Introduction

Here's a nice (incomplete) collection of the food that I occasionally make :)
By no means do i consider myself much of a cook or a writer. But people around me seem to enjoy my recipes. Most of the recipes are improvised, copied from friends, or learnt from family.

Keep in mind that you won't find any fancy recipes here. I have the flavour palette of a seagull and eat like a medieval peasant on most days. I'm used to cooking with a low budget and a small kitchen.

Whether you don't have much income, are at the end of the month, or simply want to budget more, these recipes will be perfect! For most recipes I'll assume that the chef only has the bare essentials for cooking, and no fancy equipment.

🌿 = Vegan
🥩 = Contains meat

Pasta - Feta and Veggie

Ingredients:
- 500 gr whole grain penne
- 400 gr tomatoes
- 3 yellow onions
- 2 red jalapeño peppers (optional)
- 400 gr feta cheese
- 300 gr (veggie) bacon bits
- 140 gr tomato paste
- However much garlic your heart desires
- However much arugula your heart desires
- extra vierge olive oil
- crushed black pepper
- oregano

Steps:
boil the penne in water with some salt and a splash of white wine if you wish.

Dice the onions, feta and jalapeño. Leave the tomatoes whole.
Make a bed of the onions, and put the rest of the ingredients on top (tomatoes, jalapeño, feta, bacon, garlic).
Sprinkle some extra vierge olive oil, and add crushed black pepper and oregano to taste.
Put in oven on 180C until ingredients soften and start to brown.

Once the penne and oven ingredients are done: add the tomato puree, oven ingredients and rucola to the penne.

Lentil Soup

Base Ingredients:
- 500 grams of lentils (soaking them for 15 minutes is enough for me)
- 1 medium-big potato
- 2 red onions
- 250 ml coconut milk/cream (can also be replaced with heavy cream)
- 70 grams / small can of tomato puree
- Approximately 1000 ml of water

To taste:
- 3 cloves of garlic
- curry powder (any)
- minced ginger or ginger powder
- Chili flakes
- 2 bouillon cubes
- Lime juice

Steps:
- Cut up (peeled) potato and onion.
- Put everything in a big pot and boil until lentils are softened.
- Once everything is softened, blend. Add the rest of the ingredients to taste.

Red Cabbage Stew

Ingredients:
- 1/2 red cabbage
- 1 apple
- tablespoon of butter
- 2 cinnamon sticks (ground cinnamon also works but burns more easily)
- 1 cured sausage (I use one that also has clove in it)
- Cloves (optional)

Steps:
- Grate half of a red cabbage.
- Peel and dice the apple.
- Add cabbage in a pot with a layer of water.
- Add the tablespoon of butter, cinnamon and cloves.
- Bring to a boil and let boil for 30 minutes, stirring every once in a while. Add more water if too much evaporates.
- Cut the cured sausage into slices, and add to the pot along with the apple. Let boil for an additional 20 minutes.
- Optional: serve with your favourite type of potato dish.

Green Curry Chicken

Ingredients:
- 300 grams of chicken thighs
- 1 or 2 zucchinis
- 1 sweet potato
- 1 yellow onion
- 2 chili peppers
- 250 ml coconut cream
- lentils
- Thai green curry paste

Steps:
- Dice everything that needs diced.
- Put chicken, onion and curry paste in a big pot, and give them a stir fry.
- Add the rest of the ingredients, add some water, and boil until everything is cooked.

Sweet Yellow Curry

Ingredients:
- 500 grams of mushrooms
- 200 ml sour cream
- 1 large sweet potato
- 500 grams canned cherries, drained. (Preferably non-sweetened, and not the pie-filling kind)
- Yellow curry paste

To taste:
- Minced or fresh ginger
- Sambal, or any other chili paste
- Minced garlic
- A little flour to thicken

Steps:
- Dice everything that needs diced. I prefer to keep the potato skin on.
- Put diced mushrooms in a big pot, and give them a quick stir-fry to get some of the moisture out.
- Put the rest of the ingredients in the pot, add water so that everything is -just- covered.
- Boil until potatoes are soft enough to eat.

Couscous

Ingredients:
- Couscous
- 150 grams of any cured (sucuk or alternatively cured chorizo both work well)
- 150 grams of dates (alternatively raisins)
- 1 large yellow onion
- Whatever vegetable you like, paprika (bell pepper), zucchini, broccoli, all work
- 300 grams of canned and drained legumes, I like chickpeas for this
- 2 Tablespoons of ras el hanout (any)
- Ground cayenne or chili for a lil extra spice

Sauce:
- cilantro
- mint
- yogurt
- a little mayonaise if you like a more sauce-like consistency
- pepper and salt

Steps:
- Cut sausage, vegetables and dates into pieces.
- Add sausage, dates and onion to large pot together with the ras el hanout and cayenne, stir fry for a bit.
- Add the rest of the vegetables and fry until softened somewhat.
- Add chickpeas, couscous, and water. 1 part couscous needs 2 parts water.
- Boil until all water is gone.
- Serve with sauce.

Egg Burritos

I usually make a huge batch of these and pop them in the freezer to eat for breakfast or lunch. This recipe is for 10 burritos. I've chosen these specific ingredients because I forget what I have in the fridge all the time, and these ingredients all don't spoil very fast.

Ingredients:
- 10 whole wheat grain tortillas (fills me up more than corn tortillas)
- 10 eggs
- 1,5 cups of rice (measured dry)
- Bag of fresh spinach. (300-500 grams)
- Hummus, optionally with sun dried tomato
- Sambal or any other chili paste
- Green onions
- Sauce of choice (optional)

Steps:
- Boil the 1,5 cups of rice. Boil them in some tablespoons of Sambal.
- Crack the 10 eggs in a bowl, whisk them, and scramble them. Add salt and pepper taste.
- Spread a layer of hummus on the tortillas.
- Divide the rice and eggs over the 10 tortillas.
- Add a handful of spinach to each tortilla
- Garnish with green onions and a sauce of your choice. Sweet chili sauce works well for this.
- Fold into burritos, and store in the freezer to heat them up for later use.

Roast Veggies

Ingredients:
- Long sweet peppers (similar to paprika/bell pepper)
- Zucchini
- Red potato (any small species works though)
- Red onion
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Garlic bulb
- Thyme, fresh if it's available
- Salt and pepper
- Chili flakes
- Smoked paprika powder

Steps:
- Chop everything into bite sized chunks.
- Peel the garlic cloves, and cut them in half (They will lose a lot of intensity after baking).
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and put the veggies on top.
- Add the olive oil and all the herbs, and mix by hand, make sure everything is evenly coated.
- Bake at 190-200 ℃ (375-390 ℉) For at least 40 minutes. The goal is to slowly caramelize everything without burning it.

Assorted Veggie Sides

Pan fried brussel sprouts:
- Discard wilted leaves and cut off the stems if there's any.
- Cut brussel sprouts in half.
- Melt a couple of tablespoons of butter in a pan. (Any other fat also works if youre vegan. I just like butter for this).
- Put the brussel sprouts flat-side down in the pan.
- Fry until flat side browns, flip and let the other side brown. I like mine somewhat overcooked so they're a bit more soft and caramelized.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- To make them extra nice, add a hand full of roughly chopped hazelnuts or walnuts, add a liiiiitle bit of balsamic vinegar, a small diced yellow onion, and a teaspoon of sugar.

Sauerkraut with curry and raisins:
- Put packet of sauerkraut (500g) in pan.
- Add raisins.
- Add your preferred spice mix. I usually add the local ras el hanout spice mix, but a yellow curry mix also works well.
- If preferred, add some sugar to lessen the sourness.
- Cook until properly heated.
- This is a good side-dish for any meal with a strong flavour, anything spicy, etc.

Fried cauliflower:
- cut cauliflower into florets
- make a batter with water and flour, should be thick enough to cover the cauliflower without falling off.
- add salt, pepper, any spices you like. I like to add some cayenne, paprika powder, garlic, onion powder, a lil turmeric. Keep in mind that the batter will be the only flavouring for the cauliflower.
- Take a deep pan, and put in enough oil to mostly cover the individual pieces of cauliflower.
- Fry every side until golden brown.

Apple Slop

Ingredients:
- 2 cups of couscous
- 2 apples
- some raisins
- 1-2 teaspoons butter
- cinamon
- salt
- a lil msg
- 1-2 cups of apple juice
- 2 cups of hot water

Prep: Cutting Apples

Steps:
1) Put butter in pan, fry apples and raisins in it a little bit (5 mins), season with cinamon during frying.
2) add water, apple juice and couscous.
3) add salt, msg, more cinnamon as needed.
4) stir until cooked sufficiently.
5) enjoy the slop.

Scottish Tablet

Ingredients:
- 250 grams sugar
- 5 tablespoons cream
- 2 tablespoons water

Steps:
- mix together in a pan, and slowly bring to a boil.
- most important step of the recipe. DO NOT stop stirring
- once it's brought to a boil, keep boiling it for 3-5 minutes. This will thicken the mixture.
- test the consistency of the mixture by dipping the spoon in the mixture and cooling it in the bowl of water. The mixture should be hard to the touch when cooled.
- once ready, pour the mixture as fast as possible!!! The mixture will set extremely fast.
- let cool for 30 minutes or so after pouring. It should be hardened then.

General tips:
- Grab a pan, a spatula, a bowl of water and a spoon before you start as you're going to be stirring continuously. Also put down parchment paper on a heat resistant surface to pour the mixture on later. You can also use cookie cutter shapes to pour your mixture in :)
- While the mixture is hickening, you'll notice it's done when it suddenly start getting significantly foamy during the boiling. This means that most of the liquids have evaporated, and that the tablet will properly harden when poured.
- When doubling the recipe, It took for me about 11 minutes of boiling before the mixture was ready.
- For extra flavour, adding an espresso shot instead of water is absolutely delicious :) (you could probablt add even more! But that's gonna increase the boiling time needed).

Vegan Chocolate Fudge

Ingredients:
- 200 grams of vegan chocolate (a lot of dark chocolate bars are vegan where i'm from).
- 1 can (250 ml) of sweetened condensed coconut milk.

Steps:
- Put both ingredients into a pan and let them melt over low heat, mixing continuously.
- Once mixed together, keep the heat on and keep stirring until the mixture starts to thicken somewhat.
- Once thickened pour the mixture in a container lined with parchment paper, and let cool.
- Once cooled, cut up and enjoy!

Cup Ice Cream

This can be made in anything! I usually use cleaned yogurt cups for this. But you can also use plastic- or paper cups. The idea is to make an ice cream mixture of whatever flavour you like, put the mixture in a cup, put a spoon or something for the handle in the cup, and freeze the entire thing. All of the flavour examples are measured by heart, keep in mind that the flavour should be slightly more intense than you're used to, as the flavour will mellow out when it's frozen.

Base ingredients:
- 1 cup cream (~30% fat)
- 2 cups whole milk (~3,5% fat)

Banana peanut butter:
- 2 pureed banana (use fork)
- 3 heaping tablespoons of peanut butter
- For easy mixing ad just a splash of milk first and mix until smooth. Then add the rest of the milk and cream
- Add honey to taste

Mint chocolate:
- 1-2 cups of finely chopped peppermint candy. Use the brittle kind, if this is not a thing in your country use peppermint extract and sugar instead.
- Put the milk and cream in a pot, and add the chopped peppermint candy through a sieve.
- Add some dark chocolate to taste, and heat until all the chocolate is molten and mixed in.

Coffee white chocolate:
- Put milk and cream in a pot.
- Add instant co fee, I like to use wiener melange instant coffee for this. Alternatively use a strong espresso for the coffee flavour.
- Add white chocolate to taste, and heat until all the chocolate is molten and mixed in.

Banana Shake

Ingredients:
- 1 frozen banana
- The cheapest tea biscuit / digestive biscuit (cookie) you can find.
- 1 cup vanilla soy milk
- optionally: cinnamon, molasses, cocoa powder

Step:
- blend :)

Mini Fruit Tart

Ingredients:
- Small square of pre-made puff pastry
- Any random fruit you have lying around
- Sugar and cinnamon

Steps:
- Cut fruit into small pieces, and mix with cinnamon and sugar to taste.
- Put on pre-made puff pastry, and fold the edges so any potential juices don't leak.
- Bake in oven until golden brown.

Butter

Making fresh butter yourself tastes infinitely better than buying it. I promise.

Steps:
- get some cream with a fat percentage of >35% (pasteurized is fine, fresh tastes even better).
- put cream in a jar with a clean large wooden (or plastic) bead. This will speed up the process and make it easier.
- close the jar and shake it to death. It will turn into whipped cream. Continue to shake if it does. The fats and the liquids will eventually separate.
- The easier way is to use a stand mixer if you have one.
- once separated, strain the liquids.
- wash the butter with icy cold water. Repeat the washing process until the water becomes clear.

To preserve for longer:
- add a fuckton of salt to the butter. Not for taste, but for its preservation properties.
- once you're ready to use the butter, you can do the washing process again with icy water to rinse out most of the salt. Keep in mind your butter will stay salted if you do this.

Human Pup Kibble

Context:
Okay I know this is the odd one out in my recipes. I was going through some rough stuff and needed a distraction. I hope that one day this will make a pup out there happy. I used a silicone baking sheet for making kibble.

Ingredients:
- 180 grams of meal replacement powder (that's one whole meal for me)
- 1 egg
- tiny bit of vegetable oil
- water as needed

Steps:
- Put all the ingredients together, and add water to make a batter that is the consistency between shoe pastry batter and pancake batter.
- Put the batter in the baking sheet using a silicone spatula, start at the edge to prevent half-filled kibble holes.
- If you don't want/have a sheet, you can omit (some of the) the water in the batter, and make a thicker dough. Roll out the dough into a tube and cut into small pieces. Roll the pieces around to make them round if you want.
- Bake for 15 minutes at 180℃.
- For longer storage I would recommend drying them out for a longer time on a lower temperature. I do recommend the 180℃ for 15 minutes for that maillard reaction action.