Student Special - Tasty Toasties

The start of the new academic year is upon us, and as we speak a new generation of students will be leaving home, settling down in grim Northern cities, and starting the transition into adult life. Although many freshers will be staying in catered halls, they find the meals unappeizing - or simply feel that their time is better spent in the pub. And of course, there's always the need for post beer snacks. So I thought I'd share some wisdom with the younger generation.

The sandwich toaster is a wonderful thing. Small, cheap, and capable of producing delicious hot "parcels" of whatever molten contents your heart desires - no student should be without one. And at this price, there is simply no excuse for not owning one.

Cheese is obviously the classic filling, and baked bean is also popular amongst the more forward thinking students. But I think we can do better. However, we must remember that students in halls often have no real cooking facilities, so no pre-cooking of fillings will be possible. And of course, preference should be given to fillings which are cheap and cheerful...

Meatball

Tinned meatballs in tomato sauce make a great toastie filling, and they're pretty cheap. They do taste a bit crap, but a layer of cheese really helps, along with some pepper. Be careful not to over-fill the sandwich...

Curry

Takeaways are a luxury for a student - after all, a takeaway curry with trimmings probably costs about the same as 6 pints from the student union. But we all need our treats now and again. I like to mix my leftover curry together (rice, veg, everything) for later consumption. Perfect in a toastie for a hungover Saturday lunch.

Hawaiian Pizza

Ask any Italian what their favourite pizza topping is, and you'll always get the same answer - Hawaiiiiian. The combination of tropical fruit and fine charcuterie is a firm favourite from Naples to Milan. Here I've recreated this slice of Italy with a dollop of pasta sauce, topped with cheese, ham, and pineapple. Sprinkled with a little dried oregano for the gourmet student. Like-a-mama-used-to-make-a.

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Needless to say, the curry filling was my favourite, but I can heartily recommend any of these to today's struggling students. There are endless filthy fillings just waiting to be discovered.

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Chilli Cheese Dog Pies

I know it's a little bit late for the 4th of July, but here's a little tribute to America, the undisputed kings of junk food. Chili cheese dog pies.

I would have loved to have brought a whole pile of chili dogs to the July Band Of Bakers event, but it wouldn't really be practical. It wouldn't really be baking, either. So this is the next best thing.

First of all I obviously had to make the chili. I made it fairly hot, with a large chili pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, cumin, Tabasco, and smoked chili paste. Once it had cooled, it was time to assemble the pies.

Twelve individual pastry cases with hot dogs inside...

Topped with chili...

And red cheese...

And yellow cheese (as I imagine Americans might call it). Then baked in the oven for 20 minutes.

Served warm(ish) with a dash of American mustard.

It's funny how things always taste hotter when you're cooking them. My wife coughed and spluttered when she tried a spoon of the chili, but in the final pie format, it tasted rather tame. Just as well I brought the mustard!

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Chili Verde Enchiladas

Making dinner is often a fine balancing act, between the kind of thing I like to eat (greasy, fatty, spicy, messy) and something other people might consider to be actual food. So when I offered to cook the other night, my wife's repsonse was a cautious "OK, as long as it won't end up on your ridiculous blog". The poor woman was probably expecting something unspeakably disgusting, fashioned from frozen burgers and curry sauce.

But I guess I had the last laugh, because we happily ate every last mouthful, and here it is on my blog... chili verde enchiladas.

What's that, I hear you say? Vegetabes? Fresh herbs? Well yes, but bear with me.

Chili verde is a Mexican pork stew, in a spicy green sauce. Not so common here, but you see it all over the place in the US. My version isn't really authentic... the proper version contains tomatillos, but I don't think you can get them here, so I improvised a little. I started making the sauce by frying onions with assorted chillies, garlic, cumin, salt and pepper.

Once the onions were browned, I added some smoked chilli paste, chicken stock, chopped green pepper, coriander, dried oregano, and lime juice (in lieu of the missing sourness from the tomatillos). After everything had softened and cooked down a bit, I blended the sauce until it was nice and smooth.

I then browned some pork shoulder, added it to the sauce (including lots of fatty bits), and put the whole lot in the oven for a couple of hours - until the pork was falling apart.

Now, doesn't that look great? Greasy and meaty, with a fiery heat, and it doesn't taste all all "vegetabley". It's great on it's own or with some rice, but it's even better as an enchilada filling - rolled between tortillas, topped with extra sauce and grated cheese, and cooked in the oven for a few minutes.

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Jalfrizza

Many years ago, a friend told me that you could make quick, tasty pizzas using naan bread as a base. And it's a tip which has served me well over the years - just spread with tomato paste, herbs, cheese, and whatever stuff you have lying around, and shove into the oven.

But today, I'm taking this concept a step further. Taking inspiration from this long-standing nugget of wisdom, I have created a brand new "recipe" - the Jalfrezi Pizza. To make a Jalfrizza, if you will need:

• Large garlic naan
• Chicken tikka jalfrezi (takeaway is perfect)
• Onion bhaji
• Paneer
• Tomato puree
• Coriander (optional)

To make the sauce for the pizza, separate out all the sauce you can from the curry, and mix with tomato puree. Then spread liberally over the bread.

Add a layer of paneer onto the pizza, then top with the pieces of meat, vegetables, and chilli from the jalfrezi. Finish with chunks of onion bhaji, and if you're feeling elaborate, some fresh coriander.

Put it in the oven at a pretty hot temperature for a few minutes - as a rough guide, at 220 for 10 minutes, it comes out a bit burned. Enjoy with a nice cold bottle of IPA (Indian Pizza Ale).

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Juicy Lucy Burger

The "Juicy Lucy" is a burger with cheese stuffed inside of it, instead of placed on the top like a regular cheeseburger. An American invention (naturally), the result is a huge slab of a burger, packed with hot molten cheese. Guaranteed to cause a mess, and quite possibly scold the roof of your mouth.

So far so good. But this wasn't enough for me, I wanted my own unique twist, something that would really pack a flavour. I considered a few different options, until I settled on a sort of "Tex-Mex" theme... hot chili tomato sauce on one side of the burger, and guacamole on the other.

I made the spicy sauce by frying chopped onion and chili, adding black pepper and cumin, then chucking in some tomato puree, ketchup, Tabasco, and chopped coriander.

The burger was made by sandwiching a big lump of cheese (Cheddar and Gouda) in between two large burgers, and pressing the edges together while it cooked. I squashed the whole thing down as much as possible, but it was still a gargantuan burger. I actually had to put it in the oven to make sure it was cooked through.

This monstrosity - placed between a toasted bun with generous dollops of guacamole and the spicy tomato stuff - is a whole meal in itself. No chips or onion rings necessary, just a comfy chair and a nice cold beer.

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Cheesesteak

It's not a cheese steak. It's a cheesesteak. Just one word. Don't ask me why, I guess Americans struggle a little bit with their spelling. I've never actually had a proper cheesesteak, but next time I'm in America, it's right at the top of my list. But in the meantime, here's my effort.

For the best combination of flavour and tenderness, there's only one type of steak to use, and that's ribeye. I sliced it thinly by partially freezing it, and then cutting it diagonally with a sharp knife. Then quickly fried the slices for around 3 minutes.

I piled up the steak inside a large sub roll, put some slices of cheese on the top, and microwaved it for 20 seconds to melt the cheese. A little mustard, a little mayo, and you have a breakfast lunch fit for champions.

A damn expensive sandwich... but worth every penny.

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Cheeseburger Pizza

I don't believe in new year's resolutions - if you want to do something, just do it. You don't need the excuse of something as arbitrary as the Earth revolving around the Sun. But if I did believe in new year's resolutions, then mine would be to bring you - the fans - an even more outrageous selection of culinary curiosities than last year.

So, many of you will be aware that last year Pizza Hut launched a cheeseburger pizza in the middle east, receiving worldwide media attention and widespread ridicule. Now, personally I have no problem with cheeseburgers on a pizza, but their creation looks truly hideous. Judge for yourself:

Lettuce on a pizza? Yuck. It doesn't even look like a pizza. And the orange stuff doesn't look like cheese. I just knew that I could do better. So finally I got round to it.

I made a sauce from tomato puree, ketchup, chopped tomatoes, and oregano, and microwaved it to break down the tomatoes. I then spread it onto a pizza bread base, before adding bits of mozarella.

Now it was time to turn my attention to the toppings. I reshaped a quarter pounder burger into 4 smaller patties, and quickly fried them to ensure they'd be cooked through. I placed them onto the pizza, topped with thick slices of cheddar, and added some slices of tomato.

I put it into the oven at full blast for about 12 minutes, adding sliced gherkins about halfway through. After cooking, I added a few blobs of mustard onto the pizza.

Having never tasted the Pizza Hut version, I am unable to give a direct comparison. But I know that my version tasted awesome.

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