Dead Simple Meals

[Fatter Hipper]

To borrow from Marx for a minute, I reckon eating a nice meal you've cooked yourself is to fulfill our 'species-being'. There's the immediate pleasure of the taste of course- but the fact that you've put a little of yourself into the dish (so to speak!) makes it even more satisfying. Unalienated, creative labour.

Whilst I love cooking curries, soups and semi-complicated dishes, there's nothing (nothing) more satisfying than a really simple dish bunged together in ten minutes.

My favourites:

-Rice cooked with chopped mushroom and a tiny bit of vegetable bouillon then topped with a nice fried egg.

-Spinach cooked with a little bit of nutmeg and topped with melted cheese (feta or goats cheese is good).

-Cheese on toast.

-Thinly sliced potato fried with no end of garlic, onion and thyme. You can add various leftovers to make a more rounded meal.

[G-Man]

Dead Simple Meals

In our house, the lazy option meal is this to take dry toast, put a slice of ham on it, a half peach out of the can, a slice of cheese on top, a bit of paprika powder over it, in the oven for five minutes, under the grill for another five -- hey presto, nice meal.

My mother used to do that, with a pineapple slice as an alternative to the peach. But my family doesn't like the pineapple option.

[EIM]

Dead Simple Meals

I don't get the peach option. Sicko.

[Fatter Hipper]

Dead Simple Meals

Paprika's great for lifting food out of the ordinary.

Smoked paprika, however...one of my absolute favourite flavours. Sublime!

[Lucia Lanigan]

Dead Simple Meals

Me too, but I never know what to do with it. Except pour it on chick peas and roast them.

West Indian hot pepper sauces are good for making food taste more like a meal. So's sticking in puy lentils with whatever you're boiling at the time - quick win.

Making your mash half new potatoes, half sweet potatoes is also good. Stir frying mushrooms and peppers with ginger, chili and garlic, then drowning them in soy sauce for a minute or two on the heat makes a good topping for that.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Dead Simple Meals

Diced chicken, spring onions, garlic, ginger, good dollop of tomato ketchup (trust me), 2 or 3 tablespoons each of white wine vinegar and sugar, 1 tbsp of soy sauce, sling it all in a wok, stir fry for three or four minutes, bung in a decent couple of handfuls of beansprouts, some sugar snap peas, maybe some chopped celery or other salady type veg to your liking, stir fry like mad for another five or six minutes or so, hey presto, sweet and sour chicken with vegetables. Pineapple chunks and juice from the tin goes in at the same point as the tomato ketchup if you like pineapple in your sweet and sour.

It's the balance of the sugar and the vinegar that gets the sweet and sour bit to work, and it's to taste really so you need to find your own mix.

[Wyatt Earp]

Dead Simple Meals

Bacon omelette.

[Fatter Hipper]

Dead Simple Meals

Smoked paprika & a can of chopped tomatoes= great sauce for pasta/veg/chicken.