Food Hacks 102- Be the hostel MasterChef

This is my continuation to the post Food hacks 101 to survive in Amrita Hostel. Well I tried sharing my insights of how to survive in the dire conditions we are left to survive, this post, I've tried putting together some of my favorite foods I learnt and mastered (not really) in the hostel. 

The basic requirement of a kitchen include an induction stove, pan and minimal cutlery, (knife, couple of spoons, peeler, etc.) a room far away from the warden’s den, a decent ventilation for the designated “kitchen." 
The collection of spices can vary as per the monetary availability. If you’re looking for things to get; salt, sugar, packaged seasonings are essentials. Seasonings could be as simple as a garlic or ginger powder, garam masala, jaljeera mix, oregano, mixed pasta or pizza toppings, jeera powder, pepper, spiced cheese, ketchup, peri peri sauce, salad dressings etc. You don’t get most of these in the stores, so make sure you load up with those when you get the chance. Some can also be bought online reducing the risk of being caught in the gate.

-         Maggie

Classic things first, add up a few table spoons of your flavoured cheese spread and add a punch. The cheese Maggie is the most sought after thing during our times. If you could get a little creative use up and mix as many seasonings you can to the Maggie, some work others have an adverse effect on the stomach, so beware. PS- Maggie is back into the market and is available on snapdeal. You could use a million other such commercial noodles or soupy variants as well

-         Cold coffee

This is a little exotic. The classic way of making this is cold milk from the stores and sugar and coffee powder, replace the milk with cavins vanilla and a little vanilla or chocolate ice cream, and blend them well with sugar and coffee. Thank me later.

-         Mashed potatoes

This is another lip smacking delicacy we hogged upon for more than a year. Boil the potatoes well in the pan, or kettle. Mince the onions, chillies, tomato, capsicum, cucumber, mint leaves, coriander, little curry leaves, and splash em over the mashed boiled potatoes. Season up with chaat masala, garam masala, or any other seasonings available. Adding a little olive oil or coconut oil (if you’re a fan of it) on the hot potatoes builds the flavour.

Use your innovation on this to add some Andhra pickles or the groundnut powder your telugu friends might have. The spicy ones will be a burst in the palate.
PS- Excessive potatoes causes gas accumulation if you’re not used to it. So show your body some variety or you’d have a tough time while sleeping.

-         Roti with Nutella

This is pretty famous. Flick a couple of rotis from the mess, spread some Nutella over and munch. The roti would taste pathetic if its cold so take that into account. If you got some time to spare and prepare, empty a glass of cold milk, marinate or leave the roti in it for some time (not very long,) and then proceed with the Nutella. Be sure not the waste the remaining milk. Replace the Nutella with sugar during extreme cases.

-         Bread with pickle

As crazy as it might sound, tastes heavenly. The fact that the Andhra pickle could practically go with anything backs the awesomeness of this dish. My friend came up with this masterpiece when he was left alone in the room staring at the pickle dabba on a rainy weekend. If you’re mad enough try the Andhra pickle with noodles as well.

-         Club sandwich

Cut the veggies, stack them up between the bread, put some butter. You have options of flicking the butter off from the mess in the mornings if you can store it, but be careful as it’d get messy. I’ve never tried buying butter from the GS, I use cheese slice or spread instead. Spice it up with some seasonings or pickles if you like.

-         Bhel Puri/ Pani Puri

Same procedure, cut them veggies first, add a dash of lemons and add the puffed rice and sev to top off. If you don’t get puffed rice, try using kurkure instead. Watch on the lemon if you’re innovating with spicy versions of kurkure. Bhujiya and sev and a few other A1 chips namkeen we get from our stores would go good.

For pani puri you could utilise some of the similar cut greens, and make the jaljeera with a dash of lemon and afloat a couple of mint leaves. Add dry mango powder if you like it sour. Avoid using green chillies, they spoil the safe zone!

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      Birthday cakes

Who doesn’t like birthdays! We’ve succeeded in celebrating a handful of birthdays with a cake that’s made indigenously within the supplies we have at the general store. Here’s what you’ll need

Bread- one or two loafs (get the buns if it’s a party for lesser people)
Chocolates- The galaxy milky ones are more easy to melt down, diary milk silk and any other plain ones will be equally good. Get extra considering the fact that you’ll eat off the majority while making it.
Sweet cream cookies- I would suggest staying up with oreos for the taste, but if you’re innovative you could happily choose between other variants.
Choco pie
Milky bar chocolates, for the icing
Sugar- icing
Gems, kitkat, wafers for toppings

Cut the bread in transverse section, and stuff them with as much chocolate as possible. To make the chocolate easil workable dip them in a bowl of hot water and wait until it's molten enough to flow like fudge. Adding a little layer of butter in the middle will give an excellent texture.

-         Pan fried Chicken

This is for the pro cooks who’ve got the will and strength to do something. This project, if taken light could cause a few suspensions including confiscation of cutlery and cooking gears, so be very wary. In addition to the cooking team, you need some special engineering skills to carefully ventilate the gas and smell outward. Have a person monitor the corridor and plan for an emergency (like the power tripping off or the hostel maintenance dude check on your floor.)

Get the following,
Onions 250 gms
Garlic 15 cloves
Coriander
Sesame
Jeera
Chicken masala
Salt
Lemon
Anything else required for flavouring
Red dry chillies 100 gms

-Start off with tossing the chillies in low heat, in oil and add the chicken when they’re roast.
-Do not add extra water, sprinkle a little turmeric powder, simmer with lid on for 20 mins at least, stir occasionally.
- When the chicken is cooked (it should be easy to chew and visibly cooked on the inside) top off with masala. Stay on the blander sides with the masala as they could take longer to cook.
- Add salt to flavour and hunt it down.

PRECAUTION

• There are high risks of getting caught if you leave your room un-ventilated. Use the engineering you’ve learnt and get to work.
• If you’re sauteeing something, use minimal oil and don’t let the oil heat in the pan, as adding veggies then will instantly create a burst of vapours and a dash of a smell.
• Using deodorants or room sprays is not going to help suppress the smell and flavour in the air- ventilation is the key.
• Be sure to keep the fan off while cooking.
• Seal off the room from the corridors (the portion above the door lintels) unless you want to invite the whole corridor for a supper
• Closed cooking rapidly decreases the cooking time and the water requirement of cooking, last thing you want is to attract eyes while walking to and fro the water dispenser.
• Vegetables are fine to be eaten a little under cooked. Don’t bother too much to fry or toss em up.
• Cooking such real-time food requires a little experience and cooking without getting caught is simple team work. In the end if at all you get caught ask for the warden to wait until the meal is done and offer him a bite and try your luck. If your chances are good, you might get away with a warning. Hide the stove and surrender the pan. Remember this, sometimes people don’t think as much as we think they do. They might actually forget about the stove (I’m not assuring anything.) 

Photos Courtesy- Anju Venugopal, Amrita Sabhapathi, Gayatri, Kaavya R, Pagalavan M, Prem
Content Courtesy- Dept. Of Civil Engineering (as in the students who pass out in 2016)

Food hacks 101 for a starving soul in Amrita hostel

This post is not just restricted to Amrita hostels, it could be any hostel for that matter. I've written this post with my experience and surviving tactics I've learnt here. I hope this post does not hurt anyone directly or indirectly and for the record, the food here at Amrita(if not amazing) is definitely not as bad as I've exaggerated. To state some facts, I have lost about 20 kg (86~65 kg)in the first four-five months in hostel, mainly because of the combined effort of yoga, swimming and running, but the food intake levels also had a decorative effect.    

It’s 11:15 pm, the doors of night canteen are slam shut and so are the hostel doors, the dogs in the campus aren’t allowed to take a stroll out at this hour. Feeling hungry is the most dreaded thing we could end up doing. Irrespective of whether there’s a time bomb under your bed or worse, an exam up in front lined up the next week, this call needs to be answered. You could really hunt down a thin crust cheese burst pizza or your mom’s dhal makhni or some butter chicken from that gully wale, the more you get reminded the worse it gets. So here’s how I managed to help drag myself out of this ambush of thoughts about lip smacking food.

What entitles me to write this? I would have survived 4 years in this place in another 6 months and I, unlike most of you am the weakest on the face of good food. The very sight or smell or the thought about food starts the gastronomical cycle eating my brain up leaving me hungry and thinking about and longing for good food.

Here’s a list of things to follow that could possibly help you out of the most difficult times at hostel. A few of this might sound a little parental and a few… well out-right nonsense, trust me each of these have helped me(us) survive better with the limited supplies I(we) was left with.

1.      Never skip a meal

You might feel like stopping to read this, but it helps. Not about statistics, but you’re 100% more likely to feel hungry and long for good food if you’re starving. However bad it tastes, be it the mighty idlies, or the bread biriyanis, kichdi, or the curd rice that has no taste, eat as much as possible. If not actually fill in your appetite, they might fool your brain saying you aren't starving.

2.     The evening snacks and tea

The evening tea and snacks is the most underrated of all. They are terribly well designed to fill your stomach for a small amount of time. The wonderful things thats served (so called tea and coffee) are predominantly made of water and coffee/tea flavor have a capacity to fake your thoughts and they make your brain believe you’re fed well. With an extra mug of those, I could all night without feeling a thing on my stomach

3.     USE the GS!!

Spend a semester in the campus and anybody would curse the General Store for having NOTHING! If looked upon closely, they’ve got a little more than nothing. Here’s a list of things that could turn out to be a life saver when you’re starving and don’t feel like eating in the mess
- MILK The packed milk is pasteurized implying it is free from any possible germs or impurities. I’ve been drinking a half liter cold milk right off the pack on and off and I hadn’t had any issues. They are a classic appetite killer and could keep your stomach calm for a few hours.
Excessive consumption of milk as a replacement for meal is injurious to health. More of just milk dinner- you might have to consult a doctor for malnutrition.
- Bread, Bun, cream bun- These are excellent sides to the milk pack. A loaf of bread and a pack of 500ml milk will do the trick
- Plantain and other seasonal fruits
- Paal guava

4.    Load up during an apocalypse

A week with periodicals, or a busy weekend stuck up with the lame project works, this is the driest periods of our lives. This is when we call up the people we made friends and acquaintances in our whole college life and ask them to get the smallest possible treats from outside. It is times like these that one should be really locked and loaded with ample food supply especially because you’ll be island-ed with the college food for the longest spell. The best things to load up would be your favorite chips or anything JUNK! Hogging on junk during such spells would kill the long lasting cravings. During these times having a few extra boxes of cookies saved and some nuts to be on the healthy side would turn out more useful than ever.

5.    Mix ‘em up

So this is the final and favorite section! Something as simple as a pinch of sugar can kill the groaning stomach. To be listed below are a set of recipes I’ve heard from friends, most of which I have survived on for more than three years. My next post will feature some of the easiest to the pro cookery we've learnt and perfected in hostel.

STAY TUNED!