A Tasty Insight

YES WE CAN ... cook something other than spaghetti with ketchup!

Yes, this is a post about cooking. But before you roll your eyes and scroll down and out of here as fast as you can, give me a chance to explain. I would like to dedicate this post to all the busy university students (and the odd helpless bachelor) in the world. I know you are out there.

Please read on, especially if one or more of the following apply:

1) Chopping onions makes you very, very sad.
2) You have burnt pasta before. Or rice. Or soup. Or ...
3) Your microwave is your best friend.
4) Béchamel … that’s that city in Egypt, right?

Yes, I knew you were out there. You are probably terrified and hungry and the faint smell of burnt milk surrounds you. It’s ok. I once was one of you. I had convinced myself, after various failed attempts at mastering the art of cooking, that I just wasn’t cut out to be the cook of my own delicious and nutricious food. Cooking was for those Jamie Olivers, Auguste Gusteaus and supermoms out there who knew what they were doing.

Soon after I had moved out of home to start my life as an independent and able grown-up who had everything under control, however, I began to realize that maybe I shouldn’t have faked a medical emergency and fled the kitchen every time my pan-wielding, fresh-herbs-at-the-speed-of-light-chopping supermom wanted to show me a few tricks. It would have been a lot less humiliating to just take the time to listen to her then than calling her up from the smoke-filled kitchen of my apartment and coughing something along the lines of “MOTHER … you know how you used to make those pancakes for us?” into the phone. And definitely a lot less humiliating than having her immediately started laughing hysterically because (seeing as though she had been my mother for twenty something years) she knew exactly that I was dumping a stack of burnt and/or (yes, I mean and/or) runny pancakes in the trash can as we spoke.

(Supermom)

But here comes the good part. Once I had gotten over my initial fear and, let’s be honest here, laziness that had prevented me from unfolding my full culinary potential I not only discovered that my mother was, in fact, a genius and true supermom (I’d had my suspicions all along) for feeding three unappreciative kids plus one unappreciative husband. (It wasn’t all that bad, I’m just trying to make a point here.) I also discovered another thing: the fact that, in the words of cartoon chef Auguste Gusteau, “anyone can cook”.

Now, I’m not saying I deserve five stars or toques for my experiments in the kitchen, but I do think that young people, especially students, don’t cook enough for themselves. No time, tight budget, don’t know how to … those are the excuses I used to use. But in fact, when we just stop and think about it, it doesn’t take that long to whip up some Bolognese sauce. And if you have a tight budget, I’ve got one word for you: POTATOES! If you think you don’t know how to – just have some courage, try to find the will to experiment, get some friends together and I promise you will soon learn that you, too, can cook. No excuses.

To help you get out of those pizza places and fast food joints, I’ve hand-picked one of my favorite tasty and cheap recipes to motivate you. And hey, it even comes with pretty pictures!

Foolproof deliciousness also known as: LASAGNA

Besides being an instant hit with all the kids I’ve ever looked after, Lasagna is, contrary to wide-spread opinion, very easy to make. And this is the part where we learn that Béchamel is not a city in Egypt but rather the sauce that everybody, and I mean everybody, should be able to “accidentally” whip up while sleepwalking in their kitchen.

Step one: get all the ingredients together.

You will need:
- about 500 grams of ground beef
- lasagna sheets … use the precooked ones
- an onion
- two cloves of garlic
- some tomato paste
- about half a liter of tomato polpa (that’s Italian for pulp, you know)
- salt and pepper to taste
- three table spoons of butter
- four table spoons of flour
- ¾ of a liter of milk
- some curry powder (that’s my special little touch)
- some Grana Padano (that’s cheese, just get cheese) to sprinkle on top
- … and possibly a bay leaf or two and some nutmeg for extra-fanciness
- oh, and you will need olive oil, you almost always need olive oil


Step two: make Béchamel, the mother of all sauces. The most important thing when making the mother of all sauces is that you do not, under any circumstances, heat the stick of butter up in the microwave. You must melt it on low heat on your stove. Don’t ask me how I know this. I, err, just do. When the butter has turned into a pretty yellow liquid, whisk in the flour and then quickly add all the milk. Salt and pepper to taste, throw in the bay leaf and if you’re feeling particularly fancy, some nutmeg and just let it sit there on low heat until it starts to thicken.

By the way, I can’t help you with the question of how much salt or pepper you should put in. Just add some, taste, add some more, taste … you get the picture. If you have one of these you can gradually learn how many spoonfuls your dishes need. I love my little salt pot.

Step three: wipe the beads of sweat from your forehead – you have created Béchamel and it's good. Congratulations!

Step four: chop up your onion. (And this is the part where we learn that if you freeze your onion for a couple of minutes before starting to cut it … it won’t make you all emotional.) Chop up your garlic. Now heat up some olive oil in a pan. When you think it’s hot enough, throw in a tiny piece of onion. If it sizzles, the oil is indeed hot enough and the rest of the onion and garlic can go in. Stir it all around until the contents of the pan are nice and yellow. Now you can add the meat. Brown the meat and then add your polpa along with your desired amount of salt and pepper. I like lots. Molto bene! Now you could add about 100 milliliters of red wine. Instead, as a special little trick, I like to add a bit of curry powder. I just like the taste better. Done.



Step five: Preheat the oven to about 200 degrees Celsius and find a rectangular casserole dish. Now layer your lasagna as follows: Béchamel, noodles, Bolognese sauce, noodles, Béchamel, noodles … and so on. You should finish with a layer of Béchamel on top.

And in the oven it goes! After about 30 minutes sprinkle the cheese over the top of it and put it back in for another 10 minutes.

Et voilà! Food for the next three days.

You see, cooking yourself is not only easier than you thought, it’s also cheaper and it really isn’t all that time-consuming.

I will round off this post with a dash of simple things that I couldn’t imagine my student kitchen without:

1) Herbs. I grow my own basil, rosemary, thyme, chives and parsley. Cheap and fresh.


2) Potatoes. Oh, the things you can do with that precious bulb. Think mashed potatoes, hash browns, fries, tortilla de patatas, potato salad, baked potato, … and they are cheap as chips. Oh, you could also turn them into homemade chips (in the American sense of the word … actually also in the British sense … SEE? Potatoes are great!)


3) Puff pastry. Perfect because you can fill it with anything and it always tastes lovely. Make some good old Austrian apple strudel, some spicy meat cakes, and some vegetable strudel. Fantastic filo fun! (And feap, too! I mean cheap.)


I’m out of here for now, but I hope this little post has helped make your perhaps dull disciple diet a little bit more exciting.

And remember: anyone can cook!