Delia's Frugal Food - Novice Needs Help!

cheerfulness4

Absolutely agree that anyones can cook. Sometimes its just finding the recipe books that inspire you to try initially. Definitely Delia for me (particularly her fab cookery course!) but I'm also loving Nigella. We seem to have the same tastes.
Jamie O used to be a fav of mine but not so keen on his stuff now.

EDITED: Just a thought but have you tried the bbcgoodfood website. Great recipes and lots of tips from those that have tried them. I love that site.

noapron

I learnt to cook with Delia Smith's cookery course back in the early eighties. I don't know if anyone's mentioned it, but Dear Delia has a website, deliaonline which has lots of info about cooking as well as recipes. It's very good. Another website I use a lot is the Good Food Magazine website which has stacks of recipes, which are reviewed by people who have cooked them and who say how they have tweaked them. HTH

claret1980

Have a look at my blog.... http://love-to-live-to-eat.blogspot.com/

There are a few fugal recipes on there. Lamb hearts, pork cheeks, ham hock, chicken hearts, chicken liver and oxtail etc.

Don't be scared by cooking - just give it a go. Worst case sceanrio you've wasted the ingredients, that's all.

Mags_cat

sarah*a wrote: »

I can bake - baking doesn't scare me - it's just 'real' food that I'm at a loss with

Right.

Baking is a science - you have to (mostly) get the ingredients correct and in their proper proportions.

Cooking other stuff, though, is much easier. It's a sort of "glance at a recipe, chuck this lot together, stir a bit, does it taste right, no? add something else then and stir a bit more" kind of thing. Well it is with me, anyway. That's because I *can* cook, but I can't bake!

Honestly - if you can bake successfuly, cooking should come with practice.

See if you can borrow a Good Housekeeping or more basic Delia book and give it a bash. It's easier than it sounds

sarah*a

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

What do you want to cook?

I'd like to be able to open my freezer/cupboards and just 'know' what I can make with what I have - if that makes sense? At the moment we have a freezer full of 'whoopise' meat cuts and beyond just roasting it or sticking it in the SC I don't know what to do with it. At the moment if we do - say a roast beef joint - we have it as a roast and then the rest just goes in the fridge for sandwiches or OH to pick at

I want to be able to have a roast on Sunday, a curry on Monday and something with pasta on Tuesday - without panicking and it taking an hour

claret1980 wrote: »

Have a look at my blog.... http://love-to-live-to-eat.blogspot.com/

There are a few fugal recipes on there. Lamb hearts, pork cheeks, ham hock, chicken hearts, chicken liver and oxtail etc.

Don't be scared by cooking - just give it a go. Worst case sceanrio you've wasted the ingredients, that's all.

I think I might print that out and stick it on the fridge

We're going to go through the freezer/cupboards later and list what we 'actually' have (as opposed to 'I think there's one of those in there somewhere') and use that to look through through the book and online to see what we can we with it.

.... and then I'm gonna take a deep breath and go for it. Also am gonna go to the library at the weekend and see what books they have - I need to learn what we like before spending (any more) money on receipe books

Thanks for everyone's replies - you are of course all right - I just need to get on with it

meritaten

I also find that I have learned a lot from watching the cookery shows on Food Network (they have a really good website too, with lots of easy recipes). for really easy recipes then my favourite is Ellie Kreiger and I like Giada de Laurentis too. the Barefoot Contessa fascinates me - but mostly for the amount of butter, sugar and salt she can use!

Ellie Krieger is a nutritionist and her recipes are healthy versions of American favourites.
Giada de Laurentis is Italian/American and her recipes tend to be mostly Italian (I love Italian food and she really does make it easy).
Both cooks explain what they are doing and why, so I think they make great teachers, and I have certainly learned a lot, even after thirty odd years of cooking for the family.

sarah*a

Mags_cat wrote: »

It's a sort of "glance at a recipe, chuck this lot together, stir a bit, does it taste right, no? add something else then and stir a bit more" kind of thing.

At the moment I'm at the "glance at a recipe, chuck this lot together, stir a bit, does it taste right, no? add something else then and stir a bit more, give it to the dog and call for a takeaway" stage

Baking to me is fun

'Proper' food is a chore. I need to change my mindset and learn to enjoy it rather than get frustrated and want it over asap

sarah*a

meritaten wrote: »

I also find that I have learned a lot from watching the cookery shows on Food Network (they have a really good website too, with lots of easy recipes)

I do watch Food Network - but mainly things like Chopped, Food Network Challenge and Unwrapped :rotfl:

I should stop turning over when the proper cooking programmes come on

Thanks

claret1980

sarah*a wrote: »

.... and then I'm gonna take a deep breath and go for it.

Great - let us know how you get on!

THIRZAH

I have the original "Frugal Food" but probably use it less than any other of Delia's books.

The goulash soup is good though-nice and filling and stretches a pound of stewing beef.