Dorm Living

Molly_80105

As a college student, not having space to bring equipment, and limited funds, it's been interesting figuring out what to do in the dorm kitchen. I think I've been pretty successful with a hand mixer, a set of bowls, measuring cups and spoons (soon to be replaced by a scale!), and a few pans. (pictured: carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, chocolate cupcakes, black and white cookies, butter cake, and strawberry shortcake)
Any tips for modernist cooking in a dorm? or possible recipes?

pjmaguire3

You could make yourself a sous vide cooker (or buy one from a company like Anova), since that would allow you to do most of the stove top-related cooking without actually having a stove top. Hot plates always seem to be banned, but toaster ovens are pretty good at making smaller things and a steel plate can be added if you run into inconsistent temperature zones. And of course, I will always be a massive seller on the blow torch. These things have a ton applications, such as burning the skin off some peppers and completely changing the flavor and texture profile or quickly searing that steak you just cooking in your homemade cooler-sous vide system, but the real important purpose of the blow torch is to make sure everyone knows you're the badass that you are. You're in a dorm in college, just having a blow torch in your room will start up so many conversations and everyone will forever assume and remember that you're the best cook for miles around. I personally recommend the Bernz-O-Matic TS8000, since it can provide 14,282 Btu per hour (with propane, which I assume you'll go with since it's super cheap and good enough) and isn't that much more expensive than the cheaper versions. On a side note, in the future the The Searzall can be attached to any Bernz-O-Matic self-igniting head and the whole platform could be used much more efficiently (since an issue of using it as a broiler on more delicate foods is that you'll get very intense hot spots, which means that those perfect eggs you are melting cheese on now have a couple tiny pin pricks of char on the edges where the cheese wasn't). Hope you continue pumping out food in the dorm!