Every Last Crumb Food & Drink

We've all done it - opened the fridge

looking for a snack, only to be confronted by mouldy food.

We throw away ?12 billion worth of food in the UK every year.

If we knew how to turn our leftovers into lunch,

we could save ourselves a small fortune.

So we're clamping down on food waste.

I'm joined by national treasure Mary Berry

to make family favourites out of forgotten odds and ends.

You are...a genius. The topping is inspired!

It's a bit more original too.

Award-winning chef Stevie Parle is shocked that some of our

best cuts of meat are going to waste.

So what, this whole thing would usually be minced?

Yeah, the whole thing. Seriously?

Kate has a surprise in store with her choice of wines.

It's what we call a "face-changer". It certainly sets you on fire.

And I'm turning leftovers into restaurant quality cuisine.

This is Food Drink.

Homes in Britain throw more than ?500 worth of food

in the bin each year.

Just think of what that money could buy us.

A generation ago we wouldn't have dreamt

of throwing away this much food,

but if we learn to make the most of our weekly shop by creating

thrifty and delicious meals,

we'll be well on the way to saving some of that money.

Mary Berry has been a household name for half a century,

and there's nothing she doesn't know about baking and cooking.

You see, it's lovely, the fruit and the cream and the sponge,

that's absolutely fine,

but it's just not cutting right and it's looking a little bit untidy.

Having lived through rationing, as far as Mary is concerned,

wasting food is simply criminal.

So I want her to show me a new way to use up one of the

most thrown-away ingredients in our kitchens.

So, Mary, do you realise that a third of bread

purchased in this country ends up in the bin? Shocking, isn't it?

It's astounding, absolutely shocking,

nearly ?1 billion worth of bread is not consumed and ends up as waste.

So what are we going to cook with bread?

Well, I love fish pie, and I normally put either pastry on top or

mashed potato, but I'm going to put

leftover bread in the form of croutons.

We're going to make an ingenious crouton topping which transforms

stale bread into something crispy, golden and delicious.

I'm sold. Using old bread to make a souffled crust on top of fish pie?

Yes, most definitely.

And also, it's far quicker than peeling potatoes, cooking them

and whatever, or making pastry.

But first, the filling, starting with fresh and smoked haddock.

Unbelievably, we throw away almost

two hundred million pounds worth of fish a year!

But there's no need.

This pie could be made with any fish that needs using up.

I'm going to take a leek and I'm just going to shred it.

Now, I'm not using the green bit, I'm going to keep that,

that would be fine in soups with a bit longer cooking,

so I'll put that to one side.

And I'm now going to gently fry that in butter, without colouring,

until it's soft. I think leeks go so well with fish. They do.

You can use onion if you've got one in the fridge,

or even, sometimes you get a bunch of spring onions,

the tops go a little bit off, but all the white part's all right.

Pull the outsides off, shred those finely,

it would give great flavour to this.

It's all about looking in your fridge

and seeing what you ought to be using up.

Exactly, because sometimes, vegetables,

they may look a little bit wrinkly or dry, but actually,

peel that off and you've got a perfectly good leek on the inside.

Hard-boiled eggs are a great way to bulk out a pie like this,

and they'll sit on top of the fish filling that Mary is making.

Now, it looks like it's not going to become smooth,

but it is going to become smooth.

HE CHUCKLES

How about you giving that a bit of a beat? I'll take over.

What speed do you do that with! Work out the lumps there, yes.

Now, for fish pie, we're adding fish and boiled eggs.

Sometimes, particularly after a Sunday lunch or something,

you'll have a few carrots, cauliflower and things like that.

A lot of vegetables all in a white sauce with a bit of chopped ham

or cooked bacon, and then you could put this souffle mixture on top.

That would do beautifully for... It's another meal. It's another meal.

Chopped dill and lemon juice are perfect flavours

to complement the fish.

And it's essential to add the lemon once the sauce has thickened,

because if it hasn't thickened, it can sometimes crack the milk

and it can separate, so lemon goes in at the end.

Add the fish into the sauce.

At this stage, cook it gently, as it'll be going into the oven.

Now, I'm guessing, Mary, that your fridge at home is very neat

and tidy, and there's nothing out of date...

You can go on guessing. But I promise you,

it's not one of my tidiest places.

Things get shoved on the wrong shelves, I'm very human,

everything gets in a real muddle, but I do have a sort-out at the beginning

of the week and think, "What can I use up in Monday night's supper?"

The mixture goes into a buttered baking dish,

with my hard-boiled eggs arranged carefully on top.

But now, I really want to find out what Mary can do

with my three-day-old stale bread.

Is there a bread knife over there? Yes.

So, you take off the crust,

and they can be used for making breadcrumbs...

Absolutely. ..to cook fishcakes in.

I've got a use for these later. Have you? Most definitely. That's good.

So keep those, then. Yes, these are for me.

Then I'm going to cut cubes from these.

And if you have fresh bread, you're in difficulty here. Mm.

I bet you can do that, I'll get on with this.

OK, size of sugar lumps. Size of sugar lumps.

For the topping, along with cream cheese, we're using cheddar,

but you can swap this for any chunks you've got left in the fridge,

even if it's seen better days.

Now, you can see that it does sort of look a bit separated.

It doesn't look the most appetising, I must say.

That's what it's meant to look like. Curdled.

'Fold in a whisked egg white.'

This really is like a souffle mix. It is.

I love this idea of using up stale bread in this manner.

I've never done this before, so I'm learning a new trick here,

and I love it.

'With the souffle mix on top, this pie is ready for the oven.

'But if you didn't want to cook this right away, you can

'freeze the base and bake it another day.'

People often say to me, "How long can I keep something in the freezer?"

I always say, "Freezing is the best form of preservation."

And in things like game, it will keep till the season comes round again.

If something's got a high proportion of fat, it won't keep quite as long.

You seem to know a lot about freezers, Mary.

Well, I go back a long way, as you know, and in the '60s,

I was on Home Freezer Digest,

and there was a magazine particularly for freezer owners,

because freezers came in and people just didn't know

what to do with them.

So I became quite an expert, and I always think of my freezer

that's in the kitchen as a way of saving waste.

We digress.

This is ready to go into the oven, 180 for about 25 minutes,

till it's gorgeously brown on top and the sauce bubbling.

I think bread is a wonderfully versatile ingredient.

Even when it's past its best,

it can be turned into crumbs for crispy coating on fishcakes.

Given a new lease of life as croutons

in a beautiful panzanella salad.

And stale slices can become bread and butter pudding,

or totally made-over in a vibrant summer pudding.

But back to Mary's pie, and what to drink with it.

It's probably safe to say that most of us

would assume we should drink white wine with fish,

but Kate thinks the rules are there to be broken,

and has some good advice on how to go your own way.

Despite what many people think,

it's not always white wine that works best with a fish dish.

Red wine can also be a match made in heaven.

So unleash your sense of adventure, and follow my top tips on how

to pick the right one for your fish supper.

Red wines are particularly suited to

meaty fish like tuna and swordfish.

The key is to make sure the wine isn't too heavy.

If it's high in tannins, the flavour can be too bitter with the fish.

Pinot Noir would be a good choice,

and whilst you can find some great New World examples,

Eastern Europe is currently producing some

decent pinots for a cracking budget buy.

And red wine can still be great even

when the fish has a more delicate

flavour, like grilled salmon.

A lightly chilled red like an un-oaked Cabernet Franc from the

Loire in France has a vibrant red fruitiness,

and just the right level of acidity to work perfectly.

Cabernet Franc often gets overlooked as a great variety, but it can

produce really high quality wines that offer great value for money.

But, for me, sometimes it

really does have to be white,

like with good old fish and chips.

Try a citrusy Southern French Picpoul de Pinet, which cuts

through the batter without overpowering the fish inside.

Its fresh flavour is unusual given it's from such a hot area of the

Languedoc, and a very good bottle can be had for less than a tenner.

So next time you're planning your fish supper, remember,

there's nothing fishy about being brave

and experimenting to find the best wine for the job.

Hope you're hungry, Kate. Always. Oh, look at that.

Oh, smells great as well. It does, doesn't it? Ohhh.

Such a hearty dish, isn't it? Fish pie.

And the sauce is lovely and creamy. A bit more sauce there coming.

Oh, thank you. Oh, the smells. So fragrant.

Right, let's dig in. Oh, it's got bits of egg in as well. Mmm.

MICHEL CHUCKLES

You are...a genius.

This is just absolutely unbelievable, the sauce is

so creamy, it's rich but not heavy or cloying,

but the topping is inspired.

It's a far better topping than mashed potato on a fish pie.

It's a bit lighter, isn't it? It's not so heavy and dense.

It's a bit more original too. Yeah, exactly. Oh!

So, of course, you could match red wine with fish,

and there are lots of occasions when I would do that,

but for this, it's quite creamy, this dish, so I want something that

cuts through, so I have gone for a white - a nice, fresh, zingy white.

And the grape I've chosen is Chenin Blanc.

I've got three fantastic examples from South Africa.

The first one is Badenhorst, and it's Secateurs Chenin Blanc,

it's from Swartland in South Africa, and it's a great example.

Is it expensive? It's around ?10.

Have a go, see what you think and how it fits with your food.

Well, I've had about three goes already.

I drink a lot of Sauvignon Blanc, and this is a pleasant change,

and it is not dissimilar. Exactly.

And I think we all have the tendency to see something we know

and we go for it, it's totally natural, but, I think, try something

a little bit different,

and you'll find similar styles that do the same job.

It's crisp, it's very refreshing

and I think it does work really well with this fish pie.

So, the second wine is from Stellenbosch,

another region in South Africa.

This is Ken Forrester, and it's the Workhorse Chenin Blanc.

This is around ?8, so it's a little bit cheaper.

Mm, it's more sort of a... Grassier.

Grassier, and definitely green apple. Yeah, that's it.

Do you like that as much, Mary?

It shows how they can differ. It is quite different.

I was so shocked how much I liked the first one,

and by the third one I won't know anyway.

LAUGHTER

The last one we've got is Raats Granite Blocks Chenin Blanc,

from the same region, Stellenbosch.

This one is ?11, and this is a bit more melony,

little bit more tropical, not as grassy as that second one.

As a group, I'm enjoying them all. They are good wines.

You are a great expert, you'll tell me

which one you think is the best, but I'd have a go at the lot.

My favourite with this particular dish would be the first one.

Using leftovers can taste amazing,

and the money you've saved can go towards a great choice of wine.

We can all do our bit in the kitchen,

as Mary's delicious fish pie has shown,

but food journalist Sheila Dillon is convinced

stronger measures are needed

to put an end to the Great British waste scandal.

"Thou shalt not waste" should have been the 11th commandment.

But we do.

When thousands of people in the UK are reliant on food banks,

the rest of us are wasting ?12 billion worth of food a year.

So how come, when money's so tight,

we're so willing to throw away what we've spent out hard-earned cash on?

Ooh. Wow. That is...serious food waste.

Our food has become so cheap that we no longer value it.

It has become, like its packaging, literally disposable.

100 years ago, a working-class family could have spent up

to 50% of their income on food.

Even now, with food prices on the rise,

we're spending a smaller percentage of our income on food

and drink, and maybe that's why we think it's OK to throw away

nearly a fifth of the food we buy.

The industrialisation of our food supply has created

an almost insane amount of choice.

We toss things into the supermarket trolley without a thought.

There's lots of it, it's cheap - what does it matter?

So, if we have to pay more money to prevent this kind of

criminal wastefulness, then so be it.

My word, that was grotesque to see that food going to waste.

But surely not, surely, we can't pay more for our food, Sheila?

Well, the problem is that we've come to a point in this society where the

only way that we value things is by how much we pay for them.

So what you're saying is food has very little value -

cash value - and that's why we are tempted to just throw it away.

Yeah, we throw it in the supermarket trolley, "Two-for-one,

"who cares?" And then we don't use it, and then we throw it in the bin.

We're bombarded, that's part of it,

we're bombarded by marketing messages of "buy this,

"buy this in bulk, buy two and it's cheaper"

and I think we have a tendency - and I am included in this -

where we think, "Yes, I need it," and actually, we don't.

And if it cost a bit more, we might pause. Is that the only answer?

There's going to be a loser in that equation,

and it's probably going to be the end consumer.

I think waste goes back to knowing about food. Yeah.

People who know about food, and they buy a chicken,

they use every bit of that chicken.

And when it comes to the carcass, they make it into stock,

and they spin that out to have four meals.

Whereas someone who doesn't know, they buy

an intensively farmed chicken and often only use the breast,

and they chuck the rest out.

Young people, unfortunately, they haven't had any

education of cooking at school, and that's what happens.

As a chef and a restaurateur, I wouldn't have a business

if I was as wasteful as that, it's simple...simple fact.

But you buy good quality stuff, and you pay for it.

Yes, but I'm not wasteful, so even if something is going maybe

slightly dry on the edges or shrivelly, I know how to use it,

everything gets used. To go back to all that waste,

when I was a child we had a big pressure cooker,

and all our family waste was cooked down and put with bran for chickens,

and, of course, any waste from hotels and restaurants went to feed pigs.

All that's gone, so that's going into the waste.

It is a part of it, and I'm just putting this out here

because I don't know whether this is an issue,

but are we over-cautious on health and safety... Oh, God, yes.

..with sell-by dates, is that part of it?

Yes, it is, I had a phone call the other day from my brother to

say that his wife had looked at some Brie in the fridge

and it was a week over, and he said, "She wants to throw it away,

"she shouldn't, should she?"

And I said, "No, course she shouldn't, don't be ridiculous.

"Be so much better."

But what Mary's talking about, the lack of education,

that does lead to wastefulness, because people go,

"Oh, my God!" Putting the price up is not the answer,

the answer is to get people knowing about food.

It is using up that waste, don't throw it away,

and make people have a pride in opening the fridge in the morning

and thinking, "I'm not going to throw that away, I'm going to use it."

I think we just all need a Mary Berry in our house. Yes.

It would, it would help enormously.

'What about you, are you a kitchen waster?

'After the show, head straight to our website...

'..to carry on the debate,

'and for all of today's recipes and drinks.'

So we've been talking a lot about waste, here I have the

ultimate in waste-not-want-not drinks, OK, you ready for this?

This is a grappa,

and grappa was created by frugal Italian winemakers,

it's made from the leftovers, called the pomace,

so it's all the pulps, the seeds, the skins,

and they distil it and they make grappa. It is very strong, isn't it?

It is very strong, you need to just go for it.

I've been going for it for a long time.

Whoa! I mean, it certainly sets you on fire.

It wakes you up, doesn't it?

It certainly does wake you up, and what other comment can I make?

It is so potent. It's what we call a "face-changer". Really?

Hmm! That was very serene. You took that really well, Sheila.

Mm, that was... That is, it's calm and soothing.

I thought it was going to be sharper.

No, it's lovely and well-balanced. It's just quite pungent.

It's got length as well, it's just lingering there, mmm.

Smoother than you think it's going to be, isn't it? Very smooth.

It would drive a car, this.

Drive a car?!

Well, waste not, want not - stick it in the car.

The meat industry is ruthlessly efficient, arguably too efficient.

Once the prime cuts have been taken off a carcass,

everything else finds its way to the mincer.

Technically, nothing is wasted.

Award-winning chef Stevie Parle thinks this means we're

missing out on some of the best bits the animal has to offer.

As somebody who appreciates some of the rare cuts of meat to be

found on a carcass, it's clear to me that the

British public are really missing out on some culinary gems.

Take the beef carcass.

There are loads of cuts beside the well-known steaks that aren't

readily available in the supermarkets.

But chefs like me love them, and the best way to find out

about these gems is to go straight to the farmer.

Tom Jones farms cattle on the Welsh border

and butchers his cows himself.

As far as he's concerned,

mincing the lesser-known cuts isn't just a waste, it's sacrilege.

These look beautiful, so what have we got here?

So this is a three-year-old Dexter heifer.

Fantastic. It's interesting,

because you butcher in a really traditional whole carcass way,

why do you think it is that more people don't do that?

It takes a long time to butcher a carcass,

and at the end of it the butcher's not really sure

if he's going to sell the cuts that he's butchered out,

so there's no point spending your whole day butchering out cuts

that are going to go straight into the mincer.

Well, I love using all these different cuts of meat,

but I'm a bit baffled by the sight of this carcass,

so I'd love to see where they all come from.

The hindquarter of beef, including the leg,

contains the best cuts of meat.

But also some of the least used.

We've got the fillet here. Expensive, nice, though.

This is the sirloin here, or wing rib, or strip loin.

Then we've got the rump here.

Underneath this big flap of muscle,

this is what we call the steak flank.

Now, this is usually waste, but we're going to

take out some really nice alternative steak cuts.

Great. Let's get on with it.

'So to get those lesser-known gems, we first remove all those

'expensive usual suspects - the fillet, the sirloin and the rump.'

And that, that's a nice roasting cut.

Yep, a bit more flavour than the fillet and the sirloin,

still very expensive, about ?15 a kilo.

But now we're coming into the cheaper, tastier stuff,

and that is found in the steak flank.

This meat here, look at the texture of that. Beautiful.

This is a bavette, and it's a beautiful open texture to it.

It's a real tragedy, though, that this would ever be

classed as a second grade cut, this is a wonderful bit of beef.

What I want to see is you butchering this leg.

Well, this is the most exciting part of the animal in my opinion,

and this is the bit...

..that mostly gets wasted.

So what, this whole thing would usually be minced?

Yep, the whole thing... Seriously?

But there's some fantastic things you can do with it.

And that is the beef shank.

What you want to do is get a pot, stick it straight in,

and cook it for ten hours.

'In amongst all the incredible cuts of meat in the leg is

'one with rather an unusual name.'

The mouse.

And it's called the mouse

because it's got a little pointy nose like a mouse.

I have never heard of the mouse, but it looks like a lovely bit

of beef, and also great potential for just delicious thin steaks.

'A cut of mouse like this can cost half the price of sirloin -

'if you can find a butcher in the know.

'All I'm doing is simply barbecuing it, and look at the results.

'Under-used cuts of meat aren't just cheaper than more familiar ones,

'in my opinion it's a waste to chuck them in the mincer.'

That has got to be the best steak sandwich I've ever had.

Sitting here in the field, and the cow ate that grass -

it doesn't get any better than that.

So I've converted you to mouse, then?

Definitely. Excellent.

As a chef, there's little more satisfying than finding ways

to use every part of an ingredient.

Chicken is the most popular meat in Britain,

so we've always got leftovers.

And this is a great way to use them up.

My crispy roast chicken croquettes with tangy spicy tomato chutney

are the perfect antidote to boring leftovers.

And we all have those tomatoes at the bottom of the fridge

that are going a bit shrivelled up and battered and bruised,

they've been in the fridge for probably too long,

and they're not very nice if you're going to have a tomato salad.

But they're still good to eat,

and this tomato chutney really is very simple.

It's almost like a spicy tomato ketchup.

I've got shallots and garlic sweating in a pan,

and I'm adding sugar for sweetness.

You can't have tomatoes without salt.

The fennel seeds, chilli flakes,

and a good amount of red wine vinegar.

Once that's bubbling away, in go the tomatoes,

and that just needs to cook down for 10-15 minutes.

Right, now for the croquette using leftover roast chicken.

I'm going to rice the potatoes

and then add bits of the roast chicken that are left over.

'These are plain cooked potatoes.

'Just boil a few extra when you're preparing your Sunday roasties,

'and they'll be ready to go the next day.'

If you haven't got a ricer, it doesn't really matter,

you could mash the potatoes up with a fork.

It doesn't matter if there are lumps,

as long as your potato is cooked.

So we've got our mashed potato, and now for the chicken.

This is the carcass of the chicken that's been attacked,

and most of the meat has come off there, but if you pick this

really well, there's a lot of

flavourful and delicious meat left in there.

Nothing should go to waste, just tear it up,

it's all full of flavour and goodness.

'You can make this with any leftovers.

'Ham or bacon would be great,

'or even vegetables with a bit of cheese - delicious.'

You should end up with just a skeleton.

That shouldn't be put in the bin either, you can

make beautiful stocks or soups out of the chicken carcass.

Next step - we need to put an egg in.

The egg is going to bind this croquette together,

help to cement it.

And then some seasoning. I like a little bit of lemon in there.

That's going to give a little bit of freshness

and zest to this croquette.

A bit of tarragon.

Don't need much, because tarragon is quite strong

and it's got that quite aniseed taste.

Then we need a bit of salt and some pepper.

And finally, to add a bit of richness to this, some butter.

'This lovely mixture is now packed full of flavour.

'Shape it into bite-size croquettes and coat them in flour,

'beaten egg and breadcrumbs,

'which I've made with the leftover crust from Mary's fish pie.

'Fry in hot oil for a few minutes until golden-brown all over,

'and serve with the spicy tomato chutney.

'This is the ultimate way to turn

'culinary rags into delicious riches.'

Chicken croquette. My favourite. Nice and crispy and golden.

You are going to love this.

Mmm.

Chicken croquette and a tomato relish.

The seasoning is just lovely, and, of course,

this lovely crisp outside

just makes it.

That's great, and here's another white for you,

another white that you may not have heard of, I don't know.

It's a Barone Pizzini, Pievalta Verdicchio.

How do we all say that little lot?

Can you imagine me going in and asking?

I'd have to have it on a piece of paper.

Verdicchio is the important bit. Verdicchio is the grape.

And it's from Central Italy, from Marche, on the east coast.

And it makes these lovely subtle wines, really food-friendly. Dry.

Well dry. It's really dry. I like that.

And it goes very well with the croquette.

Gives it a lift.

It takes a simple croquette - which is really leftovers -

to another level when you serve a decent wine with it.

I love food and I love drink, I believe it's time we gave them

the respect they deserve.

So next time you think about throwing that stale loaf away -

stop!

If you can get another meal out of it, how good would that be?

Next time, it's all about cooking on a budget -

Tom Kerridge makes the most of a cheap cut of meat...

This whole meal probably costs around ?2 a head - in total.

..Tony Kitous champions a cheap but tasty ingredient...

Eating well does not have to come at a price.

..and I make a foolproof yet inexpensive dessert.

To be in the Lords, you have to be punctual...