Students bare their super secret recipes

Kieran Mace’s Cajun Chicken Pasta

“This dish is a great twist on a simple classic, fettuccine alfredo. It’s the perfect dish for the beginner cook with just the right level of spice.”

Ingredients:

• Penne pasta
• Salt
• Bertolli alfredo sauce
• Garlic and pepper for seasoning
• Chicken breast
• Cajun seasoning
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

1. Tenderize chicken and season to taste with garlic and pepper.
2. In a wide sauce pot, pour olive oil.
3. Cook your seasoned chicken on medium heat.
4. While chicken is cooking, boil water in another pot. Once it comes to a boil, pour in salt and pasta. Cook pasta according to box instructions.
5. Once the chicken is done, take out and cut into slices or cubes.
6. Put the chicken back into the sauce pot and pour alfredo sauce over top.
7. Season sauce with Cajun seasoning to taste.
8. Next, take your cooked pasta and strain before adding into the pot of sauce and chicken. Let cook for 4 minutes before tasting.
9. Add more Cajun seasoning or eat as is!

Dhruv Ramesh’s Rotisserie Chicken Enchiladas

“I pretty much just kind of threw my basic knowledge of cooking and some TikTok ideas together, and I firmly believe cream cheese is one of the best items to cook with,” Ramesh said. “I like this recipe because I kind of just did it myself, it was fulfilling even though it’s a pretty basic recipe. If you decide to make this, I recommend making it with another person. The company is always nice, but also it helps to have someone to keep an eye on the sauce so it doesn’t bubble over.”

Ramesh said he recommends queuing up the “Ratatouille” soundtrack and “Sexual Healing” by Hot 8 Brass band (a house favorite).

Ingredients:

• 1 cooked rotisserie chicken
• 2 blocks cream cheese
• Flour tortillas
• 1 bag shredded Mexican cheese
• 1 McCormick enchilada sauce packet
• Taco seasoning

Directions:

1. Debone and shred rotisserie chicken.
2. Place shredded chicken in a bowl.
3. Season with taco seasoning.
4. In a saucepan, make enchilada sauce according to packet instructions.
5. As sauce nears a simmer, gradually add cubes of cream cheese (up to 3/4 block) until sauce is a creamy consistency and orange color.
6. Coat a baking tray with a thin layer of sauce.
7. Grab a tortilla, thin layer of cream cheese, add chicken and shredded cheese, roll and place into a 3” deep baking dish.
8. Continue to fill tortillas until the baking dish is full.
9. Fully coat rolled tortillas in the baking dish with sauce.
10. Using a spatula, make sure the sauce is in all of the crevices.
11. Coat with cheese and the leftover chicken if there is any.
12. Bake until the cheese on top is melted almost to a bubble.
13. Remove and enjoy!

Chris Hymel’s Miso Soup

Hymel said miso soup is to Japan as fried chicken is to America, and for good reason. It is hearty, full of protein, so easy to make and even easier to share. When he cooks it, Hymel said he loves to listen to some Joji and really relax and enjoy the process (maybe even dance around, who knows?).

“When I finally get to eat, it’s so nice after entering a relaxed state of mind, letting the hearty soup wash over you,” he said. “It’s versatile and easy to change, so you can use whatever meat you feel hungry for, whether chicken, shrimp, beef, anything! Give it a try, and I promise you won’t regret it!”

Ingredients:

Awase Dashi:

• 20 grams kombu

• 4 cups water

• 2 ¼ tablespoons bonito soup base

Miso soup:

• 1 block of soft or silken tofu

• 4 tablespoons white miso

• 1 green onion finely chopped

Directions:

1. For the Dashi, wipe any dirt particles off the kombu, but leave the white dusty-looking stuff as that is where most of the flavor is held.
2. Pour 4 cups of water into a medium-sized pot, then place the kombu in and let sit for 30 minutes. The result is what is called a kombu cold brew, which should be lightly colored water.
3. Heat the pot until just before boiling (look for tiny bubbles forming on the inside of the pot) then remove the kombu.
4. Add in your bonito soup base and let simmer for 30 seconds – 1 minute, stirring occasionally to dissolve the soup base.
5. After it has simmered, turn off the heat and let steep for 10 minutes.
6. After, drain the Dashi through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth into a bowl to remove the remaining soup base. The result will be a clean broth. Discard any remaining soup base granules.
7. For the Miso soup, pour the Awase Dashi back into the pot.
8. Take the tofu out of the packaging and cut the tofu into bite sized cubes. Carefully place into the pot with the dashi, trying to keep the tofu cube shapes.
9. Put the white miso into the fine mesh strainer and submerge the strainer into the pot. Stir the miso in with the soup. Stirring in the miso with a strainer helps to prevent damage to the tofu.
10. Remove the strainer after all the miso is incorporated and add in the green onions. Stir in with a ladle or spoon.
11. Enjoy! Best served with rice for a traditional Japanese breakfast.

Gray Campbell’s Fried Rice

“This recipe is for rice and vegetables lightly (or heavily if you’re gross like me) coated with soy and oyster sauce, and fried in a wok or pan,” Campbell said. “I wanted to make this because of this delicious fried rice from a Japanese barbecue restaurant near me called Gyu-Kaku.”

Ingredients:

• Day-old cold rice or fresh rice cooled in the refrigerator
• Yellow or white onion, diced
• Green onion, thinly sliced
• Bell peppers, diced
• Bok choy or cabbage, sliced
• Minced garlic
• Soy sauce
• Oyster sauce
• Sesame oil
• 1 egg

Directions:

1. In a big ol’ pan or wok, add a couple tablespoons of sesame oil and the minced garlic.
2. Once the oil and garlic starts to bubble, add the yellow or white onion and the bell peppers.
3. Once the veggies start to get a little more color, add in your rice and stir until the veggies are nicely distributed.
4. Add a splash of sesame oil, followed by a healthy splash of oyster sauce and soy sauce until the rice begins to darken when stirred.
5. Then create a small “well” in the middle of your rice and crack an egg into it.
6. At this point you can either mix in the egg one of two ways:
7. Scramble the egg in the “well” first and then incorporate into the rest of the rice. This will create small chunks of egg throughout the rice that you can see.
8. OR
9. Immediately incorporate the egg into the rice, stirring until all the rice is coated. This will create stickier rice and a more evenly distributed egg flavor.
10. Then let the rice sit for 1-2 minutes on the heat to let the bottom crisp, then stir and let sit another 1-2 minutes before turning the heat off.
11. LASTLY, fold in the green onions and save a couple pinches for topping your bowl.

Gray Campbell’s Bagels

“Ah, who doesn’t love a big bagel absolutely slathered, schmeared and covered with cream cheese? Right? One thing about this recipe, you don’t have to put them in the refrigerator overnight. This just improves the flavor of the bagel a lot,” Campbell said.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup water
• 2 and 3/4 teaspoon instant yeast
• 520g of bread flour
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt (or table salt)
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon baking soda

Directions:

1. Whisk together water and instant yeast in a container, cover and let sit for 5-10 minutes.
2. In a big bowl, mix bread flour, salt and brown sugar.
3. Pour the yeast mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix with a big spoon or with your hands.
4. Once a big shaggy dough comes together, dump it out onto a VERY lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes until it’s nice and smooth.
5. Place in greased bowl, cover with a damp towel and let sit at room temp for 1.5 hours.
6. Dump it out onto a non-floured surface and divide it into 8 equal pieces and shape as best you can into balls.
7. Then slowly punch your thumb through the middle of the bagels and shape the hole to be about 1-2 inches wide, then place onto a greased baking sheet, or baking sheet sprinkled heavily with cornmeal.
8. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise at room temp for 1 hour.
9. Then place in the refrigerator overnight.
10. Next day, bring the bagels out of the refrigerator and bring a pot filled with water to a boil, then add the baking soda.
11. Boil the bagels 20-30 seconds on each side one at a time or as many can comfortably float around in your pot. Do not stack or crowd the pot.
12. Place your bagels onto a baking sheet once boiled and bake at 450 for 22-25 minutes.

Katie Carlsen’s Cake Box Cookies

“I enjoy making my cake mix cookies because they’re really simple to make and cookies are a quick and easy way to brighten someone’s day,” Carlsen said. “It’s really fun to bake with friends and just hang out and mess around while they bake. I recommend baking them not for yourself, but for someone else. School can be stressful, so getting a cookie could make someone’s day.”

Ingredients:

• 1 box of any cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup of oil

Directions:

1. Mix cake mix with eggs and oil.
2. Roll dough into balls.
3. Place on a greased cookies sheet about two to three inches apart.
4. Bake for about 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees.