Help with easy recipes for a non cook please

cagneyfan

HELP!

Can't cook, rubbish cook!

Does anyone know of a good cookery book for quick, simple recipes that don't require millions of ingredients?

I know there's lots of tips on this site, but I'm looking for a quick spaghetti bolognese recipe. I'm embarrased at my lack of culinary skills - but I really have never bothered and unfortunately eaten junk or ready meals as I'm on my own.

I've got some mince and chopped tomatoes etc for a bolognese but there seems to be millions of different ways to do it. One took nearly 2 hours cooking time (I'll be through 5 packs of biscuits by then!).

Any quick, superfast ways of doing it (apart from buying a microwave meal)!?

hilstep2000

Get yourself a copy of one of the Students cookbooks, like:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_4?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=student+cookbook&sprefix=stud
They are really easy, I bought a few for my son when he went to Uni, and he's quite a good cook now!

spiddy100

Hm, you can make a fast bolognese but TBH it won't be very nice. The ingredients and method can be very simple. A couple of minutes' chopping time, 5 minutes frying and stirring, but it's simmering it for an hour or more that changes it from watery and tasteless into rich and delicious. Or, you can use a jar of cheap pasta sauce and some mince which will give it more instant flavour, but without simmering it, the mince will be chewy and not half as nice as the tender rich texture if its been cooked for a long time.

meg72

As already pointed out it isthe long slow cooking that makes a really good spagetti bolognaise and is well worth doing. If time is the problem and you want to eat quick, why not make it in advance and keep in fridge or freeze it.If you have a slow cooker you could make it overnight.

meritaten

I agree - you cannot hurry a good bolognese sauce!
If you want FAST recipes then have a look on www.foodnetwork.co.uk for a programme called Thirty minute meals. not ALL the recipes take 30 minutes - some only take ten minutes or so! or look for old 'Ready Steady Cook' cookbooks. Nigella Express should be on the website too! now her recipes take some beating for quick cheats and are VERY easy to do!

thegirlintheattic

Fast bolognase = bottled pasta sauce like Dominoes.

Jnelhams

This is a really good book, and covers a lot of ground.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Traditional-Recipe-Sarah-Edington/dp/1905400969/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326143621&sr=1-1#_

Goto WH Smith shops as they had this for £5 at Christmas, so worth seeing what you can find.

Also if you have a Works / Bargain type book store check out the American paperback cookery books they all seem to sell for about £4.99 as some of these are very good.

Finally these Australian books are very interesting and offer here:
http://www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100&productId=215002

Pink.

Hi cagneyfan,

Quick and easy bolognese:

Dry fry mince, throw in some chopped onions and sliced mushrooms. Add in garlic, basil or mixed herbs, and black pepper. Add a stock cube, some tinned tomatoes, chopped red or yellow pepper and a glug of wine. If you have any other veg (carrots, courgettes etc lying at the bottom of the fridge, throw them in too). Takes about 5 minutes to make, and will be ready to eat after 15 mins simmering., it will tastse better if you let it simmer for longer.....I would recommend an hour simmering gently on the hob. This is one of the easiest meals to make, but it tastes better if you leave it to simmer for as long as possible.

This thread has lots more recipes:

making bolognaise sauce from scratch

I'll add your thread to that one later.

Pink

nickh300

I think i need to invest in a good, easy cook book too. Neither my girlfriend or myself can cook. Well i do make a mean beans on toast lol but other than that, that's about it!

Linda32

I have a receipe that might help, its called Million-vegetable mince. Having read on here that it isn't bolognase by any stretch. But we do have it with spagetti and its very very nice.

I don't think I can copy it exactly so I'll add little snippets in IYSWIM

Chop 2 onions, 2 carrots (small pieces) pepper (I don't bother with this - its up to you), 2 courgettes and 150g mushrooms (I don't) just to keep costs down.

Fry 500g mince.

Add chopped veg
garlic
and 2tbsp tomato puree

cook for a further 5-10 mins stiring well

Pour over 300ml stock
and a can of chopped toms

Add black pepper to taste

Bring to the boil, then lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes.


I do not make this when I get home from work I make it as a big batch, then freeze in portions.
Take out of freezer at tea time, the night before you want it to defrost in fridge.

I re-heat in oven at gas mark 6 for 30 minutes.

It does look abit dry when you first re-heat but it does re-heat very nicely.

Obviously, you can alter the veggies to suit, but I think carrots and courgettes go very nicely with mince and toms.


HTH

cagneyfan

nickh300 wrote: »

I think i need to invest in a good, easy cook book too. Neither my girlfriend or myself can cook. Well i do make a mean beans on toast lol but other than that, that's about it!

I'd even mess that up!