(no subject)

[pensnest]

So. I've recovered from my hangover after Saturday night's Murder, and am now focusing somewhat mournfully on the weekend ahead.

Yep, Bun goes to university on Saturday. (brief pause for expressions of maternal woe)

I promised her a home-made cookery book, and must compile same - I don't think she'll starve, and she has a "cheap grub for students"-type cookbook anyway, but I wonder if anyone out there has an inexpensive and uncomplicated recipe to share? Suggestions gratefully received.

Comments

[hsw.livejournal.com]

Several. What sort of thing are you after? I'll list stuff I cooked as a student, but you may already have recipes for most of it. Will give details if required.

Veggie stew with dumplings is fabulously easy, cheap, and only requires one pot. You can have meat in it, but I find that the leftovers don't microwave as well as the veggie version. Also scales well, and is good when you need to feed veggie/vegan/dairy-free folk. Always buy veggie suet. Once she's got the hang of it, suet makes a fabulously easy pie crust too. Watch out for other people needing to use the oven, though.

My family always sends people off to Uni with instructions as to how to poach fish, because, again, stick the veggies around the fish and you have a one pot meal. Note, she will need a decent fishslice. This dish gained me an entirely undeserved rep for being a good cook, because most students have never heard of poaching.

Eggy bread is the easier alternative to pancakes, and still impressive when feeding breakfast guests or when pudding/comfort food is required. (I only mastered pancakes a year or two ago, but my husband won my heart by making me pancakes the morning he first stayed over at my house.)

I used to make a chicken stirfry with a shallot, half a red pepper and half a green pepper, largely because it looks good. I tended to use shallots because they scale better than onions (half onions always dry out or get lost in the fridge). The other chicken breast of a pair (or the other half of the chicken breast, in lean times) got marinaded in a bit of oil and ketchup with herbs, then made into kebabs with the other half of the peppers. I should probbly have used cheaper cuts more often, but I was just too lazy.

Oh and never underestimate the usefulness of scrambled eggs before a bar crawl. Lines the stomach, takes 10 mins to cook and eat. Marvellous.

H

[pensnest]

These are Useful Pieces Of Advice, or possibly Reminders, which are also very welcome, being the kind of thing I am scattering through this cookbook. I find detailed recipes don't always compute to student stomachs anyway - when I fed a bunch of males on Sundays at college, I used to multiply the ingredients by at least three...

The poaching of fish is a particularly good idea as I would not have thought of it. But we will have fish pie tomorrow, so she can have a go then. Thanks!