Cooking Diaries: Chilli con carne and rice for the student on a budget

Image by cyclonebill

Hello! Baawo! Ndewo! Hola! Aloha! Salut! Shalom! Guten tag!
You know, I've been really enjoying all the recipes from the "student on a budget series" like Spaghetti Bolognese and Shepherd's pie. Its been a great way for me to enjoy quality without having to break the bank. I can use the money saved towards other things like buying gifts for myself and my family for Christmas.Speaking of Christmas, has anyone made a shopping list? I certainly have, it mostly consists of books I've been wanting to get on Amazon and some cool Jewellery. I've already started buying things for the "fam", because you never know who is going home for Christmas and when the person will be going. Anyway, I digress. I made something really delicious and easy this week. I made Mexican chilli con carne with rice(First it was Italian, then Irish, now Mexican; I feel like my mouth is making international trips!). This recipe is probably the easiest one I've made so far in terms of technicality so I'll keep my explanations short and sweet. The ingredients include:

450g beef mince
1onion, peeled and chopped
100g mushrooms, chopped
1 tin kidney beans
1 beef stock cube(Knorr)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons chilli powder
225ml water
125ml red wine - reduced to half by boiling
salt and pepper
200g rice(50g/portion)

 -Fry the mince in a pan until it has all browned, then add the chopped onions, mushrooms and chilli powder and continue cooking for approximately 5 minutes, then add the other ingredients and simmer for 25-30 minutes season with salt and pepper to taste.
-Meanwhile cook rice in boiling water for 10-20(depending on the type).

This was the first time I'd ever tried Mexican food, I'd always wanted to try it back in Nigeria but there weren't very many Mexican restaurants and it didn't seem like a very popular cuisine in the Lagos scene. I must say I loved it, Mexican chilli is definitely something I'll be trying again(next week maybe?) because I have some left over ingredients. Its so delicious and spicy, I made mine especially hot but you can minimise the hotness by putting 1 tablespoon chilli powder instead of 2 and even removing the bell pepper from your recipe. Its easily customisable to your preference. Enjoy!

Cooking Diaries: Shepherd's pie for the student on a budget

Image by cyclonebill

Hello! Baawo! Ndewo! Hola! Aloha! Salut! Shalom! Guten tag!
Its been a minute hasn't it? I recently got some feedback from a friend who enjoyed the blog post on Spagetti Bolognese and promised to try it(I'll definitely hold him to that promise). That positive feedback gave me the courage to try out another recipe and share it on the blog. This time, it was the British/Irish staple, Shepherd's pie. Initially I was bit sceptical, because of the idea of baking mashed potatoes(I didn't think I'd find baked potatoes delicious) but I turned out great! Here's how I made mine, starting with the ingredients used(Recipe for 4 portions):

450g beef mince
1 onion, chopped
150g mushrooms
200g salad mix or
100g carrots(chopped) and 100g peas(cooked)
4 tablespoons tomato ketchup
Salt
Pepper
4/5 large potatoes

The Process?

- First, fry off the mince in a pan then add all other ingredients and place in an oven-proof dish.

grease the oven proof dish with butter

- Peel the potatoes and dice them.

- Cook the diced potatoes in salted boiling water for 20 minutes and mash them up with a little butter and skimmed milk.

- Place the mashed potatoes on top of the cooked mince.

- Bake at 180 degrees Fahrenheit for approx 30-35 minutes until lightly browned on top and around the edges.

garnished with a dollop of mayonnaise

You can serve with other vegetables of your choice, probably a vegetable salad? I loved eating it just as is but if you feel like having an accompaniment, it might as well be something healthy like vegetable salad. Enjoy!

Cooking Diaries: Spaghetti Bolognese for the student on a budget

 

The first recipe I tried in the recipe booklet was Spaghetti bolognese, a meat based Italian sauce. Its a classic and you don't really need a lot of ingredients to make it. I'd made it before in Nigeria but not as rich and as tasty as this. In the original recipe, beef is used however I'm not particularly fond of beef so I decided to use turkey mince which is a leaner and healthier alternative. This recipe serves 4 meals.

450g beef/turkey mince
1 Large onion, peeled and chopped
150g mushrooms(I used chestnut mushrooms for their strong flavour)
1 beef stock cube
1 level dessertspoon dried oregano
1 level dessertspoon dried basil
1 tin chopped tomatoes(I chopped raw tomatoes)
200ml red wine-reduced by 1/2
150ml water
1 level tablespoon tomato paste
1 level dessertspoon corn flour (to thicken)
Salt and pepper
Carrot peels (optional)

70-100g Spaghetti/portion (Cook in boiling water for 15-20 minutes with a pinch of salt)

The process?
- In a saucepan fry mince off, (the mince usually contains enough fat to fry dry, but its advisable to add a small amount of oil to prevent it sticking) for approximately 10 minutes.

- Add chopped onions and mushrooms to mince.

- Place red wine in another small pan and boil fast until reduced by heat.

- Add stock cube, oregano, basil, chopped tomatoes, reduced red wine, water, tomato paste and salt and pepper to mince and simmer for 20 minutes.

- Stir in corn flour, to thicken just before serving and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- I added carrot peels to the sauce just to try something different.

 - Bolognese sauce could also be added to macaroni instead of spaghetti to create an interesting alternative or rice(I should try that *wink*).
- To reheat frozen portions, defrost  for 4 hours and then reheat in a pan for 5-8 minutes or reheat in microwave oven(covered) for 3-4 minutes alternatively microwave from frozen (covered) in 8-10 minutes.

Spaghetti bolognese is a really delicious hearty dish and I'll definitely be making it regularly from now on. Before I even added the corn flour, I was literally salivating and couldn't wait to finish making it. Sorry this post is coming late, I basically strong-armed myself to finishing up this post before midnight, I'm just busy busy busy!  As you can tell, I modified the recipe to my taste and preference. As you get better at making it, you  can gather more recipes for it and become more creative with it. Enjoy!

Cooking Diaries: Easy peesy Lemon bread

 I love lemon. I don’t exactly know how my obsession with this citrusy fruit started but all I know is that I use lemon for everything. I use it as part of a “tomato-lemon solution” to cleanse my face when I’m having breakouts, I add lemon oil to my body butter which doubles as a moisture sealant for my hair, and It is a key ingredient in my favorite weekend snack; the Lemon bread.

I first discovered Lemon bread when I was searching for bread recipes. Big treat is one of my preferred bakeries in Lagos (I also like “underground” at Yaba, close to UNILAG) and my favorite bread to buy there is their “cake bread”, a delicious hybrid of cake and bread with the sweet cake part on top and the crusty bread top at the bottom. But spending ₦300 on a bread the size of ₦60 agege bread EVERY weekend (I was an unemployed “ex-coffer” and I wasn’t about to spend all of my allowee on “couture” bread!) was impossible. So I decided that I was going to surf the web and find delicious bread recipes that I could make which would not require any fancy ingredients. That was when I stumbled upon Lemon Bread. It is categorized under sweet bread and judging from the search results, Banana bread is the most common type of sweet bread. I could have gone for the banana bread but I judged it at face value and felt Lemon bread would be better (because it’s prettier!). The original recipe I got was for Blueberry Lemon bread but since I didn’t want mine with fruits, I omitted the blueberry. It still came out great!

Here’s recipe I used for Lemon bread (gotten from joy of baking):

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (outer yellow skin of the lemon)

1 cup (240 ml) fresh blueberries (I omitted this)

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature (If you must use salted butter, then don’t add the ¼ teaspoon salt)

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar

2 large eggs (or 3 small ones)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup (120 ml) milk

Lemon Glaze:

2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated white sugar

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

The process?

Firstly, Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the center of the oven. Butter the bottom and sides of a loaf pan (preferably small sized because the bread isn’t big anyway) and dust the pan with flour.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest. 

 

flour, baking powder,salt and lemon zest mixture

For those that want to add blueberries: Remove 1 tablespoon of the flour mixture. Place the blueberries in a separate bowl and toss the berries with the 1 tablespoon flour (this will help prevent the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the pan during baking.)

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until softened (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes). You’ll also notice that the butter has gone from bright yellow to a creamy off white color. If you don’t get this color, you should beat the mixture a little longer. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture (in three additions) and milk (in two additions) alternately, starting and ending with the flour. Mix only until combined. Gently fold in the blueberries (for the blueberry lemon bread).

lemon bread batter

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 55 to 65 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Lemon Glaze: In a small microwaveable bowl, stir the sugar with the lemon juice. Place in the microwave for about 20 seconds or just until sugar has dissolved.

When the bread is done, remove from oven and place on a wire rack. Pierce the top of the hot loaf with a wooden skewer or toothpick and then brush with the hot lemon glaze. Cool the loaf in the pan for about 30 minutes then remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.

All done!

This recipe is so easy to make, anyone can try it, I would also love to try a fruity version of this just to taste. Anyone wanna try this delish bread? Send me the fab pics!

Recipe makes 1 loaf.