Brief Update, New Layout, and Meme

[mathnerd]

I need a break from linear algebra revision. I've gotten everything done except for canonical forms which are not easy, and I never learned before. Trying to teach oneself new, difficult material in an hour or two at a level of proficiency required by the Big Exam is madness, to say the least. Why didn't I start earlier this summer? Oh, that's

Comments

[miss_next]

OK, more on cheap eating now I'm back from my singing lesson and have eaten something myself (vegetable soup - not terribly expensive, in fact, apart from the cashew nuts that always go into it, and to be honest I'd happily use peanuts if I didn't have a mild intolerance).

For non-vegetarians, one really wonderful cheap source of protein is fish roe. Over here you can get pressed cod roe in great big tins which work out at a few pence a portion. I used to be a pescovegetarian, but gradually stopped eating fish, not out of any great conviction but because I just didn't feel any need for it; anyway, in those days I used to get one of these big tins, tip out the roe (a rather awkward job as you had to open both ends, otherwise it got stuck in the tin), and slice it up into what were effectively fish burgers. These can be grilled or fried without further preparation, though if you wanted to be fancy you could certainly give them the egg-and-breadcrumb treatment. Any leftover slices would freeze brilliantly. This stuff is amazingly filling for the energy content, so it's also good if you want to lose a bit of weight.

Then there was my pitta bread pizza. You may have gathered from my journal that I'm not a big eater; anyway, a bought pizza is far too big for me and there's invariably too much cheese, which I like but find rather heavy. So, when I fancied pizza, what I'd usually do would be to get a pitta bread, spread it with tomato purée out of a tube (also very cheap, and it keeps quite well in the fridge), grate a bit of mozzarella over it, scatter it with basil and black pepper, and then add anything else that took my fancy. Nom!

One thing I should perhaps have done more of was Indian cooking, because vegetarian Indian meals are generally pulse-based, so very cheap and nutritious. I did have a few bashes at it, but didn't really know what I was doing at the time. These days I have a first-rate Indian cookery book, and I was also lucky enough to be able to consult an expert at work. Jason was born in England of Indian parents, and he was 100% English except when you got him talking about cooking, when he suddenly became 100% Indian, which I think is the way to do it. :-) Anyway, he gave me some invaluable spice advice, and my masalas are marvellously moreish thanks to him. So if you fancy something Indian, let me know what you've got and I'll see what I can suggest about what you might do with it; however, generally speaking you can't go wrong if you have chilli powder, coriander, cumin and turmeric, and possibly also a good garam masala. Those are basic spices that go into probably the majority of Indian recipes. Do not buy pre-made curry powder if you want to do proper Indian cooking, because you will regret it; usually if it's hot enough it doesn't also have enough depth of flavour, and you will have to rescue it by adding parsley. (You won't taste the parsley, but you will notice a rounder, fuller, less "brash" flavour. It's not a bad rescue, and I used to use that one a lot before I knew how to blend my own masalas.)

Tofu is great. It varies in price quite a lot, but you can usually get it reasonably cheaply even if it's organic - certainly cheaper than the equivalent protein quantity in meat, fish or cheese. Because it's so bland and will take up any flavour, the only limit on what you can do with it is your imagination, but what I do with it most often is this. Make a sauce by covering the bottom of a tiny saucepan (really tiny; I have one the size of a coffee cup) with soy sauce and adding 2-3 times the quantity of water, then adding veggie stock powder, garlic powder, parsley, spices and cashew nut butter (you could and probably should use peanut butter) to taste. I use about a teaspoon of everything. Heat and blend until the sauce is smooth, then cut up the tofu, pour the sauce over it making sure it's well covered, and leave to marinate in the fridge at least overnight. When you come to cook the tofu, fry it till it is well browned, turning the chunks regularly.

That's about all I can think of for now! :-)