The wannabe chief/cooking thread

Crush up parma violets to a fine powder pour into a bottle of vodka leave it 2 days (shaking a few times over the 48 hours) filter the crushed up bits out (if you care about that) then your vodka tastes like soap/perfume depending on whether you like Parma violets or not

 

I was a chef for 10 years so I can tell you that you can cook mince in a microwave but you have to remember that the microwave will dry the food out due to the way it cooks.

If you have to do mince, place it into a glass bowl with the rest of your ingredients (not pasta) and cover tightly with cling film to keep the moisture in. Heat through gradually as you'll have to stir to break down and mix the ingredients. I'd say two minute bursts of heat, stir, seal and repeat until cooked.

Why not use the oven though?

A great simple meal that takes 15 minutes:

Bag of frozen prawns
1 TBSP tomato puree
I clove garlic (chopped)
1 inch of fresh ginger (peeled and chopped)
1 red chilli (chopped)
1 glass white wine
Corriander leaves (handful finely chopped)
1 bag egg noodles

Bring a pan of water to the boil for egg noodles
In a frying pan, add your ginger, chilli and garlic with a dash of oil and cook for about 30 seconds. You are flavouring the oil.
Throw in the prawns and cook for about 2 minutes.
Now put your egg noodles on. They take about 3 minutes.
Add the white wine to the prawns and reduce about half(takes about a minute)
Add the tomato puree and mix well.
Add corriander leaves

Drain the egg noodles and then add noodles to frying pan. Mix to coat and serve.

 

The student ingredient equivalent list:

6 fish fingers
2 sachets of ketchup stolen from mcdonalds
1 carton of garlic sauce from last night's pizza
1 free ginger teabag from your last chinese that you thought you'd never use
1 spoonful of salsa (include snapped off dorito bits where possible)
3 shots of tesco value vodka
leaves
1 bag of bachelors* super noodles

* if you feel like splashing out



Seriously though, that meal sounds like a big improvement on something I make from time to time already, so thanks .

 

hmm, I only really do side dishes as vegetarian...Something that's nice and easy is boiling potatoes, carrots and turnips with a few sprigs of thyme and an unchopped clove of garlic in with each, (take em out once the potatoes etc. are cooked) then mash all 3 vegetables together, put them all in an oven dish and bake it 'till the top is browned a bit (like shepherds pie) then melt a load of cheese over the top!

Drink wise - chuck fresh ginger, lime and mint into a bottle of gin and leave it a couple of days, then have it with soda water and ice - unreal!

 

take one chicken breast, cut a pocket into it, fill said pocket with mozzarella, wrap in prosciutto (or streaky bacon if you're cheap). stick in oven for 25 mins, success.

 

Try looking on the Philadelphia web site, loads of recipes. Lots of big companies (Schwartz, another one) have recipe web sites.
Some will even ask you what ingredients you have in your fridge, then suggest recipes for you.

 

This has to be one of the cheapest and easiest student meals to make with mince. I still make it quite regularly although itend to 'pimp' mine a bit more these days.

Curried mince with peas recipe
By Kate Belcher

Serving instructions
Serves 4 |Ready in 35 minutes

Hordes of hungry mouths drop at the sight of this South African recipe of curried mince with peas, which is a student favourite. Filling meal that separates food lovers from dining aficionados.



Ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
500g pack lean beef mince
3 tbsp mild or medium curry paste
400g can chopped tomatoes
150ml fresh beef stock, hot
Couple handfuls frozen peas
225g long-grain or basmati rice

Method

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Increase the heat, add the mince and cook for 3-4 minutes, until browned all over. Stir in the curry paste, cook for 1 minute, then stir in the tomatoes and stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a fast simmer. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring, until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Add the peas and cook for 5 minutes until the peas are tender. Season to taste.

2. Meanwhile, rinse the rice in a sieve under cold running water, to separate the grains. Put into a saucepan, cover with plenty of salted water and put over a high heat. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 12-15 minutes until tender. Drain well through a sieve, then fluff up the grains with a fork. Serve with the curried mince.

 

Nice!

I've been trying to save money recently, so buying massive packets of mince, making fairly basic mince n gravy (onions, mushrooms, carrots celery) then adding tomato n herbs to make it a bit bolognesey and then adding a **** load of chilli to use in burritos or into chilli concarne - it gets a bit samey if you do it too often, but once a month or so and its sweet!

 

Use breadcrumbs when you make meatballs and just add egg to the mixture to help it bind and you can stretch about 30 decent sized meatballs out of a big packet.

Fry them off just to seal the outside and them whack them in an oven with some tomato sauce for another 25 mins. Allow to cool, bag and freeze down.

 

Good shout...Can't beat a bit of economy driven gastronomy! I found out the other day that putting shredded wheat in meatballs works as well - guess it does the same thing as breadcrumbs?

 

I find that broken up crackers is also a good way of stretchiong mince when making burgers, meat loaf, meatballs etc. although stale break crumbs is probably cheaper.

 

Gonna try both of these