alchemy_gryph

I have really missed Starving College Student entries of late and have fallen woefully behind on my end anyhow, so here goes:



Ingredients:

- 2 tbsp butter, plus extra for greasing (wound up using nondairy Stork spread)
- 2 onions, chopped
- 2 lb. 4 oz. cod fillet, skinned and cut into strips
- 4 rindless lean bacon strips, cut into 1-cm lengths and fondled
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- salt and pepper
- 14 oz./400g canned Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed (Great Northern beans weren't available, so cannellini)
- 2 1/2 cups milk (soya for BritNat)
- 1 lb. 2 oz./500g potatoes, very thinly sliced
- fresh parsley springs to garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Lightly grease a flameproof casserole with a little butter. Arrange the onions in the bottom and cover with the strips of fish and bacon. Sprinkle with the parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper.

2. Add the Great Northern beans, then pour in the milk. Arrange the potato slices, overlapping them slightly, to cover the entire surface of the pie.

3. Dot the potato slices with the butter. Bake the pie in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, or until the potatoes are crisp and golden. Garnish with parsley sprigs and serve immediately.


While this wasn't an unmitigated disaster, it wasn't anywhere as good as I'd hoped it would be, and I'm wondering if it's because I was using nondairy spread and milk. The potatoes didn't crisp and were slightly undercooked (possibly I cut them too thick, so I'll take responsibility for this one), and the "butter" and soya didn't mix very well, leaving a rather unattractive milky sauce dotted with little buttery bubbles floating around. It tasted OK, and BritNat agreed; I always have to ask my guests what a dish is really like because (courtesy of my stellar sinus system) I have real difficulty discerning subtler tastes or figuring out if something's just a little "off" beyond the texture. She also mentioned that generally you shouldn't use as much soya as milk in any given recipe as the former is thicker, so I'm keen to try this out at some point. I don't think we've yet settled on a recipe for next Wednesday.

The saving grace was definitely the fish, which turned out wonderfully; plump, juicy, perfectly cooked, very delicious. The beans and bacon were also lovely (and I hate onions so no use asking my opinion on them). It's the rest of it that needs some work. This is ridiculously easy and also fairly inexpensive even here, so I'd like to try it again, but will probably be fiddling around with it some.





Or Boeuf en Daube, as Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse was wont to call it. I don't think this remotely qualifies as a Starving College Student dish; this is more along the lines of our efforts with Big Impressive Things.

Ingredients:

(whoa Nellie; these alone are enough to torpedo your average student and several will torpedo me here)

- 1 1/2 cups dry white wine
- 2 tbsp brandy (er)
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar (another er)
- 4 shallots, sliced (ha! These I can get!)
- 4 carrots, sliced
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped (in other words, Madox the Garlic Queen be tossing in at least 3)
- 6 black peppercorns (er)
- 4 fresh thyme sprigs (I can get these too)
- 1 fresh rosemary sprig
- 2 fresh parsley sprigs, plus extra to garnish (Yay! I have some leftovers from fish pie! Which will probably be black and disgusting by the time I get around to cooking this!)
- 1 bay leaf (snort)
- salt (a big honking dash on Joe's end, I imagine)
- 1 lb. 10 oz./750g beef topside (huh?), cut into 1-inch cubes
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb. 12 oz./800g canned chopped tomatoes
- 8 oz./225g mushrooms, sliced and fondled
- strip of finely pared orange rind (translation; the dregs of Madox's morning OJ)
- 2 oz./55g Bayonne ham or prosciutto, cut into strips
- 12 black olives

1. Combine the wine, brandy, vinegar, shallots, carrots, garlic, peppercorns, theyme, rosemary, parsley, and bay leaf and season to taste with salt (i.e. Harli upends salt dispenser and watches cascade of white goodness). Add the beef, stirring to coat, then cover with plastic wrap an dlet marinate in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight (whoa! Another torpedo!).

2. Preheat the oven to 300F/150C. Drain the beef, reserving the marinade, and pat dry on paper towels. Heat half the oil in a large, flameproof casserole. Add the beef cubes in batches and cook over medium heat, stirring, for 3-4 minutes, or until browned. Transfer the beef to a plate with a perforated spoon. Brown the remaining beef, adding more oil if necessary.

3. Return all of the beef to the casserole and add the tomatoes and their juices, mushrooms, and orange rind (i.e. Madox's OJ). Strain the reserved marinade into the casserole. Bring to a boil, cover, and cook in the oven for 2 1/2 hours.

4. Remove the casserole from the oven, add the ham and olives, and return to the oven to cook for an additional 30 minutes, or until the beef is very tender. Discard the orange rind and serve straight from the casserole, garnished with parsley.

Again; Major Production. I think I will cook this to celebrate the draft of my dissertation, to be handed in (theoretically) August 20th.

the Provacateur (56% dark, 30% spontaneous, 44% vulgar)

your humor style: VULGAR | COMPLEX | DARK You'll crack on anything, and you're often witty, even caustic, about it. Therefore, your sense of humor is polarizing. You're transgressive, and you've got a seriously sharp 'edge'--maybe too much for some folks. If they get you, people think you're one of the funniest (and smartest) people in the world. If they don't, they think you're an ass. Whatever, right? While some might question your judgement, your comic intellect is unquestionably respected. PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Chris Rock - Lenny Bruce - George Carlin

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 47% on dark You scored higher than 7% on spontaneous You scored higher than 75% on vulgar

Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid

Off to go pick up some milk and juice at the campus grocery; I came to the uni this morning to put a few quid into the printing balance and put in three more interlibrary loan orders. The industrious workers at the British Library (the Boston Spa branch, not the "real" one) have already packed off one of the Haskins articles to me, which was lovely as I received that this morning.

I really want to go see Madagascar or The Wedding Crashers but think I will reserve one or possibly both as a reward to myself for finishing the Chaucer portion and handing it in Monday.