This page is for you guys to get online and share all the tasty dishes you make day in day out, try to keep things cheap, I want this to become a page where students can go for inspiration for new meals to try out so please share your favourite recipes with us. I’m particularly interested in your vegetarian home cooking as I firmly believe that we are all eating too much meat, there is so much great vegetarian food out there but we have become so obsessed with the cheap meat on offer at the supermarkets that we have forgotten how to cook really good meat free food. Having said that all recipe ideas are more than welcome and I’m going to kick things off with my chilli, simply because it is so cheap and easy to make and the recipe can also be easily adapted for a tasty Bolognese or lasagna ragu. I can’t wait to see what you all come up with!
Chilli Con Oxford
Serves 5-6 (or 3 hungry students)
Ingredients.
500g Minced Beef (butchers on Cowley or in the covered market for better quality and to support local producers)
250g Minced Pork or Sausage Meat (butchers on Cowley or in the covered market for better quality and to support local producers)
1 Red Onion, finely diced
2 White Onions, finely diced
1 Large Carrot, finely chopped
2 Sticks of celery, finely chopped
6 Green Finger Chilli’s, finely chopped (I leave the seeds in but if your scared of a little heat you can remove them, its a bit fiddly tho and don’t rub your eyes afterwards!)
3 Medium-sized Red Chilli’s, finely chopped
2 Cans of Red Kidney Beans
3 Large fresh Tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 Cans chopped Tomatoes
1 Tablespoon of Sugar
1/2 Bunch of Coriander, finely chopped
1/2 Glass of Milk
1 Glass cheap Red Wine (optional)
1 Teaspoon crushed dried Chilli’s in the oil before anything else (Only if you want to give it an extra burst of heat)
Method
Put a healthy glug of olive or sunflower oil in the pan and heat (if you like it really hot at this point add a tea-spoon of dried chilli’s to temper the oil). When the oil is nice and hot add your onions and stir around the pan for 3-5 minutes, then add one level tablespoon of sugar to the onions and heat until the onions start to look sticky and taste sweet. At this point add the chopped carrot and celery (Almost everything can be enhanced by the simple combination of onion, celery and carrot its the basis for so much really tasty food) and then add the finger chilli’s. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Once the mirepoix (onions, carrots and celery) has started to take on a little colour and soften, add the beef and pork mince to the pot. Cook this off for a few minutes until most of it has changed colour, then add your fresh tomatoes and wine (optional), once the wine has cooked down add about half of the first can of chopped tomatoes and the remaining chilli. At this point I like to add about half a glass of milk into the mix, as this helps to soften the meat (it will soften over a long period of cooking but this helps speed up the process a bit). Then continue to add the chopped tomatoes bit by bit every few minutes whilst it simmers away. You want to build up the sauce slowly and let it cook down, the longer you take in the cooking the better it will taste.
Once you have added all the tomatoes add a cube of decent beef stock to enhance the taste of the meat. At this point add one tin of kidney beans, simmer for half an hour then add the other can of kidney beans and simmer for a further 15 minutes. This way half the beans have had a nice period to suck up all the flavours and the other half will still be nice and firm when you eat.
Once cooked stir in the chopped coriander, heat for a couple of minutes and then leave to settle down for five minutes off the hob before serving.
I serve my chilli with a nice salad and a few garlic pizza breads. Lots of people eat it with rice but I think chilli is at its best all alone in a bowl with a bit of salad and some nice bread and maybe a bit of cheese or sour cream. If you follow the recipe you should have a good balance between hot and sweet, it doesn’t have so much chilli in it that you can’t taste everything else, but you will know you’ve been eating chilli!
This dish is all about time, the longer and slower you cook it, the better. If you cook it the day before and then re heat on the stove the next day the flavours will have developed even more, I never make it 24hrs without eating it but if you have the will power its well worth it!
For a ragu for lasagna or Bolognese simply remove the chilli, coriander and kidney beans and replace with basil, mushrooms and half a tea-spoon of ground cinnamon.
Enjoy, I’m sure you will all come up with some great recipe ideas, can’t wait to see them!!
James Green @ Slow Food Oxford Brookes 
Mussels
– They are inexpensive and can be found in the covered market
Ingredients
1 bushel Mussels- debearded (the black thing pulled out and washed) discard any that are already open
1/2 Cup White Wine
2 slices bacon chopped (optional)
3 Garlic Cloves- finely chopped
1 Shallot or 1/4 white onion- finely chopped
3 pats butter and or cream
2 tablespoons butter
1 small tomato- small diced
2 Tablespoons Oil (preferably neutral oil or clarified butter)
any kind of bread tossed with oil, salt and pepper and oven toasted
Preparation
Take pieces of break, cut however you like, and either in a bowl or just on a baking sheet drizzle with oil salt and pepper. Put into a med heated oven and allow to toast
meanwhile, heat oil in a sauté pan over med- high heat. Add in chopped bacon and let the fat render and the bacon crisp, then add in the chopped garlic and shallot,stir. Be careful not too burn them. Then add the washed mussels to the pan and stir everything together. Next add the white wine. Give it a a good stir again. Either with a lid or a smaller sauté pan cover the mussels and allow them to steam. After about 5-10 min most of the mussels should have opened, remove the lid and add in the butter (you can also add a little cream if you’d like). Now add in the diced tomato and parsley. Mix everything together. Serve in a bowl with toast and enjoy!!!!
Beer Braised Roast- this is so easy and will impress all your friends!!!
Pork shoulder- or any tough cut of meat that you have no idea how to cook!!
1 white onion
1 carrot
2 garlic cloves (optional)
1/2 bunch fresh thyme (optional)
2 cans beer of your choice (water or other liquids can be substituted!)
Preparation
Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius
Rough chop carrot, onion, and garlic cloves. Find a pan that fits the cut of meat with a lid…..(you dont want it too big or else it wont cook properly). First rub the cut of meat with salt and pepper. Next place it in the pot. Lay the cut up carrot and onion in pan around the meat. Next fill pot with beer (any remaining is for the cook!!). cover and place in oven. Allow to cook 4-7 hours. Just check it every once and awhile. When it is literally falling apart its done!!! Enjoy!! Dont worry its hard to mess this one up.
A successful dinner last night – Sausage Tagine!
Now i’m not one for weights etc so just go with what feels right.
In a roasting dish, roast peppers, parnsnips, carrots, new potatoes, courgette and onions. Put a bit of oil, salt and pepper over them and roast!
Meanwhile cook sausages in oven also – easier! We used pork and leek which was nice!
Then make the sauce, 1xchopped tomatoes (tin) orange juice, chillis, dried chillis, cumin, cinammon, papkira and salt and pepper. simmer whilst veggies and roasting.
When the veggies are roasted, cook off the cous cous in some water, then pour sauce over veggies.
To serve, cous cous then veggies and place sausages on top!
Yum!