Day One - Dinner

all recipes serve one unless otherwise noted

BASIL-PARMESAN PASTA

This one's very simple

Ingredients:

Linguine (80 grams per person)

Fresh basil

Parmesan cheese

Olive oil

1) Boil water with salt

2) Put linguine in the boiling pot. Wait 7-8 minutes for al dente pasta, longer if you like it softer.

3) Grate parmesan on top, add olive oil.

4) Garnish with shredded pieces of basil.

PREP TIME: 1 minute, including cheese-grating

COOK TIME: 10 minutes

Cost: Linguine 8 pence, basil 5 pence, cheese bit 15 pence. Total estimated cost including salt oil portion 35 pence.

HONEYED CARROT-PARSNIP STIR-FRY

Ingredients:

1 big carrot

1 parsnip

Olive oil

Honey

Sesame seeds

1) Finely chop the carrot and parsnip into pieces.

2) grease and heat the pan

3) Add carrots. 

4) When they begin to soften add the parsnips.

5) Add a teaspoonful of honey. Stir.

6) Add about a third of a handful of sesame seeds. Stir.

7) Pour boiling pasta-water as necessary to keep pan moist without needing more oil

8) Remove when all soft. Serve after garnishing with olive oil, more seeds.

PREP TIME: 3 minutes (do while boiling pasta water)

COOK TIME: 7-8 minutes

COST: Parsnip 20 pence, Carrot 5 pence, Sesame seed portion 30 pence, estimated total cost including per-serving price of honey, salt, and oil, 60 pence.

TOTAL DINNER COST: 95 pence.

Day One - Lunch

My Tesco bags arrived. The initial investment was a heavy one - the kitchen in which I work had nothing, not even salt, and I needed a full arsenal of spice and herbs. Thus the first delivery included not only fruits, vegetables, and meats, but also such staples as salt, vinegar, olive oil, curry, sesame seeds, five or six spices, garlic, onions, pasta, rice, and flour. (I am currently cultivating a sourdough starter - it will be detailed later). After much unloading, I had about thirty minutes before an appointment, and so the first experiment began.

RECIPE ONE - Rognon de Porc with Fresh Kale

No, kidneys are not icky. Nor is any offal. Those parts of the animal which some refuse to eat (the same ones that inevitably end up in the seemingly more palatable chicken nuggets) have more protein and less fat and calories than their muscle-based equivalents, and are also far cheaper. And tastier. 

INGREDIENTS

Raw kidney of pork (2 per person, or 1 if you're not hungry)

Half-bag or bunch of kale (spinach can be used)

Garlic clove (half per person)

Chicken stock (half-cube)

Salt, pepper, fine herbs

1) Grease a sauce or frying pan. Meanwhile, put the kettle on and wash your kle.

2) Cut open the kidneys. (Learn from my experience - if you put them in whole, they're too thick, and the outside is overcooked while the inside isn't cooked enough). Place them in pan

3) Stir until lightly browned. Meanwhile, put some stock cubes into a mug or cup and add the boiling water from the kettle you just put on.

4) Add in the kale and garlic

5) Whenever the kale/kidneys start to splutter, pour in a bit of the stock to add moisture.

6) Take the whole lot off the hob the second the center of the kidney goes from bright pink (raw, bad) to slightly pink (very rare, very good.)

7) Dust with fine herbes, salt.

TOTAL PREP TIME 1-2 minutes.

TOTAL COOKING TIME: 5-7 minutes

COST: Two medium-sized kidneys (one large portion) cost me 59 pence, a half-bag of kale was  35 pence, a half-clove of garlic was 20 pence. Adding in estimated per-use costs of oil, spices and stock, that brings our estimated meal cost to 1 pound 30.

Raison d'Eat-re

When I was a tiny infant in Rome, swaddled in a stroller I mistakenly termed a "cappuccino" - a logical response to my mother's habit of procuring one every time she asked me if I wanted to "go for a cappuccino?", I ate very well. My mother fed me tablespoons of olive oil and refused to allow me near a jar of baby food, choosing to puree fresh vegetables and ladle them into my mouth. I learned to shun junk food in favor of spinach sauteed with garlic and olive; I was the only two-year-old in the annals of the human race to enjoy brussel sprouts. Throughout my childhood, growing up in Rome, Paris, and New York, I was indoctrinated into that strange spiritual sensuality of food - the notion of food as experience, rather than substance. 

Then I went to college.

For three months, I ate nothing but English breakfasts, quick panini, and kebabs. The strenuous nature of life in Oxford allowed me to fit into my jeans, but I grew sallower and sallower even as my wallet grew lighter and lighter.

Staying at friends' parents houses over the holidays reminded me of what food ought to be: sit-down, healthy meals with ingredients pronounceable by the English tongue. But I am a student with a student budget and student time. I can't cook a fantastic meal for twelve.

Thus, the experiment. I have a minifridge with a freezer compartment, a two-hob countertop stove with oven, and the ability to order cheap food in bulk from Tesco's. What follows is my experiments in cooking like my mother. And failing. But hopefully producing a few recipes along the way.