I really hate wasting food. I feel bad when I have to throw something away because I did not come around to using it. Not because of the money. I usually have to throw away food that my flatmate bought and did not eat. I still feel bad about it. I don't know what it is, it is probably a mix between "there are people who don't have enough food to feed their children" and "this food had the potential to be something good". (is it strange to think that food has potential? I think I'm weird...)
So usually when I go out to buy food, I don't have a list of what I need to buy, but a mental list of what it is that I already have in my fridge. This wasn't reflected in my posts up till now. I thought I could only post "real" recipes.
This is not "me". I feel restricted by real recipes, I waste food if I have to buy all the ingredients in the recipe and then end up not using what is waiting for me in the fridge.
I often have old bread lying around. I eat bread for breakfast, but often I'm at my boyfriend's place and the bread does not get eaten quick enough. There are several things you can do with stale bread, but today I proudly present:
Baked Cheese Crostini
Ingredients:
stale bread, ~2 slices per person
white wine, or some other liquid, like milk or water
onion, chopped (I used 1/2 onion for myself, this might be too much for you)
cheese (a piece the size of a big walnut, I used a mix between a softer cheese and parmesan, whatever you have on hand)
herbs or spices, I used Piment d'Espelette, but regular paprika would be great too. I can also imagine thyme to go really well with this)
Butter
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Pour the wine (or liquid) in a soup plate, soak the slices of bread in the wine, and place the slices on a baking tray. You may use parchment paper if you want, I did not. Mix the chopped onion with the grated cheese (you might have to cut the softer cheese with a knife, soft cheeses don't grate well) and the spices you want to use. Spread some butter on the bread, then the cheese mixture on top of that. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes.
Serve with a salad, I love the arugula fennel salad that I ate with my crostini. Just slice the fennel thinly, wash the arugula, throw everything together and add a dressing made of olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt.
White wine--what a great way to salvage stale bread! I'll have to try it sometime soon. I usually just end up toasting that very last, very stale slice from the loaf to death and smearing it with butter and honey, which is quite all right but nothing special. Does the flavour of wine really come out in the final product?
ReplyDeleteI'm the same way about wasting food. Almost all of my meal planning revolves around using up what I already have in the fridge. It works for almost everything, but celery gets me every time. You can only make so much mirepoix in a week.
The flavour of the wine is not too strong, but you can really taste it.
ReplyDeleteI always read about doing meal planning, but that just does not work for me.
Well, by "meal planning," I really mean that five minutes before I want to go to the grocery store, I look in the fridge and ask myself what I should cook for dinner that night or possibly buy for lunch the next day. I am terrible at buying groceries for more than a couple of meals at a time, so I'm at the grocery store pretty much every other day. Maybe that explains why I don't feel as though I ever have enough time to do anything.
ReplyDeletethis seems like a really delicious idea. i never really know what to do with old bread other than make french toast with it. i'l definitely try this next time i have some stale bits left over.
ReplyDelete-katie - ha, i'm the same with celery!
Regarding "meal planning", I'm just the same. And I enjoy "shopping" for food. Lately I tried to at least plan my lunch a bit ahead. If I have to decide and cook in the morning, it just does not happen and then I have to eat boring sandwiches or the food in the cafeteria at college...
ReplyDelete