Food Wastage

The concept of nose tail cooking has been made popular by famous chefs such as London’s Fergus Henderson and Sydney’s Colin Fassnidge in their fine dining restaurants but now it is our turn to be responsible meat eaters and purchase from the whole animal at our local butcher. Food wastage is a prominent issue in the modern world and without change future generations will simply not be able to produce enough for consumption let alone the garbage. We have changed our thinking when it comes to saving power, how and when we water our gardens and now we can adopt the same philosophies to what meat we eat. Some of the overlooked cuts at the butcher are some of the best and easiest to prepare. The Italians and French have enjoyed offal for hundreds of years but we are yet to embrace them as Aussie favourites. They can provide you with the real definition of a cheap eat, chicken livers fried in garlic and butter tossed through spaghetti served still blushing in the centre and sprinkled with chopped parsley is truly a beautiful dish. Tough cuts; neck, cheeks and oxtail when cooked long and slow can be some of the most indulgent dishes. Brown your meat in a heavy based dish and add your favourite flavours such as red wine, garlic, thyme and bay. These will caramelise over a long cook, giving you a stunning one-pot wonder. Embracing nose to tail cooking into our day-to-day lives will not only help support the local butchers and reduce food wastage it will also encourage us to grow our repertories at home. With the cooler months approaching it is the perfect time to get to know these cuts and change the way we look at them when next at the butcher.

Pork neck, fennel, apple and cider hot pot

Ingredients 1.5kg pork neck 15 pearl onions 2 large fennels thickly sliced 3 green apples thickly sliced 2 garlic cloves sage 500ml apple cider 2 cups par-cooked haricot beans lemon zest and parsley Method 1. Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees. 2. Slice your pork neck into one-inch slices – one per person. 3. Heat a heavy based ovenproof dish on the stove top with a splash of oil. 4. Fry your pork neck portions until sealed and a deep golden colour then remove from the pan and set aside. 5. In the same pan heat another splash of oil and add you onions, the more caramelisation on your onions the deeper the colour and flavour your sauce will be. 6. Turn the heat down and add your garlic and sage when fragrant add the fennel and apples, lightly season with sea salt and white pepper. 7. Return your sealed pork portions and the haricot beans cover all ingredients with the apple cider, bring it up to a boil and then cook in the oven covered for one-and-a-half hours or until the pork is tender. 8. Garnish with lemon zest and parsley. Serve with crusty sourdough. @annabelleats