Friday, January 28, 2011
Recipes for Starving Students in Paris or Anywhere
OK. Let's bite the bullet here. We talk about all the things we ate as students but how does that help the starving students of today? Zip! So lets start a collection of simple recipes you can make either with no cooking devices or with a simple electric hot plate, Camping Gaz bottle with burner, toaster oven (been available in France to for years), access to sink, some basic utensils and no bank account. Here goes "Recipes for Starving Students"
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Poulet en Crème aux Champignons
ReplyDeleteRequires hotplate or oven, skillet with cover or pot with cover (aluminum foil also works, fork, utensils or hands, plate(s)
• 1 bit of chicken (breast or leg or whatever you can find on sale) per starving student
• 1 boîtes de soupe crème de champignon (known in the US as Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup) available in all super markets, corner stores.
• Handfull of dry crackers, bread crumbs, the bits at the bottom of a bag of Pretzels
• Salt & Pepper to taste.
• Olive oil, butter or other oil.
Preparation:
1. Clean chicken and remove skin if you want to.
2. Heat pan on burner to medium heat or oven to 350F (177C)
3. Add smear of oil or small pat of butter
4. Brown top surface of chicken until lightly golden
5. Turn down heat and add enough mushroom soup to cover the chicken and dribble into pan
6. Before finishing, sprinkle crushed dry crackers, dry or toasted bread crumbs or pretzel bits over chicken.
7. Let them glue themselves to the top of the chicken or put under a grill if you have one.
8. Serve with potato chips, any veggie side or something from the deli/alimentation.
Variation 1: If you have a steamer (pot with drop in steamer holder), steam some zucchini or other veggies from carrots to potatoes, then add to the chicken when you pour over the mushroom soup.
Variation 2: This works for almost every type of meat from turkey breast cutlets to pork chops. Anything on special at the super market.
Variation 3: Serve in candle light for maximum romantic appeal.
Cheap, hearty, and does not complain if wine is added for taste. But test the wine first. (After washing the chicken be sure to wash off all surfaces where the chicken parts have touched including all sink surfaces.)
Cynthia Hale:
ReplyDeleteNevermind. Having daydreams of a favorite meal and will simply share them at the most convenient spot:
A Traditional Gourmet Dinner for Two Starving Students in Paris circa 1964
Below is the menu favored by myself and my ACP roommate, Perla Pultuskier. Having not so much as a hotplate and daunted to find an affordable restaurant in the 16th Arrondissement, most nights we dined quite splendidly while perched on our beds sharing the following spread:
1 fresh Baguette, split lengthwise
100 grams Pate de la Compagne
1 kilo Belgian Endive
100 grams Champignons a la Grecque and/or
100 grams Celeri Remoulade
2 Tartes aux Abricots or Napoleons
1 bouteille Cotes du Rhone (the kind you can take back and have the empty bottle refilled from the cask)
Methode: Chop endive and toss with olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Split baguette and smear with all the pate. Cut in half. Divide the remaining items equally. Guaranteed to help one gain at least 5 pounds over the course of a year.
From Pat:
ReplyDeletePistou Sauce from Provence, guaranteed to add pizazz to a favorite vegetable soup:
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Large handful of fresh Basil
2 T tomatoe paste
2 oz freshly grated Parmesan
6 T olive oil
1 small slice day old French bread crumbs
Blend everything except the olive oil together in a small food processor. Then dribble in the olive oil. Thin the sauce with a little of the soup stock & then add as much as you like to each bowl of soup. Pass extra Parm.
CHICKEN AND BLACK BEANS
ReplyDelete1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast (or other chicken meat)
2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
2 jars favorite salsa
optional: shredded sharp cheddar, crushed tortilla chips (offer on side as toppings)
Boil chicken and shred. Combine chicken, beans and salsa in pot and heat through. Serve with salad and cornbread or tortilla chips for full meal. Easy, hearty, low fat, high fiber and keeps well in frig for a couple days. Serves four, depending on apetites and sides ...
Barbara and I are on the same wave length. Here are 7 more recipes based on the classic beans & rice. When my brother was a starving student he'd cook up a pound of beans & a pound of brown rice and eat that for a week. I'm not suggesting you eat nothing but beans and rice but here's his basic recipe with 6 variations from me.
ReplyDeleteRice and Beans: a starving student’s classic (or millions of Mexicans can’t be wrong!)
1 lb dried beans (whatever type you like --pinto, black, kidney, garbanzo, mixed beans, etc)
1 onion, diced
Garlic, minced
¼ lb bacon or a hambone or piece of salty pork.
Pinch of thyme
Diced jalapenos (optional)
1 lb. brown rice
Sea salt, pinch
Cover the beans with water & either soak over night --or bring to the boil & let the beans soak in the water for 1 hour before proceeding. Drain off the soaking water & add fresh water to cover. Add the onion, garlic, thyme and pork and simmer until almost done, approximately an hour but depends on how fresh the beans are. Add diced jalapenos (optional). While the beans cook, cook the brown rice in water according to directions on the package. Brown rice usually takes about 40 minutes. Remove from burner. Taste & add salt to taste. Cover and put pot off the stove & don’t remove the lid for another 10 minutes or so.
Meal #1 – rice topped with beans
Meal #2 – wrap beans in tortilla (or whatever flat bread you have in Paris these days) & serve with salsa, grated cheese, chopped tomatoes, sour cream or thick Greek yogurt (my fav).
Meal #3 – Add a can of chopped tomatoes & some jalapenos to 2 cups of the cooked beans. Cover with water & cook for 25 minutes for soup. Serve with garlic bread.
Meal #4 – Stir fry the brown rice with onion, garlic & some chopped vegetables like bell peppers, zucchini, mushrooms or what ever you like. Serve with some of the beans on the side.
Meal #5 – Mash the beans in a food processor & add some olive oil. Put the pureed beans in a dish & drizzle more olive oil on top. Sprinkle with feta or goat cheese & chopped Italian parsley. Serve with a flat bread or a baguette and a salad.
Meal#6 – Drain a cup of two of the beans & toss with a can of tuna, olive oil, diced onion, diced bell pepper & add vinegar & S&P to taste. Put in a bowl & decorate with a sliced egg. Serve at room temperature.
Meal #7 – Top beans with poached eggs. Toss rice with some salsa & heat thru. Serve with a grated Sharp cheese like Cheddar.
Peter -- the chicken with mushroom soup recipe must be yours. How funny -- I made the same thing but with bell peppers & no crunchies on top. Probably got the recipe from my Mom... A college boyfriend presented me with a top of the line stainless steel electric skillet one year as a big hint. He was broke, too, so his parents probably gave it to him. It was fabulous. I made everything in it -- fried chicken, spaghetti & meatballs, even chili. Loved that skillet. Sadly, it finally died last year and I haven't been able to find a replacement that isn't enourmous & costs big bucks.
ReplyDeleteThis is the cookbook I'd recommend for any young person going off to college -- "How to Cook Without a Book" by Pam Anderson, former editor of Cook's Illustrated. The book teaches many essential cooking techniques & provides excellent recipes to illustrate the techniques. Julia Child's "The Way to Cook" is a fine cookbook of this type, too, but it's a much larger volume and pricier. At last count I have 111 cookbooks in my collection and these are two of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteWhen my nephew's off to college I plan to give him Pam Anderson's cookbook -- & a good electric skillet! He'll be good to go.
Sardines. Just made this for myself down here in Provence and it is as good as I remember and as easy to slap together. Just take a piece of toast, bread or other bottom to taste and choice, open a tin of sardines from the supermarket saved in olive oil. Dump the oil since it is not as tasty due to the saturation of the sardine taste. You can smear some tomato sauce on the toast like a spaghetti sauce you might like or not as you prefer. Line the sardines across the base, and you can eat it just like that. Or you can shave some fresh cheese (Parmesan, goat cheese anything), even put a sliced tomato on top. Drizzle some olive oil over it too and some balsamic vinegar makes a nice match. Some leaves of sweet basil and you have a great meal! But there are so many ways of doctoring this dish, that it can be eaten often in many guises. If there is no refrigerator, a freezer bag obtained at any supermarket and some ice will keep perishables for some time with a zip lock bag of ice. Recommend double bagging this make-do fridge. i.e. two freezer bags.
ReplyDeleteFor a simple but energy producing salad, fresh tomatoes with fresh or other goat cheese placed on top with some slices of avocado (I use half an avocado), a sprinkle of roasted pin nuts on top, drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar with fresh leaves of sweet basil makes a nice, lite meal with protein. Can be eaten on a bed of baby greens as well. No cooking! and fast to make.
ReplyDelete