Lest we forget

Being Australian means many things; having a bbq every weekend, warning foreigners about the dangers of drop-bears (look up and survive) and pretending that we make good beer.

It also means baking up some wicked biscuits and enjoying them with tea. And I don't care if you don't like tea, you WILL enjoy them with tea.

Anzac Biscuits

Ingredients:
- 1 cup self-raising flour
- 1 cup caster sugar (brown sugar is typically used but caster sugar works just as well)
- 1 cup rolled oats
- ½ cup butter
- 2 tablespoons honey (again, golden syrup is typically used but I had none and honey tastes good too)

1.       Melt honey and butter together in the microwave, stirring every 15 seconds.

2.       Place flour, sugar and oats in a mixing bowl. You can sift the flour if you like, but I’ve found that sifting never really makes much difference.

3.       Stir in the honey and butter mixture.

4.       Roll into small balls and bake at 150 degrees Celsius until golden-brown.

5.       Serve with tea!  

 

Being Australian means remembering and respecting our soldiers, but I'd like to take this opportunity to respect all soldiers, of all nationalities, who have given their lives for a cause they believed in.

Lots of love,
(broke) Masterchef Mel 

Memoirs of a Backpacker

This time last year, I was about to jump on a place and begin possibly the best experience of my life. I was going backpacking across Europe for four months with my boyfriend.

We did the trip old-school and with a very limited budget. We literally carried everything we had on our backs, camped in tents and cooked our own meals on a portable metho-burner stove.This tiny little stove was both wonderful because it saved us paying a truckload of Euros on meals and less-than-wonderful because it took about half an hour to boil water... Plus, neither of us really knew how or what to cook. The way things were shaping up, I wouldn't have been surprised if we ended up eating 'pasta with sauce' for the entire four months.

'Pasta with sauce'

But then something beautiful happened.

As it turned out, 'pasta with sauce' got pretty boring after a while (read: 3 days) and we had to get creative. Now I'm not pretending we became professional chefs whilst we were gone, but we definitely picked up a few tips for becoming professional camp-stove chefs.

*Tip 1: Invest in pepper and garlic. No matter how boring your meal is (eg- pasta with sauce), it will instantly become 100 times better with some pepper and garlic. 

*Tip 2: Don't shake pepper/salt/spice containers directly over a boiling saucepan. Steam gets inside the container and condenses, causing your spice to become wet and a real pain in the butt to shake out. Shake onto a teaspoon instead and use the teaspoon to add the condiment.

*Tip 3: Pasta sauce can be a yummy dip for chips and crackers. The spicy, arrabiata kind is the best.

*Tip 4: Always, and I mean, ALWAYS have a tin of cream of tomato soup on hand in case of emergencies. Especially if you're traveling in a country where it's common practice to shut everything between the hours of 1pm and 5pm, Saturdays after midday and on Sundays. Cream of tomato soup can be added to pasta for flavour, soften stale campsite bread, heated up with a little pepper for a  tasty meal by itself or (in dire circumstances such as being stuck on a train platform somewhere in Germany) drunk straight from the tin.

Tuna was an amazingly versatile (and cheap) ingredient as well. Mix 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise, 1 tin of plain tuna and pepper to taste for a yummy sandwich filling. This is an especially handy filling if you're dealing with slightly stale bread, as the mayo will moisten (moist - lol) the bread. It's also equally good mixed in with pasta or rice.

As for alternatives for 'pasta with sauce', I've included a few of my favourites:

This originally began as another way to soften stale bread, but since returning home I've found it works so much better on toast. 
Cucumber and Cream Cheese Toast (5 mins cooking time!)

- Sliced Lebanese cucumber
- Cream cheese (creamed cottage cheese is a healthier alternative)
- Pepper

1. Spread cream cheese onto toast and layer cucumber slices on top. Sprinkle pepper over toast slices and enjoy!
 

Easy Pasta Salad (15 mins cooking time, 30 mins chill time)
- 1/2 packet pasta (shells work best, but feel free to use any pasta you like)
- 1/2 cucumber
- 1/2 capsicum
- 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
- Pepper to taste
- 2 chicken breasts (optional - equally yummy as a vegetarian dish)

1. Boil pasta until cooked.
2. Chop cucumber and capsicum into small chunks. If cooking with chicken, chop up the chicken as well and fry in a pan until cooked.
3. Stir chopped ingredients into drained pasta with the mayo and pepper. 
4. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 mins.

Lazy Fried Rice (10 minutes cooking time)
- 1/2 cup cooked rice (rice made by placing in a microwave-safe container with 1 cup of boiling water and cooking for 10 mins)
- 1 packet sliced ham/turkey (sliced into little squares)
- 1 tin of corn
- 2 eggs (whisked in a bowl)
- Soy sauce and pepper to taste

1. With a little cooking oil, gently fry the ham/turkey and with the corn.
2. Add the eggs, stirring quickly to make them scramble and separate.
3. Add cooked rice, stir for 2 minutes.
4. Stir in soy sauce and pepper. Serve hot.

Of course, no trip to Europe is complete without an alcoholic experience...

Watermelon Cocktail:
- 1 large watermelon
- 1 small carton of pineapple juice
- 1 small carton of coconut juice
- Vodka to taste

1. Cut a small hole into the top of the watermelon.
2. Using a corkscrew (or whatever other instrument you have at your disposal), mush up the inside of the watermelon until it is a relatively smooth juice.
3. Pour juice and vodka into the watermelon.
4. Stir (as best you can) and drink.


With any luck, none of you will experience being stranded in an Austrian campsite at 5.30pm on a Saturday with a supermarket that doesn't open until Monday morning, but if you do - remember the cream of tomato soup!

Lots of love,
(broke) Masterchef Mel

Slowly spiralling into poverty

Sure, it's a slow spiral, but it's happening nonetheless.

In fact, this week I have suffered a horrifying realisation. Apparently, my (semi) regular beauty treatments, such as hair cuts and eyebrow waxing, may have to be axed from my lifestyle in order to afford... well, anything really. Whilst this may be an achievable possibility for some, I have (or rather, my eyebrows have) reached a point where I need desperate cosmetic intervention. To cut a long story slightly shorter, a friend of mine introduced me to the Land of Oz-like wonders of local markets. Here, I can have my eyebrows done for $10 (compared to the $22 my local salon is trying to charge). More importantly, I can also buy fruit, vegetables, herbs and spices for a quarter of the supermarket price PLUS get a free breakfast from all the free samples. Thus, a love affair begun.

Living by the fallback favourite of sustainability, 'Think Global, Buy Local', it's easy to acknowledge that buying produce from local markets is a good thing to do. And when you're literally seeing your vegie bill drop $20 a week whilst stuffing your face with free churros samples, it's even easier! Although I use market-bought produce in almost every meal, here are some of my recent creations.



Curried Sausages (feeds 2):                                  Cooking time: 30-45 mins

Ingredients:
- 4 thin sausages (this dish works equally well with pork, beef or chicken sausages)
- 1/2 brown onion (keep the other half in the dairy section of your fridge- but don't forget about it!)
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 carrot
- 1/4 cup, or a small handful of chopped broccoli
- 2 small red chillies
- 1 cup peas and corn
- 2 cups chicken/beef/vegetable stock (buying the stock cubs and mixing with boiling water is cheaper than buying cartons of stock)
- Curry powder to taste (don't buy from the supermarket, some markets will sell many different kinds of curry powder for a fraction of the price)
- 1/2 cup rice.

Method:
1. Cook sausages under the grill or in a pan. When done, transfer to a chopping board and cut into small bite-sized pieces.
2. Add chopped onion, garlic, carrot, broccoli and chillies to a saucepan. Cook until the onion is brown and soft.
3. Add curry powder (I usually use a touch more than 1 teaspoon) and stir until all the vegetables are coated.
4. Add stock and chopped sausages. Bring to the boil.
5. Simmer gently until the stock has reduced to a desirable amount of sauce.
6. Serve over steamed rice.


This next recipe is one of my favourites from my Mum's kitchen and has quickly become a favourite in my kitchen as well.


Pumpkin and Chicken Risotto (feeds 2 for dinner, lunch the next day and dinner the next night):
Cooking time: 45-60 mins

Ingredients:
- 2 chicken breasts, chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 2 cups aborio rice (fat, risotto rice)
- 1 small pumpkin, cubed with the skin removed*
- 5 cups chicken stock
- 2 leaves sage (optional, but tasty - I really only use it because I have a sage plant)
- Parmesan cheese (the powdery stuff found in the pasta section of the supermarket, not the cold stuff in the dairy section)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
2. Place pumpkin, chicken, stock and rice into an oven-proof dish.
3. Stir, cover with foil and bake for 30 - 45 mins until the stock is absorbed and the pumpkin is soft.
4. Mix in chopped sage leaves and Parmesan.
5. Serve!


*As my boyfriend will tell anyone who listens, it's important to remove the pumpkin skin. When I first made this dish from my Mum's recipe, she had forgotten to mention the skin needs removing. I assumed that like potatoes and carrot, removing the vegetable's skin was desirable but not necessary. It's necessary. Remove the pumpkin skin.



So get those little butts over to your local markets! Check out the fresh produce, adopt yourself a herb plant or just pinch some delicious free samples all morning.You may even like to donate your saved cash to my latest cause, 'Mel's Quarterly Hair Cuts' and stop me from having my hair cut by apprentices.

Hope you all enjoy my recipes!
(broke) Masterchef Mel

The problem with My Kitchen Rules

Yes, sadly, there is a problem with My Kitchen Rules and Masterchef.

With reality cooking shows switching to focus from healthy meals to fine dining, we're less concerned about the fat content of our dishes than trying to spruce up our dinner times. Now, we see everyone who has access to Instagram, Facebook or a qualified publisher 'plating up' gourmet dishes and showing off what wonderful recipes they've created. I could ramble further about the influence of television on society, but that's actually not what I'm meant to be writing about. I'm meant to be writing about student life and the struggle that follows the fateful words, 'I'm hungry'.

I moved out of home two months ago, and besides being able to construct an awesome cheese, onion and tomato sauce toastie, I was a horrendous cook. I left home with little more than a few handwritten recipes from my parents, a chocolate dessert cookbook (an excellent birthday present, but wasn't going to cut it for 3 meals a day) and the knowledge to wash your hands before you cook. Naturally, I turned to the internet for menu inspiration. As I trawled through site after site, I was dismayed to find that most of the meals I was finding were either far too complicated or too expensive for the average student (read: me). Not that everything was lobster stuffed with caviar, but dishes involving red meat (mince excepted), seafood and an exorbitant amount of sauces/spices were out of my price range.

Which leads me here, to My Student Kitchen, where everything I cook is easy, tasty and friendly for a student budget. I'll kick off my first post with a favourite recipe of mine, which is a spin on one of my dad's recipes.

Tandoori Chicken Skewers (feeds 2):

Ingredients:
- 150g chicken, chopped into small bite-sized pieces
- 1 tablespoon natural yoghurt (keep in the freezer until you need it again to stop it going off)
- 2 tablespoons tandoori paste (you should be able to get at least 5 serves out of the jar)
- 1 carrot, cut into sticks
- 5 to 6 pieces of broccoli, depending on how much you would like
- 1 cup frozen peas and corn
- 1/2 cup rice (optional)
- Bamboo skewer sticks

Method:
1. Place chopped chicken in a large bowl with yoghurt and tandoori paste. Mix well, until the yoghurt and tandoori have blended together and the chicken is well coated. Cover bowl with cling wrap and leave to marinate for a few hours.
2. Once marinated, thread the chicken pieces onto bamboo skewers, leaving a small gap in between the pieces. Grill until done.
3. Steam carrot, broccoli, peas and corn in the microwave. Depending on your microwave, this will take around 2 to 3 minutes. If you would like, combine 1/2 cup of rice with 1 cup boiling water and steam in the microwave. This should take around 10 minutes.
4. Once everything is cooked, place on a plate and voila! Dinner is served.

It may interest you to know (although I don't blame you if it doesn't, and you're already tucking into your tandoori skewers!), that this dish contains one serve of protein, three serves of vegetables and one serve of carbohydrates if you opted for rice. Also, the fraction of the carrot under the skin holds most of its valuable nutrients so don't peel the skin away! If you're particularly hungry or don't have enough meat, bulk the dish up with more rice, peas and corn or even a baked potato.


Unfortunately, that's all I have for the moment but I'll be back soon with another update on cheap, easy eats.

Best wishes,
(broke) Masterchef Mel
Xx