My meals from scratch all turn out bad

hwalkerh

I have been trying to cook more from scratch to be healthy and to save money. I have a subscription to Easy Food magazine but lots of the recipes i keep cooking go wrong. I'm sure it isn't the magazine but what do i keep doing wrong?

• Macaroni cheese tasted ok but it looked more like scrambled egg.

• Shortbread looked good when they went in the open but seemed to almost melt and spreaded out lots, tasted ok but more like crunchy biscuits - could the oven have been too hot?

• Beef strogonof - the sauce all separated and clumped together - it was revolting. - it said to use a little wine and then mix in the natural yoghurt, i used a splash of water instead of wine and the natural yoghurt. Was it because i used water or maybe because the yoghurt was pro-biotic type.

Feeling really disheartened now and having just eaten the beef strogonof a little sick

I thought i was an ok cook but really doubting trying anything new

quintwins

i would have used milk to thin the yogurt but i really do think strononof needs wine for the flavour it doesn't need to be good wine and the alcohol evaporates when you cook it so it's fine for kids

it sounds like your shortbread wasn't quite set

i very rarely buy a recipe but if i'm unsure on something i'll type it into youtube i think demontrations are much better than reading a recipe

Callie22

Your macaroni cheese sounds like it's curdled - what did the recipe contain?

Shortbread - I've always found that the colder this is the better it cooks. Quite often I'll make the dough, roll it out, cut out the biscuits, freeze the uncooked biscuits and cook them from frozen. I've never had a problem with spreading. Also, did you use butter or did you replace it with a butter spread or low fat marg? These can contain lots of water so they don't often work well in baking.

Stroganoff - again this sounds like it's curdled. Did you use low fat yogurt, or did you boil the sauce once you'd added it? That can cause the yogurt to split. It won't do you any harm but it doesn't look nice.

Tbh, it sounds like the recipes in this magazine are a bit rubbish - or at least, maybe the instructions aren't thorough enough. It might be better to cancel the subscription and invest the money in a really good, reliable basic cookbook.

Elton

I always get the best results with simple recipes with few ingredients. One of my favourite cook books is Claudia Roden's Food of Italy. Most of the recipes are really simple to cook and have very few ingredients (maybe four or five on average). Some TV chefs overcomplicate things, although I have to say that Jamie Oliver is very good at keeping things simple (despite the fact I find him incredibly irritating).

tessie_bear

id get a recipe book with simple ish recipes in...like a student book...and start simple....i find delias recipes work well...have a look at the grocery challenge index there are some great recipes on there

Bitsy_Beans

If you add the yoghurt to the dish of food and it's too hot it curdles, take the dish off the heat for a bit, allow to cool for a while before adding the yoghurt.

with regards to mac and cheese not sure how they told you to make the sauce but I normally use a basic white sauce with added cheese and bit of dijon mustard.

blackandwhitebunny

I'm not too sure how good the recipes are in easy cook. I've had a few copies that the receptionist at school gave me and I wasn't overly impressed. A lot of them seem to use convenience foods to make short cuts and others seem to need more skilled judgement than they say. I think you'd be best looking for really tried and trusted recipes probably on this forum.

rinabean

Shortbread needs to be very cold and go into a very hot oven. If it melts, it's too cold - because it ought to cook before it melts No idea about the other recipes, sorry!

CH27

hwalkerh wrote: »

I have been trying to cook more from scratch to be healthy and to save money. I have a subscription to Easy Food magazine but lots of the recipes i keep cooking go wrong. I'm sure it isn't the magazine but what do i keep doing wrong?

• Macaroni cheese tasted ok but it looked more like scrambled egg.

• Shortbread looked good when they went in the open but seemed to almost melt and spreaded out lots, tasted ok but more like crunchy biscuits - could the oven have been too hot?

• Beef strogonof - the sauce all separated and clumped together - it was revolting. - it said to use a little wine and then mix in the natural yoghurt, i used a splash of water instead of wine and the natural yoghurt. Was it because i used water or maybe because the yoghurt was pro-biotic type.

Feeling really disheartened now and having just eaten the beef strogonof a little sick

I thought i was an ok cook but really doubting trying anything new

How disheatening for you but please don't give up. It takes time to learn new skills.

I swear by Delia. Everything always turns out as it should.

hwalkerh

I think that you might be right that the shortbread wasn't cooled enough before i put it in he oven. I did use proper butter in it not spread. I'll def have another go at shortbread :-)

The macaroni cheese was layering cooked pasta and cheese and then add egg milked with milk and put in the oven for 45mins.

I'm sure the magazine isn't the best but it gives me some new ideas even if i do them slightly different and it didn't cost me as i used my tesco vouchers for the subscription!

Elsiebunny

Hi

I'm no expert but I've found the recipes on here (I find them on the first page of the grocery challenge thread) and also netmums are good. I have a 1 year old now but even before that I found them simple with basic ingredients so even if it did turn into a disaster I wouldn't be too annoyed.

Seeing as I don't do fancy stuff often, I have never put egg in macaroni cheese. I just make a white sauce, add cheese, black pepper and mustard, boil pasta, mix it together. Then put maybe tomatoes or you can but crispy bacon on top (apparently) and maybe a bit more cheese and put in oven until bubbling. That normally turns out well.

Do you have a fan oven as it will cook things quicker than a regular one so will need less cooking time, or a lower number. I haven't tried stroganoff but I've seen a recipe on here somewhere.