Throwing away trimmings brings me out in a cold sweat! I abhor waste. I tend to make soup, for which I just bung everything in along with onion, garlic, potato and bouillon then blend it. Reducing further can provide a highly concentrated amuse bouche, let out with a little cream and you've got a seriously good soup.
Tonight, I'm going to try something different ...
I'm not at all au fait with Asian cuisine other than Kashmiri, Punjabi and Pakistani. I'm intending to make one of those spicy and sour soups I read about using cauliflower stalk trimmings, some tenderstem broccoli stalks and a couple of straggling stringless beans.
That's the bulk, joined by shredded chillies, ginger, lime, fish sauce, fennel, spinach and squash. Taste for flavouring and I think we're about done ...
I picked up some crayfish yesterday, which I think will work well in this soup. In they go!
Garnish with fresh coriander and a drop or two of walnut oil.
In we go ...
Gorgeous! What a great soup!
So, onto the next course ...
I have some tuna which is the star of the show for dinner tonight.
I always struggle with tuna, trying to think up a whole and rounded meal to make around it; to me, tuna is perfect with a simple spicy, fruity accompaniment. Hence the more filling soup course.
So, that's what I did ...
Seared tuna, persimmon slices, some lamb's lettuce, red chard and chilli. Garnish with fresh coriander and a squeeze of lime.
Simple as ...
And, there we have it: a dinner of two parts, the star of the show glorified by simple accompaniment and the introduction, a flavoursome cornucopia of trimmings and things to use up.
