‘Twas the eve of new year, nay the new decade, and there was a party to be had. 18 friends and, as it turns out, 8 viruses turned up—absolute troopers one and all. I served turned carrots and turned courgettes with Poulet Sauté Champeaux, Pommes Noisettes and glazed shallots.

New Year’s Day was like The Day of the Trimmings. Turned vegetables look groovy on the plate but even with deft knife skills the art of turning creates trimmings in abundance. The time of do-good resolutions I thought I’d push toward zero waste in the kitchen. So what to do with all these misshapen bits?

I fancied a risotto. Carrot risotto, maybe. Sounds weird, right? Only one way to find out.

Carrots are sweet so the challenge was not to make an orange rice pudding. I roasted the carrot trimmings in the oven with olive oil, cumin seeds and thyme leaves and then made a purée. This was incorporated into the risotto with the chicken stock. With hindsight I should’ve used a lot more cumin seeds. Beating in grated parmesan once the rice is just about cooked makes for a really creamy risotto. I added some crème fraîche for real indulgence and a tarty kick, then finished with a dollop of butter, of course.

I cut brunoise from some of the chunkier trimmings and blanched them in salted water. I also cut some juliennes and soaked them in hot pickling liquor infused with cumin seeds and white peppercorns. The juliennes were tossed in finely chopped parsley and used as a garnish.

Inevitably the risotto retained a little carroty sweetness, a roast sweetness, but the crunchy pickled juliennes cut through this aided and abetted by salty parmesan shavings. The brunoise of carrot through the risotto didn’t work. The little cubes felt out of place. When I was nomming the gooey risotto, finding a small, soft, crunch here and there made me think, “ooh there’s an uncooked grain of Arborio rice.” Leave the brunoise out.

Roasted carrot risotto with cumin seeds and thyme, topped with pickled juliennes and grated parmesan

I also made a hearty soup from the courgette trimmings, gently sautéed with finely diced shallots and garlic. Brought to the boil with homemade vegetable stock then blitzed and passed three times through finer and finer drum sieves. Back on the heat with a bit of cream added. A touch too much cream in fact because I lost some of the lovely green colour. Oops.

Side note: I really do need a blender. I’m going to invest in a Vitamix Vita-Prep 3. It’s a commercial machine with a crazy powerful motor.

To make things more interesting I used some courgette trimmings to make some light and bouncy flans. The trimmings were steamed until super soft then blitzed with eggs and warmed double cream. The mix was poured into Dariole moulds and baked in the oven in a Bain Marie. Wicked.

Sticking with the green theme for service, I painted the top of each flan with melted butter and dipped it in finely chopped parsley. The flan was placed into the centre of a bowl and surrounded by a moat of soupy yumminess. It was topped off with slices of charred spring onion and toasted pine nuts.

Day of the trimmings