Jenny and I have been trying to eat more fresh fruit and vegies lately, even though it does mean shopping more regularly as produce spoils quickly (hence why it’s gotta be fresh!) Because there’s only two of us, this often leads to a lot of waste as we’re forced to throw out things that we can’t finish in time before it goes off. For example, we might only get through a couple of stalks of shallots before the moisture gets to them.

In light of this, we recently “discovered” a great little food-saving tip – one of those things which, once you hear it, you will think “that’s so obvious!” You know those little “Do not eat” silica gel packets that you find packed in with most dried foods? In a hand-slapping-forehead moment, I thought: instead of throwing them away, how about reusing them?

Silica gel – the camel of the kitchen
A quick Google later, and it turns out that those little packets are extremely versatile. Silica gel is a dessicant that can able to absorb 40% of its weight in water, and is the same substance that you’ll find in those moisture absorbers such as Damp Rid and Hippo. It’s odourless, non-toxic and therefore generally safe, however your insides are unlikely to be happy if you ingest the gel and it starts sucking up moisture (human beings are 70% water after all), hence the dire “do not eat” warnings.

Pop them into an airtight container of nuts or dried fruit, pasta, fresh herbs or anything else that needs to stay dry, and it will keep for much longer than it otherwise would’ve.

I also discovered that they’re recyclable: 15 minutes in the oven at 200°C will remove the absorbed water (or alternatively 2 hours at 120°C but who’d have the patience?) Having said that though, I’m not sure the regular packets that comes with food are designed to be recycled, so whether or not the packaging could withstand the high temperatures is cause for further investigation, although with the price of electricity these days, it may not be worth it anyway.

Other uses
Besides food, you can also use Silica gel to protect anything else that you need to keep dry, and prevent mold and mildew. You can stick them to the inside of containers, but be sure not to cover up the porous side of the packaging which lets the moisture in.

The only place I can find that sells them is eBay, where you get twenty 2g satchets for $6 (including postage), but of course it’d be easier if next time you find a satchet of silica gel lurking in your food packaging, keep it and don’t throw it away!

Korean food is notoriously difficult to make. If it isn’t some rare and exotic ingredient it’s a long and convoluted cooking process, which is a shame ‘coz Korean food is so darned tasty! I recently discovered a recipe for rabbokki (라볶이), which is kinda like a Korean version of bubble-and-squeak in that you can pretty much chuck whatever you like in there as long as you’ve got the basics (i.e. rice cake and chilli paste). It’s very easy to make, and uses ingredients that aren’t too exotic – although some of the items you’d still have to get from a Korean grocery store rather than a supermarket. This recipe serves 4 – it won’t look like much, but rice cake is very filling!

Ingredients:

• 300g rice cakes (the long tube-shaped ones, and not the oval-shaped sliced ones)
• 1 packet of instant noodles (minus the flavour satchets)
• 250g fish cakes
• 1 onion
• A few leaves of cabbage
• 4 tbsp gochujang (고추장 – chilli paste)
• 1tbsp brown sugar
• 1tsp garlic
• 1tsp chilli powder (or less, if you prefer less hot)
• 2 cups water

Method:

To start with, soak the rice cakes for about 15 minutes. While it’s soaking, cut the onion into slices, and the cabbage into rectangular pieces. Mix the gochujang, sugar, garlic and chilli powder in a bowl.

Boil the water in a deep frying pan, then stir in the gochujang mixture. Add everything else, and cook until the rice cakes are cooked and the noodles softened. Simmer until the sauce starts to thicken, adding more water if you like a bit more sauce, but don’t overdo it. It’s is supposed to be thick and gluey.

Serve and eat!

Variations:

• You can add up to an extra tablespoon of brown sugar if you prefer it sweeter.
• Feel free to chuck in whatever you like. In my picture you’ll see that I’ve got carrots in there instead of cabbage. Other suggestions: mandu (만두 – dumplings), spam, the thinly-sliced beef that Koreans use for bulgogi (불고기), seafood, bean sprouts, spring onion, etc.

Feel free to share your favourite combination in the comments!

Welcome to the new-look THRIFTerrific! What do you think, do you like the new design? I was inspired by the success of the refresh project for cyberseraphic, motivated by the vast improvements that the self-hosted version of WordPress offers over Blogger/Blogspot, and spurred on by scoring a free domain name from COVE during a Christmas giveaway (the same company that is also hosting all of my blogs now).

By the way, if you find any pink stuff on the site, it’s because I missed something while customising this retina-burning monstrosity. If you could drop me a note in the comments I’ll make sure it gets fixed up.

So a belated happy new year for 2010, and I hope that through this blog, you’ll continue to find out how easy it can be to live a happier, richer life – in every sense of the word.

With the Aussie Dollar currently trading at a 25-year high against the Pound Stirling, it’s the perfect time to grab a bargain. Here are a few places you’ll want to check out:

Book Depository
For seasoned Internet shoppers, the Book Depository would probably have been the first place that came to mind. Offering prices cheaper than almost anywhere else on- or off-line, and with free international shipping, it’s a popular destination for book lovers and students alike.

Amazon UK
Everybody knows about its brother in the US, but Amazon also has a presence in other countries (including Japan and China). Not just for books, Amazon also sells a variety of homewares, clothes and electronics, but can be expensive to ship.

CD Wow
Music and movie lovers need go no further. Although you can shop at CD Wow using Australian Dollars, you may find that with the current exchange rate that it’s cheaper to pay in Pounds. CD Wow has an excellent range of CDs, DVDs and video games, and like Book Depository, includes free shipping.

Zavvi
Zavvi is similar to Amazon or CD Wow in that it sells entertainment products, however they have arguably the best bargains for video games, with frequent deep discounts on popular titles.

One last thing, a few words of advice: if you’re buying DVDs, make sure that your DVD player can play discs from other regions first – a lot of older machines are still locked to playing Region 4 discs only. Lastly, don’t forget that the bank will charge you a currency conversion fee when using your credit card to pay, so remember to factor that into the final price.

Are there any good UK sites that I haven’t mentioned here? Share them with everybody in the comments!