Skipping Christmas

I've been doing a good bit of skipping these days, or dumpster-diving as the Americans call it, somewhat less pleasantly. To those who have not tried it, I would highly recommend it. It's essentially reclaiming often-perfect food from going to waste, usually from a skip out the back of a supermarket or shop. I'm at home in Ireland currently and haven't really done much since I came home for Christmas. So, at 11pm on Christmas Eve I decided I must go and see what my hometown had to offer. I dragged my brother (and his car) along with me and soon hit the jackpot out the back of the big, evil, British supermarket chain. You know, the blue one, starts with a T. Anyway, this is what we took home, but we could have taken twenty times this amount and fed the entire town for Christmas dinner. But we didn't, we just took what we could use and carry.

      (I even found a chocolate bunny, but that didn't make it into the picture. )

Skipping is my favorite way to scavenge for food. It sure beats shopping, which I really hate and need money for. You don't have to queue, worry about prices, fair trade, ethics, animal treatment, the carbon footprint of your food - it's all rotting in a bin, so anything you take and use can only be positive. You're not supporting any unsustainable or cruel industries, in fact you're feeding off the waste they're causing. It's beautiful.

Though there is a stigma when people first hear about skipping. Like my brother said, 'You imagine someone eating a half-eaten pizza from a dirty bin,' like in those (American) movies. But it's really not like that at all. Often supermarkets are quite meticulous in their binning of foods, double- and triple-bagging goods. Heaven forbid, even the bin should be a mess. And everything's wrapped in plastic these days, which is quite convenient. Even if you don't eat the food you take from the skip, you can compost it and recycle the packaging.

My favorite bit of it all is probably creatively using up the food. It's like 'Ready, Steady, Cook'. Work with the ingredients you've got. In fact, I'm sure that could be a good show: 'Ready, Steady, Skip'. Someone may have suggested that to me before (Webby, was it you?). If no one claims it I'll take full credit for the idea.

My next few entries will concern using these ingredients to make some creative veggie dishes (and even the Christmas hams were used up on the day by the non-veggies in the house). More to come!

- Dara

Grilled Garlic Aubergines with Wilted Chard

Chard? It might be.... It's a green leafy vegetable from the veg box that is nice wilted anyway.

The aubergines were slices and grilled, with salt and olive oil on them. When they were cooked I spread a bit of crushed garlic on each piece and put it under a low heat on the grill for a few minutes. If it gets brown it gets a bit nasty, so keep a close eye on it.

I ate this with slices of smoked tofu, and olive oil drizzled all over. Tasty!

Eggs on a bed of Chickpeas, Peas and Onion.

The base of this dish was originally soup. In it's first incarnation I fried some onion and garlic, added some water and veg stock, then chickpeas and finally frozen peas. The stock was so delicious I drank it all and was left with a solid base on which to place boiled eggs. Before I did this, I mixed it with my lovely fennel fronds in olive oil, and some herbs provençal. Looks a bit strange perhaps, but it's truly delicious.

Fennel and Potato Soup

This is a basic soup which is a nice comforting evening meal.

Boil up a pan of water, then add a good amount of diced potatoes (maybe 4 medium sized ones) and 2 teaspoons of veg stock.

Then add two diced onions and four cloves of chopped garlic. Let it boil for about 10 minutes.

Next, add a chopped fennel bulb and let the whole thing boil down until the potatoes disintegrate and the whole thing starts to look a bit soupey.

Serve it with fennel fronds sprinkled on top. I used my fennel preserved in olive oil.

Butterbean, Leek and Pea Salad with Fennel Dressing

This is a beautifully delicate and satisfying salad.

Fry a leek in butter. When it's almost done add a handful of frozen peas and cooked butterbeans. Let the excess moisture evaporate, then add some chopped fennel fronds and lemon juice.

Add a bit of salt and pepper if that's your thing, and serve on lettuce leaves with some toast and olive oil on the side.

Other herbs will do if you don't have fennel. I got a fennel buld with massive fronds in my organic veg box so I chopped it up and put it in a jar with olive oil to preserve it. Coming up are some other recipes that use this fennel in oil...

Tomato, Mozzarella and Strawberry Salad with Fresh Basil

Does what it says on the tin. Lovely.

Serving suggestion: eat with hot buttered toast.

Gwen's Quick Broccoli and Stilton Quiche

Gwen created a delightful new dish, wrote some lovely sentences about it, and was published in Atom Magazine! But Gwen is too modest or lazy to tell you that, so I am telling you. Follow the link for food: Atom Magazine Fall 2011

Good work, Gwen! I'll have to step it up a notch.