Two Tasty ways to Re-use Water by Kevin

 Aside from saving water by doing things such as not running the tap when brushing your teeth, you can re-use water in the kitchen to use in recipes, so it goes twice as far.

A simple way is to reuse water that has been used to boil vegetables or rice is to use it as the basis of a soup. If using rice water ensure it is refrigerated instead of leaving it at room temperature and cover it to prevent bacterial growth. Vegetable pastas also yield a flavoured water after the pasta itself is cooked, with beetroot pasta water being particularly good. Pea and  chickpea pastas are other varieties to try. The technology has improved considerably since they were first produced, nowadays the pasta actually retains its shape when cooked!

For anyone wanting to try something a bit more exciting involving delayed gratification, the following recipe is from a 1947 cookery book but clearly dates from before the Second World War judging by the illustrations and is as follows:

Potato Wine

Strange as it may seem, a very nice wine can be made with potatoes. When potatoes are being dug, put aside the little ones that are too small for cooking as they answer very well for this purpose. 

½ gallon small Potatoes

3 lb Demerara Sugar

1 gallon Water

2 juicy Lemons

rind of 3 Oranges

Time: 45 minutes. Temperature: boiling

Scrub the potatoes thoroughly clean. If they are very small, cut them in halves, if larger into quarters but do not peel them. If large ones are used, measure them after they are cut. Put them in a boiler with the water, bring to the boil, then boil gently for fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, slice the lemons and put them in an earthenware pan large enough to hold the liquid, add the orange rinds and 3 lb of demerara sugar. Strain the potato liquor and pour it onto the lemons , etc. Return it to the boiler and boil gently for half an hour. Then strain it through muslin into a pan. Leave it until cold, then bottle and cork securely. It will be ready in a fortnight, but improves with keeping

For the benefit of anyone not born in the mid-twentieth century, I would suggest making half the amount. In practice this means measuring two lots of unpeeled, chopped potatoes in a pint jug and decanting into a large cooking pot, before adding four pint jugs of cold water and bringing to the boil. After draining the potato water into a separate bowl to remove the cooked potatoes, you will have the prospect of devising recipes to use them up. There are worse tasks...

I used swing top bottles, and not having a large earthenware pan, I substituted a stainless steel saucepan. Alternatively, you could remove the cooked potatoes with a slotted spoon and set aside on a large plate before adding the other ingredients directly to the cooking water. When I made it last year I made two separate batches with different types of potatoes. One became very slightly effervescent, and they had distinct flavours from each other. It is a bit alcoholic as evidenced by the slight fizz but not enough to notice by anyone who is used to drinking alcohol and certainly nothing like Poitín! Using half the quantities above fills three and a half half-litre bottles.

Kevin