Where to start - cooking for the phobic

Welshlassie

The Pork medallions sound fantastic as does the rice onions and potatoes.

Think tonight will be the pork medallions though and try the rice dish next week.

Will be looking at eBay for the River cottage book, I love Hugh so would be a fab place to start he does some amazing dishes on the telly.

Thank you all so much, I've now got somewhere to start. I'll let you know how it goes.

Softstuff

Welshlassie, something in your post struck a chord with me, when you said that it had become a running joke of how useless you were. With me my mother had made it that way, told me repeatedly that I was pretty useless there, this continued with my ex husband, and basically had gone on so long I believed it was true. That is till I stayed with my current BF and his family... they encouraged me to cook, and the funny thing is, it turns out I'm a damned good cook. Can make anything from cakes to lasagne to pastry, and even more bizarre, most of the time I don't even need a recipe. All I needed was the confidence to try, and most likely that's all you need. Like you I was the DIY'er, and being able to do that means you know how to put things together, and know there's a logical order and solution to things, all you need is to apply that logic to food, and you'll be a great cook.

And for encouragement, you'll have a lot of people behind you here! :T

Smashing

Try your local library rather than splashing out on a cookbook - get a new one every couple of weeks, try out some recipes in them. If you like them, jot them down and compile your own 'book' of favourites.

annie-c

Hello Welshlassie!

Well done you for deciding to do something different!

I used to live on pre-packed processed food when I first started out on my own... not particularly because I thought I couldn't cook, but because I thought everyone did the same /

I remember once a friend smiling broadly as I proudly showed her the 'posh' pasta sauce jar that I had bought when she had come round for dinner... and then she gently told me that she just used tomatoes and onions and herbs to make her own. I wasn't offended, I was astounded to realise that pasta sauce wasn't 'grown in jars', so to speak.. I thought home made pasta sauce was something only Mrs Beeton or Delia Smith would get involved in.

I would take the advice of the earlier posters. Start by making a list of the things you like to eat/would like to eat and then try them one at a time, prefereably making dishes that aren't your DH's specialty - so that you can shine in your own way.

As for the family telling you that you are useless in the kitchen... well that's all history now. Anyone can learn to cook

If you type out a list of meals you'd like to try then we could help to put them in some kind of order from easiest to hardest and give you tips on 'how to'....

I would go to a good bookshop and browse through some cookery books before buying any particular one. They vary a lot in quality and content. They are not all aimed at the novice cook and many of them assume that you know how to perform basic functions that at the moment won't make sense to you.

I particularly liked Delia Smith's How to Cook series when I started out. They are beautiful 'coffee table' books with loads of photos and include simple but delicious recipes for, eg, fluffy ommelettes, classic tomato pasta sauce, creamy risotto, breads, pastry. The instructions are clear and simple to use.

Next I built up my collection with some books by my favourite TV chefs... I like big, comforting 'blokey' dinners so I bought a couple of books by Nigel Slater and Jamie Oliver and experimented with lamb shanks and different types of mash and roasted vegetables.

For smaller cookery books on particular topics I have picked up titles from Marks and Spencer's kitchen collection. They have cost between £2-£5 and I have collected titles like 'One Pot' for easy stew and soup recipes and 'Cafe Classics' which includes bistro style dishes, posh salads and ciabatta sandwiches etc.

Something to get as an 'investment' cookery book is an 'all-inclusive' cookery manual like Leith's Cookery Bible, or The Good Housekeeping Cookery book. These will be almost an encyclopaedia on which kitchen utensils to buy for what purpose, what the various cuts of an animal are called and how to cook them, how to make jams and preserves, etc, along with hundreds of recipes grouped around particular themes.

A good place to pick up cookery books cheaply is https://www.thebookpeople.co.uk, or in shops like 'The Works'. Best advice I can give though is to look in a 'real' bookshop first, and get an idea of what you want - then you'll make better choices in the cheaper bookshops.

Once you get going, then you'll be able to talk about your recipes in work and you'll be surprised by how many people will jot down their fave recipes for you and share tips.

Good luck!

Annie xx

aimeelister

annie-c wrote:

The Good Housekeeping Cookery book. These will be almost an encyclopaedia on which kitchen utensils to buy for what purpose, what the various cuts of an animal are called and how to cook them, how to make jams and preserves, etc, along with hundreds of recipes grouped around particular themes.

I absolutely adore this book. My mum had one for years and it was our "Bible" then i saw in a second hand bookshop one that was one of those seconds ones, couldnt find anything wrong with it, so gave it to my mum for her birthday (so she could have a nicer looking one on her bookshelf in the new kitchen) and stole her old tatty one! I could not live without it. I thoroughly recomend it.

newlywed

Yeah Good Housekeeping book is great. Keep meaning to get one. Used mum's loads when I lived at home, especially since it tells you how long to boil carrots for etc!

tawnyowls

Marguerite Patten's books are really good too - can often be found in charity shops. I use her '1000 recipes for working wives' loads. She wrote especially for women setting up home after marriage and often not having a clue.

The Family Circle step-by-step range is brilliant - I have the 'Fabulous mince recipes' and 'Sensational vegetable recipes', both excellent. Also have 'Hot and spicy cooking' and 'The chicken cookbook' from Bramley books. I picked all four of them up in supermarkets or in Matalan (not usually the first place you'd think of, but most of the stores have a book table just inside the door). If you've got a branch nearby, The Works (http://www.theworks.co.uk/) has a really good selection of very cheap cookbooks, usually on themes and very easy to use.

Welshlassie, go for it! Anyone can learn to cook. Try a few simple recipes, following them exactly, and once you gain confidence, start looking at the recipes and seeing what you can do to change them. Most recipes will work equally well for different types of red meat or white meat, so if a recipe says to use beef and you've only got lamb, try it anyway. Always taste as you go along, and try to identify what a dish needs before adding flavouring, then just add it to suit your taste.

Oh yes, and when in doubt - add wine! It's amazing how much that can improve a dish (especially when the rest of the bottle is shared round the guests!).

Welshlassie

Thank you all so much. I don't feel so bad now that I know there is help around there. :T

I phoned DH to tell him not to bring anything home for dinner, he wanted to know what I was doing, but have refused to tell him, but he is now worried. As he said there is defrosted Spag bol in the fridge if I screw it up. But I'm not going to so looks like that's what I'm eating tomorrow. :rotfl:

Welshlassie

Well guys we have just finished eating - I did the pork medallions, DH was very dubious to start with when I told him what i was doing and tried to interfere, but I got him to leave the kicthen and I got on with it.

We had coucous in the cupboard with sun blushed tomatoes and sultanas so used that. I burnt the butter first time, but got everything else and it tasted really good (even if I do say so myself).

DH didn't like the coucous but insisted that was because of the favours not the way I cooked it.

Thank you all so much for giving the confidence to have a go. I certainly won't be doing this everyday but initially once a week and see how things go. DH has promised to teach me to cook in a few weeks when we get back from holiday, fingers crossed we don't end up rowing.

black-saturn

I started cooking with a Heinz cookbook but I can't find it anywhere online at the moment. It might be out of print but I've seen it a few times in 2nd hand shops. It has simple recipes in it which involve at least one of the ingredients being one of the Heinz range. I also like Mrs Beeton's books.