Food in General

** Hands out a cup of (e) tea and a selection of biscuits **

As a retired chef it horrifies me to see and hear of food dumped due to poor planning, I am not talking about long, complicated menu plans, but simple cost-effective use of leftover ingredients. Correctly storing and date labelling leftover food is essential for this. Check fridges and freezers for those items that were put away during the past two or three days, or longer if frozen. Added to a little rice or pasta, a few herbs and spices a special savoury dish costs pennies to produce. Try a simple fried rice. Ingredients: 4oz of any leftover meat. 1 small onion. 1 stick of celery. 1 medium tomato. 4oz long grain rice. Method: Boil rice until just cooked, 15-20 mins, wash off starch. Chop meats and veg into small strips or chunks. Quickly fry in a little vegetable or olive oil until just cooked. Now add a little curry powder or your choice of spices. Add the rice and finish seasoning for a quick cheap meal. Waste food a thing of the past.

Hi Everyone! This may seem like a strange request, but I am researching alternative culinary uses for Pot Noodles. Just a bit of background : I am writing a book called 'Meals Without Wheels'. It is aimed at the 50+ age group who have an interest in eating healthily but not spending a lot of time doing complex recipes. All the ideas and recipes are built on available items - like making the most of Cup-A-Soups, things to make from ready-made meals etc. So I am now looking at 6 different cartons of Pot Noodles and thinking what can be done with these? Last night I made a Pork and Broccoli Noodle dish from Nissin Soba Yakatori flavour. 10 minutes from start to on the table - no effort What I would love to hear from you is your imaginative uses for Pot Noodes please? Any thoughts? Best wishes Irene

A tin of rice pudding is less than 10% rice!

I wish to do a beginners cooking course in the Hackney area. Any ideas?

It took a whole lot of soul searching. Um'ming and ah'ing and watching the Shopping channel before I eventually bought one. But I've got to honestly say, I'm glad that I did.. It really does cook the most amazing stews, risottos, roasts. All comfort food that we love. And a chicken tikka masala too die for! It has preset settings for different types of food and best of all. It turns itself off when the jobs done. They are not cheap but the amount of use ours gets makes it worthwhile. It steams vegetables and cooks rice, all in no time at all.

How I wish that suppliers of cakes and biscuits etc. to shops and supermarkets would stop using oil in their products instead of butter. The taste is awful , an excuse to use cheap products in order to make profit. And Palm oil is a disgusting way to deprive wildlife of their natural habitat which endangers certain species . Like home bakers of the past I will remain healthy by using butter but eating small portions.

I have done quite a lot of travelling since retiring, some just for relaxation and some to research. Bulgaria, France, Spain, Portugal, many of the Greek islands, Malta, Morocco. My wife has always been keen on trying foreign food whereas I am very old fashioned in what I prefer to eat. In Greece she has tried many of their dishes, I kept to egg and chips, In Spain she's tried Tapas and Paella, I kept to burgers and chips. And so on. I do all the cooking at home and I think it is probably that I like to know how fresh the food is that I use and how well cooked it is. I'm always wary of how clean and spotless kitchens are abroad and of course how clean the people preparing our food is. I wonder if I'm on my own here or are there others like me?

Does anybody like me buy tins of Tomato puree and freeze it in icecube trays ( I've got a nice rubber one). Decant cubes into bag for the freezer then you've always got it to hand

Hi there wonder if anyone can recommend a ready meals delivery service...have looked at several and finally put an order in with COOK...reviews are fair but not brilliant so I will hope for the best...I really do want good food and am not sure how to go about it as I used to cook but cannot now...If you have used a delivery of frozen meals and they were good I would love to hear from you...