I came home from work hungry for supper the other day and looked in my fridge for inspiration. I found a couple of old limp carrots, a leftover piece of broccoli and the end of a cauliflower. There was a sausage too, but it looked worryingly long-term in its residency. What could I have made from this bounty that was speedier than ordering a takeaway?
N St J, Colchester
A Fridge scrapings at their most productive. You can turn this incongruous collection of bits (or similar bits if you’re in possession of different scrapings) into a fragrant, good-looking supper by the simple expedient of mixing a teaspoon of turmeric powder with 3 tblsp of light soy sauce and roughly 50ml of water in a bowl. Leave to stand while you chop the carrots into short sticks, turn the cauliflower into chunks and slice the broccoli.
Assuming the sausage smells ok, and is not actively growing mould, de-skin it, or chop it into bits and fry in oil in a largeish pan until starting to brown. (if you have a bit of left-over fresh ginger at this point, grate it into the pan too). Add the carrots, cauliflower and broccoli and cook for a couple of minutes. Pour in the soy mixture, stir to coat and cook for a further couple of minutes (spinach leaves, if you happen to have them, make a good green addition at this point too). Season and pile into a large bowl. The whole thing takes roughly 10-15 minutes, quicker than any delivery, and is a nod to a recipe in Norman Musa’s excellent book Amazing Malaysian Square Peg, £20
