Down to Earth

by Rhonda Hetzel

  Choosing your products

  Make sure you buy food with perfect packaging. You don’t want dents in your cans, rips in paper or plastic bags or squashed boxes. Check ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates while still in the shop. If you intend storing your purchase for a few months, make sure the use-by date doesn’t expire before that time. Look through the products on the shelf to see if any have later dates, and if they do, choose those. If you do a big stockpile shop, pack everything well for the trip home and go home as soon as you can so you can get frozen or fresh goods into their appropriate places before they start to warm up. When you bring home new food from the supermarket, pack your cold items away first, then go on to everything else.

  GUIDES TO FRESHNESS

  Best before: This means the food, if still in the intact package, is at its premium on or before the date marked. If the date has passed, the food may still be edible, but may not be at its best. Sometimes you will see ‘best before’ food that has passed its date reduced for sale in the shops.

  Use by: This date indicates the end of the acceptable storage life of the food. All food that should be eaten within a certain period of time for health and safety reasons will be marked with a use-by date. It is illegal to sell food after the use-by date.

  Baked on: This is used on bread that has a shelf life of less than seven days.

  Organic food

  Organic food is food that has been grown in natural conditions without chemical fertilisers, pesticides or artificial additives. The fruit and vegetables we grow and our chooks’ eggs are all organic. We try to grow our garden so we have a continuation of supply but that doesn’t always happen so sometimes we have to buy what we need.

  We can’t afford to buy certified organic fruit and vegetables, but I don’t worry about it. I prefer to buy what is in season and what is freshest. I have no doubt some of the produce at the local Sunday farmers’ market is organic but isn’t sold with that label because it’s not certified. The only organic product I continue to buy is bakers’ flour. It’s more expensive than the ordinary flour but we eat bread every day and I prefer it to be organic. We usually buy local, fresh Guernsey milk from Maleny Dairies. I see these cows grazing on pastures around our area every time I drive up the mountain. They live in a healthy and natural environment. The dairy industry is a small but important part of the area I live in. We want to support them, so we buy local dairy foods, and that includes local cheese and, sometimes, yoghurt. I make my own yoghurt when I can, but when I buy it, it’s locally made, but not organic.

  When you do your shopping, and if you can’t afford to buy organic food, try to buy local. You might find that your local butcher or greengrocer has sourced local food and will know a lot about the produce they sell. They usually know their primary producers. If you live in an area where people are growing food, try to barter with them. If you’re growing some of your own food, you might be able to barter eggs for honey, tomatoes for local milk or a box of your produce for some meat from your local butcher. Anything is possible; you just have to ask around.

  As homemakers we are responsible for the food brought into our homes and for buying the healthiest food for the dollars we have available. I believe that if you are living on a limited income you will do more for your health if you cook from scratch, with as much fresh produce as possible, than trying to buy all organic food. Get rid of the food that contains preservatives and added flavourings and colours. Buy oatmeal instead of processed cereal, make macaroni and cheese from scratch, not from a box, encourage your family to eat fresh fruit by having a bowl of it on the kitchen table. Start your own vegetable garden if you have the space and time. These will be big steps towards a healthier life, and will cost you less rather than more.

  As homemakers we are responsible for the food brought into our homes and for buying the healthiest food for the dollars we have available.

  Don’t be pressured into buying organic food if you can’t afford it. Of course it’s great to eat organic if you can because you’ll be eating food that has been grown naturally without artificial additives, but when you have to stretch your dollars as far as possible, all organic usually isn’t an option. Like everything else in this simple life, it takes a bit of organising to discover where you’ll get value for money, but always be guided by your own values, not by what someone tells you or what you read – and I include myself in that. If what I write here doesn’t fit well with your value system and how you’ve decided to live, don’t do it. Simple living is about being authentic and living an examined life and if you’ve thought about the values you want to live by, be confident and stick with them no matter what others around you are doing.

  If you’re a new mother staying at home with your baby, if you’ve recently moved away from your parents’ home, or you’re just looking for a way to start simplifying your life, learning to cook from scratch is a significant step on your road to simple independence. A home-cooked meal is real food – just like those meals your mum or grandma made that used wholesome, fresh ingredients and staples from the cupboard. There were few cookbooks for those meals; they came from a long history of understanding food and how to mix it together with good results, and sometimes from recipes written on a piece of paper or in an old exercise book and passed down through the family.

  Food producers know the appeal of home cooking and try to use that longing for real food to sell their products. They name their food items ‘Mama’s Choice’, ‘Grandma’s Favourite’ or ‘Granny’s Pie’. Don’t be fooled: many of them contain preservatives, artificial colourings, stabilisers, firming agents, colour fixatives and flavour enhancers. Even some organic foods come with preservatives, so if you’re trying to eat healthy food, the best way is to cook it yourself.

  What you cook will be healthier, cheaper and fresher than any convenience food you buy, and it will contain only what you put in it. I’m not telling you that you should never buy another take-away meal or eat convenience food, but I encourage you to move towards home cooking and to try to make most of your meals from scratch.

  THE TIME FACTOR

  Home cooking does take longer – that is why you pay so much for convenience food. You are paying for someone else’s time and experience to make your food, along with all the ingredients they use. But over time, as you develop your skills, and your desire to cook increases, you’ll realise you can cut back on the time it takes for many things. You can cook double the amount and freeze another meal for later, you can do all the preparation at a convenient time and just do the cooking part when it’s needed, you can use a slow cooker that will cook while you’re at work. There are ways around the time issue.

  Developing flavour

  There is more to good home cooking than following a recipe. To consistently cook well, you need to understand how flavours develop. There are ways of developing flavour in your home cooking that don’t involve adding anything from a packet or opening a can of soup. For instance, certain foods like onions, garlic, ginger and bacon hold strong flavours that transfer readily to the foods they’re cooked with. All these techniques involve good wholesome food, with no artificial flavours. And don’t be afraid to experiment. Start off with a good basic dish that you find appealing and modify it by adding the flavours that your family likes. Once you’ve mastered that skill, you’re on your way to being a good home cook.

  Caramelisation

  One of the best ways to add flavour to some food – meat, fish, fruit and vegetables – is to caramelise it. Many foods have natural sugars in them but they don’t make the food sweet. Caramelising changes the colour of the food to brown and intensifies the flavour by removing water from the food’s sugars.

  If you are making a casserole or stew, caramelising the meat first, before you do anything else, will make it taste better. Add a small amount of oil – I always use extra virgin olive oil – to your pan, heat the oil so it’s hot and add the chopped meat. Don’t add too much meat: if you have a large amount to
cook, add it in batches and brown the meat a small amount at a time. If you add too much meat at once, the juices from the meat will release and it will stew instead of dry fry. You’re trying to remove the water from the sugars in the meat, so if you stew the meat at this point it won’t caramelise and therefore won’t develop that delicious flavour you’re after.

  The process is the same for other foods. Your aim is to cook the food until it is golden brown, not dark brown or black. When you have reached that stage you will have developed the flavour and you can go on to the next step in your cooking.

  Spices

  Spices are the flowers, bark, roots, berries or seeds of various plants used to develop flavour in cooking. Common spices include pepper, chilli powder, cardamom, coriander seeds and paprika. Spices are usually dried to a powdered form and added in small amounts. You will release more flavour from spices if you dry fry them in a pan before using them in your cooking. Spices are often used in long, slow cooking, such as curries, which use a combination of various spices. Other spices such as pepper can be added raw, sprinkled on the top of food to add a quick burst of flavour.

  When you buy spices, only buy small amounts as they lose flavour when stored for a long time. Store your spices in a cool dark place in a sealed jar.

  Herbs

  A herb is any plant that is useful in cooking and adds flavour, such as parsley, chives, sage, oregano and thyme. They can be used fresh or dried. Adding herbs at the beginning of a recipe will develop flavour while cooking, but you can also add them at the end of cooking to give freshness to the dish. For instance, you might add parsley, oregano and thyme when you begin cooking a spaghetti sauce, then add more parsley at the end, giving the meal a fresh taste.

  Sugar

  Sugar or honey can be added in very small amounts to bring out the flavour in certain foods. For instance, half a teaspoon of sugar in a tomato dish such as pasta sauce or tomato sauce will make the tomato flavour more intense. The same amount of sugar added to onions will help them caramelise. Cook them slowly, over a low heat, stirring occasionally until golden.

  Evaporation

  You can also add flavour by evaporating the water out of food. To do this, simply bring it to the boil, then simmer with the lid off the pot. As the steam evaporates it intensifies the flavour in the dish. A good example of evaporation is when you make a meat sauce for pasta. You add stock, wine and tomatoes at the beginning, and the major portion of the time for cooking this type of food is taken up with the sauce reducing and thickening; that is evaporation.

  Stock

  Cooking bones with vegetables and herbs in water will make stock. Stock can be used to make a variety of delicious soups or can be added to casseroles, sauces or curries for a real depth of flavour. Make good stock whenever you have the bones of chicken or beef or if you have spare vegetables. If you roast the bones in the oven for an hour beforehand, you’ll caramelise the flavours and make better stock.

  When you buy anything you are responsible for it – and if you’re living frugally, you want to get the full value of it. If you have a dog you must make sure it stays healthy and doesn’t bark day and night, upsetting the neighbours; your car needs to be kept in good mechanical condition and only those licensed to drive can operate it. Everything comes with its own set of responsibilities – and food is no exception. When you bring it home you must store it so that it doesn’t deteriorate before you have a chance to eat it, and if there is food that will not be eaten by the family, it should be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way. For me, throwing food in the bin to be taken to the rubbish tip or putting it in the garbage disposal system isn’t a solution, as I’m just passing my responsibility on to someone else. If you believe that living more simply involves personal responsibility and independence, this is an area that you’ll need to focus on.

  We deal with food scraps and waste according to the value they return to us. At the top of that hierarchy are the chickens – they turn scraps into food again. The chooks get plate leftovers including meat and fish, day-old bread, leftover salad, tops of tomatoes, fruit and vegetable peels. Along with the fresh greens they’re fed from the garden and the grain we buy for them, they use that food to lay eggs for us.

  Everything you buy comes with its own set of responsibilities – and food is no exception.

  We love our dog, so even though there is no returned value except for the look on her face, Alice gets leftover cake, soft biscuits, leftover meat and fish that’s not going to the chickens, and all the pieces of meaty fat or gristle I trim off meat before cooking.

  The worms are the next level in the hierarchy. They get whatever food no one else wants. I put it through the food processor so it’s in tiny pieces. They don’t need much feeding so their leftover feasts are an occasional thing – definitely not daily.

  Potato and onion peels are put in a closed compost bin to slowly decompose. If left in the open compost, they would take too long. Eggshells are left to dry, then pulverised and added to the chook food as a calcium supplement. Tea leaves or tea bags go into the general compost; coffee grounds go around acid-loving plants like blueberries. Pineapple tops can be planted – in a semi-tropical or tropical climate they’ll fruit in their second year. Everything else goes into the general compost.

  Of course, all this is dependent on having those systems and animals in your backyard, but it’s a good idea to think about your food waste no matter where you’re living. The Bokashi compost system can be easily set up in the kitchen if you don’t have a garden. This is a composting system in a container that reduces kitchen waste to soil conditioner through a process of fermentation.

  If you cook at home there will be waste in some form – either eggshells, vegetable peels or food left on a plate. Take the time to work out a system to deal with this kind of waste. It’s not a huge problem but you need to take responsibility for it and dispose of it as naturally and easily as you can.

  If you haven’t done much cooking in the past, here are a few things to think about. Remember, you don’t have to know everything straight away. Learn slowly and build up your skills as you go.

  Do you plan your menus in advance? (This works for some families and not others.)

  Do you have enough cooked-from-scratch main meal recipes to cover a six- or seven-day meal rotation?

  Are you able to fill school and work lunch boxes with healthy snacks?

  If you’re growing food, how do you intend to use or store your excess?

  Do you minimise food waste?

  Do you use leftovers wisely?

  Are there skills you need to learn, such as how to preserve, blanch, freeze, bake or ferment?

  Can you safely store your food?

  Do you have a place to store recycled bottles and jars?

  Do you have enough large glass or plastic storage containers?

  Is the fridge cooling as efficiently as it should? Are the seals working?

  Do you use your oven efficiently? (Baking two things at once, making twice the amount of food and freezing half.)

  Is your kitchen set up properly for the tasks you carry out frequently?

  If you’re composting, do you have a covered container for your kitchen scraps?

  Do you need to make cloth food covers for when you’re making bread, ginger beer, sourdough, yoghurt?

  Do you have enough dishcloths and tea towels?

  Baking

  Bread

  Baking bread makes sense economically. Even if you buy a breadmaker, it will still bemuch cheaper in the long run than buying premade bread. It will also be healthier, as your homemade bread will contain only those ingredients you include, not flavour enhancers, preservatives or colourings.

  You can use this recipe to make bread-machine bread, but these instructions are written for a beginner who is making hand-kneaded bread. There are photo tutorials on my blog if you need further information.

  When you make your first loaves of bread, you may have trouble get
ting a good rise from the dough. Adding gluten flour to the recipe will help you get a good loaf of bread even if you have not yet got the kneading under control. When you’re more proficient, or if you’re using a bread machine, you can leave the gluten flour out. You can also add gluten flour to plain flour to make it high in protein – and therefore suitable to make bread dough – instead of using baker’s flour. The ratio is 1 teaspoon of gluten flour to 1 cup of plain flour. Gluten flour is available at supermarkets and health food stores.

  As you know, flour and water have virtually no taste. Adding salt and sugar to your flour mix will add flavour, so don’t be tempted to leave it out. Another thing you need to know about flour is that it’s different all over the country because of the type of wheat used and the level of humidity in the air, so it takes different amounts of water. And even if you use the same bag of flour at different times of the year, you’ll probably use slightly more or less water, according to the weather conditions. This just means you have to know what your dough should look and feel like before going to the next step.

  Breadmaking is very tactile, even when making the dough in a bread machine. You need to learn what the dough should feel like and that involves putting your fingers into it, feeling it and remembering that for the next time. What you’re aiming for is moist dough that is not sticky, so even though the recipe advises 350 ml, use your common sense, feel the dough and adjust it to suit your conditions.