Recipes for people with more appetite than money
Simple, cheap, delicious.
Polish home cooking from an Irish kitchen, a few detours through Italy and China, and every shortcut a student could want. Measured in spoons, seasoned with Maggi, finished on the second day.
Gołąbki — Polish cabbage rolls (the ones we call pigeons)
Rice and minced meat wrapped in cabbage, baked under more cabbage, drowned in tomato sauce. One pot, a week of dinners, better on day two.
Schabowe — Polish breaded pork chops
A thin pork chop, beaten flat, breaded, fried golden. Twenty minutes from fridge to plate.
Rosołek — quick Polish chicken broth
The student version of Polish Sunday broth. An hour and a bit, and it still cures colds, hangovers and homesickness.
Chinese pork with ginger, carrots and honey
Marinated pork, a hot wok, ginger and garlic, carrots, then a glossy honey and soy sauce. Twenty minutes, one pan, rice on the side.
Sicilian bread — the no-knead loaf
Six ingredients, fifteen minutes of work and three hours of waiting. A crackling loaf from a domestic oven.
Bacon, Chinese style — salo po kitajski
Pork belly boiled, caramelised in sugar, then braised for an hour in soy, wine, ginger, garlic and star anise. Red, sticky, unreasonably good.
Spaghetti aglio e olio — midnight food
Garlic, oil, parsley, chilli, pasta. Fifteen minutes from a hungry midnight to a plate.
Second-day spaghetti, two ways — with egg, or with white cheese
Always cook more pasta than you eat. The next day it becomes a fried pasta omelette, or a two-minute mac and cheese with cottage cheese.
Sandwiches — the pâté ladder, and the ham version
The easiest possible food after going to McDonald's. Bread and pâté, climbed in four steps to high end. Swap pâté for ham and you have the other post.