Chicken Stock- The Student project

Actually I am only turning this into the student project because I made this for under $5.  I am really loving Countdown at the moment.  Seasonal vegies are sooooooo cheap and there are specials and reduced to clear for Africa!  I decided that I was not going to do my normal cook all weekend thing.  I was really tired and we have a freezer full of food!  I also have been getting sick of the lack of stock options in the supermarkets as well.  Its either dry stock, packaged shelf life stock or the refrigerated stocked that has majiclly popped up since the last season of Masterchef...... I have bought one of these refrigerated stocks- I will see how it goes

^^refrigerated stock.  

Now for my stock..... This makes over 1.5 litres of stock

Ingredients

2 chicken carcases

2 carrots chopped chunky

5 sticks of celery chopped chunky

1 onion diced chunky

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon of Thyme

1 teaspoon of basil

1 teaspoon of sage

Lots of water

Method

Fill up the slow cooker with all the veggies and chicken carcases and add water till its 3/4 full, add herbs.  

. Once its cooked, sit for an hour or so and skim the fat off the top. 

 Then add to freezer bags and freeze

The Student Project + The Pasta Project = A creamy tomato pasta sauce.

While I was pigging out on cheese and wine yesterday, I was shown a new cook book someone had bought.  It was a pasta cook book. It was by far one of the best cookbooks I have ever seen. I cant remember who it was by but I will find out for you.  The photos were wonderful and the recipes were achievable and  very inspiring.  It reminded me of a pasta sauce I made a while back but forgot about.  Its delish!  I have made it a few times now and it is just soooooooo easy..... and cheap! and we all know I love to do things on a budget. I would say this would be about roughly $5 per meal.

Creamy Tomato Pasta Sauce.

Ingredients

3/4 of a can of tinned tomatoes -Watties crushed & seived are the best

1/2 of a large white onion diced

100 mls of cream (you can use more, I just add more depending on the taste

1 heaped teaspoon on crushed Garlic

olive oil. 

good pinch of grated parmesan

Salt to taste

Method

Add some oil to a frypan on meduim to high heat , add the diced onions and cook till transparent.  Add the garlic and fry off till flavours combine.

Add the tinned tomatoes and cook for a few minuets till all the flavours combine.

Add the cream and stir through.  I would taste the sauce at this point to see if you need to add more cream.

  Once the sauce is right, add the parmesan cheese  and stir through.  Taste again and see if you  need more parmesan or salt and add what is required.

I have served this with packet pasta and also the potato ravioli.

 It was sensational with the potato ravioli I made a while back!

Thats it!

The Student project- Whitestone Mt Kyeburn Mac n Cheese

About a month ago, I did a day trip to Oamaru for work. At that point I had never spent more than 15 minuets in Oamaru and didn't really think that much of the place. After a day in North Otago I realised that Oamaru is awesome!  The Victorian Precinct was really cool.   It reminded me of The Rocks in Sydney but on a smaller scale. I was in Oamaru and the Waitaki region for a wine and food related product so I got to see some really cool places in this region. I defiantly want to go have a long weekend up that way so I can check the region out in more detail.

While I was there I had to visit the Whitestone Cheese Factory.  I am a regular customer at the stall at the farmers market on Saturday so naturally i had to check this place out!  I got to talking with the lady that worked there and told her my favourite cheese in the whole wide world is the Mt Kyeburn aged smoked cheddar.  She told me that she uses that particular cheese in her Mac n Cheese.  I was sold.  

Here is the recipe for my Whitestone Mt Kyeburn Mac n Cheese.  

Ingredients

Macaroni elbows

2/3 of a Whitestone Mt Kyeburn Cheese wedge- crumbled

1/2 a sliced tomato

1 tub of philadelphia cooking cream

3 good pinches of grated parmesan

salt to taste

3/4 of teaspoon of smoked paprika (last minuet addition)

Method

Cook the macaroni according to the packets instructions.

 Once its cooked, drain and return the elbows to the pot you cooked them in. Add the philadelphia cooking cream and stir on a low to medium heat.

 Add the crumbled Whitestone Mt Kyeburn cheese and stir till it has melted.  Add 2 generous pinches of grated parmesan and stir till melted.  Add salt to taste. Make sure the salt cancels out the sour/tangy taste of the Mt Kyeburn cheese.

 Once coked through add some of the smoked paprika.  Leave a little bit as you will need it for garnish.  

Add the macaroni to a baking dish.  Put the last pinch of parmesan on the top. 

Add the tomato slices to the top of the macaroni and the last bit of smoked paprika for garnish. 

 Preheat the oven to 170 degress Celsius and pop the dish in for 15-20 mins.

DONE.

You could make this meal for 2 for around $10 with leftover ingredients for next time.

www.whitestonecheese.co.nz

Thai Fish Cakes

I have made these twice now.  First I made these with Red Cod.  I would recommend you do not use red cod unless you like fish that stinks.  They did taste really good, but that's only because the spices in the this recipe really knocks the socks of the fish flavour.  The second time I used Blue Cod.  Blue Cod is defiantly the king of NZ fish.  Having a great tasting fish made such a difference the second time around. I buy all my fish fresh from the Otago Farmers Market every week. Its cheaper and fresh, plus you can buy in bulk.  I actually think it tastes alot better than the stuff you buy in the supermarket, much more fresh.  You can make this dish on a budget, depending on what fish you buy- a good one for The Student Project as you could make this for under $10.

Ingredients

500 grams of fish (I used blue cod)

3 teaspoons of red curry paste

a good handful of fresh coriander leaves chopped

Spring onions chopped finely (even some of the green parts)

1 heaped crushed chilli

Method

Chop the fish finely and add to a blender.

 Add the rest of the ingredients except oil and sweet chilli sauce and continue blending. 

 I used a stick mixer which I would not recommend as it takes forever and is quite taxing HOWEVER, if you want the ingredients to be chunky and gourmet looking use a stick mixer or don't blend for too long

Roll them into small patty shapes, Fry in frypan till cooked.

Serve with Sweet chilli sauce

Images by me.

Projects.

I have been working on some projects recently that are food related so I have decided to share them with  you.

One is called The Pasta Project.  This has been a work in progress over my cooking life.  Pasta was the reason I started to cook in the first place.  When I was a teenager, I LOVED pasta. I could never get enough of it. I remember my first pasta cooking experience really well. I put some tortellini in the pot before the water boiled.  It was my pasta fail.  My Dad taught me that I had to boil the water first and add some salt, keep trying it  till it was al dente. Someone very close to me taught me the secret of how to cook low fat pasta sauces that I carry with me to this day. As you can see, pasta is very close to my heart.

The Pasta Project is bringing my creations to the world of blogging.  Also experimenting with new idea's and learning the ropes and how to combine flavours.  I have already been working on it for a while as you can see by my previous posts.

The Student Project is another project I am embarking on.  I live with some students and kind of got sick of seeing them eating bad food. One night over dinner we got into the discussion of eating food on a budget.  I am the queen of food budgeting.  It wasn't that long ago my partner and I had a strict food budget of $100 per week.  My partner was not working at the time and I was earning just above minimum wage. This taught us to become very frugal with our weekly food coin. What I want to do is teach my flatmates and everyone else out there that you don't need to eat two minuet noodles and tinned fruit when you are living on a budget. The challenge with the student project is 2 of my flatmate who are a couple are vegetarian.

So watch this space with regards to the projects.  Hopefully this will give my blog the direction it truly deserves.