El trash cooking, begins to take shape in our environment not as fashion, but as avant-garde associated with trends due to the current situation of the market, the sector, society and ecological awareness.
We could represent the Anglo-Saxon name with the concept of “take advantage of everything“ and do not translate literally since we are not going to “cook with garbage“, But with everything that is left over, or it would be discarded normally but that surely has a new utility.
The times of crisis that we have suffered and continue to suffer, have made the memory of the past as well as the ingenuity of the chefs sharpen and collaborate to save, without forgetting to do things well.
The rule is based on taking out the maximum use of the food we use in the kitchens, vegetable cuts, stems, meat or fish guts, etc … everything that with a little imagination and creativity along with the desire to do so, will help us not only to make the numbers square but also to feel satisfied with the minimization of the waste.
As always in the most traditional cuisine, everything has been used for something, be it by habit, lack or scarcity, necessity, but this converted to evolution and creative ideas, will give us a script of how to do it. trash coooking.
In times of opulence, this custom has been turned away, either due to abundance or novelty, but we must never forget it if we want to make the most of our kitchens.
Logically, it requires time, dedication, and many hands, which in many cases can be replaced by fourth-range elaborations or vegetables that have already been washed and peeled. Everything has a price and that is what we must know and have within our objectives.
Can we and should we use easy, ready-made ingredients, or should we create everything ourselves with work and dedication?
Let’s see some examples of how to make this use of waste to see whether or not we are focused on the trend or we want agility and we cannot use more resources for production.
5 uses from the range of vegetables and fruits
What can we do with all those parts of the vegetables that we usually throw away?
- The zucchini skin can become an excellent garnish by sautéing it with garlic oil and salt, the result will be a crunchy decoration.
- Swiss chard and spinach stalks can be added to a salad or served as an “appetizer”, washed and cooked with salt and lemon to maintain their “whiteness” and served with oil, salt and paprika.
- The peel of the orange or lemon will help us to caramelize the sugar with flavor or to give the aroma of citrus to olive oil or a mild vinegar.
- Pineapple has a hard and woody heart, but cooking it is perfect for making sweet and sour salads, tropical pizzas, etc.
- The new potato skins, well washed, if fried in very hot oil, will give us some very original chips to accompany or decorate.
5 uses from meat or poultry
We have always seen how nutritious and very tasty broths are made with bones or skins. Although briks and powders have replaced it for convenience and agility as well as flavor homogenization, this technique will help us to promote trash cokking and we will achieve new, more original broths.
But not only broths we can make:
- With the chicken skins we can make crunchy crusts, or in tempura by coating them and frying them. a good appetizer or side.
- The roasted and shredded pork skin will allow us to mix the resulting powder with breadcrumbs or sprinkle it in salads to give a smoky touch to the batters.
- The meat that remains attached to bones or in cavities that are difficult to extract, can be used in fillings with peppers, lasagna, cannelloni, etc …
- Rooster and hen combs are a gelatinous delicacy. Once candied, they are delicious when accompanied by a soft truffle sauce.
- Chicken livers are very useful for making homemade patés for an aperitif.
5 uses from fish
- With the heads of the crustaceans and the heads of fish we can make a good stock, boiling them and reducing them for later sauces.
- The bones or thorns of the youngest of the sea such as anchovies, anchovies, etc … can be fried in oil and the result will be a crunchy appetizer or “edible” decorations.
- Fish roe is also a great delicacy whether it is cooked, with a vinaigrette sauce or fried with garlic and lemon.
- The cod guts, desalted and cut into strips, will give us, once fried in oil, very original fish crusts to accompany tapas of other fish such as pickled anchovies or mussels …
- The shells of the prawn and prawn tail, well roasted on the grill, will become excellent “seafood” chips to accompany a sauce for tell or decorate dishes.
15 trash cooking ideas They are not the only ones, surely you can think of many ways to optimize and create sustainable avant-garde in your kitchen.