easy but fantastic

[magicdice]

i'm headed off to uni in october, i might well end up in self-catered accommodation.

i'm not a bad cook, i can just about sling together a spaghetti bolognese, shepherds' pie, lasagne, moroccan style couscous, risottos of various types, chilli, soup, curry,

but i'd love to have one spectacular dish that's pretty easy to cook without needing an oven, affordable ingredients, not too strict with timings

any suggestions?

[ursula62]

Depends what you're looking for, but one dish I used to cook a lot for parties as a student was Spanish chicken, and I still cook it even now 20 years later!

You need chicken joints or pieces, chorizo or pepperoni, tinned tomatoes, garlic, onions, peppers, tomato puree, a slosh of red wine (optional), black olives (optional).

Brown the chicken and fry the onions , peppers and garlicin a splosh of olive oil. Add the sliced chorizo and cook for a few more minutes. Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, wine and olives. Bring to the boil and then simmer for a couple of hours until the chicken is cooked. The sauce should not be too runny, but if you like casseroles with sauce just add more tomatoes or wine.

Serve with boiled rice or warm crusty bread and salad.

If you need to feed more people, just add more veggies or sausage, or add an additional dish - I used to make Moorish chickpeas :-  2 tins of chick peas (drained), tin of sweetcorn (drained). Mix the chickpeas and corn with a tin of tomatoes, chopped green pepper, couple of table spoons of virgin olive oil, chopped spring onions and some thyme. Serve at room temperature.

[bernardo]

Wow!  You can already do more than I could after 4 years at uni.  If you can already do those things, then your imagination should be enough to conjure up all sorts of new varieties.  But if you are going to be a student, why not enter into the spirit of things and survive on a Not Poodle or two or three or four or 8537?  All you need is a kettle.

[Chickenwire]

If you like seafood, can't go wrong with a prawn and scallop salad. (Although you could substitute the scallops with mussels so you can spend more money on cheap vodka ;o))

Just butterfly the king prawns (you don't need many - one or two per person) and dry fry them in a hot pan with some herbs and spices... The scallops (or mussels) I'd recommend doing with a splash of pernod. Fry them again, but only season with salt and pepper and a touch of oil and then add in some butter. Splash on the pernod and let it catch light.

Once you've done this, rest the seafood on a bed on salad leaves (and maybe a couple of roughly chopped up tomatoes) pour over the remaining pernod and oil for a dressing.

[BillyNoMates]

Nice recipe ursula62 - think I'll give that a try.

Used to have a book call the Student COokbook several moons ago. Probably not up to todays culinary expectations but had plenty of hassle & time saving tips in it.

[SupaAbzyBall]

Well mate, try buying the books on amazon, they cost around 4-5 quid and are a livesaver. Another option when your a student (I only have 3 months left, boo) is to watch ready steady cook! Also, Nigel Slater recipe books are decent.

If you like currys they are the easist, fry an onion until brown, put in curry power, add tin of chopped tomatoes, add meat or veg, then simmer until meet/veg is cooked. Hope ive helped     

[SGKelloe32]

This isnt exactly a ‘dish’ as such, but its pretty tasty and quick!

 

Dice some chicken breasts up small, dice an onion, fry in a pan for about 20 minutes, drain out any oil that is in the pan, turn down the heat to simmer and add a generous amount of Heinz BBQ sauce into the chicken and onions.

Take a crusty baquette, half it, spread on a thin layer or BBQ sauce, put the chicken and onion mixture onto the baguette, sprinkle some grated mozzarella cheese on the top and place under the grill until the cheese melts!

Absolutely delicious!!

[chelschloe]

just eat a packet of crisps you spanner !!