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Dear Reader,
I love to cook. And every now and again, one of my meals is particularly good, which is when my husband will make the wry observation that we all better enjoy it because we’ll never taste it again. Why not? Because Dot is the queen of substitutions, of eyeballing measurements, of “what if I add a pinch of this?”
Annemarie Bonneau, who writes the Zero Waste Chef newsletter, is a kindred kitchen spirit, someone who uses up what’s in her fridge, who avoids purchasing new ingredients in new containers, who enjoys escaping another trip to the store. “Think of iconic dishes from around the world,” she writes. “A Michelin-starred restaurant may serve $75 bowls of bouillabaisse, but the stew’s humble origins stem from the hungry French fishermen who created the dish from fish scraps they couldn’t sell. Beloved steamed buns in Chinese cooking consist of dough surrounding odds and ends found on hand in the kitchen — perhaps a bit of meat and a few leftover vegetables.” Annemarie recently encouraged a friend to adopt sustainability by no longer slavishly following recipes and instead putting meals together focused on what’s on hand. When her friend asked, how exactly, to do that, Annemarie offered up some tips, including:
🥘 Master various cooking techniques, including sautéing, braising, roasting, simmering, and poaching, which will give you more options for cooking what you have in the fridge. (YouTube can be a great teacher, she tells us.)
🔪 Start with the main course, not dessert, as baking is typically less adaptable. “Easy meals to adapt,” she writes, “include soups and stews, chili, salads, pasta dishes, stir fries, and grain bowls.”
📝 She also (*cough*) recommends writing down what you’re doing so that, should it delight your and others’ tastebuds, you can make it again. And again.
Don’t miss all of Zero Waste Chef’s tips.
And speaking (writing?) of turning garbage into gastronomy, a new certification aims to guide us toward foods made from upcycled ingredients. The Upcycled Food Association, formed in 2019, explains that “Upcycled foods use ingredients that otherwise would not have gone to human consumption, are procured and produced using verifiable supply chains, and have a positive impact on the environment.” Look for the Upcycled Certified logo.
Epicuriously,
Dot
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