My Favourite Winter Recipes

I love food. I love going out to restaurants with friends, and I love cooking at home, for just me and my partner or for a large group. I’m so obsessed that my Canadian friend calls me Betty Crocker and my sister calls me Martha Stewart, so apparently I am a middle-aged woman in a twenty year old’s body.

I wasn’t always this way; when I started University I was pretty much cooking-phobic and relied on ready-meals and the offer of ‘will wash up if you feed me’ to get by. However, over time I started experimenting and cooking new things.

With winter approaching, I thought I would share my favourite winter recipes. This is food designed to suit cold winter nights when you are knackered from doing coursework and just want something delicious but simple for dinner.

Impromptu visit to Ghandi in Portswood after a four hour lecture

A bonus of these recipes is that they can be made gluten-free, something that I do regularly so that my gluten-intolerant friends can join us for dinner.

Wholemeal Bread 

I just adore homemade bread; it tastes better than store-bought and kneading bread is a great stress reliever. I buy Sainsbury’s own wholemeal bread flour and just follow the recipe on the back. It produces great tasting bread every time. If you like seeded bread, Sainsbury’s sell seed packets that you can add to the dough, or if you want a slightly different taste, substitute half the flour with buckwheat flour for a rich, nutty bread, or strong white flour for a lighter taste. If you are going to make bread, remember to use warm water and find the warmest place in your house to leave it to rise (I put mine on top of the radiator).

My homemade bread

Leek and Potato Soup 

This is one of Jamie Oliver’s recipes, so full credit to him! All the ingredients can be bought from the market on campus on a Monday and the soup can be frozen once cooked to enjoy later since this recipe serves four. Plus, this is dairy and gluten free so perfect for everyone! Though I will warn you, if you don’t have a very large pan, try halving the recipe to make enough for two. I’ve also put the rough amounts of the ingredients for those who don’t have kitchen scales.

Ingredients: 

2 Carrots
2 Sticks Celery
2 Medium white onions
400g Leeks (two leeks)
2 cloves garlic
400g potatoes (two medium size cooking potatoes, I like Maris Piper)
Olive oil
2 chicken or vegetable stock cubes
Salt and pepper to taste

Method: 

1. Chop and peel all your ingredients into quite small pieces (if you don’t have a blender, the size of the pieces will be the size of the chunks in the soup, so cut them as you would want to eat them!), set the potato aside.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a very large pan over a high heat until a piece of onion dropped in sizzles when it touches the oil.

3. Throw all your chopped ingredients, except the potato into the pan, stir, and leave with the lid askew for about ten minutes. The veg should soften and it will look like there’s about half the amount that you originally put in.

4. Put the stock cubes in 1.8 litres of boiling water and stir until dissolved.

 5. Add this to the pan and chuck the potatoes in. Season with a good amount of salt and pepper.

 6. Bring to the boil (just leave it on high heat) and then once boiling reduce the heat and let it simmer for 10-20 minutes (depends on how desperate you are for dinner at that point), give it a good stir and check that the potatoes are soft and cooked all the way through.

7. Tadaa - and finished! If you have a food processor or a hand blender you can blend it until smooth if you like, or just serve as is.

My leek and potato soup and homemade bread 

Homemade Pizza 

Okay so this isn’t really a winter dish BUT it’s super quick, tasty, and a great way to use up any leftover ingredients at the end of the week, because you can put basically anything on a pizza and it will be good. Thanks to the base I use this feeds two.

Ingredients: 

For the Sauce:

Half a can of chopped tomatoes
One tablespoon of tomato puree
1 clove garlic (crushed or chopped)
Mixed herbs to taste (or paprika and cayenne if you want to go spicy)

For the Pizza topping: 

Whatever you like, I use:
Sweetcorn
Grilled Chicken
Bacon Red Pepper
Half a red chilli
Ham
Cheese
BBQ Sauce

Base: 

I use ready roll puff pastry because it makes for a really light base to hold the toppings, though you can buy ready-made pizza bases.

Ingredients for the pizza ready to go 

Method: 

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees (fan)

2. Pre-cook any raw meat (bacon and chicken)

3. Make your sauce by simply mixing the ingredients together in a bowl

4. Place puff pastry on a baking tray and cook on its own for 10 minutes until its puffed up and slightly brown on top

5. Remove from the oven and cover in your chosen toppings (after I put mine on I add some BBQ sauce because it’s the best)

6. Place back in the oven and cook for another 10-20 minutes (will vary depending on how good the oven is and what ingredients you have on top) until the pastry edges are light brown in colour.

7. Remove from oven, garnish with salad if you like (I love adding fresh spinach).

 The final product 

If you are feeling really adventurous, why not try cooking a roast dinner for your friends before you all leave for the Christmas break? This works best as a group effort, however if you want to try it on your own you will need about four hours and in my case a lot of help over the phone from my mum.

My first roast dinner (including regular and gluten free Yorkshire puddings) 

Dessert! I adore Polenta cake and fully recommend Nigella’s recipe 

I hope these recipes keep you warm and fuelled over the next few weeks!

Emma

Let's talk about cooking

It’s a much-talked-about topic: the challenges that students face being away from home. One of the biggest is learning to cook. There are hundreds of cookbooks aimed at students, but what many of them don’t cover is the real basics: pantry essentials, absolutely necessary cooking utensils, and how to limit kitchen waste.

I came to university having never cooked anything for myself other than a few basic dishes (namely pasta, toad in the hole and pancakes). When I moved into halls I really struggled to find my feet with cooking, and if I hadn’t been blessed by living with someone who not only knew how to cook, but was happy to teach me, I would still be living off Asda’s frozen mash potato (yeah, it’s really a thing).

First up, the pantry essentials. Over time I have realised that there are certain foods that I just cannot live without in my kitchen. Regardless of my food plan for the week, I always make sure that I have these basic staples in my cupboards:

• Brown Rice. It’s a must have because it goes with so many different proteins or veggie dinners.
• Pasta. Of course, no student kitchen is complete without some kind of pasta, I love fusilli tricolore, and almost never buy plain white pasta.
• Carrots, onions and garlic. If your kitchen currently doesn’t have any of these bad boys, get it sorted. Almost everything I make has at least one of these ingredients present, from pasta sauce and chicken casserole, to burgers - these veggies are must haves. 

My kitchen veggie basket

• Tinned tomatoes. They’re cheap (33p a can from International foods), keep forever in the cupboard and by making your own tomato pasta sauce it can constitute almost all of your five a day in one meal.
• Tomato puree, for the same reason as tinned tomato. I make a lot of sauces from scratch rather than buying jars of tomato pasta sauce. By making your own you are taking out all of the salt and sugar that are in bought sauces and massively boosting the health factor in your dinner. Easy peasy!
• Soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce and BBQ sauce. Need I give much explanation? Whatever you’re cooking I bet it can be improved by the addition of one of these.

I didn’t mention the spice rack because that develops naturally as you buy the things you need for new dishes – plus when you move into a new flat you can share spice staples. 

Your cupboard doesn’t need to be as packed as this!

Right then, now that you have a kitchen stocked with the right food, let’s look at the utensils you’re bound to require:

• A decent size, decent quality saucepan. You don’t have much space for these things, particularly in halls, so rather than having three or four, spend your money on one good quality pan that will last - and take care of it!
• One good size deep frying pan ( big enough to feed four people) . You will come back to using this time and time again, and by getting a deep one you can use it as a wok for stir fries, and cook up enough Bolognese to feed your whole flat, or yourself for the next week. Remember, if you’re going to make a Bolognese or curry, cook more and then freeze what you don’t eat. That way next time you don’t feel like cooking, you simply have to heat it up, rather than turning to a ready meal.
• A rubber/silicone spoon. Rubber and silicone spoons are so forgiving and so easy to clean! Avoid wood because it’s harder to clean and easier to stain and damage.
• A good set of knives. You probably don’t need more than three. I bought a set of three knives from Sainsbury’s for £12 and they are brilliant! A good knife doesn’t have to break the bank, but it will make your life easier to have them around.
• Plastic chopping board.
• Pyrex dish – not sure what to call it but you know what I mean – the things you make lasagne, pasta bakes, toad in the hole or casserole in.
• A colander or sieve, obviously.

As I’ve had three years to build up my stock of utensils – combined with my partners stuff, I have about five times as much as I need.

Not everyone can afford one of these bad boys but put it on your Christmas list -  you won’t regret it - or watch out for one in the sales!

Pretty much all of the above can be bought from Ikea or nearby supermarkets for less than you’d think. Strapped for cash? Ask your parents if they have a spare lying around, or go halves with a flatmate who is in need of the same stuff.

Finally, how to limit kitchen waste - i.e. how to avoid throwing out food that you haven’t gotten round to eating and has now gone off. There is only one reliable way to do this guys; make a food plan, and be disciplined about it. Every Sunday before I write my weekly shopping list I make a food plan based on what I already have in the kitchen, and what I think I’ll fancy cooking based on how much time I’ll have to make dinner each day. By doing this I have cut my kitchen waste hugely, and saved a fair amount of money in the process.

My food plan for the week

Just because we are students, it doesn’t mean we have to live up to the cliché that students can’t cook and don’t know how to eat. Don’t waste your money on a cookbook, that’s what the internet is for! Bbcgoodfood.com has thousands of recipes and most of Jamie Oliver’s recipes are online anyway.

Some hotdogs with spicy BBQ caramelised onions, red pepper and bacon. 

 

20 minute chicken stir fry

Now, go forth. enjoy learning how to cook and love what you make!

Emma