RECHAUFFE

SUNDAY, December 23^rd

RECHAUFFE

            Yesterday, I traveled from to my village, where I intend to spend my Christmas holiday. My village is the kind of place where firewood is still being used to cook, and most of the time, if you’re not careful, your food gets overcooked. I was served overcooked rice for dinner. I could barely get it down my throat. I just had to put up a show of enjoying myself. Then I saw my cousin dispose of the remnants this morning and something churned within my head. Rechauffe. When I was still in high school, I offered a course in food and nutrition and we were taught to minimize wastage of food by reheating it and creatively producing another kind of food from it.

             My dictionary defines rechauffe as a dish of leftovers.  I was too late so I couldn’t prevent the waste of food. I remember that when I was young, my mum would scold me if I left as little as a grain of cereal in my plate after eating. She detested waste. So do I. whenever I am tempted to throw some food away, I remember the needy and the poor who would do anything to have that food for themselves.

            There are lots of foods that are easy to reuse. For example when you have leftover meat or chicken, do not discard it, you could make meatballs from the meat and chicken pie from the chicken.  If you have leftover bread, save it, so you could use its crumbs for coating your meat balls. Cooked rice could be used in making rice cake and rice foo-foo. There are a lot of dishes that can be produced from leftovers; all you have to do is get creative.

I originally wanted to publish different rice cake recipes for different races, and then I found  one which could be used by anyone, regardless of his country. It is easy to make and its ingredients are not difficult to get. So the next time you get the impulse to throw that leftover rice away, remember rice cake.

RICE CAKE

Ingredients:

Servings:

2

Units: US | Metric

1 cup cooked rice
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup cheese (optional)
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
onion powder (optional)
parsley (optional)
1 -2 tablespoon oil

Directions:

(1) combine all ingredients except oil and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, then form small patties.
(2) Over med. high heat warm oil, and then fry patties for about 5 minutes on each side.
(3 )Be careful when flipping, they sometimes break but still are tasty!

Try to be creative. 

             The creative man never gets bored.- brisk youth