Lemon/Lime juice and zest Adding fresh juice or zest can really brighten a meal and add a gourmet flavour to your dish that will really impress guests, and it’s so simple! A little acidity goes a long way in balancing the flavours of your savoury dishes. A zesty meat or fish can be the centrepiece of your meal or you can incorporate lemon/lime into your vegetable seasoning, combined with garlic and parsley for a delicious flavour. Wine Vinegar Using either a red or white wine vinegar can add a fruity Mediterranean flavour to many dishes, as well as bringing the health benefits of wine without drinking a bottle! Red wine vinegar goes great with rich flavours used in red meat dishes or an Italian style salad. White wine vinegar is lighter and is great for creamier dishes and perfect to help marinade chicken. Worcestershire sauce Worcestershire sauce is on of the most versatile ingredients you can add to a meal, and you’ll most likely have some in your kitchen cupboard at home! It can add acidity and sweetness to nearly anything, marinating chicken or pork, a salad dressing or a stock sauce. Tomato puree
Tomato puree is very versatile and can be used to add a depth of flavour to pasta sauces, a curry or browned minced meat. If you’re short of a tomato sauce, just mixing puree with oil, water and seasoning can deliver a great makeshift pasta sauce. A layer of tomato puree on a tortilla wrap covered with grated cheese delivers a simple and healthy homemade pizza.
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1. Proper knife skills Mastering your skills with a knife can make your entire meal prep quicker and more effective! You’ll be able to safely chop all your vegetables into whatever cut or shape you desire. BBC goodfood have a great video you can start from: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/videos/techniques/knife-skills 2. Roasting a Chicken We all want to be able to cook a roast for the family on a Sunday when we’re older, well now is a great time to practice. Practice makes perfect and if you want to get as good as your parents or grandparents you can start now! To properly stuff a chicken and bring out the flavour you don’t want to overfill it, give enough room for steam to circulate and spread the flavours. Rubbing the chicken with thyme, lemon juice and sage can further add to the flavour. And remember to check the temperature with a thermometer! 3. Crushing Garlic Learning to crush cloves properly is definitely the best way to add garlic flavour to your dishes, it saves using a garlic crusher and adds a deeper flavour than powdered garlic. The technique involves crushing the garlic with the knife held flat, before finely chopping. Resulting in a smooth paste that will add no lumps to your meal! An instructional video can be seen here https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/videos/techniques/how-crush-garlic 4. Cooking the perfect steak
There’s no better way to impress someone that serving them up the perfect steak cooked exactly to their preference. Generously season a steak left at room temperature with salt and pepper. Make sure the pan is at a high heat and coated with oil, you’ll want to give the steak anywhere from 2-5 minutes on each side depending on how they like it. Afterwards, you want to lower the heat and add butter, thyme and garlic to the pan, once the butter has melted use a spoon to baste the meat with the flavoursome butter. It’s very important to consider the cut and thickness of the steak your cooking, as times may need to be adjusted for larger cuts of meat! Student meal's don't have to be bland, having a few different seasoning options is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to add flavour to your cooking! Here are some of our favourites:
1) Garlic – Can be used raw or in powder form to completely transform the taste of almost any meal, add it to sauces, marinades for meats and fishes, in salads and to season vegetables. We recommend this Schwartz Garlic Italian Seasoning which can be bought from Tesco at £1.60 for 43g. 2) Chilli Flakes – If adding fresh chillies to your meals is too much for you to handle, this is a great alternative that adds just the right amount of spice as long as you don’t go crazy with it. It’s great to add to any sauces or soups. Our top tip is to add some whilst boiling pasta or rice along with some olive oil to add some light spice and extra flavor. We recommend the Tesco Crushed Chillies at £0.85 for 28g. 3) Paprika – Paprika is used as an ingredient in numerous dishes throughout the world. It is principally used to season and rice, stews, and soups, such as goulash, and in the preparation of sausages, mixed with meats and other spices. It tastes great sprinkled over fries too! You can buy it at any supermarket such as Sainsbury’s at £1.00 for 44g. 4) Italian Herbs – Italian seasoning is a delicious mixture of different spices, which are used mostly for Mediterranean dishes, including sauces, meatballs, lasagne recipes, and more. A typical blend would include dried basil, dried marjoram, dried oregano and dried sage. Can be found in Sainsbury’s at £1.00 for 14g. 5) Vegetable Seasoning – Has a very versatile use in soups, one-pot dishes, meat, fish, vegetable dishes or casseroles. You can use it for preparing marinades and breadcrumbs and season practically any meal. We strongly recommend Kucharek which is really cheap. Add in your pasta, couscous, bulgur wheat and anything you cook in general, really helps transform a meal! Find it at most supermarkets including Tesco at £0.79 for 200g. 6) Piri Piri – As a result of the great success Nando’s has had over the years the demand and use for piri piri in the kitchen has risen. P iri piri serves as a marinade for fish fillets, for meat and for poultry. Spice up savoury dishes with a dash of piri piri. Experiment adding it to dishes that are a little bland. Substitute your usual spice mixture with piri piri instead. Nando’s offers a wide range of products in supermarkets ranging from marinades, sauces and rubs. Our favourite is the Nando’s Peri-Peri salt which can be purchased from Tesco at £1.90 for 70g. 1. Wet you knife before cutting an onion Everyone knows onion’s make you cry whilst chopping them, and for some people it makes slicing them nearly unbearable. However, less people know that these “onion tears” are caused by the release of an enzyme into the air, which can be easily countered by wetting you knife before slicing. Water limits the vapours released by the onion for a tear-free cooking experience. 2. Cook your garlic bread in the toaster Sliced garlic bread often takes 10 minutes in the oven, a genius way of perfectly cooking it is in the toaster! After all, the toaster’s job is to cook slices of bread so why not utilise this for a favourite student side dish. 3. Using Bananas to ripen other fruit A little-known kitchen hack is that bananas release a gas called ethene which causes other fruits in your bananas vicinity to ripen quicker. Therefore, it’s always useful to stock some bananas next to your other fruit to maximise their taste! 4. Cool your drinks with wet kitchen roll in the freezer An essential student drinking hack, a metal can of beer or cider can be served ice-cold in a matter of minutes by wrapping it in kitchen roll, running it under the tap and placing it in the freezer. Within 10 minutes the tin becomes ice cold as the water absorbed in the kitchen paper rapidly turns to ice. Simply remove and bin the kitchen paper and enjoy an ice-cold beer or cider at your pre drinks! 5. Stock Cubes
A kitchen essential that can deliver a huge punch of flavour to even the simplest meal, stock cubes takes up a tiny amount of space in your kitchen and never go off, so no need to worry about expiry dates. Combined with leftover vegetables and/or meat, a stock cube and rice can make a easy flavoursome dinner. |
AuthorsDavid Green, Bonnie Duggan and Jessica Sandhu - Students at the University of Reading Follow us on Instagram @studentfoodlife__blog
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