The cheap stuff; Eating leaves

Ignorance is a wonderful thing. The amazing thing about ignorance is the sufferer is oblivious to the condition. It would be wonderful if all ailments were the same. Ignorance has a simple cure and that is knowledge. The best knowledge I believe is when an individual seeks it out on their own.

I feel privileged to still have " Light bulb" moments in life. I was ruminating in my vegetable garden recently cutting the broccoli head away from the stem when I had the thought, " If the flower or broccoli head is edible, I wonder if the leaves are edible too? I must look it up." To make a long story truncated, I found that indeed they were edible and there are a whole heap of other "good parts" of vegetables either taken from the garden or bought from a shop that we lop off and throw out.

There is sometimes an issue with palatability but edibility no. It is sometimes a matter of thinking outside of the square to transform something a little different into something that can be eaten. Frugality is in part about making the most of things and reducing waste. This list of the edible items of vegetables  we often discard is not exhaustive but covers the majority hopefully. As far as recipes go that might utilise these parts, it is amazing what one can receive when you google a request.

Vegetable	Other Parts to eat
Beans	Leaves,
Beetroot	leaves
Broad Beans	The pod when young and not furry, tops of the plants
Broccoli	leaves, flower stem
Brussel Sprouts	Any leaf not just the small head
Carrot	leaves
Cauliflower	flower stem, leaves
Celery	leaves, seeds
Choko or Chayote	Leaves and tendrils
Sweet Corn	young ears, unfurled tassel, young leaves
Cucumber	stem tips and young leaves
Eggplant	leaves
Kohlrabi	leaves
Onions	young leaves
Parsley	roots
Peas	pods, leaves
Swede	leaves
Sweet Potatoes	leaves and stem shoots
Radish	leaves
Squash	seeds, flowers, young leaves

Notes:

• leaves are always more palatable when young.
• leaves that are chopped are always easier to disguise!
• leaves that are edible but are not overly interesting to you can always be used in stocks. You at least get the nutrients.
• If you add these lesser known leaves to salads use sparingly to begin with.

On the subject of leaves do not forget the weeds too.

Turmeric is easy to grow, looks great, the tubers can be harvested like ginger root and the leaves are a fantastic vegetable

Sweet potato. The leaves are a little bland but are great in a stir fry or with the addition of spices. Cook quickly.

My celery never looks like the bunches you get at the shop but it is prolific, all of it can be eaten, added to salads, soups, stocks and the like

Beans leaves best used finely chopped.

Silver beet or Swiss chard, not a great specimen but do not forget the stalks finely chopped are great in casseroles, soups or cooked as a  gratin.

Radish tops are great in soups and stocks

Dirty Rice and it's Done Dirt Cheap. A $5 challenge.

Dirty Rice and It’s Done Dirt Cheap, with apologies to AC/DC!

Dirty rice is easy to make. The best part about the dish, to make it is dirt cheap and should easily come in at under $5 as per the challenge.

Dirty rice gets its’ name from the off white colour the rice assumes during cooking. Dirty rice is generally linked to creole cuisine and the deep South of the United States of America. However, there are versions of it in many cuisines.  

To make dirty rice with a tip of the hat towards the creole favourite, this is one way to do it. However like many good dishes it is open to creativity so can then add what you want or have on hand.  

Makes enough to serve six and prices are in Australian dollars and are current as of February, 2015.

Ingredients:

2 cups white rice, 450gms at $3.95/kg  equates to $2.00

200 grams chicken livers @3.98/kg      equates to $0.80

1 stalk of celery                                                      $0.10

1 onion                             $0.99/kg                         $0.20

½ a green capsicum         $3.98/kg                          $0.75

4 cloves of garlic              $6.99/kg                        $0.30

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Tsp black pepper

4 cups chicken stock

Total basic cost $4 or thereabouts.

Notes:
Chicken stock. Cheapest is to make your own using chicken necks as these too are $3.98/kg. We make our own as we make our own dog food. We feed our chooks instant noodles but never use the flavour packet. You could use the flavour packets although they do contain a lot of sodium if that is a concern. Adjust your seasoning to allow for added salt from packets or prepared stocks.

How to make dirty rice:

• Prepare your ingredients first. It takes all the stress and strain out of preparing this dish and any stir fry.
• Chop the chicken livers into about 5mm cubes. A fine chop but not pureed!
• Chop the onion finely.
• Chop the celery and capsicum reasonably small.
• Chop the garlic.

You are ready to go.

• In a good sized pan heat some oil. Brown the chicken livers. Don’t burn them. You are really just getting the ink or redness out of them.  This takes about three minutes.
• Then add the onion and cook until the onion is translucent. Takes about two minutes.
• Add the celery, capsicum and garlic and any seasoning and cook stirring for another three minutes or so then add the rice. Stir to coat the rice well with the contents then add the stock.
• Bring to the boil then slowly simmer for twenty minutes with the lid on. Turn off the heat, lift the lid and fluff it all up with a fork.
• Put the lid back on and leave for ten minutes

You could  serve this version of dirty rice  as an entree, as a  side dish or as  a main course. A salad would certainly complete the meal

The ingredient list is basic. The idea was to make a cheap dish that would still satisfy the taste buds. 

To take Dirty Rice from the Economy section and move it up to Premium or even Business you could add a few extras such as some extra pieces of chicken or pieces of sausage. Smoked sausage would keep with the creole mood but really if you are making the dish more universal, almost any sausage would work. The well known Asian dish chop suey which does not exist as an authentic dish in China,  means a dish made with all the left-overs. Dirty rice is a dish that can be varied easily by what you have on hand. A little creativity and courage is all you need. 

Wild and Free: Chickweed.

There are quite a few free edible goodies you can find to eat in Australia. I am not going to go into the realm of the foods the indigenous people of Australia eat from the native environment but look at another one that exists as a weed.

The majority of the weeds were  introduced with settlement in Australia by people's from over the seas. As such most of the introduced weeds are available in other parts of the world also.  Their ability to colonise and survive makes them almost universal plants, plants of the people for all the people. That is the kindest way to view them but then again I am not a farmer!

Chickweed or Stellaria media is a weed with a long culinary and medicinal history. The ancient Greeks record it usage.  It is remarkably high in the vitamins A,  B Complex, C, and D. Additionally it is high in Calcium, Zinc, Potassium, Manganese, Silica, Phosphorous, Sodium and Copper.

The medicinal qualities are numerous but as we are dealing with foods, if you are interested in what you can treat yourself with chickweed you can find this information yourself. Some people counter the medicinal claims of these free plants by saying, " Well if it is so good why can we not buy them as medicines?" Just remember medicines are about money. Weeds and the compounds within them cannot generally be patented hence the development of newer more marketable products. In fact you can access chickweed lotions balms and tonics in alternative medicine practices. I am not a naturopath so will stay away from that area.

But I do know a little about food. Chickweed is excellent as part of a salad. It  can be made into a soup or added to a soup as to be honest, I doubt you will ever be able to collect enough to make a soup of chickweed alone.. I will throw it in when making stocks. It is nice cooked with the minimum of butter and a little lemon juice. It makes a useful garnish. It is nice in a stir fry but when cooking with chickweed remember it requires a minimum of cooking so is best left to the end. It can be stringy so if in doubt, it pays to chop it prior to cooking.

Chickweed in the vegetable patch. It cuts down the growth of other weeds and acts as a natural growing mulch. Here it is among the beans. It gives you a relative size of what you are looking for.

Some notes on identification:

• In Australia I live in a cool temperate area with reasonable rainfall. I can find chickweed all year round.Other sources claim it to be a plant of winter.
• If you break the stem no milky sap spills forth.
• Leaves are opposite on the stem not alternate.
• The stem has one line of hairs running up it and these change side at each pair of leaves. However if you can readily see this feature you have very good eyes! It is clear under a magnifying glass.

As always when collecting weeds, be sure to know the area you are harvesting from has not been sprayed or is subject to some other form of contaminant.