Ultimate Beans on Toast

Everybody loves beans on toast. It's a student staple, and is perfect for a quick hunger fix at the end of a long day. But it doesn't have to be just emptying a tin into a saucepan - with a few more basic larder ingredients and an extra five minutes, you can transform it into something spectacular.

Ingredients (serves 2):
- 1 small red onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- ½ a red chilli
- 1½ x 400g tins baked beans
- 200g tin kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- handful fresh parsley
- 4 slices bread, toasted and buttered
- handful grated cheddar cheese

Alternatively, you could just use two tins of Heinz 5 beans, though they're a bit more expensive unless you can get them on offer.

1. Pour a dash of olive oil and a knob of butter in a saucepan, and add the onion, garlic and chilli. Cook for five minutes until beginning to soften, then tip in the kidney beans.
2. Add the baked beans and simmer, stirring regularly, until they're beginning to go slightly mushy (or however you like them - this is my preference). Add the parsley and a twist of black pepper.
3. Pour the bean mixture over the toast, and sprinkle over the cheese. Enjoy!

Time to Salsa

Like most students, I absolutely love fajitas, and have done for a very long time (as you can probably guess from how dated that post looks, wtf). They're quick, easy and incredibly tasty, and always feel like a treat.

That doesn't mean they have to be quick though. Don't get me wrong - they're great any way - but if you find yourself with a little extra time, it's super easy to do a couple of little extra things that make all the difference. In particular: the SALSA. It's super easy to make, and adds an extra element of luxury and impressiveness when you serve everything up. 

Ingredients:
- 100g tomatoes
- ½ a chilli
- 5 spring onions
- 1 clove garlic
- juice of ½ lime
- handful fresh coriander
- salt and pepper, to taste

1. If you're lucky enough to have a food processor, throw everything in and blitz (though not until it's a purée - aim for general salsa consistency!). If you don't, that's completely fine, you just need to chop everything finely then mix together in a bowl. 
2. That's it. Serve with fajitas or anything else you fancy, and enjoy!

Ten Minute Treat: Stir Fry

Much as I love spending hours standing over the stove, gently stirring a risotto, sometimes there just isn't time. This is perfect for a mid-week meal as it's ready to eat in under ten minutes - and is healthy and wonderfully flavoured to boot.

The key to this dish is preparation. None of it takes long to cook at all, so you really do need to make sure you have everything chopped and ready to go before you start to avoid things burning etc.

Ingredients (serves 4):
- 1 red onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- thumb fresh ginger, peeled
- 1 red chilli
- 5 spring onions
- 1 large carrot, peeled
- 1 red pepper
- 100g baby corn
- 100g mangetout
- 160g marinated tofu
- handful beansprouts
- 120g stir fry sauce (pick your flavour - I like the chow mein)
- 2tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1tbsp sesame oil
- juice of ½ a lime
- 300g fine egg noodles (substitute to make vegan/gluten-free)
- sprinkle of sesame seeds

For the mangetout and baby corn I'd recommend just grabbing one of the mixed packs you can get in supermarkets. You can vary the amounts, and can really add any veg you like - mushrooms, water chestnuts or savoy cabbage would all go well - the above is just a list of my favourites/what I had in at the time.

1. Start by putting a pan of water on to boil and thinly slicing all your veg. Put the onion, garlic, ginger, chilli and spring onions together in a bowl to keep them separate from the rest - just because these go in first.
2. Put about 1tbsp olive oil in a wok and heat (think mid to high heat on your hob) - you can test if it's hot by dropping in a slice of veg and seeing if it sizzles. If it does, then go ahead and add the onion mix. Stir this for a minute before adding the carrot, pepper, corn and mangetout and tofu.

3. After another minute add the beansprouts; at this point you should also put your noodles into the pan of boiling water to cook. Make sure you're stirring everything A LOT, or it will just burn.
4. Add the stir fry sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil and lime juice to the wok, along with the drained noodles once cooked (they shouldn't take more than 2 minutes).
5. Serve up and sprinkle with the sesame seeds (and some fresh coriander if you have some to hand). Voila!

A Great Big THANKS and a Celebration!

So you remember the week before last when I got really excited because my vegetable chilli was featured in Sainsbury's Reader Recipe competition? Well, I WON.

Thank you so, so much to everyone who voted! I'm absolutely over the moon. You can now find me published on the Sainsbury's Blog!

See that? A record number of votes!!

 I really can't express my gratitude enough so I'll say again, thank you to all! 

I'm now going to celebrate with some fancy focaccia and a bottle of wine, so I shall bid you all a fond goodnight for now.

And Then Something Amazing Happened

Hello, lovely readers. I have some very exciting news - you remember my vegetable chilli? Well... it's featured in this month's Reader Recipes Competition in the Sainsbury's Magazine!

I had no idea until I was approached by a girl in one of my seminars, who double-checked my name and then told me I was in it. I was (/am) completely thrilled, and spent the rest of the seminar texting my parents from under the table because it was just too exciting. I'm in the same magazine as Mary Berry!

The chilli's so easy to make, and so perfect for this time of year as it gets wetter and colder and you need something to cheer you up inside and out.

I would be so grateful if you could click on this link - right here - and vote for me, as the recipe with the highest number of comments will be printed in full. Also if I win the cookbook I'll make things from it and then blog about it, so it's really all for you, dear readers. Thank you!

An Indian Feast

Before the end of term I decided I wanted to do a proper big dinner for a few of us, because I like cooking and I like people. Zosia had an 'Indian dip selection' in the fridge. That was that, really.

Sooooo I made a mixed bean curry and onion bhajis and chapatis and coriander rice. And it was exhausting. And also wonderful. The curry recipe belongs to a friend of my aunt and has been a favourite at home for years - it went down pretty well here, too! It's a long list of ingredients but don't be daunted: most of them are just store-cupboard spices. Also, because it needs time to marinade it's a good one to make earlier in the day.

Ingredients (serves 4):
- 1tbsp mustard seeds
- 1tbsp cumin seeds
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- 2 chillis, chopped
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes
-  ½tsp turmeric
- 1tbsp ground coriander
- 1tbsp ground cumin
- ½pt boiling water
- 4 large tins of beans (I tend to use 2 of chickpeas and 2 of kidney beans)
- 3 balls of frozen spinach
- handful fresh coriander

Method:
1. Grab your biggest saucepan and drizzle in some olive oil. Add the cumin and mustard seeds and heat until they start popping.
2. Add the onion, garlic and chilli and soften 'til the onion becomes clear (about 8 minutes).

3. Add the chopped tomatoes and spices and cook for a few more minutes, then add the water.
4. Stir well, then put on a lid (or some tin foil) and simmer on a low heat for 30-40 minutes.
5. Add the beans and spinach and stir until the spinach has de-frosted, then allow to cool and marinade for as long as you have time for.
6. Cook through when required, then season and add the fresh coriander.

Simple. For the rice, I cooked some basic brown rice and then added a squeeze of lime juice, some salt and pepper and some fresh coriander to liven it up a bit.

The onion bhajis I made were a very yummy side, and seemed to work fine with gluten free flour.

And it's easy to make chapatis. You need a tablespoon of both wholemeal and white flour per person (OR you can buy chapati flour and use 2tbsp per person. All the flour in our house at uni is gluten free, so it was actually cheaper for me to do this). Add a drizzle of olive oil and enough warm water to bring it all together in a dough, then knead for a couple of minutes. Cover with clingfilm, and then leave for an hour. 

Divide the dough into pieces (4 each, so it depends how many you're making for): they'll look small, but it's all good. Roll out as thin as you can without breaking them, then grab a frying pan and and cook the chapatis one at a time, for about a minute each side (you don't need any oil). Once cooked, transfer to a plate and spread with butter, then onto the next!

Serve up to your hungry friends and enjoy your feast.

Vegetable Chilli (the best you've ever tasted)

This chilli is so easy to make that it's really impossible to get it wrong - it just takes a bit of time. It feeds a whole bunch of people (about 6) so is great if you're having friends round, plus it freezes brilliantly. It's also packed with the things your parents always ask if you're eating enough of, like BEANS (look, Mum!), and what’s more, you can adapt it to whatever you fancy or just happen to have in the fridge - use different kinds beans or vegetables, or play around with the spices to vary it.

 

Because of the awesomeness I ended up making it two days in a row last week - first to feed my friends before a night out, and the second time because Fraser requested it when he came to stay. I'd made double quantity the first night (there were 9 of us) but my hopes of leftovers were in vain!

Ingredients: 

- 1 onion

- 2 peppers (yellow and red)

- 2 sticks celery
- 1 large carrot

- 2 cloves garlic

- 2 chillies (red and green)

- 300g Quorn mince

- 1tsp chilli powder

- 1½tsp ground cumin

- 1tsp ground coriander

- 2tsp cinnamon 

- 1tsp paprika

- 1 glass red wine

- 2x 400g tin chopped tomatoes

- 2x 400g tin kidney beans (or any you like)

- 200ml vegetable stock

- 1 bay leaf

- 30g fresh coriander

Method:
1. Heat some olive oil in a large pan or wok. Roughly chop the onion, peppers, celery, carrot, garlic and chillies and add to said pan, then cook for about 10 minutes, until softened and beginning to colour.

2. Add the Quorn mince (straight from frozen, but bash it a bit to break it up first) and cook for a few minutes until it's browned, then add the spices and cook for a further 5 minutes. This is the only point where you really have to watch it, or the spices will stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.

3. Stir in the tomatoes, red wine, bay leaf, vegetable stock and beans (drained), then give it a good stir to mix it all together. Bring it to a boil, then let it simmer for about an hour, stirring every 10 minutes or so to make sure it isn't sticking.

4. Turn off the heat, then roughly chop the coriander and add it to the pan, along with salt and pepper to taste. You can serve it with basically anything - my favourite is in tortilla wraps with sour cream and a strong cheddar, but you could do it with rice and add chopped spring onions, or even just eat it by itself. The choice is yours! But do eat it - you're missing out until you do.

Life is a crazy place

Okay. So you may have noticed that neither me or Zosia have been doing as much with this blog as we did last year. As way of explanation/excuse, let me just say that this is basically life at the moment...

By which I mean, life is freaking crazy.

 As well as, y'know, degrees and reading and housekeeping and everything else that means the partying that picture shows is becoming a scarily infrequent thing. 

The other part of my excuse is that this is no longer my only food-writing outlet. Because since September I've had a column in my university's newspaper, The Orbital. So if you're at Royal Holloway then go get a copy. And if you're not, then here's this month's column. Purely because I want to share the foody love with you all, and not because I'm showing off (okay, only slightly because I'm showing off).

Potato and Butterbean Curry

This has been one of my favourite things for a long time. 

When Mum says "what do you want for tea on your birthday", I often ask for this. It's utterly gorgeous and special enough for an occasion, but it's also relatively simple and easy to make. Winners all round!

I made this the other day at my dad's house in London, and it's somehow different to Mum's despite following her recipe, but Dad tactfully said it was "different but just as good" to avoid argument between Mother and myself. (Side note: I wasn't sure if we should post things that we hadn't cooked AT university, hence the lack of posts for a while, but Zosia pointed out that we're still students and we're still cooking! So looks like you won't be free from us in the summer hols after all, sorry folks.)

THE RECIPE:
- 8-10 small/new potatoes
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 or 2 fresh red chillies
- 1 rounded tbsp flour
- 2 1/2 tbsp med. curry powder
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 desert spoon of chutney*
- squeeze of lemon juice
- heaped des. spoon peanut butter
- 400g tinned tomatoes
- 2x 400g tin butterbeans
- 2 bay leaves
- 2/3 large pot of natural yoghurt

*we use our homemade marrow chutney but any would do - best would perhaps be a mango one.

It's a lot of ingredients, but I promise it's worth it. Plus the majority of it is larder-foods, which you can use over and over in other recipes. So there. ALSO this makes enough for 6-8 hungry people, so you can freeze your inevitable leftovers and use on a a lazy-day.

THE HOW-TO:

1. Chop the potatoes into small pieces and boil for 10/15 minutes, until tender.

2. Chop the onion, garlic and chilli(s). Put some olive oil in a wok or large saucepan and fry the onion garlic and chilli until soft - about 5/10 minutes.

3. Add the dry ingredients - the flour, curry powder and ginger - and cook for another 3/4 minutes. At this stage it should look something like this:

4. Add the tinned tomatoes, then fill the empty can 3/4 full with water and add that too. Also add the chutney, lemon juice, peanut butter and bay leaves.

5. Drain and rinse the butterbeans, and add those too. Season, and cook gently for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

6. Add the potatoes. Put on the pan lid (or an upside-down plate if you don't have one) and simmer for a further 15/20 minutes.

7. Add the yoghurt and EAT.

Best served with long grain brown rice and chapattis. At home we make these ourselves, but that's just too much faff at uni so I bought some. Easy peasy. 

If you DO want to make them though (say, if you want to be gluten-free) - the mixture is a heaped tbsp of both white and wholemeal flour per person, drizzled with olive oil and enough warm water to make a dough. This is kneaded and left for at least an hour. It's then cut up into small pieces (4 per person) and rolled out, then dry-fried for about a minute each side and spread with as much butter as you dare.

And there you go. You can add or miss out anything you want - when I did the leftovers for myself and Rebecca yesterday I added some more ginger and a desert spoon of wholegrain French mustard. Plus, Rebecca said it was the best thing she'd ever tasted in her life. Beat THAT.

Fajitas

These are very easy to make and immensely satisfying, and wonderful if you have friends over as Zosia and I did on Friday.

Fellow students, it's a win-win situation!

To make enough for four, you need:

- 1 large onion (or 2 small)
- 2 red chillies and seeds (depending on the type/your preference)
- 3 or 4 peppers
- 1 bag Quorn fillets or 'chicken style pieces'
- 1 sachet 'Old El Paso' fajita seasoning
- 1 tbsp cumin
- sprinkle of Tabasco
- squirt of lemon juice
- handful of fresh coriander

Chop your onion into long-ish strips and throw into a large frying pan or wok with a generous amount of olive oil. Then chop your chillies (the best way to do this is to make one cut from the stem to the bottom, and then slice into small pieces, cutting in the direction of the stem. This means you can hold onto the stem at all times, and so avoids getting chilli all over your hands and having to deal with the consequences of rubbing your eyes later in the evening). Add to pan.

Chop the peppers into strips - by the time this is done you can add them to the pan. Stir and take the opportunity to talk to your friends/esteemed dinner guests and food critics (depending on your chefy fantasies), as these need a good five minutes before you can move on.

The next step depends on what type of Quorn you're using - if it's the fillets, you'll need to defrost them in the microwave enough to chop them into small pieces. If it's the 'chicken style pieces' you can just throw them straight in the pan - they'll defrost in there as well as cook, and it makes life so much easier. Once they start to colour you can add the seasoning, cumin, Tabasco and lemon juice. You're now pretty much done - cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure nothing catches at the bottom of the pan, and add your fresh coriander before serving.

Best served with corn tortilla wraps, grated cheddar cheese, sour cream, salsa, guacamole and Tabasco.

The delicate art of how to fill your fajita in order to successfully make it close

YUM. Tesco also just so happens to sell all the dips together in a 'Tex Mex' dips set, which is a brilliant money saver.

Word to the wise - do not expect to be able to eat them without making a mess. It's half the fun.

Enjoy!