Tips for your kitchen

I am going to have a bit of soapbox moment today, as I think people need to go back to the basics in food storage so when can reduce our garbage and also be able to buy and store food that has been grown for flavour not length of storage.

As Mr CLI says about most of the tomatoes on sale "they are grown for travelling not eating."

Now I must admit that we seem to have raised a generation of adults, those in the 18 - 25 year old category, that don't seem to know how to keep their food fresh for longer. Or even how to store their food properly. I am not saying all are like this, but from what I have seen there seems to be lack of education.

They seem to just piff the food in the fridge or cupboard and when they have the annual fridge clean out, which seems to be either when the fridge has no more room or there is a funny smell, it all gets thrown away.

While we are trying to eat seasonally and not eat to much processed food, we need to be aware how to store food properly to keep it at its best.

So here are some of my tips, I am not saying that these are the only way to keep food, but this is what I do and what I have taught my 2 daughters- even Mr CLI for that matter.

Cold Meat - Now as soon as you get home remove it from the packaging it has been wrapped in, especially if it is a plastic bag. Place paper towel in the bottom of an airtight container, then place the meat in. Place more paper towel on top. Then seal with the lid.

Now the reason I do this is so that the paper towel absorbs any moisture that might come from the meat which will stop it from sweating.

Feta Cheese - When you buy a piece of feta, not the feta in oil. I place it in a sealed container with fresh water and a teaspoon of salt. This creates a brine to store it in. You just needs to change the water every 2 -3 days.

I have kept the feta for over a week this way.

Jam - Now you may think what do you need to know about storing jam, but you would be surprised how many people use a dirty knife to get their jam out then are surprised next time they open it to find it all mouldy.

Please use a clean knife.

Cheese - Wrap your cheese in either tin foil, baking/parchment paper or even cling wrap, don't leave it partially covered in the fridge as when you get it out next time all the exposed areas will be dry.

Leftovers - These seem to be some of the major fridge tragics that get left behind at the back of the fridge, to be forgotten.

It is pretty simple if you don't really want to eat the leftovers the next night, pop it into a container and put it in the freezer for another time. Don't leave it in the fridge for a week then think "I should freeze that", when it is too late.

Sometimes I will make up a meal with these leftovers and they can be quite good a bit like a buffet on a plate.

You can even add to them to make them some thing else. Like I had leftover meatballs in tomato sauce, what I did was make some more plain tomato sauce broke up the meatballs added this to cooked pasta mixed in some cubed mozzarella, popped it into a baking dish with some more grated cheese on top and baked it till hot.

So what started out as some leftovers became a yummy pasta bake that we thoroughly enjoyed.

So please give some thought to how you store your food to make it last better and help reduce the waste.