Webchat with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Thursday 3 December - Love your Leftovers

[UrsulaMumsnet]

In the second of our awesome chef webchats this week, we're welcoming HUGH FEARNLEY-WHITTINGSTALL for a webchat on Thursday, 1-2pm.

Hugh will be on hand to help you with your Christmas cookery conundrums and to celebrate the release of his new cookbook Love your Leftovers, we're also inviting you to challenge Hugh to come up with a recipe from your leftovers.

Join us on Thursday at 1pm or post a question to Hugh in advance on this thread. Everyone who posts a question or sets Hugh a leftover challenge (let us know what's lurking in your fridge) will be entered into a draw to win one of four signed copies of his book.

@toffeeboffin

Hi Hugh,

My French MIL insists on giving me jars and jars of home made apple jelly. She eats it on toast but I am at a loss at what to do with it. Any suggestions?

Toffee.

It's a really versatile ingredient for adding a little sweet sharpness to all kind of things. including gravies and sauces. You can use it like red current jelly to serve with roast meats, especially pork or lamb - and I often use it to improvise a hot sweet and sour dipping sauce by melting a table spoon of jelly with one of vinegar and stiffing in some finely chopped chilli a dash of soy goes well too.

@diggerdigsdogs

Hi Hugh,

Like word River Cottage Every Day is my most used cookery book. It's just superb and I've never had a dud from it. Thank you :)

My question is what things do you always cook extra of so that you can make something else with the leftovers?

I always fry up left over boiled spuds for dinner the next night. And extra broccoli and green beans gets chopped into small bits and used in a cheesy omelet. Yum.

Good question about deliberately creating leftovers, I do it all the time, with pulses especially, like puy lentils and chickpeas. I know it's going to be useful to have them standing by. And I will happily roast a joint of meat that's way too big for the family knowing that I'll be able to spin all kinds of recipes from it in the days to come.

Thanks for the oaty banana drop scones idea Hugh - I'll have to give that a go at your suggestion - particularly as we often have over ripe bananas. I never quite trust them when they have mushy brown bits though? Can you convince me?!

@expatinscotland

Do you have any cooking betes noirs that you just avoid now? I have accepted that I will never make sourdough bread without a bread machine and mix.

Bread making can seem daunting especially sour dough but it's just a question of getting into a rhythm that works for you. I used to feel exactly the same way about bread making and now I love it. Cooking rice was also a bit of a blind spot until I got the trick of stirring the rice with a drop of oil before adding the measured amount of water and then simmering it VERY gently.

@Spidertracker

I am actually glad to have a chance to ask a question. I watched your latest TV program where you accosted people in the supermarket and threw a percentage of their shopping away. Did you check that those people could afford to lose that food or was it faked? My husband and I found that very difficult to watch as we are on a very tight food budget and count exactly what we need. If someone threw away a percentage of our food shopping we wouldn't be able to eat at the end of the week. I can't ask a question about leftovers as we never have them.

That's a fair question Spidertracker. It wasn't faked at all but we did offer everybody who took part replacements for the foods that we took from them.

It was meant to be painful to watch and believe me, it was very painful to do it!

But I felt it was important to show people just how wasteful we have become as a society.

It's good to hear that you are running a thrifty kitchen and wasting almost nothing - we should all aspire to that.

Ooh, hot and sour dipping sauce, I'll try that!

Thanks ever so much!

Hi Hugh,

Well done with the campaign. I wondered if you'd heard of this place?

www.facebook.com/furclemt/

FYI Fur Clemt is Wigan dialect for very hungry! Anyway, I thought you'd be interested if you didn't already know about it.

On a personal note I wanted to thank you for the Veg cookbook you wrote. We're not vegetarians but I use your recipes from the book often and they are excellent.

radiohelen

How do you make fresh cheese/paneer? I tried using up some milk by adding vinegar to make a cheese like the internet told me but it was an unmitigated disaster! Is there a secret?[/quote]

Well as it happens I have a recipe for paneer p. 216 of Love your Leftovers. I'm not sure why your last one went wrong, I use lemon juice and rennet (you can get a veg version) of that and it never fails. I hope it works for you. Then you can make the delicious fried spiced paneer in the pic on p. 217

How many meals can you get out of one chicken?! Round these parts the leftovers generate dinners for the whole week….

Thank you for answering my question Hugh, I think as a family who are very hot on waste, it was difficult to believe people would buy food they weren't certain would get eaten.

Hi Hugh!
Love the show, books and your campaigns.
We always have a fresh chicken stock knocking about, or a batch in the freezer...so many uses....often finds its way into a soup or risotto. What's your favourite thing to do with chicken stock?
Thanks!

This is probably a better link actually...

www.furclemt.moonfruit.com

It's been lovely chatting with you all. I hope I've managed to offer up a few handy recipes and tips to help you be thrifty in the kitchen and waste a bit less!

And please join us in persuading our supermarkets to waste less too at wastenotuk.com/.

You are a brilliant voice for positive change in Britain and I would dearly love to have your support!

#wastenot #leftovers

I found it surprising how many people on the programme were seemingly desperate to throw out stuff immediately on the best before date Spider, or even before in some cases. We don't waste much but salad and mushrooms seem to be our biggest culprits

Thanks Hugh!!!

Oh - he missed my question.

Thanks Hugh, what a nice thing to say
Keep up the good work too as many MNers have said!

and mine

Thanks Hugh / pre- loved it is then !!!! [santa]

Did no one ask it?

Dammit! I can't believe I missed the whole thing!

Congratulations BugritAndTidyup, radiohelen, Quills, and PirateSmile! You've won a signed copy of Hugh's book Love Your Leftovers. We'll be in touch by PM. Thanks everyone for joining!

You lucky devils! HFW is my fav celeb cook. Miles over JO. I'm just a leetle bit in love, but DH understands .

Damn! I didn't win!

And I'm his biggest fan!

MNHQ who won the Nigel Slater prize draw please, we didn't see it announced??