A student meal
Revised: April 19, 2007It’s typical of students to go hours without eating and putting off eating for drinking, or so the popular stereotype would suggest. In reality most of us eat well, most of the time; I unfortunately don’t fit into that most, at least not in the past few days. I haven’t been shopping since I got back from spending Easter in Kent with my family, thus I have been having to survive off of what I can find in the freezer and the cupboards which of course are mostly bare. Having already used up the last of my frozen chips yesterday I have a craving for chili, or something which at least looks like a chili. I thought it would be an entertaining idea to record my attempt at cooking for all to see. So here you have it, a quick, easy, student meal for next to nothing.
Upon hunting through my cupboards I found that I had more than enough ingredients for a chili. Therefore I have used the following ingredients in my concoction: One White Onion Whole, Two Garlic Cloves, 1/2 a cup of Rice, One 400g tin of chopped tomatoes, One 400g tin of kidney beans (drained), half a pint of water and half a pint of veggie mince. Also as seasoning and to replace the ingredients I am missing I used a Hot Chili con Carne packet. All in all I think this meal is going to cost me no more than £4 and I am making enough for four meals!
First thing to do is to put the pan on with some oil in it and get it to heat (low heat at this stage as otherwise the veggie mince will burn the bottom of the pan), while that’s warming up finely dice the onion and then crush and dice the garlic. Once up to heat put the garlic and onion in the pan and allow to brown, while that’s browning measure out the veggie mince and water ready to be included. The veggie mince absorbs the water so we will want this to be flavored, I tend to add the hot chili con carnie mix to the water at this stage and once the onion is browned plonk the water and veggie mince in and allow to simmer for 2 mins.
Once you have simmered off some of the excess water the veggie mince should have enlarged in volume and the resulting mix thickened up. Place the chopped tomatoes and the kidney beans in now, if you have it to hand (and I had to hunt about for some) a hefty dollop of tomato concentrate will enhance the tomato flavors.
Once all the ingredients are in stir every so often, put the rice on boil 5 mins after the ingredients have been included. Once you have done this the meal is ready when your rice is boiled.
Once finished, serve up if dished out conservatively this will feed up to five adults (you might want to put more mince in) I normally fill the bowl half with rice and half with sauce, however this mix tends to leave more rice than mince. Note, if your using electric hobs cook on the lowest setting you can to save the hob from burning the bottom of the pan. If you notice this happening put in some more tomato concentrate to cover the taste. Once you have served up put the rest in a sealable tub, leave to cool before putting in the freezer for when you get those early morning munchies.
Time taken: About an hour (no I wasn’t paying attention), Cost: Around £4 for at least three meals.
Steph