What's your favourite/best easy meal?

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Triggaaar

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Just like with good value products (no, not knives, that's different :biggrin:), what's your best bang for buck (effort and money) meal?
Something that's quick and easy to make, and is nice.

I've got to cook basic food for house guests (students) every day of the year, and need some inspiration.
Entire recipe and instructions welcome :)

Oh, and just to add some KKF interest - which knife (knives) will you be using :)
 
Sweat some onion and garlic, add white wine and canned tomatos. Cook pasta while sauce cooks. Combine and serve.

Easy, cheap and tasty.

Lars
 
Spaghetti aglio e olio is a winner for me. Often I will add pancetta, shallots, and chili as well as some tomato puree for a completely new dish. All cheap (except maybe pancetta), all easy.

Knife is a 185mm Catcheside gyuto.
 
And then this for winter. With homemade stock of course......

[video=youtube;5WUp3VaV9kc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WUp3VaV9kc[/video]
 
Tarka dal. Ridiculously cheap. Easy to prepare and make bulk quantities. Loads of flavour and very satisfying.
 
Best easy meal is probs sourdough toast with an egg and some sauteed asparagus or crispy kimchi and pork on rice.
 
I make a giant pot of red "enchilada " sauce and freeze it in quart ziplock bags. Lay them flat and neat. Freeze them.

Then I make flat enchiladas. Usually cheat w rotisserie chicken. A few layers (alt chicken alt cheese ) up. Top with lettuce tomato and some rounds of radish

If I'm feeling fancy, top each enchiladas w a poached egg. The thick umptious yolk adds a rich decadence.
 
Quiche/fritatta with kitchen scraps. I've done this for staff meal more times than I'd like to admit. Sweat off your meat and veg and add whatever else you like and top her with eggs. Pop in the oven and let her go. Bolognese is another easy one as long as you have time.
 
Triggaaar said:
How (as in, how do you like to make it)?
Click to expand...

I'm happy to post my recipee if you like (modified from Marcella Hazan's) but the point is that it freezes well (or goes into lasagne which also freezes well) and is quick and eay to reheat as a weekday meal. So while the ragu takes several hours to make, I would guess that we get about 6 meals (for four) out of it.
 
Red lentil dahl - takes 20 minutes before you can have your first bowl and you can make enough to feed an army. Plus it freezes well.

Roast pork tenderloin - small enough to take next to no time, throw in some sliced apples, onions and sage in the roaster at the same time. Take the meat out to rest and puree the onion, apple and sage with some creme fraiche or sour cream.
 
Lars said:
Sweat some onion and garlic, add white wine and canned tomatos. Cook pasta while sauce cooks. Combine and serve.

Easy, cheap and tasty.

Lars
Click to expand...
Do you add any herbs? How much wine do you add (say per tin of tomatoes), and how long do you cook it for?
Oh, and do you add salt when sweating the onions?
 
If there is some fresh herbs around, sure. Just a splash of wine per can of tomatos, nothing gets measured.
When the sauce starts cooking I add salt, pepper and a little suger. Let it cook for 15-20 minutes and season to taste if at all. Today it needed salt and a little vinegar.

Lars
 
Salads are so fun. I mean like whole meal salads... not wimpy salads. You can improvise with whatever you have when all the veggies you bought at the grocery store are starting to wilt and you start getting anxiety and guilt that you should eat them.

Pick your leaf type which makes about half the volume of your salad.

Add any other random things to make it fancy: veggies, fruits, nuts, beans, lentils, eggs, pasta, leftover meat.

Then you gotta get some crunch in there: my favorite is crushed raw ramen noodles (25 cents at the store, and it has 400 calories per package). Also can add croutons, broken corn chips, toasted bread...

For dressings mix whatever... but i usually go one of 2 ways: normal or Asian style.

Normal: my favorite is olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar (balsamic, red wine, cidar) mustard powder or real mustard (Dijon, yellow, honey mustard), bit a sugar, bit a water.

Asian: olive oil, soy sauce, some kind or sugary Asian sauce like tempura or teriyaki, crushed garlic, cok sauce, rice wine vinegar, bit a sugar, bit a water, bit a sesame oil.
 
OH! A solid go to recipe for lots of people is the boxed "hamburger helper" for beef stroganoff. I make 2 boxes at a time and to make it a complete meal I add a shitload of onions, garlic, mushrooms and spinach or kale. I brown the meat, set it aside, then cook the veggies, throw meat back in and then add the box content of noodles, mystery powder and milk. So easy, so good. Cures hangovers too.
 
Keep eggs, pasta and rice around for bang for your buck. Cheap, filling and tons of different things you can do with only a few extra ingredients. A weekly buy of onions, garlic, carrots, celery and bell pepper will let you do just about anything from making stocks to fried rice and at the end of the week whatever is going bad can be put into scrambled eggs or a stew. A lot of people will detest this but I'd recommend buying beef base and chicken base. Makes a quick stock for whatever you need and it lasts forever. A stocked spice cabinet will help you with your options from Mexican/Asian/Italian/whatever. Start off basic with the spices and as you find recipes you want to make add the one or two spices/sauces you need. Idk what your budget or how many people your feeding daily but maybe consider finding someone with a restaurant depot card. Buying bulk that you can freeze makes sense if you are cooking every day for a decent amount of people. You can buy chicken breast by the case at roughly $1.20/lb with minor work needed to clean them. Next best bet is a sams club card for cheaper bulk items. Freeze the extra that you don't need in 2-5lb packs. Recipes are a dime a dozen on the net but to give my recommendation for cheap and easy I'd recommend fried rice, tacos, risotto, or red sauce w/ pasta. All of these are good for using up a myriad of produce and proteins. Carbonara if you feel like splurging on bacon and Parmesan, and no you do not need the most expensive pancetta/parmesan to make it.
 
Very easy Salmon with a little olive oil higher heat to sear outside turn heat down till center is just cooked. Little garlic butter with capers to top it off, garnish with cilantro. Whatever rice suits your fancy.
 
Cream cheat carbonara!
Super easy, cheap and fast.

Cut up some bacon or pancetta, onions and garlic. Fry in a pan. Cook pasta. Throw the pasta in the pan. Ad cream. Season with salt and black pepper. Serve steaming hot, top of with a bunch of parmesan cheese, rocket leafs and an egg yolk still in half a shell.
...And let the good times roll!

You can mix things up with mushrooms, zucchini, fresh herbs, etc.
 
@Sleep only if you trust a pressure cooker with lentils (or go for the small ones like Rob_Sutherland) ... and there's always a washing opera with dals (whoever thinks rice can be annoying in that regard...) :)

Coconut milk based soups tend to take the crown for a lot of flavor, quick - Olan, Istoo, Tom Kha...
 
Halusky. Love to cook them, love to eat them. But I have no bryndza at the moment, so I can only dream about them (no bryndza to be found in Germany) :(
 
This is how they look

1501697212711.jpg
 
Stir fry. Whatever combo of protein and vegetables you feel like on the day. Grab some soy sauce from the soy sauce thread (I use PRB Gold label) splash of mirin, chicken stock & cornflour to thicken.

Big pot of rice, job done. Plus the vege prep gives you plenty of opportunity to play with your new toy.
 
Salad...the most under utilized dish with the greatest amount of potential. You can even make one that does not have any leafy greens.

Another option is to pick a berry, nut, seed, throw them in a bowl, drizzle with real maple syrup or choice of sweetener. You can even add a touch of sweetened whipped cream or yogurt for kicks.

Note that the sweetener amount should change depending on the sweetness and tartness of berries used.
 
Pasta a la Picatta for me! Its definitely an easy one that requires only two or three ingredients. I make mine by sautéing some capers and mushrooms, deglaze it with lemon juice and a bit of white wine, and finish it by mounting butter into it. Goes great with any white fish in my opinion!
 
Matus said:
This is how they look
Click to expand...

I remember eating this once in Banska Bystrica. Was not really impressed, but for sure home made ones must be much better.

What's that on top of halusky?
 
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