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Zero-Waste Chef

dough rolled out

Posted on November 18, 2015by The Zero-Waste Chef
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The scariest thing about Halloween might be the nu The scariest thing about Halloween might be the number of pumpkins that go to landfill. According to Waste Dive, a leading publication for the waste industry, 1.3 billion pounds of uneaten pumpkins wind up in landfill after Halloween in the US every year. . If you don’t carve your pumpkin, it will keep for several weeks. After Halloween, you can transform it into pumpkin purée for pies, muffins and quick breads or soup, dal, pasta sauce and much more. Freeze it if you like and thaw it out for Thanksgiving dessert. Whether you carve it for decoration or not, save the pumpkin seeds to roast. They make a delicious, healthy fall treat. . Every fall, I buy sugar pie pumpkins like this one. I can cook a whole small pumpkin in my pressure cooker in minutes (life changing!). You can also roast them whole in the oven. . If you do carve a pumpkin, save what you carve out and cook that. Your jack-o-lantern will start to decompose within a few days (depending on where you live). Some farms and zoos want your carved pumpkins to feed to their animals. You might have one near you. (Or you could leave yours outside for the squirrels if you have lots of them.) . If you don’t compost at home but have wanted to, and you have carved pumpkins, consider starting your compost system now. You don’t need a fancy setup—it’s difficult to stop food scraps from composting—and pumpkins break down quickly. You may even get some volunteer pumpkin plants in your bin. . If you don’t have access to a compost bin or pile, some communities have set up post-Halloween pumpkin collections or drop offs. Search “pumpkin disposal near me” if you have carved pumpkins you need to dispose of. . Pumpkins contain about 90 percent water. If those 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins go back into the soil rather than landfill, so does the water—and nutrients in the pumpkin. Link in profile for how to cook a pumpkin.
The traffic to my blog tells me that I’m not the The traffic to my blog tells me that I’m not the only one who has resumed lots of sourdough baking now that our cold weather has arrived. I’ve been making (and eating) lots of this focaccia. . For those of you who would like to start a starter and could some help, I’m teaching a free virtual sourdough starter workshop on Saturday, November 7th at 3pm Pacific Time, one of several virtual workshops presented by @rethinkwasteorg as part of its Rethink Recycling Days on the 7th and 14th. You can read about some of the various workshops at @rethinkwasteorg. . Link in profile to register for the sourdough starter workshop. Bring a jar, flour, water and your questions and we’ll make our new starters together. Eleanor (my starter) and I look forward to seeing you online 😊
These are some of the books I’ve read during qua These are some of the books I’ve read during quarantine. . If you buy your books, please support small independent bookstores. Like millions of small businesses, the pandemic has hit them hard. According to the American Booksellers Association, a little more than one indie bookstore has closed every week in the US since the beginning of the pandemic. And while sales have fallen, expenses have risen for items such as disinfecting supplies, PPE and the extra labor required to fulfill online orders that would have been sold in the store pre-pandemic. . The holidays will be a make-or-break season for many indie booksellers. So if someone on your list is a reader, please buy them books from an independent bookstore. . What is your favorite indie bookstore and where is it located?
The Canadian coffee and donut chain @timhortons is The Canadian coffee and donut chain @timhortons is partnering with Loop to test reusable coffee cups and reusable food containers in select Toronto and Montreal stores next year. Customers will pay a deposit, which they will receive back when drop off their used mugs and containers later. . For my Canadian followers, you don’t need an explanation of what a big deal this is. . For others who may not know, millions of Canadians are completely obsessed with Tim Hortons. This obsession might be second only to the obsession with hockey. When I returned to the Bay Area from Toronto at the end of June, EVERYTHING was shut down at the airport except of course, Tim Hortons. It’s likely considered essential. . Swipe to see the picture I took inside the Tim Horton’s inside the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto (Le Temple en français) a couple of years ago. Tim Horton played for the Toronto Maple Leafs for almost two decades (and some other teams...). While playing for the Leafs, he opened his first donut shop in Hamilton, Ontario. (Notice the light forming a halo around the jersey.) . In the media photo announcing the project, the reusables look like plastic. I won’t drink a hot drink out of a plastic cup. But this is a test project. Let’s hope Tim Hortons and Loop opt for non-plastic materials. . While you personally may never order to-go coffee at a Tim Hortons, millions of Canadians do. This project could normalize what used to be normal—reusables. . photo: CNW Group/Tim Hortons
According to the @nytimes, over the past four year According to the @nytimes, over the past four years, the Trump Administration has rolled back 99 environmental rules. The administration has attempted to roll back more than this but fortunately, some of the rollbacks have been struck down in legal challenges and reinstated. That is some good news. . Vote for the environment. Vote for change. Vote like our lives depend on it because they do. . Link in profile for the NYT article.
“When the last tree is cut, the last fish is cau “When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening, you will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you can’t eat money.” ― Alanis Obomsawin
After roasting 20 pounds of tomatoes in the oven, After roasting 20 pounds of tomatoes in the oven, I decided to put the naturally occurring microbes—on the tomatoes, in the air, on my hands—to work and have them cook the next 10 pounds. . Fermentation takes more time than an oven (a week tops for these) but cooking this way burns zero fossil fuels. You do have to think ahead a bit but not all that much. This is how I make these: . 🍅 In a clean bowl or crock, crush 3 pounds chopped, cored tomatoes (no need to remove skins) with your hand (save the cores for tomato broth...SO good). The tomatoes will be very soupy and so you won't have whole pieces to submerge like you do with a ferment like kimchi. Stir in 3/4 tablespoon salt or to taste. Cover your vessel with a thin breathable cloth and secure it tightly to keep out nasties. 🍅 For the next few days, stir the tomatoes several (4 or 5) times a day. Stirring helps prevent mold from developing on the surface of the tomatoes. The tomatoes will start to bubble around day 2 or so, depending on your kitchen environment. (Swipe for a day 2 pic.) 🍅 Continue to stir for another 4 or 5 days or so after your tomatoes have begun to bubble. Taste them daily. When they taste tangy and have some effervescence, transfer them to clean jars. 🍅 Store the jars in the refrigerator or if you have one, in your cold cellar (lucky you!). The tomatoes will keep for many months. . I plan on straining some of these to make tomato paste. I'll save the delicious probiotic liquid to drink (maybe I'll add some jalapeño to that). Stay tuned! . If you'd like to learn more about fermentation, the City of San Mateo is hosting me for an online demo this Saturday. I'll talk about low-waste living, make kombucha and sauerkraut and show off my tomatoes. Link in profile to register for this free event.
I hit the Sunnyvale farmers’ market on Saturday I hit the Sunnyvale farmers’ market on Saturday to buy my two 20-pound cases of tomatoes from @tomaterofarm. @siliconvalleysunrise was also there to encourage residents to vote for a better future. . I roasted 20 pounds of the tomatoes and fermented another 10 pounds. I made a small amount of broth out of the cores I’d saved from those 30 pounds. I used that for a batch of incredible white bean and tomato soup last night. At the very end, I threw in cubes of stale garlicky sourdough focaccia to sop up the juicy tomato broth (and avoid wasting the focaccia). The soup tasted incredible! I’m going to need more tomatoes this weekend... Below is the recipe (roughly). . 🍅 Sauté a large chopped onion and a couple of cloves of minced garlic in a few tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat until softened. 🍅 Stir in a teaspoon or so of dry or fresh herbs. I used dried thyme. (I cook with lots of thyme and rosemary.) 🍅 Stir in 2 pounds of fresh tomatoes, chopped. Break them up with the back of a wooden spoon. Cook for about 5 minutes. 🍅 Add 1 1/2 cup dried white beans that you’ve soaked overnight, drained and rinsed. 🍅 Cover everything by a few inches with water or broth or a combination. Add a teaspoon of salt. 🍅 Simmer beans vigorously for an hour, stirring occasionally, until tender. 🍅 Stir in a tablespoon of vinegar (I used kombucha I’ve fermented to the point of vinegar). 🍅 Add cubes of stale bread if you have any. 🍅 Add more salt to taste if necessary. . If you decide to make a large batch so you can freeze some now and enjoy it later, remove what you’ll stash away before adding the bread to the simmering pot. . I hope everyone’s week is off to a good start!
During Covid, I haven't been going to the farmers' During Covid, I haven't been going to the farmers' market religiously like I usually do. But this Saturday, I plan on buying two 20-pound cases of Early Girl dry farmed tomatoes to prep so we will have tomatoes during the winter. The price plummets this time of year, in the early fall before the rains start (if the rains start this year). . I think I'll try making some tomato soup in my crock pot with a few pounds and ferment another few pounds (so good!). I'll roast the rest to use in place of canned tomatoes and transform some of those roasted tomatoes into tomato paste. I'll spend most of the weekend washing, cutting, fermenting, roasting and cooking tomatoes but one weekend of work will be worth it come January. . Link in profile for tomato recipes.
If you accidentally put all of your active sourdou If you accidentally put all of your active sourdough starter into a recipe but have some discard in the refrigerator, you can revive that and not have to start your starter all over. . My daughter Charlotte left behind this jar of discard (left) when she moved to Montreal last month for school 😭 This discard has been sitting in the refrigerator without any new food for at least a couple of months and tastes incredibly sour—too sour to bake with. So I am perking it up. (It had a layer of grey liquid on top when I started this process but I poured that off. You can stir this hooch in if you prefer.) . I took out a spoonful of the old discard and fed that 50 grams each flour and water. I did these feedings three times, about 8 hours apart, before the starter began to behave normally again (right jar). I’ve added the discard from these feedings back to the discard jar. Now that discard tastes less sour and I’ll make some crackers with it. I also have new active starter for baking something else, probably more focaccia. . I keep my starter small to prevent discard from taking over my kitchen. But I do get nervous when I get low on it. If anything happens to my active starter Eleanor, I can clone her with the sourdough discard insurance policy stashed away in the refrigerator. She is 6 1/2 years old now. That’s still young in starter years (which are much shorter than dog years) but I’ve grown very attached to her and she is never allowed to move out. 😭😭😭
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