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Zero-Waste Chef

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Posted on March 23, 2014by The Zero-Waste Chef
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Candied Citrus Peels
Sourdough Discard Pizza: How to Sourdough-ize a Recipe
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How to Prevent Your Sourdough Starter from Taking Over Your Life
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Before we ate these oranges this morning (one bloo Before we ate these oranges this morning (one blood orange, one cara cara), I carefully peeled the skin with a vegetable peeler and set those peels aside to use later today. With very little of the bitter white pith on them, these are perfect for making candied (almost free) citrus peels. They taste like amazing gumdrops but with an intense and authentic citrus flavor. Here is the recipe: šŸŠ 4 medium oranges or other citrus of choice 1/2 cup water (plus more for simmering the peels) 1/4 cup sugar šŸ‹ 1. Use a vegetable peeler to remove 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch wide strips from intact citrus, being careful to leave the bitter pith behind. (By the way, I stick to organic fruit and vegetables when Iā€™ll consume the peels as non-organic contain more pesticide residues.) šŸŠ 2. Add the peels to a small pot, just cover with water, bring to a boil, cover with a lid and reduce to a simmer for about 25 minutes. This step eliminates bitterness (in the peels that is, although the resulting intense citrus scent might improve oneā€™s attitude as well). Drain peels. Find something to do with the fragrant orange water (water your plants, spray it near a kitty litter box). šŸ‹ 3. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 water in the pot and boil until the sugar dissolves. Add peels. When they begin to boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Avoid stirring; this may break the delicate peels (no need for you to learn this the hard way as I did...). šŸŠ 4. Remove citrus peels with a slotted spoon and place on a wire cooling rack. Cover with a clean rimmed cookie sheet to prevent anything from falling on the sticky peels as they dry overnight. When dry (or almost dry), roll in more sugar, if desired. šŸ‹ 5. If you donā€™t eat them all immediately, toss in additional sugar and keep in an air-tight jar. They will keep for many months (or even longer). After eating the candy in the jar, youā€™ll have citrus-infused sugar. šŸŠ Dip the candied peels in melted chocolate if you like. Iā€™ve also flavored my kombucha with them (sans chocolate...) and the result tastes amazing šŸ˜‹
This pic of my starter Eleanor comes from the reci This pic of my starter Eleanor comes from the recipe ā€œStart with Your Sourdough Starterā€ in my book, The Zero-Waste Chef, out April 13th. Iā€™ve included a bunch of sourdough recipes in the book and ideas for using up the discard left over from feedings (itā€™s a zero-waste cookbook after all...). . Do you have a starter? Please DM me photos of yours and Iā€™ll choose several to share in my Stories. I always love to see pictures of your pets šŸ˜Š . The full, updated recipe for starting a starter is in the book. Link in bio for more info and preordering. . šŸ“· credit: Ashley McLaughlin @edible_perspective
In the US, ā€œbest before,ā€ ā€œbest by,ā€ ā€œse In the US, ā€œbest before,ā€ ā€œbest by,ā€ ā€œsell byā€ dates and so on serve merely as guidelinesā€”the FDA does not regulate these dates. Food manufacturers stamp the dates on packages to indicate when the food will be the best quality, not when the food is no longer safe to eat. These dates encourage consumers to throw out foodā€”and buy more (and bring home more packaging as well). Decomposing food in landfill releases methane gas, a greenhouse gas about 80 times more potent that carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. These confusing best before datesā€”many of which boil down to marketing tacticsā€”add to these emissions. . If youā€™re unsure if you should eat your foodā€”whether it came from a package or you cooked it yourself from scratchā€”use your senses to figure it out. Give it a look, a sniff, and if it passes those tests, a taste. If it looks, smells and tastes fine, it probably is fine. If it has grown fur, smells off or tastes off, compost it! . Some good news: A new campaign in the UK will replace "use by" and "best before" dates with "sniff and taste" guidelines in order to reduce wasted food. According to @guardian, ā€œIn the first co-ordinated move of its kind involving the food industry, nearly 30 major brands are supporting the 'Look, Smell, Taste, Donā€™t Waste' campaign being launched on Tuesday by the food-waste-reduction app Too Good To Go." . Since I became obsessed with cutting wasted food, the flavor of my dishes has only improved. My quest has made me a much more creative cook. Link in profile for 23 simple ways to reduce wasted food.
Citrus zest adds so much flavor to food and, if yo Citrus zest adds so much flavor to food and, if youā€™ve already bought oranges, lemons or limes, basically costs nothing. Before juicing citrus, zest it with the fine holes of a box grater or with a microplaner. You can also peel off wider strips with a vegetable peeler. . When I zest or preserve citrus, I use organic, unwaxed fruit. Some of the (shiny) citrus you see at the grocery store has been treated with food-grade wax to help preserve the oranges, lemons and limes. Iā€™d rather not eat this. I am fortunate to have a lemon tree and so I know those are organic and unwaxed. The oranges, lemons and limes at our farmersā€™ market are also organic and wax-free. . Use the zest immediately or freeze it in small amounts. Tiny glass jars work really well--you can freeze the small amounts youā€™ll use in a recipe. Add the zest to quick breads, pancakes, cookies, cakes, ginger beer, a pitcher of water... . Link in profile for more ideas to use up citrus peels.
ā€œDid you use kombu?!ā€ Thatā€™s what my daughte ā€œDid you use kombu?!ā€ Thatā€™s what my daughter MK always asks me if I mention Iā€™ve cooked a bean or lentil dish. If I answer no, she wonā€™t touch the dish. . Kombuā€”a type of kelpā€”noticeably reduces gas-producing raffinose sugars present in beans and lentils, it makes the beans and lentils more digestible and it makes the nutrients in the beans and lentils more available to your body for absorption. (By the way, I donā€™t always use kombu because MK isnā€™t usually here.) . MK soaks her dried beans and lentils with a strip of kombu before cooking. She also cooks the beans with that same strip. When she cooks chickpeas, sheā€™ll add a fresh strip to the cooking pot because she has the most trouble digesting chickpeas. . I buy kombu in bulk when Iā€™m at @rainbow_grocery. You may also find it in East Asian markets or health food stores. . Dried beans and lentils are a zero-waste food group. They taste better than canned, cost less than many other types of protein and almost all bulk aisles offer at least a few varieties. If you love beans but have trouble digesting them, try adding a strip of kombu to the pot. . Link in profile for how to cook dried beans.
"It really boils down to this: that all life is in "It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one destiny, affects all indirectly." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
This is the first produce bag Iā€™ve finished in a This is the first produce bag Iā€™ve finished in about 10 months. . My sewing bee has given away 3,034 of the bags since we started sewing them in 2018. Used just once a week, these 3,034 bags can replace 157,768 (3,034 x 52) plastic bags in 1 year. I still use bags that my daughter MK and I sewed in 2011. They last for ages. . When we give the bags away at the farmersā€™ market, we donā€™t just reduce plastic, we start conversations. So many people have said to us things like ā€œI donā€™t like all the plastic produce bags but didnā€™t know what else to useā€ or ā€œI have fabric at home and will make some todayā€ or ā€œMay I steal this idea for my farmersā€™ market?ā€ (Please do!) . These bags also reduce fabric waste. We make the bags out of donated, unwanted fabric that might otherwise end up in landfill. Most of the bags are plain but we sometimes make scrappy versions like this one. One of our seamstresses makes pillows out of the unusable scraps (swipe to see one), which we also save. (Iā€™m sitting on one of these as I post.) . Right before Covid lockdowns began, our sewing bee had our last produce bag giveaway at the farmersā€™ market in February. Since then, some of the seamstresses in our group switched over to sewing masks last year. I REALLY MISS my people and am looking forward to getting together again with them sometime this year. . Link in profile if youā€™d like to search for a sewing group or add yours to a map I maintain on my blog. So far, it has 126 groups around the world.
Yesterday, after I posted a picture of a wine cork Yesterday, after I posted a picture of a wine cork recycling bin in my stories, a couple of you asked for more informationā€¦ . But firstā€¦I know I sound like someone with a problem, butā€¦these corks belong to a friendā€¦honest! They arenā€™t mine! We canā€™t refill wine bottles where I live. I think itā€™s possible up in Napa. I would drink more wine if I could refill wine bottles. At least the bottles and corks are recyclable. We need refill schemes for drinks and any company launching today would be very wise to work that model into its business plan. But this post is about corkā€¦ . Cork is not only recyclable, itā€™s also renewable and biodegradable. Cork comes from oak treesā€”some up to 300 years oldā€”most of which grow in forests in Portugal, Spain, Algeria, Morocco, Italy, Tunisia and France. Highly skilled, well-paid local workers harvest cork from the trees without chopping them down. These still-standing trees are then left undisturbed until the next harvest, 9 to 12 years later. . According to a WWF report, these forests host up to 135 different species per 0.1 hectare or about a quarter acre, which is the size of a house lot. The trees provide shade for the ecosystem, they retain water in the soil and they draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. . Cork recycling companies harvest cork from wine storesā€”in the form of cork drop-off bins. During Covid, some stores may have shut down their drop boxes temporarily but you can always hold onto the corks in the meantime. My daughter spotted a bin at Whole Foods yesterday (swipe for pic) from The Cork Forest Conservation Alliance. Iā€™ve dropped off corks in the past at a Bevmo near me and at Rainbow in San Francisco. Both of those bins belong to @recorkofficial (you can check the website for a map of drop-off locations). As I said, PLEASE CONTACT THE STORE near you before dropping off your corks in case the bin has temporarily closed. These corks go on to have a second life as shoes, yoga blocks and other goods. . Depending on where you live, natural wine corks can go in your municipalityā€™s green bin. Contact yours for more information. . Cheers šŸ·šŸ„‚
I planted some of my sprouting vegetable scraps ou I planted some of my sprouting vegetable scraps outside this weekend: a parsnip top, a carrot top, all the green onions, the root end of a celery stalk and a few rosemary sprigs, stripped of their leaves at the bottom. These had been sitting in the windowsill in water, some for over a month. . I hope šŸ¤ž the parsnip and carrot tops go to seed, bringing some volunteer vegetables in the spring. The green onion ends will continue to grow outside. Weā€™ll see what happens with the celery top (I kept one inside for insurance and started sprouting another celery end last week). Rosemary, one of my favorite herbs, is a perennial that I put in many dishes. . If none of these take, at the very least, these vegetable scraps will return to the soil. Whether you subscribe to scrappy gardening like this or you grow all your own food or you tend gorgeous flower gardens, planting anything shows you have hope for the future. Our very long, very difficult winter will eventually give way to spring and renewal. Hang in there.
We may never reach the zero in ā€œzero wasteā€ bu We may never reach the zero in ā€œzero wasteā€ but thatā€™s no reason to take zero action. . I posted this a couple of years ago but I think itā€™s worth repeating, especially at the beginning of a new year when many people are trying to stick to resolutions or intentions (zero-waste or otherwise). . Donā€™t let the zero in zero waste intimidate you. The zero merely represents a goal and reducing waste isnā€™t an all-or-nothing proposition. If you prefer, call the lifestyle ā€œlow wasteā€ or ā€œless wasteā€ or donā€™t label it at all.
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