Words to describe lamb: warm, comforting, nourishing. Delicious in stew. Everything you’d want on a cold winter’s day. Happy summer. Spring lamb is at its best right now, in the middle of this unseasonably pleasant summer. Whacking it onto the barbeque is one option, but I still had a lot of meat leftover from Aldi’s [...]

“Concoction” was Dad’s most famous recipe. His three kids vividly recall excitement when Concoction was cooking in the kitchen. We still speak about it in hushed tones. But what was it? Nobody quite remembers. My sisters say it included any combination of leftovers. I always thought it contained fried cabbage. Dad himself had totally forgotten [...]

My friend Asad once prepared a delicious chicken biryani for a group of us using left over chicken and a hodgepodge of ingredients.  We were on holidays in a rented house and only had what we’d brought, but it was one of the nicest biryanis I’ve ever had. It’s a great way to use up [...]

Well, if like me, you’re planning on having a few over for food and want to serve up some interesting finger food; Arancini are the perfect and elegant bite for when people are standing around with drinks. They are deep-fried rice balls made from saffron risotto rice with a mozzarella centre. You can also fill [...]

I have friends who very rarely, if ever, pay for their food. Instead, they go foraging through the skips and bins of Dublin city, picking up the mountains of perfectly good discarded food. It’s easy to sneer – ugh, eating from the bin? – but the food is usually well packaged or wrapped up; they don’t [...]

Now’s the best time of year for lamb. Lovely, lovely lamb, so tender and juicy – and pricy. Last week, I picked up two lamb shanks for about €11.00 and made this recipe from BBC Food. It tastes as good as it looks, with the meat falling off the bone. I’m always loathe to throw [...]

My husband was recording in the house over the weekend and we had about a million people over. I made a ricky load of chilli and rice to keep the troops going – the chilli was scoffed but I had loads of leftover rice. What to do with it? Well, you can do a number [...]

At last! I’ve finally discovered the answer to making good chicken stock, and you’re not going to like it. It’s salt. Simply cover your chicken carcass with well-salted cold water. Add an onion chopped in half along with a stick of celery and a whole carrot (if organic, no need to peel). Bring it to [...]

All Christmas I couldn’t stop thinking about food out of greed and now I can’t stop thinking about it out of fear. I live on the top of a mountain in West Wicklow and I’m snowed in – alone. I did make provisions last week and got copious amounts of food including an auxiliary ham [...]

This is just one of infinite ways to use up your leftover chicken, which I will sporadically update you with. The whole chicken thing is my saviour at the minute; I can literally eke it out for three days, for me, my partner and 11-year-old stepdaughter. One thing I do splash out on in the [...]