“Mise en Place”, and Beyond

Grab a fork and clean your plate! Let's catch up with the French, and eliminate Food waste.

The French are organized, and thrifty. After all, they invented the phrase we've borrowed, mise en place, meaning you gather everything together before you even begin to cook, all accessible, prepped, and at the ready. And they're good at not wasting things. From tools to household goods to food, they repurpose, re-use, re-cycle, and when they cook, they use every morsel of animal or vegetable (unnerving as it may be, encountering a giant beef tongue or some animal head in the butcher shop). Throwing something away is just not an option for the French.

I thought about that this week when I read an article about food waste in the US. We waste a whopping 50% of the vegetables we produce, a world record. Yowsa! This would feed whole countries! So it's time to rethink those leftovers bits in the fridge, and do our part.

We've blogged about this before. At the end of the week, I gather up those leftover market veggies and/or bits of meat and make soup. But let's go further, and make a dent in that 50%.

First of all—maybe stop peeling vegetables? An awful lot of the nutrients in veggies are in the peel, AND most of the fiber, so why peel unless you have to? Carrots, potatoes, cucumbers all can be eaten au nature. Even in avocados, most of the nutrients are concentrated near the skin, so peel them instead of scooping them out with a spoon.

Next, let's think beyond soup, for using up leftovers. Francis Lam has a great idea which I'm adopting: pre-prepped grain bowls. Here's the trick: every week-end he roasts a bunch of veggies, including leftover dribs and drabs (don't forget that onion that's starting to sprout, and some garlic cloves), and pops them in the fridge. During the week, he makes a grain bowl and tops it with the veggies, eggs, and maybe some leftover meat or fish, plus a yummy sauce (he's partial to a lemon-herb buttermilk dressing). A couple of busy week-nights, sorted!

But there's more you could do with those roasted veggies. Make a big dinner salad, or a pasta primavera. Fold them in to a frittata or a casserole. Make a tart or a pizza. Or go all-out-French, with a cheese and veggie soufflé.

And of course there's stock! Nothing like a good homemade stock to use up leftover vegetables, bones, meat, alums, mushrooms, and that limp celery you were going to toss. Which brings us full circle, back to our soup, made even more delicious with our fragrant stock.

It may help to make one day a week into a food recycling day (i.e., cleaning out the fridge, and cooking what's left). I do mine before I reload on market day.

I'm sure our readers would like more tips–how are you addressing this problem? Do share!

I cut these lovely leaves from a bunch of turnips, and they're going in the sauté pan.

RECIPE: How to Roast Most Any Vegetable

Roasting caramelizes  the sugars in vegetables and browns them up, and if they're past their prime you'll hardly notice. There are not many vegetables you can't roast. It's a super easy way to cook and to add flavor, but there are a few things to know:

Cut them into chunks (be sure they are washed and well dried) and put them on a sheet pan. Of course the smaller they are cut, the faster they will cook. Drizzle them with a tablespoon or two of oil, just to coat; any oil will do, but I use a mild tasting olive oil. No need to get a bowl dirty; just toss them with your hands right on the pan. Sprinkle them generously with coarse salt and pepper, and other dried herbs if you wish. Important: they shouldn't touch in the pan, spread them out. Otherwise they will just steam. They should all be roughly the same size. I roast them at about 450 (220C), but you can slow roast them as well, e.g. if you have something else in the oven.

You can roast different vegetables together, just check them frequently for doneness, as different veggies have different cooking times. I tend to cut mine in large chunks, but I have a friend who cuts a bunch of different veggies in a half-inch dice, roasts them all together, and serves them just like that, and they're delicious.

Cook them until they brown. You need the charred bits, for flavor. Even if they're tender with no char, keep cooking them until they brown up a bit, they will be fine. If they're done and not browning, I crank up the heat.

I like to roast vegetables for soups. For example, I roast winter squashes with onion quarters before I finish them off with stock on top of the stove, and blend them into a velvety soup.

Roasting tomatoes before you add the to sauces makes them tastier, or they're good on their own.

If you serve roasted veggies on their own as a side dish, shower them with fresh herbs for a bright finish, and/or sprinkle with some fresh grated parmesan. Serve them over orzo or lettuce with a vinaigrette, and you've got a substantial salad or side. Or, put an egg on it, and call it lunch!

Here's a good chart from the Kitchn blog, to give you an idea about times:

General Roasting Times for Vegetables

Cooking times are for roasting vegetables at 425°F.

• Root vegetables (beets, potatoes, carrots): 30 to 45 minutes, depending on how small you cut them
• Winter squash (butternut squash, acorn squash): 20 to 60 minutes, depending on how small you cut them
• Crucifers (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts): 15 to 25 minutes
• Soft vegetables (zucchini, summer squash, bell peppers): 10 to 20 minutes
• Thin vegetables (asparagus, green beans): 10 to 20 minutes
• Onions: 30 to 45 minutes, depending on how crispy you like them
• Tomatoes: 15 to 20 minutes

 In the COMMENTS:  Suzanne asks about pie crusts for those strawberry tarts. A regular crust will work fine, as will puff pastry, which the French call pâte feuilletée. Suzanne also sends a recipe for a luscious strawberry cream cake, which you can find at this site. Ellen, you are right, leftover strawberry shortcake is best, because what can beat cake marinated in berries? Natalia passes on the recipe for the delicious and oddly named Eaton Mess, perfect for summer berries. For anyone who shares my inability to make meringues, Mary James (of Mary James Dishes it Out) has come to the rescue. OK, I will try again! Debby, let us know how that olive oil and roasted strawberry cake turns out, very creative. Meanwhile, I've already made Connie's orange cream to put on top of strawberry parfaits, and it was great.

Favorite READS: Those serious about changing our troubled world, and who are up for a serious read, will want to check out the new book by our dear friend John Alderdice, Faith and Modernity.  John and his wife Joan have a second home near us. John, who is from Northern Irelanad and is a member of the House of Lords, has spent much of his career as an international peace-keeper, consulting with governments. He's a big believer in dialog as a problem-solver, even when there is a wide chasm of beliefs between parties. Hence the subject of this book of essays, a conversation between Muslims and Christians, surely a book for our times.

Also I can't wait to read Natalia's recommended novel, From a Paris Balcony by Ella Carey, which traces the lives of two women over a long period. And if you like this one, Carey has written other novels with a Paris connection.