Cauli-Flower Power

Moving back home after a year of uni is a strange feeling.  Mainly because your room initally resembles the stock room of a department store, with only a foot wide path from bed to door as hangers, shoes, folders and stray electrical cables grope at you from their various "organised" piles.  Suddenly you are no longer your own woman - see you later independence, welcome back chaotic family life and routines. 

Musings aside, moving back home has practical and food-related concerns.  There are the obvious high points: the fridge is usually stocked, it's nice food, and it's free.  Sharing cooking responsibilities is also not something I mind - it is actually quite fun to cook someone else's, usually high quality, ingredients.  Those things you never bother buying at uni? There they all are in your kitchen at home: all spice, ginger, fish sauce, mini rolls, nice chopped tomatoes not the cheap ones...

However, I do not delve into the kitchen with unrestrained delight at first opportunity as you might imagine.  I hover, uncertainly, on the fringes of an extremely well-rehearsed and competent cooking routine.  Making enough food for five is no joke and my parents seem to have it down to a tee - I have come to realise that even when they say they have no idea what's for tea - secretly they do.  They know exactly what is in the cupboard down to the last tin of coconut milk, bag of flour or packet of noodles. 

Anyway the crux of the matter is that going from knowing the contents of my little bottom drawer in the fridge at uni, or my cupboard, to being one step out of the loop at home is a tricky little transfer that takes some getting used to.

As obstacles go this one is admittedly not too major. But it was still with trepidation that I approached the fridge tonight, and plucked from it a cauliflower.  I've had my eye on this cauliflower for a while, seeing in it the potential for a meal that the other nameless veg in the fridge seemed to lack.

Cauliflower Cheese is one of those meals which is either really rank or really nice.  Boil the cauliflower for too long and let your sauce go lumpy and voila - you serve up a bowl of tasteless, grey mush.  Here is how to make it taste nice:

Boil the cauli in a pan of salted water.  Not for too long, check with sharp knife until firm but not soft.
Melt a medium sized knob of butter in a pan.
Add some flour - beat with wooden spoon until a soft dough (called a roux) is formed.
Take off heat.
Add milk slowly, whisking with a fork every time you add it.
When you have a pale, liquidy mixture, return to heat.
Add salt, lemon juice, tsp wholegrain mustard, a handful of cheese (parmesan or cheddar).
Stir continuously until sauce thickens. Take off heat when resembles sauce.
Drain cauli and place in open oven tray.
Cook pasta.
Cover pasta and cauli in the sauce.
Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake in oven for 5 mins.

Something extra....
Fry little pieces of bacon and mix into the cheese sauce.

Something to remember when cooking for the family is quantities. I have underestimated that far too many times, as we sit round folornly slicing the last roast potato into two to make it last longer, it is hard not to feel the blame.

Overall though, cooking at home should be enjoyable.  Use the time to practice your old favourites, try out a few new ones, and in the least (cauliflower) cheesey way - have fun.

Pasta and Pesto

Every student notoriously finds the independence of the move to uni unnerving, whether that is with regard to money, food or even personal hygeine. For me, it was not so much that I couldn't cook - I could -  it was the routine of continually making meals for myself day in day out, and more specifically making meals which were both satisfying and cheap.

Having always played on a netball team, the move to University netball was an easy transition.  However, three training sessions and one match a week was not so easy.  Aside from aching muscles and the sad realisation that I spend most of my week in sports clothes and trainers, I realised I was much more hungry than usual, and to counter this found myself fitting in a sneaky 4pm light meal, in time for training usually at 6.

After much consideration, I have decided my first blog post should detail what has become one of my favourite uni meals, and what I often have for that 4 o clock filler meal...

Pasta and Pesto.  Suprisingly more common in a student kitchen than you might think - at one count last term there were ten jars of pesto in our kitchen of seven.

Sounding so simple with those two ingredients, there are actually a few things to note.  Firstly, Pesto, I have discovered, is like beans. Or dry shampoo.  You just can't skimp on the classic brand for a cheaper home-brand version. Tried and tested, the truth is that Sacla Italia is for pesto what Batiste and Heinz are for those other student favourites.  There's just no getting away from the fact that coop's own brand, usually so reliable, doesn't cut it for that subtle and oh-so-sophisticated blend of basil, garlic and olive oil.  I don't know why, I don't know how, but for the best pasta and pesto you are going to have to fork out that £2.29 and buy a jar of the best.

One of the many joys of this meal, is the speed with which it can be cooked and consumed.  It's easy, it's healthy and it's perfectly filling, here are the few short steps to the dish of your dreams:

Boil the pasta with a sprinkling of salt in the pan.
In the last few minutes (time it carefully), place a metal culinder (or steamer) over the pan with a few slices of courgette in.
Cover with a lid and steam veg for about a minute.
Drain the pasta and mix pesto and courgettes together in the pan.

NB. Baby spinach is also nice here, no need to steam just mix in with the hot pasta after draining so that it wilts.

Also, please do not stint on the pesto.  There's nothing worse than a stingy half-hearted coating of the green stuff.  Go crazy.  You've left home now show the world you can do what you want and mix in an extra spoonful.

It is important that the last few steps of this simple and yet nuanced procedure are done with haste.  It adds to the sense of excitement and there is nothing better than absolutely piping hot pasta and melted cheese on top of sticky pesto and juicy veg.  For extra simplicity, eat out of the pan.  Suprisingly satisfying and saves on washing up.

So there you have it, probably one of the best student meals known to man, and a downright beaut for optimum netball energy.

Next post: Trials and Tribulations of the student supermarket shop.