Every Last Bit Nigel Slater's Dish of the Day

I'm Nigel Slater. I'm an instinctive and impulsive cook.

Good food needn't take much planning. Sometimes you can

get incredible results by just making things up as you go along.

It's everything I want food to be and I was just cleaning out the fridge.

It's the same when it comes to the weekly shop.

It can be an adventure buying whatever catches your eye

and leaps out at you from the shelves.

Using up great ingredients should always be a pleasure

and with a bit of creative thinking you really can cook delicious

food every day of the week.

I'm going to show you how I make the most of my weekly shop,

to give you ideas how not to waste a bit of yours.

There are some ingredients that are just incredibly thrifty

and give you their all and this week, I'll be adding a few of

those to the weekly shop showing how you really can use every last bit.

One of the meals I look forward to most in the week is the one

I make up just before I go shopping, when there's hardly anything left.

It's that moment before I think about what might be in season

and I might find in the shops.

I just get rid of everything from last week,

make sure that nothing goes to waste.

I've got a big pan on a low heat,

and a big generous piece of butter, olive oil.

I'm going to slowly cook my garlic.

There's nothing refined about this, just big bits.

And I'll have a look what else is around.

I've got two ingredients sitting in the fridge that

I know will work perfectly together. I've been meaning to use them all week,

but just haven't got around to it.

There's always some greens around that need using up.

Give them a very quick rinse.

And when the butter's bubbling and you can smell the garlic,

can hear a little bit of a sizzle, in go the greens and that little bit of ham.

Ham and cabbage never fail.

I'm going to tear it into chunks.

Tiny bit of salt and pepper.

So I've got all that garlic butter sizzling in there.

I so want that on my sandwich. Just tear it open.

And the bread will sponge up all that garlic butter.

And then stuff it full of greens and meat.

It's a sandwich in seconds.

That's just the end of the bread, a few greens, a bit of cold meat.

That is so good.

It is so good.

Greens often get left in the fridge, but this sandwich has reminded me

why I buy them in the first place. It's fresh, vibrant and delicious,

and the truth is, I've been looking forward to this all week.

Some of the ingredients that I buy in my weekly shop appeal to me

because they're great value for money, but there are other

less obvious items out there that can be more useful than you might realise.

-Hello.

-Hello.

'Cheese is my secret weapon in the kitchen.

'Of course, it's great to eat on its own, but it's so versatile to

'cook with too, so there's no reason to ever let it go to waste.'

I collect rinds in my fridge.

Do you?

And then when I've got enough I put them into soup and they partially melt and they go gooey.

My dad uses the rind, grates it in soup it's fantastic

and it's sometimes even better than the cheese itself.

-Thank you, bye.

-Bye.

This week is all about cooking with ingredients that are

so delicious you can literally use every last bit.

From vegetable scraps

you might throw on the compost, or making every part of a joint

of meat work for you, to simply making great use of leftovers you

don't know what to do with, believe me, nothing will go to waste.

A good soup is one of my favourite ways of getting everything

I can from an ingredient

and it's such a pleasing thing to cook on a lazy Sunday.

But today, I'm going a step further than traditional soup.

You know the butternut is one of my favourite of the vegetables.

It's really useful to have in the kitchen, because you can

roast it, you can mash it, but best of all it's got the sort of flesh

that melts in the pan. It becomes the most soothing and silky of soups.

It's got a few seeds in the middle,

but other than that you can use the whole thing.

In fact I even use the peel.

I've got some really good long pieces here

and I'm going to make them into crisps.

Once you really work out what a vegetable can do for you,

it can unlock so many possibilities in the kitchen.

To turn a bit of peel into impromptu crisps,

I simply have to season the skins with a bit of rosemary.

It's one of the herbs that works very nicely with the pumpkin family.

And then trickle a little olive oil to help bind the seasoning to

the skins, adding a little extra salt and pepper for good measure.

And then because this is quite sweet I'm going to sharpen it up

with a little bit of vinegar.

I'm actually using sherry vinegar because it's very mellow

and it works beautifully with all members of the squash family.

Just a few little drops.

And just coat them all, and then this is going in the oven,

at about 180 until they're really crisp.

Now for the main event.

Now this makes a really richly flavoured soup as it is,

if you just cook it with some water,

but I'm going to brown it first with a few onions and that way all the

sugars will caramelise and I'll get a much deeper, good roasty flavour.

Now this is very sweet and it needs a little bit of spice,

a little bit of warmth.

I'm going to put some paprika in.

This is the hot, slightly smoky one.

Which will give a really, really deep flavour to this

and where the sugars have caramelised from the onions

and the squash there's masses of flavour there.

It's really important to let that happen with this soup.

Now it needs some stock.

I'm using vegetable stock.

And a lid.

And I'm going to let that simmer until the pieces are really,

really tender.

Some crunch will balance the thick velvetiness of my soup.

So butternut crisps, rosemary and salt and vinegar.

To keep them nice and crisp, they'll just need a little time to drain.

Just feels so good to make something out of the peelings.

This would have ended up on the compost,

or even worse the bin, and I've got these little delicacies.

I just love the idea of using everything.

This silky soup just needs a good blend.

You could add some more liquid to get the consistency to suit you.

Beautifully sweet

and the sort of back note of warmth from the paprika.

It's really quite creamy considering there's no dairy

produce in there at all.

Very silky, and then, on top I've got my little butternut crisps,

I've used the whole veg, haven't wasted one little bit.

Why stop at soup when you're cooking with a brilliant butternut squash?

These crisps are a welcome addition that liven up

the whole texture of this dish. Soup has never tasted so good.

In this week's shop,

I bought a very slight portion of a very intensely flavoured cheese.

I've eaten some already, but I'm going to make sure

I get every last bit out of it by crumbling it on top of a fresh

crunchy salad and making a delicious dressing too.

Whisk together three tablespoons of oil, a splash of white wine vinegar

and a little of the cheese. You need no more than about 30 grams.

Any salad will eagerly absorb this.

But I've got a few crunchy peas to pod and a bag of sprouting seeds.

Toss them together.

Add the dressing...

..and then simply crumble the cheese in.

So a lovely way to use up some very rich blue cheese,

with fresh peas and some sprouting seeds.

In a dish like this,

flavour is everything. Just a small hit of cheese has given me a light

and sharp tasting salad that has really brightened up my lunchtime.

You know sometimes when I'm shopping I see something I can't resist.

Either just because it's a perfect thing or because it's a bit of a bargain.

Like these pork ribs, and when I see these the first thing I think of

are all my sticky rib recipes, the ones you get in a real mess eating.

But I want to do something different,

I want to do something that is actually going to

almost cook itself, something that will get every little

bit of flavour out of them, really exploit this wonderful meat.

I'm just going to sizzle them for a while, just brown the outside.

So when the meat's really brown on both sides, just lift it out.

Now they've left behind lots of flavour in the pan which I'm going to use.

Because I'm planning on some slow cooking, this recipe needs

some robust vegetables that will keep their shape and their flavour.

What I'm making is a sort of sweet earthy base to cook with the pork.

So the sweetness of the carrots, little bit of celery, some onion.

Sometimes a recipe is all about the cook,

what they do what they add, and other times it's just about the food.

And yes, I've got half a mind to add garlic and rosemary

and thyme or any other herb, but I don't want to complicate this.

I want it to be itself.

When the veg begin to brown, pop the meat back into the pan.

Any of the juices that have come out as well.

This is the point when some stock will encourage all

the ingredients to start working together.

I want to put a little bit of salt and pepper in there.

Bring that to the boil and then turn the heat down, really quite low.

So that it just bubbles a little bit,

putters away for about two hours.

And I'm redundant, it will just get on with everything itself.

So while I've been away, what's happened is that the pork has

become so tender it's almost falling apart.

These bones just come away effortlessly, from the meat.

You almost don't even have to touch them.

Cooking like this means the bones give up every last bit

of their intense flavour and there's not a scrap of meat left on them.

And I've got the most amazing gravy.

Some pappardelle would work wonderfully with this.

I just like the idea of a big tangle of meat and pasta.

So the water's boiling. Lots of salt and the papardelle.

Because it suits the rustic quality of this dish

I don't want anything elegant and fine.

You know as a cook, I'm always tempted to tinker.

It's perfect.

I had almost nothing to do with that dish, it cooked itself,

I did a bit of chopping and a bit of shopping, and that was it.

Little bit of the veg, and then, some of this wonderful juice.

It might be effortless, but the wonderful thing about cooking

ribs this way is that both meat and the bones have played

an equal part in creating this delicious sauce.

It's a simple way to ensure you've used every last bit.

'It's a good job I don't work in a cheese shop.

'I'd take every last scrap home but after meeting Morgan

'during my weekly shop, I realise my fantasy is her daily reality.'

Oh, oh look at that.

So these are all the ones that aren't pretty

enough for the cabinet but they're fantastic still.

'So I'd like to help her out with a dilemma of how to be

'creative in getting every last bit from the cheese she takes home.'

-What's that?

-Shropshire blue.

-So quite strongly flavoured.

-Yeah, gorgeous.

-Good.

-That's a bit of cheddar.

-Yep.

-What's that?

-That is really strongly smoked cheese.

-And you've got, goodness me, what's that?

-Gouda.

That is so firm I could almost grate it.

I've got rich pickings here, but this recipe will work well

with whatever remnants you've got spare in the fridge.

I just have to seek out a few other simple ingredients.

OK, you've got some flour here.

I'm using 450g of plain flour.

Have you by any chance got any baking powder?

I think we do.

I'm going to put about four teaspoonfuls of baking

powder in here which looks like a huge amount. That's what we need.

Then I just need some butter.

I need 85 grams of this.

So, what is this you're rustling up?

-I'm making a big cheese scone.

-Cool.

Or "scone" depending on which part of the country you come from.

Is there anything I can do to help?

-Would you crumble a mixture of your cheeses?

-Yes.

-It just needs to fleck through the dough.

-OK.

So, I'm going to rub this butter into the flour with my fingertips

-until it resembles sort of coarse fresh breadcrumbs.

-Yep.

That's the lovely thing about making scones is that they are so quick.

And easy as well.

And very easy. I think one of the very first things I made actually.

-Really?

-Yeah. I was lucky enough to be allowed to do domestic science

at school, as it was called in those days.

And it was one of the very first things we made,

baking scones with Miss Adams. I remember it well.

Finally this giant savoury scone will need 350ml of milk.

What I'm after is a dough that is firm enough to roll into a ball,

but soft enough for me to sort of pat down into a big scone.

So, you're quite happy to put different cheeses into one recipe?

Yeah. I think it works quite well, but it's good having you here as well

cos we have used cheese in a lot of recipes, but you do run

out of ideas. Once you've done quiche four times, it gets a bit boring.

So what I'm doing here is making something that

I might eat on the side with a sort of autumnal vegetable stew.

Once I've got a good doughy texture, I just work in the crumbled cheese.

Then it's almost ready to go into the oven on a baking dish

lined with flour.

Make it into a sort of rough round I guess, nothing too perfect,

don't really do perfect.

This looks amazing already.

-Squash it down. I'm going to keep him craggy...

-Yeah.

..because that's how I like my food.

Dabbing a little of the milk will help to give a fine glaze.

Finally, a bit of that gouda I spotted earlier will grate

wonderfully here.

Grate it don't waste it.

And scoring it will help the scone break up into pieces

great for sharing.

Half an hour is all it takes for this to transform into a melting showpiece.

-OK.

-That's amazing.

-Smells good.

It smells really good. Looks scrummy.

-Shall I break it open and see what we've got inside?

-Yeah.

-Oh.

-Oh, that's nice.

Yeah. So, dig in.

Right.

That's really good.

Oh, my God, the Shropshire blue and the gouda is amazing.

Have you got any kind of pickles of chutney or something like that?

Yeah, quite a few. I've got quince.

Quince cheese that would be fantastic.

-Yeah, onion marmalade.

-Yes.

Apple and brandy chutney. Spicy red onion.

Wow, that smells amazing.

I can feel a tasting game coming on.

Mm! Works with the quince.

Works with the apple.

I'm going to try it with the mango.

Spicy red onion, marmalade - amazing.

I'm not sure about that mango, I have to be honest with you.

-Really?

-Yeah.

This is fun.

And it is that thing that the joy I get from using up little bits

and not chucking them in the bin!

'This is the ultimate comfort food.

'If you're ever wondering how to use up every last bit

'of the week's cheese, this scone could just be the answer.'

By the time Thursday comes around,

a bit of leftover soup can be just the thing to offer inspiration.

With almost any kind, you can make a very handy

and flavoursome stock for the base of a delicious risotto.

And that's my plan for my butternut squash soup.

First, add water to thin the soup...

and warm through.

Soften a chopped onion in a pan of olive oil.

And then throw in a cup or so of Arborio rice.

Leave it to cook gently for a good five minutes.

Then, add the sauce a ladle at a time,

allowing the rice to soak it up before adding the next.

Just keep going until the rice is cooked through.

You'd barely recognise this as leftovers.

I've got a completely new, delicious meal.

I'd say my butternut squash has more than earned his keep.

Whenever I've got a bag of cherries, I just can't resist

dipping in to them, until I'm left with hardly any.

'But this week, I'm going to see if I can use the last of them

'to make a really substantial and indulgent Friday treat.'

There are some fruits that work better when they're

warm from the tree, but there are other fruits that are better cold.

When they're really cold, the skins on a cherry will tighten

and when you bite into them, they're even juicier.

What I'd really like to do is to make a cherry ice cream,

or cherry sorbet... but I haven't got enough cherries.

'At times like this, I just decide to go for it

'and try and come up with something completely new.

'I'm thinking, some kind of ice cream, but it's an experiment,

'and I really AM making it up as I go.'

So it's slightly a case of "see what happens."

'I reckon I'll start with a quick rice pudding base,

'which I like to do on the hob.'

It's a quicker method. You don't get the wonderful golden skin,

but you've got rice pudding in a few minutes.

And for this, I'm going to need about 300 grams of pudding rice.

Pop that in there.

I need some sugar - about 50 grams - and then, some vanilla.

Now, I COULD use vanilla extract,

but in ice cream, I always like to use vanilla pods.

What I'm after - the little black seeds inside the vanilla pod.

So I'm just going to split it down its length.

Open it up and scrape out all those sticky, black seeds.

It means you get the lovely little black seeds right the way through your ice cream.

And then there's still a lot of favour there,

so the pod goes in, as well.

'Mix in a good splash of water.'

As the milk starts to come up to the boil, just turn the heat down,

so it's just quietly puttering away. Give it a good stir,

and pop the lid partially on top.

One of the things I love to do after dinner is to bring out

a plate of cherries that I've dipped into dark chocolate.

I leave their stems on - they look very beautiful.

Cherries and chocolate are very, very happy together.

In fact, chocolate would actually work very well in this.

'The bitterness of this dark chocolate will marry well

'with the sourness of the cherries.'

This has been simmering away, very gently,

for about 15 minutes.

The thing to watch now is that it doesn't catch on the base of the pan.

So just keep stirring till it's really, really thick.

'Now the pan just needs to chill in a sink full of water.'

This is the moment I really, really like.

As the rice pudding cools, it gets thicker and heavier,

and it's just a lovely sensation.

'While I leave the rice to cool,

'I can start to prepare my pudding for the freezer.'

Got my rice pudding, got my cherries and chocolate.

It's an ice cream, so it needs... cream.

'Use the same amount of cream as milk.

'It just needs a good whipping.'

That's it.

So I stop as soon as the cream will just hold it's shape on the whisk.

It needs to be very soft and voluptuous.

This is when everything comes together.

Remove the vanilla pod.

Gently fold in the whipped cream.

And then for my cherries and chocolate.

Make sure it's all evenly mixed.

Fold the film over the top...

and then into the freezer for a good four or five hours.

'The key to this dessert is how long I leave it to chill.

'I want to end up with something

'that's crisp on the outside, but soft and sweet within.'

Well, it's looking good.

Oh, and you can see...

all the way through, I've got cherries,

and crisp slices of chocolate.

The outside's frozen, and inside is just a little bit soft and creamy.

It's just splendid - it's simply gorgeous.

'This has solved my dilemma of what to do with a few cherries.

'I could easily have enjoyed them straight from the bag,

'but they've inspired me to create a creamy, delicious dessert.'

This week,

I've made sure I've got every last bit out of my ingredients,

finding flavour and fresh ideas

from bits that could have ended up in the bin.

Next time, I'll be cooking a few recipes that show just how versatile

some ingredients can be.

Proving you really CAN do something different with your weekly shop.

It's everything I want a chocolate cake to be.

And it's certainly more than I ever expected a beetroot to be.

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