Falafall-ing in love

Made from crushed chickpeas, garlic and parsley, falafel is a deliciously filling and healthy addition to your diet. Its warm, fluffy texture makes it a delight to bite into and it is a great accompaniment to stronger flavours such as pickles or spicy sauces.

How to cook:

Cooking experts can make their own paste from scratch, but for the rest of us a packet mixture does just as well. 

Add the right amount of warm water (check packet), leave to stand, mix well and then mould into your desired shape and size. I usually go for the size of a golf ball by using two tablespoons to shape it, though in the pan they often become much flatter.

Heat an ample amount of oil in a wok or deep pan and wait until it is spitting before gently lowering in each falafel. You may need to add more oil if they start to stick and burn. 

Use a flat spatula or fish slice to turn the falafels over at regular intervals, until they are crispy brown and slightly hard on the outside.

Serving suggestions:

Because of the high amount of protein in pulses, falafel can easily work as the bulk of your main meal. One of my favourite meals is a mezze of falafel, salads, dips and hummus, along with whatever else I have in the fridge.

Falafel mezze

Mix and match from the following:

Cook a small baked potato and squidge some feta cheese into its piping hot middle.

Add some strips of carrot/celery/pepper onto the plate and follow with a dollop of hummus

Pickled beetroots make a beautifully colourful and their tangy flavour contributes nicely to the mix

Twist some black pepper over slices of tomato and drizzle with balsamic

A lovely, fresh green salad is always a winner

Try also couscous, mixed bean salad or slices of avocado

Add a couple of  hot falafel to the plate and sit down to a feast for the eyes and the tastebuds!

Falafel pittas for a bit of lunchtime luxury

Cook falafels as normal. Warm a couple of pittas in oven. When toasty, slice in half and carefully peel open the pockets. Fill with one falafel, slices of red pepper, and a couple of spinach leaves. Drizzle some mayo over the top. Admire your easily prepared alternative to a dry cheese sandwich!

  

Oh Dahl-ing!

Dear reader. Today is the day your cuisine habits will change forever. Forget the generic and greasy curry-in-a-jar, or the faff of having to hunt down the coconut milk or curry paste to make a Classic Thai Green at home. Save the pennies on yet another bland takeaway, and forget the painstaking and frankly outrageous number of ingredients that some recipes ask for. If you want a fabulous, cheap and tasty curry alternative, look no further than the humble dahl.

Made from red lentils and a sprinkling of other cheap and easily obtained ingredients, dahls are one of the most tragically underrated student meals out there. A dahl is traditionally served as an accompaniment with a selection of other more spicy curries in countries such as India and Sri Lanka, but it is more than enough to eat as a main meal. It is staggeringly easy to make and brings a smile to your face as you sit down with a steaming and aromatic home cooked meal, next to your housemate who is eating pasta sauce out of a jar and shooting dagger looks of envy at your plate. More importantly for the ever-economising student, a dahl costs hardly anything to make, as long as you have the right spices stocked up in the cupboard. If, like me, you tend to eat less meat whilst at Uni for whatever reason, lentils are pulses and can more than make up for the lack of protein in your diet.

Dahl can be eaten with rice, with wraps, with naan bread, pickles, yoghurt, or bread. You could probably even have it with weetabix, should you ever wish to do so. Make a huge pot of it and invite your friends round to show off your exemplary experimental cooking, at hardly any extra cost. Alternatively, make a huge pot of it and don't invite your friends round - you will be sorted for meals for weeks and will come to realise that dahl sandwiches as a packed lunch are not only surprisingly tasty but liven up your day no end.

How to make Dahl (And change your cooking habits change forever)

250g red lentils

1 x onion, chopped

Chilli powder

Cumin

Turmeric

Ginger

Tin tomatoes

Curry leaves (optional)

1 1/2 pints water

Fry chopped onion in pan until soft, then add chilli powder, turmeric, ginger and cumin. Use a sprinkling of all spices, or until you can smell them!

Add lentils, water, tomatoes and optional curry leaves. Stir well.

Bring to boil, then simmer for about 20 mins or until the texture of lentils is soft but not too mushy.
Season with salt, pepper and probably more chilli.
Serve with fluffy, hot rice, a nice pickle (my favourite is Branston), and maybe a natural yoghurt and cucumber dip.
Eat when hot, and then store in fridge if any left to be eaten as post night out snack or for previously mentioned sandwich filler.

If you're struggling with the dregs of a student loan or saving money on food to spend on holiday (always an option), then whipping up a quick dahl is the thing for you. Nutricious, cheap and incredibly filling, dahl, darling, is really the best student curry in the world.

Saturday Lunch Shenanigans

There's something quintessentially autumnal about the colour orange. Orange leaves on the ground, orange pumpkins at Halloween, oranges on sale in fruit shops as tart satsumas and juicy tangerines come into season.  Orange in the clothes shops, threaded through a woolly bobble hat or mittens set, along with other warming maroons and browns.  Orange on your legs perhaps, as you grasp at the last straws of summer by flocking to the nearest bottle of fake tan.  So it's fitting that my first blog post for a new term at uni in the middle of autumn, should be about a bowl of orange soup.  Or rather - a butternut squash, potato and red pepper melange of bright flavours and velvety textures that will warm your heart and fill your belly.

I have discovered, close to our new house, an absolute gem of an organic fruit and veg shop.  "Alligator", on Fulford Road York, is an Aladdin's cave for any ethical-minded foodie; all its produce from locally sourced potatoes, to chocolate, to rice, to yoghurt, to olive oil, to spinach, is organic. I made my first sojourn to this corner of cuisinal curiosity this saturday morning, after pausing in my morning of diligent study (!) with a hankering for the hot stuff. And by that I mean saturday soup.

Saturday soup is a recent phenomenon in our family at home, where everyone seems to meander back to the ranch round about lunchtime after various cafe shifts and weekend jobs, to reconvene over one kind of soup or another. Sometimes it happens in life that you hit upon a meal which coincides beautifully with the mood of the day, say, pasta and pesto for energy before training for example, and saturday soup is one of those. It perfectly suits the productive yet happy feeling of a saturday, and as a self-confessed creature of habit I have absorbed it fully into my food-at-uni-routine.

So to the soup.  After having selected a small but tasty looking squash, a couple of muddy potatoes and a loaf of sour-dough bread from aforementioned shop, I began the cooking process. Another reason to love soup: it's so so easy to make. Here is what to do:

Butternut squash, red pepper and potato soup

1x squash

A few potatoes

1 x red pepper

Salt, pepper, chilli powder, paprika

1 x onion

1 litre vegetable stock

Dice all vegetables into chunks.

Heat onion in some oil in large pan until soft. Add seasoning to this.  Chilli powder works well with the sweetness of the squash, so the soup has a bit of a kick.

Add all veg into pan and 'sweat' for a few mins while you make stock.

Make stock.

Add to pan and bring to boil, adjusting seasoning.

Lower heat and simmer til vegetables are soft, usually for about 15/20 mins.

Take off heat and blend using hand blender, or other.

Serve with slices of sour dough bread, wedges of cheddar cheese and some cherry tomatoes. Drizzle in balsamic vinegar, the sour dough bread is great at soaking this up.

Sit back and enjoy the different tastes and colours, and wonder whether autumn might not actually be your favourite season after all.

Next post: Falalfel Mania

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.

The best hangover biscuit: why gingernuts are so great

It is a truth universally acknowledged that ginger biscuits cure hangovers. This is how Jane Austen ought to have begun Pride and Prejudice, although admittedly in the world of eighteenth-century drawing rooms and marriage plots, the word 'hangover' was more likely to be the name for an item of male clothing, rather than anything to do with drink.

But we today, live in the modern world.  And when the modern world gets too much, we have drink.  And when we've had too much to drink, we have hangovers. And this is where ginger biscuits come in.

Picture the scenario: you've been out the night before (disclaimer: for anyone who doesn't drink, please move on, read another un-drink-related post - you are a better person than I am). You've been out the night before, and you had a few drinks.  Things got exciting, and you may or may not have entered a certain chinese restaurant where you may or may not have discovered the (unoriginal) revelation that prawn crackers make a great side to tequila.

Anyway, the point is, you're not feeling your best.  You've got up, rolled down the stairs, and scared all your housemates with your pale and corpse-like visage.  The next question is, what do you eat to make it all go away?

The boring answer to this question is the standard eggs, salt, toast, bacon, lots of cold water, a paracetamol or two, and maybe a fresh salad to detox for lunch.  The real answer is that nothing, if we are being brutally honest, is going to help you; you drank too much, go back to bed and deal with it.

However.  There is a third option out there.  Plan ahead and stock up on a packet of gingernuts before a night out.  When your hungover body views them in the morning, suddenly they will become God's gift to man and the world will become a brighter place.

There's something about the texture, and that gently spicy aftertaste, that just hits the spot.  A side effect can include addictive all day munching; gingernuts are hard to stop eating once you get going.  But on the whole these are harmless, crumbly specimens of gingery deliciousness which are guarenteed to make you feel better. 

Often found in your granny's biscuit tin, gingernut biscuits are as old as time but they also hold a vital position in today's world.  Their crazily effective healing powers are not to be underrated and are just one of the many reasons they rule the biscuit world.

Next post: tbc

Chicken Pie Crisis

Yesterday I made a chicken pie.  It was not my first attempt at this classic dish - last year in my fresher enthusiasm I cooked for the house and presented them with a perfect specimen of poultry pie-ness.  The only problem was that it just wasn't what you might call 'tasty', due mainly to having made the sauce for the pie filling out of stock and not chicken soup - a rookie error, says my mum.

So this time, another year of uni under my belt and tin of condensed chicken soup at the ready, I was fully prepared for success and glowing culinary achievement. After all, who could possibly fail at the same dish twice.

Unfortunately I fell prey to probably my worst habit in the kitchen, my rather, haphazard, way of cooking shall we say.  Simply speaking, I ignored the recipe. You would think, as I did, that this would not be so obvious. That a little experimentation, a little blurring of measurements, or a little inventive 'je ne sais quoi', would make no difference whatsover.  But it turns out that a tin full of cold water, plus a splash of boiling for luck, is far, far too much liquid, and results in what can only be described as 'chicken soup with pastry on top'. 

Absolute nightmare, only made worse when to my humiliation and my housemates general amusement I had to resort to drinking it on a spoon.  Something clearly went seriously wrong here and I am writing this blog so no other unfortunate soul makes the same mistake.

Chicken Pie - the right way to do it

Fry some garlic, onion and leeks, chopped small, in , in a deep pan
Add chunks of chicken fillet, and stir until turns white
Add chunks of carrot
Add a tin of condensed chicken soup
Season with a combination of wine, salt, pepper, tarragon (whoever has that in their kitchen should go and find a more professional cooking blog to read...)
Add HALF A TIN OF WATER (no more than that please, it WILL end in tears)
Simmer for 15-20 mins

NB if you use normal, and not condensed, chicken soup, it is quite likely you will need even less water.  In this scenario, please consult a proper recipe as I can take no responsibility for the ensuing watery mess.

Meanwhile roll out ready-made, puff pastry onto (clean) floured surface
Move pie filling from pan to suitable pie dish
Place pastry over the top, make to slits in the top and brush with milk (no point wasting an egg)
Cook in pre-heated oven, at a normal temperature, until the pastry looks golden and flaky

Best of luck with this fail-safe, fool-proof recipe, which I'm hoping I will actually stick to next time...

Next Post: The Best Hangover Biscuit

Trials and Tribulations of the supermarket shop

Before we go any further, there is one obstacle to overcome.  After all there can be no cooking without food, and so we must begin where all meals begin; at the supermarket.

In the past, food shopping was one of those activities confined solely to the realm of the parent.  Having always viewed it from a distant, indifferent and child-like perspective, I naiively thought there was nothing to it.  Consequently, that first headache-y trip to Morrisons at the end of freshers week was one of the more disorientating memories I have of joining uni.  In hindsight I admit the headache may have more to say to the irresponsible fresher behaviour of the night before, but regardless I think the caution still stands and offer my thoughts and advice on student supermarket shops.

Optimum time

As has been long noted by the student world, it is utterly fruitless to go to a supermarket when crippled by either of the two h’s; Hunger or Hangover.  Both will lead to a sort of dizzying, nauseous experience when all kinds of things make their way un-invited into your trolley, usually an abundance of carbs, cheese, Ribena, a multi pack of salty crisps and even an ice cream or two. 

It is also useful to note other inconvenient or inappropriate shopping times.  Avoid weekends if at all possible.  Unless you are the type of person who relishes head on collisions in the cereal aisle or thrives on gridlocks of the trolley variety; the frosty, eyes-down every-man-for-himself atmosphere of a busy weekend supermarket is not for the faint-hearted.

Optimum shop

Big is better. I believe the general rule is the bigger the shop, the cheaper the prices. Or something like that.  The ‘essentials’, ‘basic’ and ‘value’ ranges of the supermarket giants are absolutely worth seeking out.  Morissons’ new ‘saver’ range is the latest favourite, with student essentials such as pasta and tins going for mere pence.

Do not turn your nose up at bargain supermarkets such as Lidl, Netto or Iceland.  They are absolute gems, a week shop in one of the above will cost almost half of what it would in one of the more ‘upmarket’ shops.  If buying veg, it pays to check it’s fresh as sometimes these stores do not get first pick.

The market can be a daunting place.  But if you’re in town and see the fruit and veg stalls, don’t just walk past; the quality and price of market stalls are not to be sniffed at.

Trolleys vs Baskets

An interesting choice which can reveal a lot about your personality.  Well not exactly, but it is not a throw-away decision.

If you are on a tight budget, carrying a basket around is a surefire way to ensure you won’t exceed this.  Simply, you will not be able to carry an expensive amount of food around and so will be forced to be more selective and choose only what you really need. If your reckless side gets the better of you half way round and you wish you had a trolley, too late, 9 times out of 10 you won’t be bothered to go back for it and bingo you end up with a nice cheap shop.

However, the pleasure of gently cruising around with a trolley is not to be glossed over here.  It really is fun and can add so much more to an otherwise mundane half hour or so.  Just remember to take that £1, otherwise the basket it is.

Lists

As a serial list maker myself, I cannot remain unbiased on one of the most popular usages for this little piece of linguistic ingenuity.  The list will save all your problems and ensure you don’t leave without that box of washing powder, carton of milk, packet of stock or other easily forgotten item.

Meal plans
Boringly organised as it sounds, planning what meals you will have before you go shopping is actually really useful.  Just don’t go as far as one of my housemates and type up a full, formal list and timetable as you risk losing all credibility and sanity.

And finally,

Weight

As strong as you think you are, do not underestimate the combined weight of a full two weeks shopping trip.  If you are on a bike make sure all weight is distributed evenly to avoid resembling a drunk crazy person, teetering precariously round corners while your tinned sweetcorn and your iceberg lettuce make a bid for freedom from all sorts of openings and holes.

Next post: Chicken Pie Crisis

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.