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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Can't Cook, Won't Cook
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Uncle Pete
Loyaute me lie
# 10422
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by QLib:
I think of cooking like alcohol - enjoyable in small doses, but important not to let it take control of my life. I need to stay aware that it can make me flustered and bad-tempered and thereby spoil the point of the party it was intended to serve. However, unlike alcohol, it is safe to practice by indulging in it when you're alone.
But it's fun to prepare with a fellow sufferer, eh? Remember the veg and non-veg chili we prepared to feed an army at Wightmeet 2009?
![[Biased]](wink.gif)
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Even more so than I was before
Posts: 20466 | From: No longer where I was | Registered: Sep 2005
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Kittyville:
Does anyone on the Ship have a Thermomix? I've just hosted a demo and ordered one, and the woman who did the demo said a lot of sales are to non-cooks, who think the machine will basically do everything for them and thus open up a world of home cooking that they would never have attempted alone.
I had to look this up; I'd never heard of this beast.
I'm not anti-gadget - my breadmaker works for its living, and I use a mini-processor a lot. Nor am I against the throw-it-a-pot-and-come-back-when-it's-done approach. But I would never, ever be tempted by one of these. Firstly, because you can prepare and cook just about anything with a sharp knife, a pan with a lid, a bowl and a wooden spoon.
Secondly, I like to be able to intervene in my cooking at any time - slow it down, speed it up, add a pinch of this or a handful of that, crisp the top, thicken the sauce, set it on fire - but most of all taste it.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Pine Marten
Shipmate
# 11068
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sparrow:
quote:
Originally posted by Pine Marten:
Mr Marten and I had a medieval party recently, in honour of Richard III, and to be honest that was different - we concocted a medieval menu ....
With roast (white) boar?
Ah, the boar stayed on the banner ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif) , but we did have a rather nice saffron rice to go with game stew, which included pigeon, partridge, mallard, peasant - er, pheasant, onions and root veg. Lots of ginger and cinammon in most things too. And a lovely salat with watercress and herbs. All taken from 15th century recipes.
I don't generally have much confidence cooking. On the other hand I can sing, have done drama and a bit of dance, and used to do a lot of drawing and painting, so I don't feel I'm that hamfisted, it's just that food doesn't inspire me in the same way that music and art do.
Fortunately Mr Marten quite likes cooking, so we take it in turns to do it, which seems to work fine.
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Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. - Oscar Wilde
Posts: 1731 | From: Isle of Albion | Registered: Feb 2006
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Mama Thomas
Shipmate
# 10170
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Posted
I think I can cook. I have cooked but being by myself it is next to impossible for me to make small portions. So if I cook, I prepare a family sized portion, eat what I can, carefully wrap and cover, refrigerate for a few days or weeks and throw it away.
When I quit smoking, I became really fat and am still trying hard to get rid of the blubber. This makes it even more difficult to make "right sized" portions.
I live in the USA now-restaurant portions are simply obscene most of the time--and cheap and greasy fast food is available at almost every corner and is much faster that preparing fresh vegetables.
Single portion microwave dinners are just gross for me. Something on rice only 399 calories!
So, yogurt, toast and cereal and the occasional can of something are just fine most of the time. Though actually cooking something would be much healthier, I own.
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All hearts are open, all desires known
Posts: 3742 | From: Somewhere far away | Registered: Aug 2005
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
I'll admit to a pattern of eating if I'm on my own which is something of a One Day Meal. Typically I will have only vegetables or pulses for lunch - either as salad, soup or dhal - and only protein, or protein and carbs for dinner - chicken wings or pork ribs* or a steak sandwich or sautéed prawns with crusty bread.
*this is also a good time for the messier sort of finger food.
[ 05. March 2013, 16:15: Message edited by: Firenze ]
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Yangtze:
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
There's possibly a larval stage of becoming a cook in which you toss things into a pan, mix them together and see what comes out. Maybe it's missing out on that stage of reckless experimentation that leaves some people daunted by the thought of cooking?
I wonder if you're on to something here. Certainly I used to cook a lot of "risotto" as a teenager, which mainly involved rice, tinned toms and a lot of brown sauce together with whatever veg and or meat/fish we had a around.
Could anyone who is in the "can't cook" category comment on this?
My husband does a lot of experimenting and is a great cook.
I hate tasting food before I eat it. So experimenting with cooking is not on my radar at all.
This is why I love to bake - you don't taste it until it's done, made and on the table.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Keren-Happuch
Ship's Eyeshadow
# 9818
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
This is why I love to bake - you don't taste it until it's done, made and on the table.
![[Eek!]](eek.gif) You mean you don't lick the spoon? Or the bowl? Or the mixture that somehow ends up on your fingers?
How is this possible?
[ 05. March 2013, 21:15: Message edited by: Keren-Happuch ]
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Travesty, treachery, betrayal!
EXCESS - The Art of Treason
Nea Fox
Posts: 2407 | From: A Fine City | Registered: Jul 2005
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doubtingthomas
Shipmate
# 14498
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by piglet:
quote:
Originally posted by doubtingthomas:
... ready meals from one of the posher British retailers ...
No shame in that, DT.
...I couldn't be bothered to cook and would go up to Marks & Sparks for microwaveable fettuccine whatever or tagliatelle thingummy-bob.
Thank you, and yep, that's the one - glad to see a cooking person liking it, too.
It's also nice that while normally quite expensive, they have some very generous offer or another pretty much all the time.
Posts: 266 | From: A Small Island | Registered: Jan 2009
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
*sigh*
I just ate an "artisanal" peanut-butter sandwich for supper. Unfortunately, I'm still hungry, and the fridge contents are far from inspiring.
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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Laud-able
Ship's Ancient
# 9896
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Posted
I would recommend Cooking in Ten Minutes by Edouard de Pomiane to those that find standard cookery too daunting. He worked as a physician at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, and in the nineteen-thirties he published this little book as an antidote to classical French cookery: it is very much suited to cooking for one.
He writes clearly and with great charm and simplicity: both Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson praised him. His larger work Cooking With Pomiane is equally attractive and sensible.
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'. . . "Non Angli, sed Angeli" "not Angels, but Anglicans"', Sellar, W C, and Yeatman, R J, 1066 and All That, London, 1930, p. 6.
Posts: 279 | From: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: Jul 2005
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Porridge:
*sigh*
I just ate an "artisanal" peanut-butter sandwich for supper. Unfortunately, I'm still hungry, and the fridge contents are far from inspiring.
Great. My drive to buy local and support local artisans is now going to lead me into buying $7 jars of peanut butter.
Kel// California wine and beer only, thank you.
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Keren-Happuch:
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
This is why I love to bake - you don't taste it until it's done, made and on the table.
You mean you don't lick the spoon? Or the bowl? Or the mixture that somehow ends up on your fingers?
How is this possible?
It isn't. She is an AI program or assassin. Licking the spoon is part of the baking. Never trust a cook or baker who doesn't. ![[Paranoid]](graemlins/paranoid.gif)
[ 06. March 2013, 05:28: Message edited by: lilBuddha ]
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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QLib
Bad Example
# 43
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Yangtze:
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
There's possibly a larval stage of becoming a cook in which you toss things into a pan, mix them together and see what comes out. Maybe it's missing out on that stage of reckless experimentation that leaves some people daunted by the thought of cooking?
I wonder if you're on to something here. Certainly I used to cook a lot of "risotto" as a teenager, which mainly involved rice, tinned toms and a lot of brown sauce together with whatever veg and or meat/fish we had a around.
Yes, I've done the risotto thing, and I also used to do something called Saturday Flan, which was the week's leftovers on a pastry base. Stir-fry tends to be the big experiment these days. It's doing things 'properly' that daunts me.
quote:
Originally posted by PeteC:
But it's fun to prepare with a fellow sufferer, eh? Remember the veg and non-veg chili we prepared to feed an army at Wightmeet 2009?
Ah, yes - didn't we forget the salt? I think we were eventually rescued by another Wightmeeter with professional experience.
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Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes Gustav Mahler.
Posts: 8913 | From: Page 28 | Registered: May 2001
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Gee D
Shipmate
# 13815
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Porridge:
*sigh*
I just ate an "artisanal" peanut-butter sandwich for supper. Unfortunately, I'm still hungry, and the fridge contents are far from inspiring.
What is an artisanal peanut butter sandwich please?
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Not every Anglican in Sydney is Sydney Anglican
Posts: 7028 | From: Warrawee NSW Australia | Registered: Jun 2008
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Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927
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Posted
quote:
Saturday Flan,
Pastry is great for leftovers. Pies, roll ups whatever. They often look completely different to the way they had been served.
When my sons were growing up in their teens, we had 40 acres in the bush as a holiday place. We camped in tents while building and I did all the cooking over a long trench fire which could be hot one end and steady the other.
Camp Goo was a favourite evening meal, I can't glorify it by calling it dinner. After lunch I would put rice or pasta or barley, lots of vegetables, especially onions and garlic, tinned tuna or ham or bacon or chicken into a large heavy Dutch oven. More seasonings and fill up the space with stock or even water. Onto the slow end of the fire and camp goo would be a welcome meal after a hard afternoon of building.
Breakfast sometimes had Camp Seasoning. If it was windy, it was almost impossible to avoid a bit of ash in the porridge.
[ 06. March 2013, 08:57: Message edited by: Lothlorien ]
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Buy a bale. Help our Aussie rural communities and farmers. Another great cause needing support The High Country Patrol.
Posts: 9745 | From: girt by sea | Registered: Aug 2003
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gee D:
quote:
Originally posted by Porridge:
*sigh*
I just ate an "artisanal" peanut-butter sandwich for supper. Unfortunately, I'm still hungry, and the fridge contents are far from inspiring.
What is an artisanal peanut butter sandwich please?
Well, Kelly took this to a level I hadn't imagined, but what I meant in my ironic fashion was a peanut butter sandwich made by hand. ![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif)
You know, like all of them.
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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Thurible
Shipmate
# 3206
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lothlorien:
Pastry is great for leftovers. Pies, roll ups whatever. They often look completely different to the way they had been served.
Tis true. Having had mapo dofu for dinner last night, and reheated for lunch at work today, it's going into a pie tonight (well, actually it's going to be topped with a puff pastry lid) and served with mash and veg. Normally when I make it, I just make enough for 2 - last night, I made enough for 5. Yum!
Thurible
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"I've been baptised not lobotomised."
Posts: 8049 | Registered: Aug 2002
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Porridge:
quote:
Originally posted by Gee D:
quote:
Originally posted by Porridge:
*sigh*
I just ate an "artisanal" peanut-butter sandwich for supper. Unfortunately, I'm still hungry, and the fridge contents are far from inspiring.
What is an artisanal peanut butter sandwich please?
Well, Kelly took this to a level I hadn't imagined, but what I meant in my ironic fashion was a peanut butter sandwich made by hand.
You know, like all of them.
I was with Kelly. I was imagining peanut butter for which each individual peanut had been hand-crushed by yeoman Nutters using hammers dating back to Agincourt, before being gloopified in cauldrons over fires of Patagonian birch twigs and packed in recycled WW II jam pots before being sent over the mountains by mule train.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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The Great Gumby
Ship's Brain Surgeon
# 10989
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by QLib:
quote:
Originally posted by PeteC:
But it's fun to prepare with a fellow sufferer, eh? Remember the veg and non-veg chili we prepared to feed an army at Wightmeet 2009?
Ah, yes - didn't we forget the salt? I think we were eventually rescued by another Wightmeeter with professional experience.
Ah, but it was good. (Was it really four years ago?)
I wonder if we aren't all coming at this with different ideas of what cooking is. Despite the food-obsessed Masterchef tendency these days, cooking doesn't have to be fine dining with smears of five different sauces in exotic colours. You don't have to skin and bone a rabbit and serve it three ways. You just have to make something warm and tasty.
The other obstacle is probably preparing and having the right things on hand. If you don't generally cook much, you don't have the necessary ingredients, so it takes a special effort to get them in, which makes it more fuss, and so on. With that in mind, and assuming that you have some basic food around, there are easy options which only use food that will keep a long time.
One of my favourites as a student *mumblemumble* years ago was to boil up a load of pasta, add tuna (tinned), sweetcorn (tinned) and mayonnaise (keeps well), and eat. Even silly "not cooking" things like beans on toast can be a lot more fun with a dash of worcester sauce and/or curry powder in the beans, cheese or even a fried egg on top. Whatever your level, there are ways of improving things, and if something doesn't work or you don't like it, don't do it again.
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The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard Feynman
A letter to my son about death
Posts: 5382 | From: Home for shot clergy spouses | Registered: Feb 2006
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Great Gumby:
Whatever your level, there are ways of improving things, and if something doesn't work or you don't like it, don't do it again.
No no no no no no no no no no no no no NO!
This was the thing which stopped me making any effort at cooking or baking. I gave up far too easily. Things always went wrong so I didn't try again.
Since my MIL died and my Mum got dementia I realised no cake would happen unless I made it myself. So I started, about six months ago, to bake.
The secret is - if something doesn't work, or you don't like it, try again and again.
It took me five goes to get a really decent sponge cake going. But now I take variations (almond, victoria, cherry, lemon, orange, tropical fruit ...) to work, church, camera club, friends etc and BASK in the compliments.
My SIL said 'please could you bring a cake' the other day. ohhhh yes! what a pleasure for [totally useless at cooking] me to be asked!
[ 06. March 2013, 16:55: Message edited by: Boogie ]
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
I was with Kelly. I was imagining peanut butter for which each individual peanut had been hand-crushed by yeoman Nutters using hammers dating back to Agincourt, before being gloopified in cauldrons over fires of Patagonian birch twigs and packed in recycled WW II jam pots before being sent over the mountains by mule train.
Not far off. Made by squirrels, though.
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Porridge:
You forgot "expensive." When I actually want to fix something nice for friends, it nearly always involves the purchase of several ingredients I don't normally have on hand, must go out and shop for, and then stick on the shelf to go unused and stale by the time I'm able to invite someone again.
What about ordinary meals rather tahn posh ones? Its much, muich, cheapoer to cook yourself thn it is to but prepared food and stick it in a microwave.
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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ArachnidinElmet
Shipmate
# 17346
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ken:
quote:
Originally posted by Porridge:
You forgot "expensive." When I actually want to fix something nice for friends, it nearly always involves the purchase of several ingredients I don't normally have on hand, must go out and shop for, and then stick on the shelf to go unused and stale by the time I'm able to invite someone again.
What about ordinary meals rather tahn posh ones? Its much, muich, cheapoer to cook yourself thn it is to but prepared food and stick it in a microwave.
That's true if you already have some skill, or you've been cooking for a while, but not in all cases.
I love cooking, and I own most of the kit/herbs and spices I'll ever need. Everything else can be bought one item at a time. I can cook cheaply. I have a friend who is teaching herself to cook. To bake a basic cake she had to buy a bowl, wooden spoon, a seive, scales and a tin, plus baking parchment and powder, in one go. The same is true for cooking, say, Indian food which require specific spices. Not expensive in the long run, but it definitely puts some people I know off cooking anything that isn't wrapped in plastic.
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'If a pleasant, straight-forward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle manoeuvres' - Kafka
Posts: 1887 | From: the rhubarb triangle | Registered: Sep 2012
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Viola
Administrator
# 20
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Posted
Seems to me there's a few things that the keen cooks don't understand about the lives of the non-cooks.
1. Starting instructions on making soup with talk of 'chicken bones, veg and whatever you have around' implies that they've already cooked a chicken recently and that they would happen to have veg lying around (along with other 'store cupboard basics'). They won't. Why would they? They don't cook.
2. The people who learned to cook by experimenting with things lying around their parents' kitchens, had different childhood kitchen rules from mine.
I learned/ am learning the reverse way. I follow recipes which claim to be quick and easy, to the letter. Eventually, when I feel confident with a recipe and can maybe even do it from memory(!), I might daringly subsitute one of the ingredients for something else, or add another spice, or something. Then I might think that a sauce from one recipe might go equally well with another type of meat/ fish, and eventually Jamie Oliver's recipe might evolve cautiously into one of my own.
I am definitely a 'by the book' cook, and only really bother when husband is home or friends are coming, although I try harder now that I have a toddler to feed as well. My husband on the other hand will buy a load of ingredients for which he has a general idea of the outcome, and will often decide he no longer has the time to cook his planned meal. So he'll ask me to 'just chuck a boeuf en daube together - all the stuff's there'. Drives me nuts. Drives him nuts too by the time I've asked him every 5 minutes what I should be doing next.
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"If ye love me, keep my commandments" John 14:15
"Commandment number one: shut the hell up." Erin Etheredge 1971-2010
Posts: 4345 | From: West of England | Registered: May 2001
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ArachnidinElmet:
I love cooking, and I own most of the kit/herbs and spices I'll ever need. Everything else can be bought one item at a time. I can cook cheaply.
Exactly. As you cook, you discover the tastes and cuisines you like. I always have - fresh garlic, ginger and chillies - frequently yoghurt, Harissa, coriander and tamarind. Plus tinned coconut milk, bottled soy and oyster sauce, Worcester, Tabaco and Nam Pla, and dried spices. So I can instantly cook Thai, Chinese, Indian, middle Eastern/African and TexMex. Add tinned tomatoes/tomato purée, olive oil, creme fraiche, butter (and more garlic) and that's Mediterranean, French and Italian cuisine added.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
Viola I found your post really helpful as it summed up my difficulties with cooking too.
I have only discovered chickpeas in the last 5 years or so, which led me to finding one of the easiest soup recipies of all time on the internet. I only needed to buy tumeric, cayenne pepper and cumin (none of which I had used before) to make it, and now they are in my cupboard I make it often.
Firenze there are a few things I've only ever read about on that list, and one I've never even heard of
huia - off to soak some chickpeas.
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Roseofsharon
Shipmate
# 9657
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Huia:
Firenze there are a few things I've only ever read about on that list, and one I've never even heard of
Me too, and I've been cooking for 50 years, some of that time professionally.
I'm sure those who love cooking find the idea of being a non-cook incomprehensible, in the same way that I - who can never remember being unable to read - couldn't understand why Elder Sons (later diagnosed with dyslexia) struggled with learning to read.
I didn't cook with my mother, but did have a year of cookery lessons at school and then in my mid-teens started cooking with and for friends. As we all had disasters, and could laugh about them with each other, they weren't the end of the world, and our successes were celebrated as absolute triumphs!
That was what gave me my love of cooking
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Talk about books -any books- on our rejuvenatedforum http://www.bookgrouponline.com/index.php?
Posts: 3060 | From: Sussex By The Sea | Registered: Jun 2005
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Yangtze
Shipmate
# 4965
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Huia:
Firenze there are a few things I've only ever read about on that list, and one I've never even heard of
Whereas I have all of them in the house at the moment. Except for creme fraiche (though I do have yoghurt) and oyster sauce (because I don't really like it.
And I think that and what Viola an others have said helps with the point that us cooks really struggle with understanding the starting point non-cooks are coming from.
(Though of course one can be a cook focussing on one tradition so not have experience of the variety of Firenze's list.)
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Arthur & Henry Ethical Shirts for Men
organic cotton, fair trade cotton, linen
Sometimes I wonder What's for Afters?
Posts: 2022 | From: the smallest town in England | Registered: Sep 2003
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ken:
quote:
Originally posted by Porridge:
You forgot "expensive." When I actually want to fix something nice for friends, it nearly always involves the purchase of several ingredients I don't normally have on hand, must go out and shop for, and then stick on the shelf to go unused and stale by the time I'm able to invite someone again.
What about ordinary meals rather tahn posh ones? Its much, muich, cheapoer to cook yourself thn it is to but prepared food and stick it in a microwave.
Well, as noted upthread, my ordinary meals tend to be glop, spodge, or goo, as described by various posters above. Perfectly serviceable in terms of nutrition and taste, but low on presentability.
That is, when I haven't hand-crafted a mule-train-delivered nut-by-nut-crushed peanut butter sandwich.
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Viola:
I am definitely a 'by the book' cook...
I generally am, too, at least the first time I try a recipe. After that, I cook by the 'dump and pour' method.
In my group of friends, we have folks that naturally tend to one or the other of those cooking methods. And all of us have cooked since we were young. But, I have noticed that the 'by the book' people are now starting to throw other things into basic recipe starters. Sometimes they are yummy and exciting. Sometimes the results are not exactly what is hoped. And, I can see that having a recipe flop (especially when someone is just starting to cook) can cause that person to be a bit gun shy about adventurous cooking.
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
I hardly ever strick strictly to a recipe, but not every recipe is 100% reliable or to my taste anyway.
I regard it as essential to taste as you go along - how else will you be able to gauge flavours and judge whether something needs a bit more salt or altogether less sugar than the recipe recommends? I'd never serve anything up to guests that hadn't been tested first.
I had no interest in food or cooking as a child. It wasn't until I got to university and had to fend for myself that I discovered that I could have what I liked (assuming I could afford it).
My essentials are chilli, cumin, coriander (fresh and dried); garlic and fresh ginger; lemons, tomato puree, olive oil and soy sauce. I have a range of other flavourings but those tend to be the keynotes. On the occasions when I do cook it tends to be Middle Eastern/Mediterranean/ethnic.
I rarely ever roast a chicken. I'm on my own and while a whole chicken is certainly economical, you end up living off it for days. The freezer compartment in my fridge is quite small, so not a great deal of room to store much.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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The Great Gumby
Ship's Brain Surgeon
# 10989
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
quote:
Originally posted by The Great Gumby:
Whatever your level, there are ways of improving things, and if something doesn't work or you don't like it, don't do it again.
No no no no no no no no no no no no no NO!
This was the thing which stopped me making any effort at cooking or baking. I gave up far too easily. Things always went wrong so I didn't try again.
Ah. I think I could have communicated that better. What I mean is, don't do it in exactly that way again, but learn from it and try something a bit different. If you added something that made it taste nasty, leave it out next time. If you overcooked it, take it out sooner. And so on.
I was trying to make the point that it's not a disaster if you make something nasty. Even if it's completely inedible (very unlikely), it's a data point that you can use next time. Mostly, you'll only be adding extra ingredients one or two at a time, so the result is unlikely to be catastrophic, and if you think you prefer it without the tomato puree/worcester sauce/bayleaf, you can just leave it out in future.
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The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard Feynman
A letter to my son about death
Posts: 5382 | From: Home for shot clergy spouses | Registered: Feb 2006
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
My mother is a brilliant cook, but hates anyone interfering in her kitchen. So no early cooking experiences for me, beyond marshmallows over a campfire at Brownies.
At school (bog standard comp) there was a choice for girls between Cooking or Latin. On the assumption that those of us who did Latin would go to Uni and bag ourselves a husband with a professional career, we had the option to do a course of Dinner Party cookery later, so that we'd be equipped to entertain our future husband's Important Guests.
So I arrived at University capable of cooking in a tin can over an open fire, and producing a set menu of sweetcorn chowder, I-forget-the-main-course and hazlenut dacquios, but totally incapable of producing macoroni cheese or spag bol.
I really got into cooking when trying a diet called the Foresight diet, all organic and freshly cooked, which was supposed to boost your fertility and reduce the risk of miscarriage. The idea was that the diet was so wide you were bound to get every last trace element going. So not just 7-a-day fruit and veg, but over the course of a week you had to incorporate 20 different fruits and veg. Plus a different nut every day. Plus a range of pulses. Plus a range of meats. Everything cooked from scratch. Three course meals No microwave. No white sugar. No white flour.
It was too much effort long term, but it did change the way I cook permanently.
I love cooking now. I get a real buzz from preparing veg; the way it hits all your senses. Take a muddy carrot, wash it, scrape it and -vivid orange. Take an unpreposessing beetroot, peel and - vivid purple! I like the way leeks feel squeaky under the knife, the way that red cabbages reveal their glorious internal patterns, the way mushrooms feel. And the smell of a freshly cut parsnip! All the textures, crinkly savoys, smooth onions, papery garlic and glorious colours, and smells - it's the only thing I do which plays with colour and form and sensation. Obviously, I'd draw short of saying that making a pan of veg soup is better than sex, but it's up there with the good things of life. And, unlike sex, you can listen to something interesting on Radio 4 at the same time.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
And, unlike sex, you can listen to something interesting on Radio 4 at the same time.
Why ever not? You'll be saying next you ought to put your book down.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
At school (bog standard comp) there was a choice for girls between Cooking or Latin. On the assumption that those of us who did Latin would go to Uni and bag ourselves a husband with a professional career, we had the option to do a course of Dinner Party cookery later, so that we'd be equipped to entertain our future husband's Important Guests.
This is pure comedy gold.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Tubbs
Miss Congeniality
# 440
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Viola:
Seems to me there's a few things that the keen cooks don't understand about the lives of the non-cooks.
1. Starting instructions on making soup with talk of 'chicken bones, veg and whatever you have around' implies that they've already cooked a chicken recently and that they would happen to have veg lying around (along with other 'store cupboard basics'). They won't. Why would they? They don't cook.
2. The people who learned to cook by experimenting with things lying around their parents' kitchens, had different childhood kitchen rules from mine.
I learned/ am learning the reverse way. I follow recipes which claim to be quick and easy, to the letter. Eventually, when I feel confident with a recipe and can maybe even do it from memory(!), I might daringly subsitute one of the ingredients for something else, or add another spice, or something. Then I might think that a sauce from one recipe might go equally well with another type of meat/ fish, and eventually Jamie Oliver's recipe might evolve cautiously into one of my own.
I am definitely a 'by the book' cook, and only really bother when husband is home or friends are coming, although I try harder now that I have a toddler to feed as well. My husband on the other hand will buy a load of ingredients for which he has a general idea of the outcome, and will often decide he no longer has the time to cook his planned meal. So he'll ask me to 'just chuck a boeuf en daube together - all the stuff's there'. Drives me nuts. Drives him nuts too by the time I've asked him every 5 minutes what I should be doing next.
I am a reasonably competent cook – never poisoned or killed anyone – and cheerfully adapt recipes, but usually on the basis that THIS is too expensive, but I have THAT and it’ll do the same thing …
I remember the health visitor looking at me in wonder when I said that I’d never stewed fruit, pureed vegetables etc before the Tubblet needed weaning. And after two hour slogs when the enormous pile of vegetables and the like produced about 3 cubes that she promptly spat out, I quietly went back to buying the organic jars that the health visitor told me off about because I knew that she’d eat them … The Tubblet is now 9, eats like a horse and appears to be showing no ill-effects.
Tubbs
[ 07. March 2013, 12:15: Message edited by: Tubbs ]
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"It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than open it up and remove all doubt" - Dennis Thatcher. My blog. Decide for yourself which I am
Posts: 12701 | From: Someplace strange | Registered: Jun 2001
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Pine Marten
Shipmate
# 11068
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Viola:
Seems to me there's a few things that the keen cooks don't understand about the lives of the non-cooks.
1. Starting instructions on making soup with talk of 'chicken bones, veg and whatever you have around' implies that they've already cooked a chicken recently and that they would happen to have veg lying around (along with other 'store cupboard basics'). They won't. Why would they? They don't cook.
Yes. Exactly.
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
quote:
At school (bog standard comp) there was a choice for girls between Cooking or Latin. On the assumption that those of us who did Latin would go to Uni and bag ourselves a husband with a professional career, we had the option to do a course of Dinner Party cookery later, so that we'd be equipped to entertain our future husband's Important Guests.
This is pure comedy gold.
Certainly is!
But - Oh. My. God. If only we could have had that choice at my school! Only my friend Liz and I fancied doing Latin, so of course it wasn't on. In the first couple of years we had what was then called 'Housecraft', comprising cooking and some other household tasks I now forget. I hated, hated, hated it - the other girls all seemed to know what they were doing and bustled about, and muggins here was stumped. I used to bunk off when I could, it was horrible... ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. - Oscar Wilde
Posts: 1731 | From: Isle of Albion | Registered: Feb 2006
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Viola:
2. The people who learned to cook by experimenting with things lying around their parents' kitchens, had different childhood kitchen rules from mine.
But you have your own kitchen now! Start playing!
quote:
... and only really bother when husband is home or friends are coming...
I think that's the real difference. If anything I am more likely to cook when its just for me, because there is no risk of annoying or inconveniencing anyone else if it takes too long or if it turns out to be horrible. So the lack of pressure is kind of relaxing and fun. I think there have only been two or three times when I've cooked a meal for myself and decided not to eat it after all - but it has happened. And I can usually manage to stomach stuff I would not want to feed to anyone else!
quote:
...although I try harder now that I have a toddler to feed as well.
Having kids makes a HUGE difference! When my daughter was growing up there of course had to be food on the table, whether I felt like it or not. She was easy to feed when she was little but things got harder later... My cooking was the default option. And often very plain. By the end of the month it was variations on rice and vegetables, or pasta with either a tomatoey or a cheesy sauce. Because cheap and foolproof. So a takeaway or pizza or fish & chips or whatever was a bit of a treat. Now I live on my own the takeaways and the microwaveable-ready-meals and so on have almost vanished from what I buy. (That might be different if there was a decent fish-and-ship shop within five minutes walk) If I want a treat-like meal its more likely to be something meaty rather than vegetably.
quote:
Originally posted by Huia:
Firenze there are a few things I've only ever read about on that list, and one I've never even heard of
I think I have 12 of the 18 things on that list in my flat at the moment. There are another two that I probably would have if it wasn't for the season, and another two or three I often buy. The only thing on the list I haven't bought in the last few months is probably creme fraiche. I rarely buy oyster sauce either, but I did have some not so long ago. But then it helps living in inner London - I can get 8 or 10 of those things at the corner shop less than 100 yards from my front door that stays open till 1am (I bought some curry leaves there after midnight last night). And most of the rest could be bought rather expensively by crossing the road to the all-night garage, or more cheaply if I remembered in time from the Turkish shops in the High Street. I think the only things I'd have to bother to go to a supermarket for would be creme fraiche (though I'd usually buy butter and things like Worcester sauce in a supermarket because they tend to be cheaper there)
Curry leaves... for some reason I was thinking about curry leaves yesterday. And when I was at work I got an unexpected phone call from my brother who said come out for a drink. So we went to the pub up in town and ended up getting a late bus home (I often go to pubs but usually near home not near work) And I hadn't eaten since a salad I'd taken to work for lunch and I fancied something to eat so I was thinking of something on toast as it was well after midnight. But I went to the corner shop - to be honest for a packet of fags and a can of something - and they had curry leaves so I bought some - 35p for a small packet - so I just cooked rice and veg. But when I looked in the fridge I found that the very small aubergine left over from something I cooked last week was looking a a bit limp. Aubergine in rice seems a bit weird and slimy. But it needed using (and I'd been put off keeping it longer by a rotting aubergine brandished on a Gordon Ramsey programme the other day) so I chopped it up small - chunks maybe less than a centimetre across - and fried it in a little oil in a pan, and then I added some chopped onion, then some garlic, then some muhammara (a Turkish or Syrian chili paste a bit like harissa but with pomegranate and almonds or walnuts added - its cheap and lasts for weeks and is good spread on toast) and put the rice in, mixed it up, put a cup of water in, stirred it round, threw in a handful of the curry leaves and a handful of cheap mixed frozen veg to add some carrot-and-pea colour, a second cup of water, brought it to the boil as fast as I could, turned it down to simmer, put the lid on, and went to watch TV. (one of the good things about cooking rice is you get to sit down and watch TV while you are doing it because it doesn't matter exactly how long you leave it on the hob as long as the heat is low enough - in fact it does better for being left undisturbed for five to twenty minutes after you turn the heat off)
And - seeing as I wanted a cooked meal at the unseasonable hour of after midnight - that probably took almost no longer than heating up a microwaveabdle thingy would have, even if I had such a thing without going to a shop to get it. I arrived home at 00:18, and thought I could get the lid on the cooking pot by half past. Actually it took till 00:32 because I had trouble closing the lid of the plastic box I keep the rice in (everything is in plastic boxes now because of the mice and the rice is the biggest one) Simmered it till 00:44s, then turned it off and left it undisturbed while I sat down and watched TV for a bit longer while it steamed itself. So I could have been eating it half an hour after walking in the door. I wasn't because there was an interesting TV programme on, but I could've been.
And it was really nice Though I think that was only because it was a really small aubergine. And if it had been horrible I'd have had the toast anyway.
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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Viola
Administrator
# 20
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Posted
It's OK Ken - if you came round for a meal, you'd think I was actually a pretty good cook. Because I follow the recipes. And because I've been following recipes from a variety of interesting and exotic books for a number of years now, I have most of the funky ingredients in stock (there's only one thing on Firenze's list that I hadn't heard of, and that and one other that I don't have in the kitchen at the moment).
And if I have an evening totally on my own, I may well experiment - a bit. And, yes, I have meals that I will eat that I wouldn't feed to anyone else. But usually, with the time available and the mouths requiring food, there isn't the time to take risks, so I follow a recipe, and, assuming it's a book I know and trust, I'll be pretty confident that a good meal will emerge.
There's a degree of talent/ flair involved in this, I'm sure. Talented cooks, who have a flair for it, will know (remember from experience I suppose) which flavours will go well together, and will tweak things as they go along. Us plodders will follow the rules and produce nice things, but they won't be unique. Which is fine.
I'm the same with navigating on journeys - I follow my satnav (before that it was carefully written out directions taped to the dashboard) and it takes me a long time to work out how a whole town or area links up. Meanwhile my husband will ignore the satnav and go by 'astral navigation' in a strange environment. OK - he's an astrophysicist, but still!
But - stick me in a musical setting and I'll be baffled by the way some people have to do the whole thing by numbers with loads of practice and with every last detail written into their score, whilst I can just feel it and get on with a convincing, expressive performance of something on no rehearsal. Which is why that's my job I suppose!
So - I do cook - and I like the fact that people enjoy my food, but it's not the cooking process that I enjoy, and as for therapeutic baking - well I'm very grateful that it works for some people, but it's not for me. (Tried it - soggy sponges - gave up - life's too short and the Co-op round the corner does excellent cakes)
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"If ye love me, keep my commandments" John 14:15
"Commandment number one: shut the hell up." Erin Etheredge 1971-2010
Posts: 4345 | From: West of England | Registered: May 2001
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
And, unlike sex, you can listen to something interesting on Radio 4 at the same time.
Why ever not? You'll be saying next you ought to put your book down.
I commend you both to the Quotes File. ![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Dormouse
Glis glis – Ship's rodent
# 5954
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Posted
For reluctant cooks who are unsure about experimentation, I recommend (lovely) Nigel Slater's book Appetite
It is a lovely enticing book to just read, but it is also (I found) quite liberating in the way that recipes -and their variations - are introduced.
Indeed, one of the reviewers on Amazon says:
This book hugely helped me as a cook. Nigel Slater teaches you cooking - not following a recipe. Indeed, the recipes are very vague in places, stating "a handful" of this, and "a pinch" of that. It's all about helping the reader develop their own skills as a cook. This is unfussy, everyday sort of food, the sort you want to cook after a horrid day at work, with an emphasis on using quality, fresh and seasonal ingredients.
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What are you doing for Lent?
40 days, 40 reflections, 40 acts of generosity. Join the #40acts challenge for #Lent and let's start a movement. www.40acts.org.uk
Posts: 3042 | From: 'twixt les Bois Noirs & Les Monts de la Madeleine | Registered: May 2004
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IngoB
Sentire cum Ecclesia
# 8700
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Posted
Cooking... when I have to cook, I can do it. Indeed, I'm reasonably good at it given how rarely I do it - both in following a recipe and in "free-styling". And it's not just me who says so.
But I hate it.
Basically, it's just too much bother. First, you have to gather all the ingredients together. This often requires considerable organisation and planning, including the dreaded "shop to cook". Then you typically have to prepare quite a lot of stuff. Next you have the stress of the actual cooking, scheduling a flurry of activity to converge to a common finish. After that you have to clean up the mess, which often is a quite lengthy undertaking as well. And for all the "ten minute easy cooking" stuff, the truth is still that in general, better food requires more effort. (Also making more food requires more effort. The economy of scale isn't so economical when there's lots of working with your hands involved.)
I can do all of that. I enjoy none of it. It just is annoying and stressful work in order to get to what I actually enjoy: eating good food.
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They’ll have me whipp’d for speaking true; thou’lt have me whipp’d for lying; and sometimes I am whipp’d for holding my peace. - The Fool in King Lear
Posts: 12010 | From: Gone fishing | Registered: Oct 2004
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Ricardus
Shipmate
# 8757
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Porridge:
Well, as noted upthread, my ordinary meals tend to be glop, spodge, or goo, as described by various posters above. Perfectly serviceable in terms of nutrition and taste, but low on presentability.
Sounds like my cooking, but this is why clear labelling is so important.
Glop with spices + rice = curry
Glop with herbs + pasta = pasta
Glop with herbs + rice = risotto
Glop with spices + pasta = fusion
Glop with mashed potato on top = some variant on shepherd's pie
Glop in a tortilla wrap = Mexican
Glop with paprika + rice (or dumplings*) = goulash
Pepper stuffed with glop = stuffed pepper
Aubergine stuffed with glop = there is a Turkish name for this but I've forgotten it
Foul-tasting glop + tamarind paste + rice = tamarind curry (tamarind is excellent for hiding an experiment that went wrong)
FWIW I take the line that anyone who doesn't like the appearance of my food hasn't quite grasped the point of eating.
* Dumplings are basically bread converted into glop.
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Then the dog ran before, and coming as if he had brought the news, shewed his joy by his fawning and wagging his tail. -- Tobit 11:9 (Douai-Rheims)
Posts: 7247 | From: Liverpool, UK | Registered: Nov 2004
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
Ah, Ricardus!
So -- at least semantically speaking -- I CAN cook after all!
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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The Great Gumby
Ship's Brain Surgeon
# 10989
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ricardus:
Aubergine stuffed with glop = there is a Turkish name for this but I've forgotten it
Turkish? Heretick! The One True Name for such a thing is Papoutsia, and is Greek, as any fule kno.
If the Turks have a different name for the dish (and I'm sure they do), there's no possible way it can compare to making "shoes".
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The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard Feynman
A letter to my son about death
Posts: 5382 | From: Home for shot clergy spouses | Registered: Feb 2006
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ricardus:
Aubergine stuffed with glop = there is a Turkish name for this but I've forgotten it
You may be thinking of "imam bayildi". So named because it's said to be so delicious that the imam who tasted it swooned in delight.
quote:
Originally posted by IngoB:
Basically, it's just too much bother. First, you have to gather all the ingredients together. This often requires considerable organisation and planning, including the dreaded "shop to cook".
What typically happens is that you have a lot of ingredients left over, as well. The vanilla pods you probably won't use for months. The bulgur wheat you've had for four years. Half a packet of Chinese stir-fry sauce which you know you must finish within two days now you've opened it, but which wasn't actually all that nice. Half a tin of tuna, which tastes overpoweringly of brine (or tin) but must be finished now it's open. The beans you soaked for the stated time, and cooked according to instructions, and then longer, but which still came out crunchy and unappetising. A vegetable you bought for a particular recipe and didn't use all of, and don't have any real enthusiasm for.
And so it goes.
[ 08. March 2013, 14:35: Message edited by: Ariel ]
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
quote:
Originally posted by Ricardus:
Aubergine stuffed with glop = there is a Turkish name for this but I've forgotten it
You may be thinking of "imam bayildi". So named because it's said to be so delicious that the imam who tasted it swooned in delight.
I was thinking "Baba ghanoush."
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
What typically happens is that you have a lot of ingredients left over, as well.
But that's the whole fun. From fridges containing some elderly parsnip, undated tray of smoked salmon trimmings, squidgy tomatoes and a lifetime supply of Scotch Bonnet chillies, arise great new dishes. Well, I certainly hope so, since that's what I've got.
Some of my most successful dinners have been exercises in Using Stuff Up. I am an addict of the aleatory. It's why I like watercolour and random knitting yarn.
There are maybe fewer frontiers where one may boldly go these days, but food is still one of them.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Graven Image
Shipmate
# 8755
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Posted
I did a lot of cooking when children were at home, but now that there is just the two of us, I have less interest in day to day meals. I fix one larger meal in the middle of the day and we are each on our own for breakfast and snack in the evening. I like trying new recipes now and then to keep up my interest, but other then that I make the standard stuff. The crock pot is often my friend. Drop in the meat and veggies and let it take care of itself. We go out to breakfast once a month and on Sunday I often stop on the way home from church and buy a pre-cooked chicken, a loaf of bread and makings for a salad. I could of course make all this myself without much trouble, and for less money, but I do not feel like it, so I do not. So I go from enjoying cooking a meal, to won't cook often all in the same week.
Posts: 2641 | From: Third planet from the sun. USA | Registered: Nov 2004
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