I went to Trader Joe the other day and reached for a pre-packed bag of salad greens. The Joe working in TJ said "Not that one, it expires today". He gave me a bag with greens with a date of next week. He then continued to take bags and bags full of perfectly edible produce off the shelves. I felt I was watching mega-waste in action, and it did not sit well with me.
I recently red The Apprentice - my life in the kitchen by Jacques Pépin. His humble beginnings not only made him appreciate the less desirable parts of animals and produce. His mother's restaurant only could make a profit if they kept the food cost low and used every single leafs and stem. Ditto organs and bones. They went so far as to save the tomato skins and seeds to make tomato stock when making tomato concassé. Same with the stems from parsley and the cut off from mushrooms.
Anthony Bourdain called restaurant cooking the art of transformation; turn undesirable products into dishes people want to eat.
I am by know means at their level, nor do I pretend to be. I just hate to waste food. Case in point: We didn't eat rice in days, so the left over rice in the cooker was already turning hard. Since throwing out would be a sin, I decided to the next best thing. Turn the rice into congee, or rice porridge for breakfast. It is as simple as phi: put the rice in a saucier, cover with water. Simmer for hours until the rice is completely dissolved resulting in a smooth porridge. Just make sure you stir the congee so once a while to prevent burning your precious pot.
How much grain is still left over is subject of intense debate, depending where you are from and how your mother cooked congee.
You could eat this with Pork Sung, fermented bamboo, pickles or the like. I like mine with smashed ginger, white pepper and either white fish or marinated ground pork. But then again, my mother never made congee for me: it's my white skin :-)
Another quick tip.
I usually only need use the caps from mushrooms, leaving me with stems. Take stems, sautée them for a couple minutes with a shallot in a little butter. Add water, thyme, left over parsley stems and a bay leaf. Cook for at least 45 minutes. Strain the broth and reduce until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Use this mushroom demi-glace whenever you cook vegetarian. They will thank you for the restaurant-like taste of your dishes.
Of course I buy a lot of whole chickens, so the entire chicken can be used. By the way: next time you make chicken stock, add the giblets. Your stock gets a much deeper mouth feel.
And yes, I still throw more than I want to. It is a work in progress
