You Can Have It All

Meaghan Hennessey  

Cheap and easy food is usually synonymous with unhealthy. A lot of people don’t cook just because they can’t spend the time or money on ingredients, but, this winter, challenge that with these easy, fast, AND healthy meals.

Chicken breast stuffed with goat cheese and basil isn’t what comes to mind when you’re thinking easy but it’s true! Bone-in chicken is cheaper than boneless and store brand goat cheese isn’t very expensive. All you have to do is place the goat cheese and basil leaves under the chicken skin, drizzle the chicken with olive oil, salt and pepper, and bake for 40 minutes. You can share it with a roommate or keep it all to yourself. With only 6 ingredients, it’s easy and wallet-friendly.

Another easy meal is leftover empanadas. All you need is frozen puff pastry and add anything you have laying around. Scrambled eggs, green onions, ham, anything! Once you pack the puff pastry with your leftovers, fold the dough over itself and pinch it tight. Brush the outsides with egg wash to give them a golden color. Since everything is already cooked inside, all you have to do is bake the empanadas according to the puff pastry instructions. In minutes you will have a leftover delicacy!

Lastly, you can whip up some cheap and easy veggie quesadillas. Meat is usually the most expensive part of the meal so using veggies is a cost efficient and healthy way to go! Take whatever veggies you have in the refrigerator and either bake or cook the veggies on the stove with some olive oil. Once you bake the vegetables, just add them to some cheese and fry it all up in a tortilla.

I hope these cheap and easy meals help you save some cash! Who ever knew you could have cheap, easy, and delicious?

Across the Irish Sea

Laura Kobak  

Being in London itself was fantastic, but having the opportunity to visit and explore other European cities was the cherry on top. My first venture was just across the Irish Sea to Dublin for a weekend. Arriving at night, my friend and I walked to Temple Bar, an area of medieval streets lined with restaurants and pubs. Choosing a bar compatible with our budget, we dined at “The Auld Dubliner.” Since I’m all about trying cultural cuisines, I went for the Irish stew, while my friend ordered the Guinness beef stew. Appearance is not a primary concern when it comes to these dishes, but flavor is. On top is a huge dollop of mashed potatoes and a side of Irish Soda Bread. Top off the night with some Bailey’s and you’ve got yourself a meal.

The following morning before a full day of sightseeing we stopped into “Queen of Tarts,” a café and patisserie ranked #3 on Trip Advisor and earning 4.5 stars on Google Reviews. We ordered eggs and a scone for breakfast, but were so entranced by the display of pies, brownies, cupcakes, and cookies, that we got a blackberry and apple crumble to go. Unfortunately, after a full day of being scrunched in a backpack “crumble” truly was a suitable description. Nevertheless, once we were through there was not a crumb left.

Being in Dublin, a trip to the Guinness Brewery was a must. On a self-guided tour you explore the process of brewing from start to finish, see the evolution of advertising, and learn how to pour the perfect pint.

Fun Fact: Pouring a perfect pint of Guinness must be done in six steps, including waiting for the beer to settle for 119.5 seconds (almost 2 minutes).

Upon completion, complimentary pints are received on the top floor of the complex at the Gravity Bar, offering panoramic views of the city. I personally could not withstand more than a few sips of the stout beer.

A drink I could finish, however, was a latte from “The Bald Barista,” voted best coffee in Dublin.

The Bald Barista serves you himself, decorating your cup with some beautiful latte art.

The final Dublin food stop was lunch at “Avoca Café” atop a crafts store. I ordered butternut squash soup. While not a particularly Irish dish, it is a personal favorite, so I could not resist. The soup was creamy and flavorful and served with a side of Irish soda bread. I must admit, after only having tasted the soda bread occasionally offered at Marketplace in MoJo, I was disillusioned as to what the real thing actually tasted like — sweet, slightly crunchy, and delicious.

While not quite Italy or Spain in terms of sought after cuisines, if you like stews, bread, and alcohol, you won’t have a problem getting by in Ireland. Next stop on the culinary study abroad tour — Brussels in Belgium — home to chocolate, waffles, and…more chocolate.

Gastronomy You Can Do At Home

Ian Rosoff  

Molecular Gastronomy isn’t something most people think they can do at home. This is partly true as it often involves procuring hard to find powders and impractical equipment, however molecular gastronomy is more about innovative and cool cooking techniques then it is about fancy tools. Simplicity is one of the most important tenets of cooking, and nothing is simpler then making an egg. Molecular Gastronomy chefs have been fascinated with the egg. Because it can be treated in so many different ways eggs have become a great vehicle for gastronomy. Wylie Dufresne has a particular affinity for the egg. He is a classically trained French chef who owns wd-50 in New York City. He makes a delectable poached egg, Caesar dressing, pumpernickel, and lily bulb dish, where the egg is cooked in a sous-vide thermal immersion circulator, which is a warm water bath that cooks food inside a vacuum sealed bag. The low temperature cooks the food evenly without it losing any of the original flavor or color. Origionally sous-vide cooking was used in the preparation of fois gras, but today it has been embraced by molecular gastronomists to make a multitude of dishes. For home chefs sous-vide techniques are a little bit trickier, especially immersion circulator sous-vides because unless you have hundreds of dollars to buy one most kitchens are without a thermal circulator.

We can try and recreate the technique or at least incorportate some of the principles into our home cooking. What makes sous-vide such an attractive cooking technique is that the vacuum packed food cooks in its own juices and the flavor intensifies. Adding spices or oil to the vacuum packed bag also brings out that flavor profile more than conventional styles of cooking. So a good place to start for somebody cooking in a small apartment or dorm room is to poach an egg and try to intensify flavor by sealing it in. We will replace a vacuum bag and immersion circulator with plastic wrap and a pot of boiling water.

For a molecular gastronomy egg with no molecular gastronomy tools you’ll need: plastic wrap, string, a coffee mug, olive oil, salt, pepper, and a pot of boiling water. First bring a pot of water about two inches high to a boil. While waiting for the water take two sheets of plastic wrap and lay them on top of each other, then brush it with olive oil and sprinkle liberal amounts of salt and pepper. Now line the coffee mug with the plastic wrap, crack the egg and gently slide it into the coffee mug. Pinch the plastic wrap together to encase the egg and tie the top with string. Finally trim off any excess string and put the sealed egg into the water to poach. Depending on how you like your eggs, cook for two to four minutes. Lift the egg out with a slotted spoon then cut the string. You should now have a poached egg packed with flavor.