One Man’s Trash Is Another’s Treasure

recently consumed

article: America’s Food Waste

tasting notes

Americans waste 27% of the food available to them for consumption.
That is a pound of food every day for every America.

Those are some astonishing numbers. Numbers that hit you in the gut. Still, the New York Times article goes on to state that a lot of those statistics come from grocery stores throwing away defect or expired food, food programs throwing away uncooked or unused food, and various other efforts that serve larger amounts of people. This is not purely a statistics based on individual table scraps.

Still… As someone who is very passionate about food, it has inspired me to look around my own kitchen. Leftovers and table scraps are not just a method of recycle but a interesting ingredient. Like one of my favorite Top Chef challenges over the years, that featured the creative use of leftovers, I’ve challenged myself to try and create the next week (or two) of dishes using items in the kitchen that would have otherwise expired or gone unnoticed yet again for another month or two.

Tonight’s meal:
Grilled Mahi-Mahi covered in some pink sea salt I received from my mother. The sauce was built from some leftover homemade salsa from the weekend, which I then converted into a more Indian flavored sauce with the help of some spices, canned ginger, and a jar of roasted red pepper sauce that has been long floating in my fridge. The green grapes were looking pretty sad, so I fried them up and chopped them into the rice to make a little more exotic tasting dish. I still have some left-over Indian sauce and some grilled steak from fajitas, so we’ll see what that produces tomorrow. Honestly it is both relieving and inspiring to cook via recycling of materials.

suggested pairings

• An article about people called ‘Freegans’, who go dumpster diving for food ingredients
• The Slow Food movement, and how to get started