The Thrifty Cookbook: 476 Ways to Eat Well With Leftovers (9 page)

Cooked meat
Keeps in the fridge for a good 3-5 days. Cover it while it cools, then put it straight into the fridge, well wrapped, or sliced and tightly packed in an airtight box to stop the slices drying out.

Stuffings
Should always be removed from the meat, as they cool more slowly and provide an ideal breeding ground for bacteria. Keep them separately in a covered bowl or box and use them in stews or soups for extra flavour and thickening.

Cooked vegetables
Will keep in the fridge for 3-5 days.

Dips
Will last 3-5 days in the fridge, if kept airtight.

Fresh cream
Keeps 5-7 days once opened, depending on the date on the carton; whipped cream keeps 1-2 days only.

Raw eggs
Keep 2-4 days.

Fish
Raw fish keeps 1-2 days; cooked fish 3-4 days.

Minced meat
Keeps 2-3 days.

Bacon
Keeps 7-10 days.

Joints or cuts of red meat
Keep 3-5 days, raw or cooked.

Poultry, whole or joints
Keeps 3-5 days, raw or cooked.

Sausages
Keep 3-5 days, raw or cooked.

Like cupboards, a relatively small freezer is easier to maintain than a cavernous chest into which the peas from some long-gone era have sunk like the
Titanic
. Just one word of caution: don’t freeze leftover food that you didn’t like first time around. It will sit there for months and end up being chucked out anyway, doubling the guilt.

On the other hand, one of the best ways to save time and money in the long run is to plan to make larger quantities than you know you will need for one meal, just so you can freeze some of it for later: waste-free ready meals, if you like, that will be at hand for when you just can’t face cooking or when your children’s friends descend unexpectedly – cheaper and tastier than anything you could buy. Stews freeze wonderfully in small amounts, as do soups, casseroles and bakes. Meatballs, lasagne, fish pie, cottage and shepherd’s pies and moussaka are all stalwart freezer fodder.

Whatever you freeze, wrap it well – freezer ‘burn’ dries out and toughens some foods, particularly meat, and it happens when the food is not tightly wrapped in cling film, foil or a bag. Remember, too, that liquid expands as it freezes, so don’t overfill containers, especially with soups and sauces.

If you have ever wondered what all those stars mean, here’s the low-down:

* (-6°C): suitable for ice cubes or to store food for 3-4 days

** (-12°C): store food for 2-3 weeks

*** (-18°C): store food for 1-3 months

**** (below -18°C): for rapid freezing and to store food for 3-12 months

Most of us know that frozen food will, in fact, last for longer than is officially recommended – a year even – though its quality won’t be great. But that seems like a waste of effort and space to me. The thing to remember is that
freezing will not kill bacteria already present in the food,
so eat it as soon as possible after defrosting.

All sorts of things that might otherwise be thrown away can be frozen, making quick suppers really easy:

Leftover meat
Cut into smallish dice and pack in an airtight box or bag for future use in risottos, pies, soups or stir-fries; it will keep for a good couple of months.

Leftover cream, wine, gravy or stock
The last tablespoon of cream at the bottom of the carton, the half glass of wine left in the bottle, even the last small jug of gravy, can be frozen. If you have the patience, pour them into an ice-cube tray and then decant the frozen cubes into freezer bags so you can use them as you like.

Breadcrumbs
These are useful for so many different meals that it’s worth keeping a largish airtight box of them, regularly adding the ends of stale (but not mouldy) pieces of bread. Thirty seconds or so in the food processor is all it takes. It means that there might be an unholy mix of white and brown, fine and slightly coarser crumbs at any one time in the same container, but I don’t find that disconcerting. They will keep indefinitely in the freezer (or for 2-3 weeks in the fridge).

Herbs
Woody herbs like thyme and rosemary keep really well in a plastic ziplock bag in the freezer if you don’t feel like hanging them up to dry. Softer herbs fare less well, though parsley is fine if it is finely chopped while fresh and then frozen on a baking tray before being tipped into a box – use it for soups and stews straight from frozen. Basil does not freeze well but lemongrass does: after defrosting, bruise it well with a rolling pin and remove the woody outer bark before use. I also keep fresh ginger root in the freezer, which makes it very easy to grate, producing a lemon-coloured mound of fine Parmesan-like snow.

Whole tomatoes
Remove the stalks; the tomatoes will be mushy once defrosted but are fine to use in sauces, soups and stews.

Fruit
I keep a bag of frozen berries in the freezer for emergency puddings.

Egg yolks
Can be frozen but they do go very sticky and can be hard to use. It’s usually better to store them in a covered bowl in the fridge for up to 4 days, or turn them into Custard (see
page 33
), Zabaglione (
page 200
) or Hollandaise Sauce (
page 35
) for a spoiling weekend breakfast of eggs Benedict.

Egg whites
Can be frozen in a small bag or box (with a label saying how many there are).

The best way to defrost food is to stick it on a plate and put it in the fridge to thaw out slowly. Remember to cook it soon after it has defrosted – and don’t re-freeze it simply because you have changed your plans. You can, however, make it into soups, stews and so on and then refreeze it.

If you are in a rush, you can speed up the defrosting process by immersing frozen food in cold water in the sink. Make sure that it is tightly wrapped in a bag or box or you’ll end up with a watery mess. Change the water every 30 minutes or so to keep the process moving. Microwaves are also useful for defrosting but, because they can leave warm spots in the food, which are perfect breeding grounds for bacteria, you should then cook the food immediately.

The dreary words ‘portion control’ trail a distinct whiff of uninspired caterers and airline food. But bear with me here – getting the amounts you cook just a bit more accurate will save money as well as landfill.

Pasta and rice in particular just never quite look
enough
in their raw state and I almost always cook too much. Most of us do, actually. They’re relatively cheap, and we’re so used to doing it that we hardly notice. We throw away an enormous amount of pasta – around 87,000 tonnes a year.

There are broad guidelines for what the average adult will eat, though the reality is that you do need different amounts according to what you’re cooking: a stew, for instance, needs far more meat than a stir-fry, while a risotto will use more rice than you would need for a side dish. I reluctantly began to weigh ingredients before cooking them (particularly pasta and rice) when I started to get my knickers in a twist about food waste. At first I found it rather trying but, judging by the fact that I now have far fewer bowls of leftovers in the fridge, it works.