FOOD WASTED IN N.Z.

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31773, 2 September 1968, Page 2

FOOD WASTED IN N.Z.

“The Press" Special Service AUCKLAND.

In New Zealand, too much food is wasted, according to Mrs Christina Hallett, of Howick, who hates to throw anything out.

Mrs Hallett has spent much of her life studying cooking and has started a cooking school. She flrst learnt to cook sauces in Jutland, Denmark, and has "a sauce for jusl about everything." “There is always stock in my refrigerator so there is a base for a sauce,” she said. “Instead of serving cold meat this weather I would slice it finely, make a sharp sauce and put the meat in to get really hot. Served on rice or with green vegetables or salad it is far more interesting than cold meat.”

Another trick with cold meat is to mince it, then stir the minced meat into a sauce with chopped gherkins, spices, a little sugar and vinegar and heat thoroughly. This dish is served with small potatoes which have been boiled in their jackets, then peeled and glazed in a mixture of butter and sugar. “The trouble IS that few women could be bothered to do all this with cold meat,” said Mrs Hallett, “but the

result is delicious and well worth the work of mincing.” When she left school Mrs Hallett was sent to a private home where girls were taught how to care for a house and how to cook.

“It was a religious house and extremely strict. We were not even allowed out to dances,” said Mrs Hallett, “and although I was tearful many times, I stuck it out for 12 months—and learnt a lot.”

Because cooking was the only thing she wanted to do, she worked, after that in several large Danish homes in Copenhagen, at one of which the King and Queen of Denmark would go as guests, and then, to learn English, went to Highgate, London. “That was my second home,” she said, “and I was married from there to an Englishman.” YEAST COOKERY Mr and Mrs Hallett came to New Zealand about 12 years ago, but Mrs Hallett returned to Denmark three years ago and took a special course in yeast cookery.

“We worked from 4 a.m. until 2 p in., even on Sundays," she said, “but the course gave me a terrific taste for yeast cooking.”

Yeast cookery is something she hopes to teach “beginner' 1 cooks at her school of Continental cookery. Older women, she considers will come to freshen up their ideas.

“I like yeast cooking so much. It is alive and you really feel it,” she said. “And Danish pastries are better than cakes and buns because they are very light.” GENTLE START

Mrs Hallett plans to go gently with introducing foreign cooking. “I feel I can’t shock women too much with fruit soup* oi ways to make their own sausages, sausages that must taste of meat," she said, “but a lot of people do waste food.” Even left-over rye bread is turned into a dessert by Mrs Hallett. The bread is soaked in water for a couple of hours, then cut up and boiled slowly for 20 minutes. “It is then a little thick," said Mrs Hallett. “In Danish kitchens there is always some sweet Danish beer. About half a pint of the beer is added to the bread and then the whole mixture is put through a sieve.” In New Zealand Mrs Hallett uses fruit juices such as orange or black currant, instead of the beer. And after adding the juices the bread is boiled up again, then beaten into a mixture of one of two egg yolks that have been stirred with brown sugar and essences such as vanilla or lemon. The dessert must be kept very hot, even served in a hot bowl with whipped cream.