"HOW MANY POTATOES?!?!" Shepherd's Pie

I wasn't going to post this recipe but if anyone is using the original cookbook (Nosh for Students by Joy May), I'd highly recommend this correction...

Don't use 6 potatoes. Use 2, maybe 3 at a push. If you have 6 potatoes you will die of potato overload. Seriously.

I appreciate that I am a 7 stone 6 woman with a small appetite. But seriously, 6 potatoes for a 2 serving dish? My potatoes weren't tiny but they certainly weren't massive, and I ended up peeling and cubing 3, and then chucking away half a potatoes worth of cubes because they just wouldn't fit.

But enough ranting. Other than the potato ratio, this was a really nice recipe :) It's quite different from your standard Shepherd's pie, due to the cubed rather than mashed potatoes, but they were nice contrasting textures and the meat flavour after adding the gravy was fabulous. Overall, I love this cookbook; I think I might even do a review of it soon, once I've cooked a few more dishes from it... but it's held my hand through a few little things that I should have known, but didn't (like how long to boil an egg for) and how not to die when deciding how long I can keep eating leftovers for (basically, according to the book, after eating one batch of sausage pasta for 4 days, I am a medical anomaly, or maybe just your standard student).

Before you point it out, I'm quite aware that it looks hideous. My phone camera really isn't up to this (plus I was hungry and it was going cold). I'm looking into the camera situation, ok?

Quick Shepherd's Pie


Originally from "Nosh for Students" by Joy May


250g mince
1/4 pint water
1 tablespoon gravy granules
2/3 medium potatoes
2 teaspoons butter
Grated cheese, to top (~40-60g?)

1. Preheat oven to 200/180 fan/gas mark 6
2. Put the mince and potato in a pan, add the water, bring to the boil, then simmer for 10-15 minutes.
3. Peel and cube the potatoes (into about 1.5cm cubes), boil for 10 minutes in a separate pan, and drain. Add butter and mix.
4. Add the gravy granules and seasoning to the mince.
5. Pop the mince in the bottom of your tin/casserole dish (I've been using a round cake tin simply because it's the best sized thing i have), top with the potatoes, then sprinkle the cheese over.
6. Cook for 20-25 minutes until lightly browned (this is what the book says, I had to go to 25 minutes, turn the oven down to 180, and then left it for another 5 or so).

Waist-friendly Spinach and Ham Macaroni Cheese

One of my favourite meals last term was Heinz macaroni cheese. It wasn't that high in calories, it was creamy, warm and quick.

This isn't quite so quick. But it is still a good student dinner, because you can make this much and reheat it the next day, and I always have ham left over from during the week because I can't make enough blooming sandwiches. Also, it's delicious, beyond my wildest dreams (I dream about food and spend a lot of time thinking about it, planning meals, planning food shopping, reading food blogs, reading cookbooks...), though my food-dar probably isn't set that high :P But om nom nom nom nom.

I had to adapt this one quite heavily from the original because that would have been over 1000 calories a serving! Obviously you can use normal cheese instead (I opted for low fat) and the recommended serving of macaroni (elbow pasta) is 75g, not the 50g I opted for, but it's such a rich dish, with so many other bits in, that the quantities here were plenty for me. It would be lovely with some crusty bread if you did want to bulk it up a bit.

Furthermore, the original recipe did call for more cheese (though cheese was what i scaled the other ingredients too), so if you fancy it a bit cheesier, be my guest. The 40g of cheese I had on the top didn't look like much before I melted it, but it was plenty.


This macaroni cheese won't take all your daily calories in one go (adapted from "The ultimate student cookbook")

100g macaroni
20g butter
1 half onion
1 garlic clove
20g flour
220ml milk
130g low fat cheese
Seasoning
A few slices of ham
About 100g Spinach

Serves 2. 
600 calories per serving. 
Suitable for reheating.

1. Start the macaroni boiling in a pot of salted water for as long as it says on your packet (~5 minutes). Preheat the grill to medium/hot, or you can do this a bit later, you won't need it until the end.
2. Soften the chopped onion and garlic in a pan with the butter for about 5-6 minutes. Then add the spinach and cook until wilted.
3. Add the flour and mix.
4. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly. If it goes lumpy, just keep mixing.
5. Bring the sauce to the boil. (Have you been keeping an eye on your macaroni bubbling away?)
6. Add 90g of cheese and turn the temperature back down slightly, stirring until it melts.
7. Season with salt and plenty of pepper (I'm not usually a huge fan of pepper but this works well when peppery). Pop in the chopped ham.
8. Drain the pasta and return to the pan. Pour in the sauce and mix it all together well.
9. Sprinkle over the remaining cheese and pop it under the grill for 5 minutes or so, until golden.

Simple Beef Burgers

Have a few simple tips on making beefburgers.

1. Leave it in the fridge for half an hour plus after you shape the patty.

2. Let it cook for a good few minutes on the first side before flipping it, else it WILL fall apart (this is especially true if you didn't do #1).

Very Simple Burger For One

Half a small pack of mince (125g), preferably full fat (I know, I know, but the final texture's better)

Half an egg

Seasoning

Bread bun

Onion (optional)

1. Whisk the egg up. 

2. Pour half the egg into a container with your beef (or other) mince

3. Mix them together with your hands, season to taste, and form it into a burger shape (patty, if you're being a purist).

4. PUT IT IN THE FRIDGE! Pop it on a plate and cover it with clingfilm, or pop it in a sealed container. Either way, let it cool for between half an hour and 2 hours - I don't know what happens if you cool it for longer but if you don't leave it in there for a while then it is extremely likely to fall apart while cooking it.

5. Place it in the medium heated pan (you probably don't need any extra oil) and leave the first side to cook for a good 4-5 minutes

6. Flip it over to cook on the other side

7. If necessary, turn the heat down and leave it to cook through

8. Assemble and nom.

Hairy's Bikers Lemon Drool - no, wait, drizzle - Cake

Hmm, that's not the most appealing title ever...

Well, Nan has always made a really good lemon drizzle cake. Then I was drooling over the Hairy Biker's "Mum's know best" cookbook, which seems to be one of the best reviewed cookbooks on the whole of Amazon... and lo and behold, waterstones had a sample pdf...

It's fun yet easy to make... A big thanks to my boyfriend for helping to whip it up, conducting scientifically rigorous taste testing, and also for modelling the plate for the photo. He deserves an extra special mention as, being a student, I don't have all that many utensils and therefore he had to suffer trying to zest lemons first with a bread knife, then with a cheese slice (don't tell him that a week later I found a potato peeler in the back of the cupboard that would have made it a darn sight easier...)

Anyway, it's an awesome recipe. I've always wanted to be able to make lemon drizzle cake (or, in this case, loaf)... although next time I'd probably go a bit easier on the sugary topping. My boyfriend disagreed and said that his favourite part was the top half, with the lemony sauce and crunchiness.

The solution to this is obviously to cut the cake horizontally in future

Get the recipe here.

Brilliant bamboozling bathypelagic Brownies

Well, I am a biology student... I need to get some biology somewhere into this blog.

But if we ignore that bit, how come they're still brilliant AND bamboozling?

Because they're tasty and they came out right!

I don't have a good track record with brownies. They're always too gooey or too cakey... but these were goldilocks brownies. Just right.

Put it this way... I left 9 bits in the kitchen and they'd all gone within a few hours. Someone must have liked them...

Brilliant bamboozling bathypelagic Brownies

Get the recipe here.

Sausage, Feta and Caramelised onion pizza.

ONG.

This is now my phrase for when something goes really really well in the cooking world.

Om Nom Gawd.

If you still don't get it it's like OMG. ONG. See? Pffffffft to you if you don't.

This pizza takes a while to do. I cheated and bought a garlic pizza bread (not a pizza base) but you still have to slave over a hot stove for a good 30 minutes.

But then someone gave me crumble which made my day :D

Om Nom Gawd Pizza


Based on a BBC Good Food Recipe that can be found here.


4 chipolatas
1/2 an onion
100g feta
1 garlic pizza bread
1 clove Garlic
1/2 tbsp brown sugar

1. Remove the skins from the skins from the chipolatas (stop sniggering, you dirty people... you'll understand when you're doing it)
2. Put the sausages into a pan on medium-high, chopping them up into small bits with whatever you're stirring it with.
3. While this is happening, chop up half an onion.
4. Take them out when browned and start cooking the onion in the sausage fat on high.
5. After about 5 mins, turn the hob down a bit and add a little water to the onions. Keep them cooking for a while longer, adding water every so often. After 10 minutes, add the brown sugar (I was using muscovado) and a chopped clove of garlic. Keep cooking until nicely browned (not completely caramelised unless you're exceptionally patient).
6. Pop the onion on the pizza base (no tomato sauce here!), dot the sausage pieces around artistically, and then top with crumbled feta.
7. Cook for as long as the garlic bread says.

Delia's Toad in the hole for one

So, since being back at uni I've decided to start cooking for myself. Every day. So I'm currently working through recipes from a variety of different sources, including t'internet: in this case, a youtube video of Delia Smith's "One is Fun".

I must confess I've never seen any Delia before.

But, in it's charming 80's (?) way, I loved it. So have a charming 80's photograph of it.

Ok, my creation isn't quite as beautiful as hers, though the thing she got out wasn't a beauty queen either. Mine's a little too flat, it seems - the pan might have been a bit too big...

But I didn't care when I ate it. Granted, I adore toad in the hole, but I really think this would be a strong contender for standard recipe!

A small amphibian in the proverbial hole in 10 easy steps

This is basically a summary of the video that can be found here.

4/5 chipolatas

1oz plain flour

1 egg

1/2 tsp mixed herbs

1 egg

2tbsp milk

1/2 a large or 1 small onion

1. Fry the chipolatas and half an onion for about 10 minutes

2. Preheat the grill to really hot

3. Sift the plain flour into a bowl
4. Add some salt and pepper, and ½ a tsp of mixed herbs
5. Add the egg
6. Whisk with electric whisk until egg incorporated
7. Add 2 tbsp of milk
8. Whisk until all lumps gone
9. Pour it evenly and between the sausages (the pan must be really hot before you put the batter)

10. Pop the whole lot under the VERY HOT grill for about 10 minutes (you might need to turn it occasionally, mine spun about quite happily in the pan after a while)

Date, Walnut and Ginger loaf

This is a Good Food recipe. Only it isn't.

Well, xmas is over and therefore we have leftovers - in this case, some dates which Mum got given in a hamper. I like dates, she likes dates, but there were still way too many for just the two of us to eat. So off I went in search of a date and walnut CAKE recipe. Not loaf. I wanted an actual cake.

Well, it seems that anything that says cake, date and walnut in the title actually goes in a loaf tin when you get to the nitty gritty of the recipe, and I guess you could probably try and cook it as an actual cake, maybe, but I'd hazard a guess that it might not go so well and I'm a bit sick of baking disasters at the moment (there was a self-saucing pudding that I'm trying to blank from my memory).

So onwards to this recipe. I found it in my Kindle edition of BBC Good Food's 101 Cakes and Bakes, which has yet to fail me. I bought this on my Kindle when I spent 7 weeks in Indonesia experiencing severe baking withdrawal... I bought and read several cookbooks cover to cover, bookmarking every recipe I wanted to try when I got back from the paradise island of Gili Trawangan. I think I might have so far made about 3. Out of maybe a hundred. But still.

So yes, out of all the recipes I'd seen, this one appealed to me most, but I made a few substitutions. The recipe calls for honey - we never have it in the house and if I bought a jar no-one would use it, so the internet told me I could use golden syrup in a 1:1 ratio and I can confirm it worked. Also, halfway through baking it I realised our spice cupboard contained ginger, parsley and 3 tubs of chili powder, and only one of those would be remotely suitable in a recipe calling for cinnamon. But I can also confirm that the ginger does work in this situation, though if I made the cake again I would probably try it with cinnamon just for the comparison. Oh, and I didn't have any light brown sugar, only dark brown and caster. So I mixed it up a bit...

So here's my modified recipe, with a link to the original too.


I want to make this cake even though I am missing several key ingredients



225g self-raising flour
½ tsp ground ginger
175g softened butter
65g dark brown sugar
35g caster sugar
3 tbsp golden syrup
2 eggs , beaten
2 medium, ripe bananas , about 250g/9oz total weight in their skins
100g stoned dates
50g walnut pieces

Preheat the oven to 160 (140 fan). Grease and line a loaf tin.

Add the flour (sifted), ginger, butter, sugars, 2tbsp of golden syrup and eggs to a bowl. Mash the bananas in another bowl and then stone the dates before cutting them into chunks, and add these two to the bowl as well. Mix with an electric mixer, food processor on relatively low, or a wooden spoon, until relatively smooth (there will still be chunks of date, hopefully!). Pour the batter into the loaf tin.

If you have walnut halves, break them into smaller chunks. Place the walnut pieces on top of the batter.

Cook for 1 hour then prod the top. Give it an extra 10 minutes if the top is not firm. Mine needed this extra 10 badly! It made all the difference.

Remove it from the tin about 15 mins after cooking. When it's close to cool, drizzle the last tbsp of golden syrup over (might want to warm it in the microwave for 10 seconds first to make it easier to drizzle.