scraps.  

 Documentaries can help expand your thinking about other ways to reduce waste or reuse scraps. 

 

 

From Carrot Scraps to Pesto

Have you ever purchased whole carrots, or received them in your produce delivery, tops and all, looking like a Bugs Bunny cartoon? 

I routinely do, and when scanning through Cooking Scrappy by Joel Gamoran, decided to try his recipe for Radiatore with Carrot Top Pesto.

The recipe calls for both carrot tops (stems and leaves) and basil (stems too!), as well as almonds (in lieu of pricey pine nuts), and garlic. 

You pulse all of these in a food processor until well chopped.

You then slowly drizzle in olive oil, pulsing a few more times, and season with salt to taste. That is the basis of the pesto. 

Then, when you go to make it a pasta sauce, you thin the pesto with pasta water. This is well known trick for pasta chefs; the starch in the water will help create a smooth sauce. 

You will also add a healthy handful of parmesan. Fresh grated not only tastes great and blends into the sauce better, but buying a block of cheese leaves you with just a small plastic wrapper vs a large shaker container. And if you get a rotary cheese grater, you can feel like you're at an Italian restaurant. :) 

This Zyliss grater quickly delivers fresh grated parmesan on demand. 

The verdict: I'm glad I tried this recipe,  and I'll make it again. Small bunches of basil can get quite pricey, where the carrot tops are free and would have otherwise gone to waste. I wouldn't do much more than 50% carrot tops vs basil or the flavor is a bit grassy.

Overall we saved the following waste:

• Carrots tops
• Basil stems
• Pasta water
• Parmesan cheese container 

Thankful for Leftovers with a Refreshed Flavor

Each Thanksgiving, it's a challenge to discover new recipes that will make the most of your leftovers. Many take a different form but use the existing flavors of Thanksgiving, for example, a turkey pot pie with a gravy or gravy-like sauce.

This may sound sacrilege to those who know me best and my unnatural love of gravy, but I really only want that flavor a couple days in a row before wanting some variety. So I was super excited to try a turkey pot pie recipe that has a creamy/cheesy sauce. Mmmm, flaky crust.

This recipe calls for: 

• Roast turkey - I used the smaller pieces that came from processing the carcass. (Read here to learn how to do this in your crockpot.)
• Roasted or frozen vegetables - I had some frozen, but you may have some leftover from a veggie tray? 
  
• Cheese sauce - I had cheese leftover from the appetizer charcuterie tray, and milk remaining from the mashed potatoes. 
• Sour cream - I had leftover from my ambrosia salad. 
• Puff pastry - These come in a two pack, so I always have an extra one hanging out from prior recipes. 
• Egg - Whenever I need to brush an egg on pastry crust, there is inevitably plenty leftover. Throw it in the microwave for 20-30 seconds, and my dog Meeko is happy to eat the "scrambled" egg. 

I'm pretty excited that this will do a good cleaning of my fridge. 

Start with 3-4 cups of turkey and 2-3 cups of veggies. 

Add in 1 cup of cheese sauce and 1 cup of sour cream.

Mix well and spread into a pie pan. 

Cover with the puff pastry and brush with egg. 

Bake about 30 minutes or until the crust is golden and flaky, and the filling is bubbling.I needed to add foil around the edges for the last 10 minutes.

Eat a large helping, and when you're done, let your cat lick the bowl. Toby approves of the cream sauce!

Happy Thanksgiving weekend, and may your leftovers be tasty.

Why Waste?

I just discovered this new show that I couldn't be more excited about. San Pellegrino hosts a website called FineDiningLovers.com, which is a digital magazine highlighting all the amazing chefs and restaurants of the world (which of course pair well with S. Pellegrino ;) ). Part of the site is educational, and illuminates how we can be more sustainable with our food. The link above is directly to their new show "Why Waste?". 

Why Waste? is now in its second season, and you can view the episodes directly on their website or at YouTube: Season 1 YouTube playlist, Season 2 YouTube playlist. Each episode runs about 10-15 minutes long and contains a fun challenge between two renowned chefs, from different places around the globe, and the challenge is to design a fun dish centered around food waste. 

For example, season 2 episode 2's theme is "over-ripe fruit". Now, I guarantee you all have that household favorite recipe for banana bread, which is best made with brown-spotted bananas. But when happens when you get Michelin star-rated chefs to bring their best creative selves to create a new recipe in a day? 

This episode shows Dominique Crenn, of Atelier Crenn in San Fransisco create a "peach smoothie" and Cesar Troisgros of Troisgros is Ouches, France create a "raspberry ice cube". I put these recipe titles in quotes, because it dramatically oversimplifies their amazing work. 

Dominique's smoothie uses overripe peaches, almond milk, lemon verbena, and just a touch of liquid nitrogren, to freeze the smoothie liquid into this beautiful seashell presentation, which you can then eat like an ice cream. Find the recipe here.

 

(pictures borrowed from finedininglovers.com)

Cesar's raspberry ice cube, creates perfect little snacks from overripe raspberries, yogurt, and cream, molds them in ice cube trays, and then to make it a beautiful presentation fit for a dinner party, he wraps them in a meringue shell. He describes these as looking like butterflies; I see wontons, but you can mold the wrappers to the shape you like. Not feeling that fancy? You could 100% just eat the ice cubes as a perfect "two-bite" portion of frozen yogurt. Find the recipe here.

While I'm not always trying to host a fancy party or compete with Michelin-star chefs, this show is a fun way to think outside the box and get some creative ideas for flavor combinations or techniques. 

What are some of your favorite uses for past-their-prime fruit?

Preserve that Produce

My garden was super prolific this summer. I credit T with hooking up irrigation. It's smart irrigation too: on a timer, so the garden gets just a few minutes each morning, and with a rain sensor, so it skips days that it rains. (The sensor is basically a $20 add-on to the system, and saves both wasted water and water costs.)

So I ended up with multiple pints of the best cherry tomatoes, and at the end of the summer several baseball-sized tomatoes. And after some slices on burgers, they just kept coming.

With more than we could eat before they would spoil, it was time to start roasting. I used this recipe for inspiration with a couple changes.

First slice your tomatoes into large pieces. I didn't bother removing skins or seeds, just the very top pith. Spread them across some baking sheets. Lining them with a reusable silicone liner will make for easy cleanup.

Next, drizzle some olive oil and season the tomatoes with salt, pepper, and herbs, and add a few whole garlic cloves.

Roast at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. The recipe said 60-90 minutes, but gut was telling me this was way too long at this temperature. So check after 20-30 and give it more time as needed. You will notice the juices starting to release, the skins wilting, and possibly a couple charred edges when they're done. 

Once they're out of the oven and fully cooled, store for later use. I loved this collapsible silicone bowl that I received in my MightyFix subscription. 

This particular batch didn't even make it into the freezer. It smelled so good after roasting that I gave it a few pulses in the mini food processor and had instant pasta sauce. That's it - nothing but roasted herbed tomatoes, pureed to a silky smooth sauce.

After this round, I still have several pounds of tomatoes still ripening, so the subsequent batches will get this same roasting treatment, then portioned and frozen for sauce throughout the winter.

This preparation is mostly "passive" cooking time, and will preserve many pounds of produce that would otherwise be excess. 

So simple, and so delicious!

Resurrecting Marshmallows

About twice a year, I buy a bag of marshmallows. Once in summer, prior to our annual camping trip to Mount Baker, in which I convince myself this is the year T and I are going to gorge ourselves on s'mores (spoiler alert: we haven't yet). And once in November, when I buy a bag of minis, so I can put a cup full into the Thanksgiving ambrosia. 

And then the opened bag promptly goes into the back of the pantry, where it goes to die, until a couple months later when I think to myself "perhaps I should make some rice krispie treats". And then I get discouraged because I see the marshmallows are already sad, stale, and wrinkly. 

Like this. Have you ever bitten into one of these and realized what a snow cone made out of styrofoam must taste like, and regretted all your choices?

Sure, a large bag of marshmallows only costs $4, but I feel pretty "meh" about using only a couple and then throwing the rest of the bag out. So I was pretty excited when a few years back, I learned the coolest trick.

My guess is that many of you also don't use the ends of your sandwich bread loaves? Let's put them to work. Those slices can resurrect your marshmallows!  Simply place the slice in a storage container with your bag of mallows, and let it work its magic overnight. That's it. Less than 24 hours later you will now have soft, fluffy, restored pillows of sugar. 

How does it work? The marshmallows draw the moisture out the bread, re-plumping the marshmallow and dehydrating the slice of bread. And you can set it and forget it. Because the bread loses all its moisture, it just becomes crusty and doesn't mold.

This week, I decided I wanted to put together some quick and easy treats while cleaning out my pantry. Out came the stale large marshmallows, a few leftover semi-sweet baking chocolate squares, and 1/4 cup of graham crumbs leftover from previous recipes (and definitely not enough for a cheesecake crust). 

I melted the chocolate in the microwave (30 seconds at a time), and once the chocolate melted, dipped each marshmallow first in chocolate and then in graham crumbs. Then, leave the treats for a couple hours for the chocolate to solidify, and now you have single-bite poppable s'more treats!

Note: you can do the bread trick before or after dipping the marshmallows, or even leave a slice in with the treats to keep them fresh and fluffy for the week.

Verdict: I've now swapped some stale scraps from the back of my pantry for some decadent snacks!

Whole Fennel, Whole Lemons, Whole Lotta Taste

Several years ago, I became interested in fennel at a restaurant when I tried the the most flavorful salad with razor-thin-sliced fennel, oranges, and olives. While I don't eat it often, those types of amazing recipes occasionally flood my memory and I'm reminded I should experiment with more veggies. So, I added a fennel (a whole fennel - bulb, stems, fronds) in my Imperfect Produce box, and knew I had a lot of interesting possibilities ahead of me. After a few minutes of looking for ideas, I decided on this one pot roasted chicken recipe.

Sadly, I was so into cooking, I forgot to take pictures until halfway through! Fortunately, the recipe link has multiple photos and even short videos to illustrate each step. 

First, let's look at our fennel stems and fronds. The fine leaves may look like dill, but sniff the stems, and you'll realize there's an entirely unique smell and flavor here, almost like anise. (Remember, fennel seeds are what's used to flavor Italian sausage, if you're trying to identify it.)

We're going to finely chop the fronds to make a simple sauce. (The fennel bulb is used in the main recipe, which means we'll use almost the entire thing.)

And add the juice from half a lemon. The rest of the lemon is used elsewhere in the recipe. And if you want to maximize your use, zest the lemon before juicing. Pro tip: I zest all my citrus before juicing and keep the zest in a small container in the freezer. It's always available then if I want to sprinkle some lemon zest on my avocado toast, lime zest into cilantro lime rice, or orange zest into cream cheese frosting.

You stir the fennel fronds, lemon, juice, some olive oil, salt, and pepper to create a simple herb lemon sauce, which is a great finish to add some "oomph" to the already flavorful roast chicken. Note: most root veggie tops (think carrot greens) can make a great addition to your salad greens or become the herb in your pestos and sauces.

For the main dish, we roasted chicken thighs over a bed of fennel bulb, shallot, thin lemon slices, and tomato slices. This is a super flavorful veggie combo which also makes this one pot a complete meal.

A closeup of the caramelized fennel and roasted lemon slices. Note: the lemon doesn't just add flavor to the dish. When they are roasted like this, you can eat the whole lemon. The skins become soft and the pith loses most of its bitterness.

Verdict: While this dish is pretty enough to serve to guests, it is easy enough to make on a weeknight. Total cook time was about 40 minutes, with 20 minutes active and 20 in the oven. And you can feel good knowing you used the whole fennel and whole lemon, with minimal waste. 

What are your favorite recipes using produce scraps or whole foods?

Eating Scrappy: Broccoli Stems

If you're like me, you likely eat just the florets from broccoli, using this most desirable part in your stir fries, veggie trays, and pasta primaveras. This leaves behind a good percentage of the broccoli, the stem. 

I've tried chopping up the stems to add to dishes, but without luck so far, as the stems can be quite woody, sort of like the ends of asparagus. 

When I came across a recipe literally called Broccoli Stalk Soup, I decided to give it one more try.

The first step is to prepare your stems, chopping off the very end, and peeling off the outer layer. A regular veggie peeler will do. Note: I wasn't aggressive enough with my peeling and still ended up with some woodiness. Go a little further than you think you need to, cutting off at least the outer 1/8".

Next, follow the recipe, sauteeing some onion and garlic in butter or oil (this whole recipe can be vegan if you prefer), then adding the broccoli, some potato, and broth to simmer.

Finally, use an immersion blender to puree all the ingredients. My soup was quite hearty (more of a porridge), so I added 25% more broth. 

This soup has great flavor and an unexpected creaminess (with no actual cream), which comes from the potato. And it's quite light,  so feel free to add to it as you like. Add in some broccoli florets if you have whole broccoli, and some medium or sharp cheddar for a rich, cheesy soup. 

Now, I noted above that I wasn't aggressive enough with my peeling. If this happens to you and you taste your soup and get little woody bits (no one wants to chew on pine needles), never fear. Strain your soup through a mesh strainer.

Woody bits successfully strained, and silky smooth soup rescued!

What are ways you've found to maximize you use of veggies?

From Scraps to Soup

If you haven't spent a lot of time in the seafood aisle of the grocery store, there are a few ways to buy shrimp: whole (you may need to remove head and vein), EZ Peel (head and vein removed), or fully peeled and tail removed. The less prepared they are, the cheaper they are, but the more work for you. I love the EZ Peel as a good middle ground. In order to remove the vein, they slice the shell the whole length of the shrimp, giving you a super easy place to start peeling (hence, EZ Peel). This leaves minimal effort to prep the shrimp and can save you $1-2/pound.

Not only do you save a few bucks, but now you have this resource which is rich in minerals and vitamins as well as flavor. Take the shells (legs, tails, and all) and put them in a container in your freezer to accumulate and not have your fridge smell fishy until you are ready to use.

 

Now it's time to use up those shells. (Note: you're about to stink up your kitchen, so open a window!) I'm combining a few recipes for corn broth and shrimp stock, including one that used both for a chowder base. In addition to shrimp shells (from 1lb shrimp), I saved 6 half corn cobs and shells from 2 leg sections of snow crabs. 

 

Dump those, and enough water to cover, in a large soup pot. I love these large Pyrex measuring cups for if you want more precision. One of the recipes called for 9 cups of water, and since I was using a lot of base ingredients, I upped that to 12.

Next add, some veggies, onion and celery for depth of flavor. You can use scraps for these too. Most veggie broth recipes call for using onion skins and the tops you would generally cut off. Your celery can 100% be a wilted stalk, a great way to clean out the fridge. (Side note: wilted celery can also be revived but storing in cold water. The wilting is due to water loss, and it will perk back up.)

Add all of this to the soup pot, along with a couple bay leaves and some whole peppercorns. Bring to a boil, reduce to low, cover and simmer for 1 hour.

It's that easy! Strain out all the solids (now you can compost those), and once it's cooled, portion and freeze what you won't use within a few days. I was super pleased after a taste test that this broth had a rich flavor with none of the bitterness I experienced with my first attempts at veggie broth.

Now what to do with this super flavorful broth? Keep in mind that both seafood and corn are a bit sweet, so while you can use this anywhere you would normally use broth, it will work better for things that can tolerate some sweetness. 

For both corn broth, shrimp broth, or combo like I made, it was recommended to use a base for soups or chowders.

 

For straight corn broth, it was suggested to make grits. 

I'm foreseeing some decadent risotto in my near future!