Over the next few days, students will be heading back to college and leaving behind the fully stocked fridge and bountiful store cupboard of home. Ahead lies a term of relying on the canteen or getting to grips with a shared kitchen and testing the latent Jamie Oliver.

When I first started fending for myself, I shared a room in a big flat where nobody could cook. We lived on toast, Fray Bentos steak and kidney pies, fried eggs, bacon, instant coffee and cornflakes. In no particular order. Nobody washed up and you dare not open a cupboard in case a plate of congealed spaghetti fell out.

We were also permanently skint, and fags and booze had priority over food: typical first-time flat-dwellers. Out of desperation, I found that if you grate a potato and fry it in a little hot oil, you get a delicious, crisp potato mat. All you need with it is a squirt of ketchup and a pinch of salt. It makes a very good sandwich.

When we became bored with paillasson (the real name of what I thought was my invention), we discovered pancakes. And before long the two merged. We didn't know it, but we were living on latkes.

Latke is Yiddish for pancake and, although good on their own, these deliciously crisp potato and onion pancakes go with everything from fried eggs to roast chicken. I particularly like them with apple sauce, bacon and a swirl of maple syrup.

When my son went off to college, I packed him a box of goodies. Basics such as dried pasta and noodles, garlic, soy sauce, olive oil and cans of tomatoes, anchovies, chickpeas and beans.

As well as having a food writer as a mum, he had worked in various restaurants as a washer-up and waiter, and picked up all sorts of skills, but his box gave me the idea for a book.

Hungry? Quick Easy Everyday Food isn't exactly a student cookery book, but more of a helping hand for beginners or people who think they can't cook.

It's perfect for students or anyone in a so-called studio (we used to call them bedsits) who doesn't have space to store much food but wants to eat healthily without spending a lot of time thinking about food shopping.

Cooking, I reckon, is about confidence, and the great thing about this book is that it assumes nothing of its readers. It shows how to eke out the budget and make ordinary ingredients such as potatoes, eggs and sausages, satisfy a longing for inspired fast food.

Unlike most cookery books these days, there are no photographs of perfect dishes to aspire to. Instead, the book is cheap enough to give to everyone you know. Believe me, it's packed with recipes you can trust.

Hungry: Easy Food for Hungry People by Lindsey Bareham, published by Penguin Books, is available at £7.99 and from Times BooksFirst at £7.59, free p&p: 0870 1608080; timesonline.co.uk/booksfirst

Latkes with bacon and apple sauce

Serves 2

Prep: 15 min

Cook: 15 min

For the apple sauce:

1 Bramley cooking apple

Knob of butter

2 tbsp sugar

For the latkes:

1 large egg

2 tbsp flour

1 onion

1 large King Edward or other “old” potato

Approx 300g oil for frying

12 rashers streaky bacon

Maple syrup

Begin with the apple sauce. Peel, quarter, core and quickly chop the apples. Place in a pan with 5 tbsp water, cover and boil hard for about 5 minutes, until collapsed. Stir in the butter and sugar.

Crack the egg into a large bowl. Whisk briefly then continue whisking while you sift the flour over the top. Continue whisking until smooth. Peel then grate the onion on the large hole of the cheese grater into a colander. Scrub or scrape the potato then grate over the onion. Squeeze dry, pressing between your hands or against the colander and then wring out in a clean tea towel or in several sheets of kitchen paper. Mix into the batter with a pinch of salt.

Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan and, when smoking, take spoonfuls of the batter - cooking 2 at a time - and drop into the hot oil. Flatten a little, and lower the heat so the pancakes cook through evenly. Do not fiddle with the latke or try to move them yet. After 3 or 4 mins, when the bottom is golden brown and crusty, turn and cook the other side. While the latkes are cooking, cut the bacon in half, lay out on foil on a grill pan (to avoid washing up) and cook until crisp. Serve the latkes with a dollop of apple sauce, rashers of bacon and swirl of maple syrup.

Chinese noodles with beansprouts

Serves 2-4

Prep: 15 min

Cook: 15 min

250g Chinese-style egg noodles

2 large onions

5cm ginger

1 large garlic clove

1 red chilli

3 tbsp sesame oil

350g bean sprouts

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp roughly chopped

coriander leaves

3 shakes of toasted sesame

oil (optional)

Fill a large pan with water and put on to boil. Place the noodles in a second pan. Meanwhile, peel, halve and thinly slice the onions. Peel the ginger, slice into skinny batons and then into tiny dice. Peel the garlic and chop very finely. Trim and slit open the chilli, scrape out the seeds and slice into thin batons. Chop into small dice. By now the water will be boiling. Add half tsp salt and fling in the beansprouts. Boil for 30 secs until plump and glassy. Place a colander over the noodle pan and drain the beansprout water on to the noodles. Boil for 5 mins, drain and cover to keep warm.

Heat a wok over a high flame and, when very hot, add 2 tbsp oil and swirl it around the wok. Add the onion, tossing for a few minutes and allowing some edges to brown. Lower the heat, keep tossing and cook for about 10 minutes until the onions soften and change colour. Add the ginger, garlic, chilli and 2 tbsp soy sauce and stir-fry for a few minutes.

Add the beansprouts, the remaining 1 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp soy sauce, then stir in the drained noodles. Toss to amalgamate, adding the coriander and toasted sesame oil.

Parmesan gnocchi with pesto and beans

Serves 4-6

Prep: 10 min

Cook: 10 min

2 X 400g potato gnocchi/gnocchi di patate

300g French beans

25g butter

4 tbsp pesto

4 tbsp grated Parmesan, plus more to serve

Put a large pan of water on to boil while you top and tail the beans and cut them in half. As soon as the water is boiling, add 1 tsp salt and the beans. Bring the water back to the boil and cook for 1 min. Scoop the beans out of the water and drain in a colander.

Drop the gnocchi into the boiling water and cook for 2-3 mins until they all rise to the surface. Drain and toss with the butter in a warmed dish. Dust with half the Parmesan, add the pesto and beans. Toss, dust with the reserved Parmesan and serve.

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