We investigated how to make excess rice last longer and keep just as nice and fresh as when you made it

How to revive stale bread

How to use stale bread and the day after’s rice in interesting ways…

as well as some tips on storing veg so they last longer.

And of course, our “Chuck it in Chutney” basic recipe to use up all those odds and ends of veg you don’t feel like eating just yet.We’ll also have ideas on how to best use unusual veg in chutney like we did…

All to come next week, watch this space!

APPLE INVENTIONS

For now, those who saw our peeler-chopper-slicer in action, otherwise known as “The APPLE MASTER”, here is where you can get your own exact version of the one we got: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/13181/Apple-Master but check out car boot sales, ebay, amazon- there are other versions and “Orchard Cardiff” recommended us the “Apfelschaler”- sadly we couldn’t find one in time, but perhaps you will be able to!

Apple peelercorerslicers are amazing for making the most of abundant supplies of apples (or potatoes come to that, and perhaps some other veg, experiment and let us know) as it makes a bag full of apples into core-less slices, perfect for lunch boxes, drying into apple rings, cakes, chutneys, apple “butters” and more. We love that it peels them- if you have supermarket non-organic apples, or road-side apples from heavily polluted areas you might want to peel them- but it makes apple compote much easier to make.

Our Abundance Oxford thrifty tip with the PEELS:

Stick them in the oven laid out over a baking tray at the same time as you put your jars in to sterilise– for approx 30 mins at 100 C. If you’re having to sterilise jars in batches, then 3 batches later you’ll have dried apple peel! So you’ll use none to very little extra energy, and have yourself a nice chewy or crunchy snack (depending on how long you leave them in there for) to munch on whilst you’re jarring chutney, jam, “butter” or other… Why not arrange them in a curly spirals or other shapes before putting them in the oven and use them as decoration for the top of an (apple-themed perhaps) cake?

Our Abundance Oxford thrifty tip with the CORES:

The “Apple Master” takes a bit too much good apple out with the cores we feel- why not combine all the cores, chop them up a bit more and make an apple jelly out of them? This jelly isn’t the wibble-wobble sort that goes well with custard and ice-cream, but a clear jam-type spreadable for putting on toast/oat biscuit, spreading on sandwich cakes, using as a glaze or with cheese and meat if you eat them. The beauty of jelly is that you strain the fruity juices out from the pips and less edible apple bits after you’ve got all the appley flavours out of every last bit of the fruit. And you can put the peels and jars to put the jelly in the oven at the same time 🙂 Check out our Katie’s Hedgerow Jelly recipe for a basic jelly recipe- and why not use that as inspiration for what you can add to your apple(core) jelly…

[Apple pips have tiny, tiny traces of poison in them- one or two or three by accident is fine but don’t make a habit of eating them! ]

Abundance Love x x x