[We see Baasit Siddiqui in a University of Derby halls of residence kitchen alongside Victoria (Wisia) Rossi, Schools and Colleges Regional Lead]
Baasit: So, you're joining us in one of the University of Derby's halls of residence and I've got an amazing guest with me today I have got Wisia Rossi with me, former University of Derby student, so current University of Derby alumni. You work for the university?
Wisia: Yes
Baasit: And she has agreed - I don't think we forced you too much for this - no - but you've agreed to show and demonstrate some of your culinary skills today haven't you?
Wisia: Yes so we going over a few recipes that are fun, quick, and simple for students.
Baasit: Fantastic and what we want you taking away from this is the simplicity of the cooking side of it but also cooking on a budget, thinking about that health side that links to your well-being, and also this communal space that the kitchen itself if you're looking to go and stay in halls of residence, this is a perfect place to make friends, meet people, and show off those skills. I think you're going to get a lot from this so without further ado should we start cooking?
Wisia: I think so.
Baasit: Fantastic.
[Intro sequence with music reads 'Get Ready for Uni: Get Cooking'.]
[Back in the kitchen with Baasit and Wisia.]
Baasit: Wisia, thank you so much for inviting me to your kitchen. Are you alright, how are you doing?
Wisia: I'm good, I'm good, how are you?
Baasit: Yeah really good, really excited to be honest I know that we're in for a treat, you're going to show off some of your cooking skills today aren't you?
Wisia: Yes I learnt some cooking skills whilst at uni so putting them into practice again here today.
Baasit: Super excited about it, now I know we're in for a treat for our first dish. I can see we've got a couple of things we've got tomatoes there as well, what else have we got? What have you got planned for us?
Wisia: So we've got a lovely omelette today so like you said we've got some tomatoes, got ham, and a bit of cheese as well to top it off.
[We see an overlay montage of Wisia using a knife to slice the tomatoes, ripping apart the ham, and washing her hands with an on-screen reminder to wash your hands after handling raw meat to avoid contaminating your food.]
Baasit: Fantastic, so you thought long and hard about the different dishes you wanted to show us why was omelette and this is our first one, why was the omelette at the top of your list?
Wisia: So eggs are really nutritious, got loads of protein in there, and it's super easy to like whip something up with eggs. So, having tomatoes, you can switch out tomatoes to peppers or mushrooms and you can make it your own really, there's no set rule with this and it's super quick.
[We see Wisia cracking two eggs into a mug and whisking the yoke together with a fork.]
Baasit: Fantastic and obviously you've touched on the nutritious side of it, I think obviously with the cost of living crisis we've always got to be mindful of our pennies and everything. Did that go into your choice as well?
Wisia: Yeah 100%, always got to be bearing in mind our budgets as well, super important whilst at university. Bearing in mind with all of this I want to make sure it's nutritious so getting all of that in but also balling on a budget as well, making sure that the eggs are fairly reasonably priced, especially if you bulk by as well that's a really handy tool. If you bulk by you might be able to whip up a few different variations so it's not the same meal day by day.
Baasit: Fantastic and this is really what we wanted to get out of this session with you is this idea of obviously you're going to go through the method and the different ingredients for everything that we have but it's also thinking about the budget side as well and that nutrition side so additional resources as part of this session we'll have a couple of resources for you to kind of make your own list of different things and how much it costs and the nutritional value as well. Anyway, I can just smell the food, I'm starting to get hungry so I should let you get started on making an omelette.
Wisia: Yeah fab how exciting, so I'm going to be starting off with heating my pan up. I am working on this pan today, so I don't want it too hot so have it on a bit of a medium heat and whack my pan on there. I'm going to use a bit of oil so my eggs are not sticking to the pan.
Baasit: Of course.
Wisia: That's just some veg cooking oil.
Baasit: Full disclosure Wisia - I'm just going to say 'of course' every now and then to pretend I know what I'm talking about. I'm leaving it to the expert in the situation.
Wisia: Oh well I wouldn't say I'm an expert, no master chef but definitely have some skills. So I'm just waiting for the oil to heat up so I'm going to make my way over here and grab my eggs. I've whisked these with a bit of salt to get a bit of flavour in there. I'm just giving it a bit of a stir before whacking it in the pan. A little tip, always just hover your hand over the pan so you can feel the heat. Got to make sure you're staying nice and safe while cooking so you can feel it from here so don't be touching the pan, but now I'm going to be pouring my eggs in.
[Wisia pours the egg yokes into the hot pan and they instantly start to change texture into the omelette.]
Baasit: Speaking of safety as well, you'll notice that there's little signs here, there, and everywhere just to remind you to stay safe. Windows open is that right, doors closed and all those bits and pieces?
Wisia: Yeah, windows open, doors closed, we want to stay as safe as possible. Cooking can be fun, but we also have to be super cautious too.
Baasit: Fantastic, so whilst you're doing this I'm going to give people a bit of a spoiler alert as well. So, mix the eggs with some seasoning and set aside, heat the butter in a medium frying pan, so we've used oil instead haven't we?
Wisia: Yeah we've used oil today because we're able to use oil for all cooking areas, so butter is lovely but I was able to use oil for all three recipes today.
Baasit: Amazing and again just going back to costing it's just a bit more economical as as well which is brilliant.
Wisia: Fab, so right now I'm just going to add some tomatoes, I love tomatoes, nice and fresh, and crisp.
[Wisia places several tomatoes onto the partially set omelette.]
It also gives you one of your five a day as well which is super important for university. Why it's important for university is that we've got to keep your mind, your body, everything under control as in got to make sure that you're feeling healthy. If you feel healthy, everything feels healthy so you got to really look after your body, look after your mind, if you feel one as whole it means you're going to be super super reliable at uni.
[Wisia adds the pieces of ham to the omelette.]
Can you see that, it's like proper jiggling.
Baasit: Is jiggling good?
Wisia: It's jiggling yeah.
Baasit: Fantastic. This is, you know what, this is looking very impressive. I've got omelette envy at the moment.
Wisia: I wouldn't really call it that impressive but it's so simple, you've just seen me do it, it's like two, three minutes if that.
So I used to be in a sports team at uni so my training was quite late at night so I would come back home it was like six o'clock at night after my lectures.
It has been a long day, I don't want to be cooking standing there thirty, forty minutes making like a whole pasta dish. So I was able to whip up some eggs, tomatoes, ham, sometimes I add a bit of cheese on there that I'm doing right now.
[Wisia adds some grated cheese from a packet.]
And then I was able to have a bit of a meal before actually participating in some sports as well because I don't want to be playing sports on an empty stomach - it didn't make me feel well, it made me feel really lethargic. I wasn't really playing to my best either.
Baasit: So just with that in mind as well and your university experience, would you have classed yourself as being able to have done this pre-university, were these things that you were already doing, were you preparing for it a little bit beforehand?
Wisia: I think I was prepping for it a little bit, I wasn't 100% I'm not going to lie, the support at uni is fab so in halls they have cooking classes.
Baasit: Oh wow.
Wisia: So if you don't really know what you're doing, if you're fully fresh, you're able to get a bit of support. Your flatmates are really important too, so someone might be a proper chef, you never know, or they have a bit of culinary experience as well it be handy to support each other and that's why flats are really important to cook in sometimes.
Baasit: You know what, I think you've hit the nail on the head that social element as well, kind of cooking with each other, sharing skills, sharing top tips, and just getting to chat as well. So I'm very honoured today to be involved in this and tasting some of your dishes as well so thank you.
Wisia: Oh no thank you for coming, always great to be sociable when sharing a meal. I think it's super important that you're able to talk, it's a great time to talk about mental health as well. So, like I said a healthy mind it's really important to feed the mind but also talk about it too.
[Wisia uses the wooden spoon to flip half of the omelette over to finish it off. The underside is a nice golden brown colour.]
There we go literally done in -
Baasit: Three to four minutes isn't it. Fantastic can't wait to eat this, Wisia thank you so much now this is dish one of three and so just to go over it again. It's mixing the eggs, add a bit of seasoning to that -
Wisia: Add a bit of seasoning, we don't want plain eggs do we?
Baasit: No no not at all, you've already got your ham and your tomatoes ready, throw a bit of cheese on it as well and then medium heat, you said medium heat?
Wisia: Yes, I say bit of a medium heat so you can actually control what you're cooking so if it's too high you might be going too fast and you start panicking and you're like oh my god I made scrambled eggs and not an omelette. So, it's just making sure that you have control in the kitchen as well.
Baasit: 100% and I love the fact that you said that because you were very cool, calm, and collected even though I was firing my questions at you as well so thank you so much for that. Right I think the last thing to do is actually tuck in.
Wisia: Yeah fab.
Baasit: Fantastic, so that's dish one done.
[We arrow slide transition a little later as Baasit and Wisia stand by the kitchen units]
Baasit: Wisia, thank you so much again for this omelette, I know you're like it's just an omelette what's the big deal but it's been so long since someone's cooked an omelette for me so thank you it was lovely. Now obviously again, you've already demonstrated your amazing cooking skills, but there's a bigger point to this as well in terms of the health side and the budget side as well. You've chosen an omelette so if you were going to say if we focus more on the budget side of it, how much would a dish like this cost you?
Wisia: Ooh really it wouldn't cost too much, it depends on the ingredients that you want to choose so like tomatoes it wouldn't really cost you more than a pound like for me I think I got them between 60 and 70p and that's a whole bunch of tomatoes so you could use it for other other recipes. Eggs again, I bought quite a lot of eggs because I love eggs.
I looked at the different prices so, yes I go for a cheaper one because I want more for my money for sure, so that was only about £1.70 for about 10 eggs, so really you could recreate this dish as much as possible.
Baasit: Yeah and I think that's the thing isn't it, it's versatile as well obviously you've used tomatoes today, you've used the cheese, and you've used the ham but you can mix it up with so many other different bits and pieces couldn't you for example if you're a vegetarian you could have an alternative to it as well couldn't you, get rid of the ham, and put something else into it as well?
Wisia: Yeah definitely, it's really worth experimenting at university if you feel that you want to go down the different routes of protein is it that you want to go down the route of salmon to get a bit of omega-3, whacking a bit of broccoli to get your greens in as well, it's really important to really open your mind about the ingredients that you're going to go down. Yes you could go down the cheaper route of just getting your fresh and fruit and veg and bits and bobs like that but is there more that you want to spend because it's going into your body, it's fuelling you so it's worth spending your money on as well.
Baasit: Fantastic yeah that's a nice balanced point of view there keeping it healthy but also keeping it budget friendly as well. Fantastic right I'm going to ask the cameras to leave now because I want to gorge on this but yeah thank you so much, amazing.
Wisia: No problem.
[We see Baasit eating the omelette and Wisia preparing for the next recipe.]
Baasit: Wisia, you're a pro, this is really nice, do you need a hand with anything?
Wisia: No, no enjoy the food.
Baasit: Is that alright?
Wisia: Yeah that's what you're here for.
Baasit: Thank you.
[We arrow wipe transition into a short while later.]
Baasit: Ok after a lovely first dish we're on to our next dish. So Wisia, can you just let us know what you plan to cook for us now?
Wisia: So, I'm going for a soy fried rice like soya sauce, fried rice. A bit of a tongue twister that one is actually. So this is something simple as well, loads of ingredients, a bit of colour this time as well.
Baasit: Definitely so what have we got here then we've got
Wisia: We've got a bit of mushrooms. I always prefer the chestnut ones I don't know it's my preference.
[We see Wisia chopping the mushrooms into small pieces.]
Baasit: Personal favourite brilliant.
Wisia: I have some red onions as well, again personal preference you could choose whatever, again veg, and then I've also got some yellow bell pepper as well.
[We next see Wisia chopping into the onion, peeling off the outer layer, and slicing it lengthways. Then she cuts into a yellow bell pepper, taking off the stem at the top, cutting the seeds out of the centre, and slicing the pepper into strips, then even smaller pieces.]
Baasit: Fantastic now if you were going to swap any of these meals out or anything like that or any of these veg out, would you swap them with anything else, is there any other things that you would experiment with as well?
Wisia: Yeah you know with fried rice it could be any vegetable so sometimes I like to fry a bit of broccoli, with a potato peeler, I do with carrots, so I get like carrot strips so it's like carrot ribbons they look fancy but really it's not. It's to give the rice a bit of a crunch so it gives it like multiple dimensions of eating so you're not just eating soft food you are getting that crunch, you're getting that freshness while you're eating as well.
Baasit: I love it, fantastic, and then last but not least for me this is the main part the actual diced chicken here. Now you've been prepping in the background and getting this all ready haven't you. In fact I believe you've got your pan on the go already haven't you is that heating, getting ready, is it getting nice and hot?
[We see Wisia 'dicing' the chicken from the large cuts into smaller pieces. We again see Wisia washing her hands straight after touching raw meat.]
Wisia: Yes so my pan is nice and hot, not too hot though, with some oil in there. So right now I'm going to chuck my chicken in because that will take a little bit longer to cook than the vegetables so I'll slide that in and then -
[Wisia transfers the chicken pieces from the chopping board into the hot pan using a wooden spoon.]
Baasit: Now I know adults that are nervous about cooking chicken and I'm one of those adults. We're always a little bit nervous about making sure that we've cooked it for the right amount of time. Is there any little tips and tricks you can give in terms of that to make sure that you have cooked it for enough time?
Wisia: Yeah so it can be daunting, it can be scary, usually when the chicken runs clear so any juices that flow out the chicken it's clear, you know you're okay. Anything a bit more cloudy I would probably cook it for a little bit longer. Anything nice and golden brown as well is also a really good sign.
Baasit: Fantastic and when you've got bigger pieces of chicken do you chop into it as well and if it's white on the inside is that right?
Wisia: I think so, so for me a lot of people do get nervous as we said chopping into the chicken can be quite handy especially if you've got like a whole chicken breast that you're cooking sometimes you're a bit unsure on times, you're probably not so used to this stove just yet especially when you first move in it can be a bit like ooh I don't know how hot this actually is or how fast this cooks, so really taking time and making sure everything is cooked through properly.
Baasit: Fantastic right so that chicken is simmering quite nicely there so whilst that's just good going, do you have to add your bits and pieces to it?
Wisia: Yes so I don't want just plain chicken so I am just going to whack in a bit of spice, so that was some paprika I'm also going to add in some garlic so I just need some of this - super fresh. Sprinkle that across, I love garlic it's like one of my favourite bits to cook as well, a bit of chilli powder. I do like a bit of a kick.
[We see Wisia sprinkling a good amount of both paprika and garlic onto the chicken]
Baasit: God you like it hot don't you?
Wisia: I do, I do, got some salt.
Baasit: Now this, the chicken we need to leave for a good couple of minutes don't we. I'm going to consult your method, do you put a time on it?
Wisia: I would say we want to make sure that the chicken is probably 3 to 4 minutes around each side. I'm giving it a quick mix now so all the seasoning is going to be coated in all areas of the chicken but you can see it's starting to turn white, which is a good indication that it's getting cooked but you can see where you've got a clear line of what's cooked and what's not cooked so once that white is all the way through with that golden brown coat that's when you know you're good.
[We see the chicken is starting to whiten on one side as Wisia uses the wooden spoon to mix the pan.]
Baasit: You're an absolute super star, fantastic, so obviously you put 3 to 4 minutes here until everything is hot and steaming and that's for 200 grams of chopped chicken is that right?
Wisia: Yes.
Baasit: Fabulous.
Wisia: It's up to you how much chicken that you want, well any protein if you do add a protein in there but again, it's a good dish to share so I've got a fairly large pan, that's loads of chicken, that's way too much chicken for me, for one person, so it's a great one to share with your flatmates. Have you just finished a lecture together, have you finished a library session and you're feeling a bit hungry, it's a great one to cook together and then dish up.
Baasit: Now that chicken is looking good isn't it.
[The chicken in the pan is completely white.]
Wisia: Yeah so it's cooked all the way through so I've had a bit of a check with a few different pieces and I can see it's cooked all the way through it's nice and crispy, you can see it's got a bit of a golden tinge to it and it is cooked all the way through white so just double check when you're cooking and again with all different proteins as well if you do choose to have a protein you can have a little look to see if it's the right one you, if it's bacon, if you're adding like leftover pulled pork or like that's just reheating it so it's fully done. Is it that you're using like I had pork belly the other day, making sure that that's cooked properly so it's quite a good one to use any leftover protein that you might have had before so if you've had a roast chicken so you've got like whole chicken.
Baasit: Use that meat again.
Wisia: Use it again, reuse, don't put stuff into landfills if it's not there so you are actually saving the environment using all your food.
Baasit: Definitely so you're being economical, you're helping the environment, and having a nice meal at the back of it as well so that's brilliant. So you're adding your veg now.
Wisia: Yes.
[We see Wisia transferring the peppers, onion and mushrooms into the pan with the chicken.]
Baasit: How long would you put the veg in for would you say?
Wisia: Not too long only a couple of minutes because I still like my veg quite crunchy. Just making sure the onions and mushrooms are cooked properly I would say. I'm just going to stir that in quickly with the chicken so it's getting an even distribution throughout the pan.
Baasit: You use all the lingo as well even distribution honestly, yeah even distribution.
Wisia: I think it's from my degree you know, I did a science degree here at Derby and having the lingo, I've got to make sure that the instructions are done correctly so if we have to repeat an experiment we can do and we can do it step by step and it's the same with cooking - repeating it over and over again, getting it right step by step and making amendments as well so if you are wanting to spice it up a little bit like I said, change the veg, change the spices.
Baasit: Yeah, so get the basics and then make sure you're confident with the basics and then start experimenting with different bits and pieces I think that's great - and then there's another sort of avenue to look at as well when you are kind of that chef, that kind of the cook amongst your group of friends I can imagine that you were quite a popular person when you were in halls.
Wisia: I think I was you know. After a lot of chatting away and I think they found out like I'm quite sociable, I do like to experiment I was forever trying new products that are out and about as well. I think it's quite fun to try different areas if it's a different type of cuisine, is it Asian Fusion, Eastern European, American, it's quite fun to sort of test the waters.
Baasit: Mess around with those things yeah.
[We see Wisia putting a bag of microwave rice in the microwave.]
Wisia: And it's fun to experiment with loads of people because they could give you their honest opinions as well which is quite handy.
Baasit: With that in mind everyone, I think that something that's really important to remember is that when you come to university you're trying to identify yourself as a new person, this is a fantastic way just to have another layer to who you are as well and a bit of an added layer to your personality if you're that person who can cook so starting now and having those cooking skills could be a nice icebreaker when you're trying to make new friends in the common room and in the kitchen and everything.
Wisia: 100% so at the moment I've just whacked in a packet of rice in, a lot of people struggle cooking rice, the ratios are here, there, and everywhere. Do you use the finger trick, do you use the proportions of one cup to this, two cups to that? It can get pretty complicated so if you do want to use a packet of microwave rice I don't blame you, I do too - It's a lot simpler and it's quicker, two minutes and you're done. With that I also have like it's vegetable rice as well so there's even more vegetables in there, getting your five a day again which is nice and simple. Again multitasking this time, I've got a microwave and a stove on the go.
Baasit: And you're talking to me as well so I'm trying to stay at the back here I don't want anything to go wrong with this but you're doing an absolutely brilliant job.
Wisia: Fab, so we'll let that keep nice and hot, we'll wait till the rice is finished.
Baasit: Well what's this that we've got then, Is this something just to wrap it up?
Wisia: Yeah so while I'm waiting for the rice, once that goes into the pan, so the rice will also go into the pan, I'm going to add a bit of sweet and a bit of salty in there as well - so still mixing up the flavour palette so we're not just relying on spices, relying on loads of different things, there we go the rice is ready.
Baasit: So I'd say out of all the dishes that you're making today Wisia, this is probably the most technical or the one that looks the most busy, but watching you do it, chopping a bit of chicken, making sure that's cooked, throw in the veg, microwave the rice, throw that in, and then mix in the honey and the - is it soy sauce?
Wisia: Yeah.
[Wisia removes the rice from the microwave, rips open the pack and pours into the pan with everything else.]
Baasit: Fantastic and then obviously you did add your spices to the chicken and your garlic to that. That’s all personal preference really isn't?
Wisia: Yeah 100% it's super easy, these are staple cupboard items as well so you don't have to keep rebuying and rebuying, they will last you a fair little bit as well. Just a few dashes of soy in there. Got a little bit of honey and if you're wanting to go veggie or vegan you can use alternatives as well so instead of honey you can use some sugar, instead of soy you can just use a bit more salt as well and then again if you wanted to go full vegan you can just take the chicken out and use aubergines or just put even more vegetables in there so proper good fried rice.
Baasit: So it's a nice healthy mix isn't it. A nice bit of veg, a nice bit of meat, rice as well for a bit of fibre, covering all the bases and what I love and you've already highlighted this as well, once you've bought a lot of these essentials you can use them over and over again can't you which is brill.
Wisia: 100%, so I'm just chucking in a bit more seasoning to bring out the flavour now that we got a bit more rice in there.
Baasit: More seasoning? More chilli?
Wisia: Oh yes, oh yes.
Baasit: Going to burn!
Wisia: No it won't be too hot, I just don't want to lose the flavour adding more rice in because that flavour was just for the chicken. So again, I would also recommend taste while you go. I'm not because I'm talking so much. Taste as you go, see if it fits right, you think oh we need a bit more salt or thinking oh no it's a bit too spicy, then you could try put something a bit more sweet in there to help out. That's pretty much it so I'm going to take it off the heat and there we go, there's your soy fried rice with chicken.
Baasit: Soy fried rice is done, you have done an absolutely amazing job there, that looks very mouth-watering. Now you're the expert, are you proud of how that looks?
Wisia: Do you know what I am. That's nice and colourful, got loads of fresh veg in there, and I've only used one pot.
Baasit: And have you ever done this dish with a camera looking directly at you and someone asking you loads of questions?
Wisia: No I haven't it's the first time you know.
Baasit: You know what you can put that on your CV definitely. Fantastic, right I can't wait to eat this, great work.
Wisia: Thank you.
[We arrow wipe transition to slightly later. Wisia is holding the finished dish.]
Baasit: So Wisia another cracking meal that you've made and created well done.
Wisia: Thank you, thank you.
Baasit: And you're proud of this one aren't you?
Wisia: I am.
Baasit: I think you did a brilliant job.
Wisia: Yeah it's nice, it's spicy, gives a different flavour so the omelette was nice and mild and creamy and fun but this one gives a different element and also quite crunchy as well with the peppers.
Baasit: No it's lovely, fantastic, and what I love is, a couple of things here, exactly as you said, just trying to be like really cost effective with this we've got Tupperware so you can take some of this as well and use it on a different day. I'm personally going to take this the only thing is I never eat spicy food in public because I cry quite a lot through it so the camera doesn't need to see that to be honest.
But this gives us a chance obviously you've cooked some fantastic dishes already but this isn't the only skills that you've got you've gone through the university experience itself and you got your degree and now you work for the university as well. So with that in mind can you just give our listeners and our audience an insight into what you did whilst you were at university, what was your degree in?
Wisia: So I did my degree in forensic science here at the University of Derby so I loved science, I loved to experiment and find out things so forensics was the one for me. I was always quite a curious child of like why why why I think my mum got quite annoyed with me asking why all the time and it was a great pathway to experiment and have a look at different areas. I was always quite hands-on at university doing my experiments.
Baasit: Was it really practical then?
Wisia: Oh yeah no definitely we have specialised labs that are just for forensics, we've got a whole house, we've got cars, we've got all sorts, labs, microbiology labs osteology labs all sorts. If you had a specific interest with the academic there you could really sort of peak together and look at that research focus as well.
Baasit: Definitely and I think with forensics that's definitely the case but one thing I do love about the university is the fact that you get to not only get the academic side but there's real life hands-on experiences as well which I think is so important. You were there for three years is that right?
Wisia: Yeah, yeah I was there for three years, I started in my first year and started having a little look to see what other different areas of forensics was like and sort of finding your own passion was you're at university it's a brilliant time to explore, you don't have that opportunity at school or college or sixth form you're able to sort of branch out in so many different modules and you actually get to choose the modules sometimes as well so it's not just there you go off you go and learn it's oh I fancy give a that a bit of a taster.
Baasit: Giving that a go.
Wisia: Yeah.
Baasit: Definitely. Now flash forward now obviously you're an amazing cook, amazing chef, but that's not your day-to-day role, you work for the university could you just give us a bit of an idea of what you do for the university now then?
Wisia: Yes so I work in Schools and College Liaison team at the university so I engage with schools and colleges throughout the UK so students just like yourself visiting the university is it that you're here for a taster day, having a look at what a certain subjects like we sort of have a focus on that. I go to a lot of UCAS fairs or higher education fairs and careers fairs and I talk about Derby and I talk the roots into university to see if that is the area that you want to go to. Universities have really specific degrees sometimes and sometimes you just don't know what they are so we're here to talk to you about all the different options that are available to you as well.
Baasit: Fantastic and there are many different options but what I love about working with you Wisia is the fact that you're really passionate about the university, the university experience not just what's happening on the academic side but the practical side and then the day-to-day side in terms of everything that we've seen with you cooking in this communal space and that is a way to make new friends and really embrace the experience as well so it's been thoroughly enjoyable working with you on these on these couple of dishes. I know we're going to eat this one now and then I believe that we may have time for one more as well.
Wisia: I think we do.
Baasit: Fantastic right okay right I'm going to stop interrupting you and let you enjoy your hard work, cheers Wisia. - Thank you.
[We arrow wipe transition to just Baasit in the kitchen facing the camera.]
Baasit: So Wisia has already shown you some fantastic dishes but we've got another one for you, a quick fly through on how to make some fajitas.
[We cut to a sped up montage of Wisia creating a third dish as we hear her voiceover narrating what she's showing us throughout.]
Wisia: So halloumi fajitas are really quick easy vegetarian meals that you can make. Start by cutting your onions and your mushrooms and your red bell peppers into small slices. Cut up the halloumi cheese block into strips and don't worry if the cheese break on you but try keep them as wide and thin so you only need to cook two sides. Your ingredients should look something like this.
[We see across two chopping boards, Wisia has ready her piles of sliced peppers, mushrooms, and the pile of halloumi strips.]
Put a large pan or a wok on a medium heat and add some oil and once it's hot you can start frying your veg. Keep stirring to ensure it's cooking evenly. Next from our fajita kit is the spice mix, pour this all over your veg and stir it in, keep the pan moving and add in some oil if it starts to burn or it's a bit too dry. Now we're going to need a second smaller pan this is to allow the halloumi to crisp up properly just don't forget to stir your main pan while you're doing this. Once they start to turn golden underneath you can start flipping them over.
[Wisia uses a fork to transfer the halloumi onto the other side. The tops are now crispy.]
Now you can optionally heat up your fajita wraps. It's personal preference but I think they taste nicer warm.
[Wisia inserts the fajita wraps into the microwave.]
Add your halloumi to your veg, give it a final stir so it gets all the fajita seasoning and take it off the heat.
[With all the chopped ingredients mixed together in one large pan, Wisia puts it on the side ready to transfer into her warmed wraps.]
Now all that's left to do is spoon some of your ingredients into the wrap, add some salsa, and fold it however you like and don't worry if it springs apart on you. And that's our fajitas, a fun, tasty meal that you can make quickly. Enjoy!
[We arrow wipe transition back to Baasit and Wisia in the kitchen together.]
Baasit: Okay so that's us done and dusted Wisia - I can't thank you enough for showing off all of your amazing cooking skills. You've given so much advice to everyone who's been listening not only the cooking side of it but the cooking on a budget and how to stay healthy, that mental health side as well so I honestly can't thank you enough. Have you enjoyed it?
Wisia: I loved it and thank you for coming into my kitchen today and you’ve actually tasted my food too.
Baasit: No absolutely loved it, I will definitely be back but it's going to be a couple of months because I've got quite a lot of food to work off.
To everyone who's been listening thank you so much we hope you've got a lot out of it remember you've got all our resources below to get involved as much as you can do but until next time enjoy yourselves.
[End titles - 'Get Ready for Uni with Baasit Siddiqui' - and the University of Derby logo]
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