Basic cooking

MidLifeCrisis_3

It's defo a confidence thing, but I think you'll find most of us feel the same and that sometimes it goes right and sometimes not. In our house we have a scrummy scale and if after a few mouthfuls it's definitely a 10 we head for the chip shop!! We've only done this twice with a blue cheese pasta eugh and a veg risotto that I put a sorry looking aubergine in.

I'd always been scared of making cheesecake before a friend gave me this recipe. It's really simple to do, but looks impressive and tastes amazing:

Bash up 14 digestive biscuits in a bowl/bag/clingfilm/food processor and then stir into 75g butter/marg that you have melted in a bowl and mix together well (I don't bother, but you can add 1 tbsp sugar if you like a sweeter base). Press into a flan dish tin or if you're feeling extra brave one of those bottomless tins and chill til firm (use the freezer if you want it ready quicker!). Stir together 1 tub of cream/soft cheese (Philly or value will do the same job), 2 tbsp caster/icing sugar and 1 tsp vanilla essence/extract. Then whip 300ml double/whipping cream til forms soft peaks and fold into the cream cheese mix. Smooth this over the base then chill till firm. Next either top with sliced fresh fruit or add 250g fresh/frozen fruit(s) of your choice (any berries work really well) to a pan with 3 tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp cornflour, stir over a low heat until fruit softens. Leave to cool and pour over cheesecake.

You can also add things like melted choc, lemon/orange zest, cocoa or baileys to the cheese mix and top with grated choc/zest instead of fruit, etc.

If you prefer to work in ounces then 25g = 1 oz & 300 ml = half a pint.

Yummy!

Ruby789

MidLifeCrisis wrote: »

We've only done this twice with a blue cheese pasta eugh and a veg risotto that I put a sorry looking aubergine in.

I'd always been scared of making cheesecake before a friend gave me this recipe. It's really simple to do, but looks impressive and tastes amazing:

Aubergine is another one I struggle with. I get slimey, chewy (when roasting) or still a bit raw rather frequently! I persevere with it because one day i'll get it to that perfect scrummy texture ... one day.

Thanks for the cheesecake recipie. It does in fact sound simple and doesn't involve 75 ingredients which is a huge plus! Think this is dessert sorted after the roast

Looks like I'm going to get very, very fat in the next few months!

Chris25

for another easy cheesecake - here's Shell2001's recipe from way back -
Anyway you will need

3 oz butter
8oz digestive biscuits
30ml Double cream
Juice & Zest of 4 lemons
1 can of condensed milk

Melt butter and mix into crushed biscuits. Spread out in bottom of loose bottom tin. Place in fridge to chill

Add tin of condensed milk, lemon zest and juice and cream and whizz in a food processor until thick and creamy (or use whisk). Pour over top of biscuit base, chill in fridge.

Nargleblast

An even easier cheesecake is from the Takeaway secret book - biscuit base as before, then top with a mixture of soft cheese and chocolate spread then refrigerate. Very nice!

Delia did some books called How to Cook - the first one even covered how to cook eggs!

Ruby789

Oh yum, so many cheesecakes to choose from. Will definately enjoy trying all of these recipies out. Thanks for the tips everyone.

MidLifeCrisis_3

Chris25 wrote: »

for another easy cheesecake - here's Shell2001's recipe from way back -
Anyway you will need

3 oz butter
8oz digestive biscuits
30ml Double cream
Juice & Zest of 4 lemons
1 can of condensed milk

Melt butter and mix into crushed biscuits. Spread out in bottom of loose bottom tin. Place in fridge to chill

Add tin of condensed milk, lemon zest and juice and cream and whizz in a food processor until thick and creamy (or use whisk). Pour over top of biscuit base, chill in fridge.

We call that one Lemon Tart in our house or use limes and dah dah you've got a Key Lime Pie and now you have 3 easy peasy different desserts...

Ruby789

MidLifeCrisis wrote: »

We call that one Lemon Tart in our house or use limes and dah dah you've got a Key Lime Pie and now you have 3 easy peasy different desserts...

Thanks Midlife

I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into proper cooking. Waiting for the weekend to make dessert as a treat so i've not tried yet. Need to get a tin to make it in as well.

So far i've attempted cauliflower cheese and sweet potato wedges. Neither were any good sadly , but for a first attempt neither burnt nor raw, and no food poisoning.

How does this sound as a plan of action?

For the next few weeks I 'perfect' 3 breakfasts / brunches (all egg based: scrambled, poached and fried), 6 main meals (to cover some dinners and lunches), 6 side dishes (to bulk up dinners), and the three deserts you've given me above .

Then after that work systematically through each of my other dishes till I have a solid base of everyday food i'm happy to prepare and serve to other people.

I'm sure once i've got some of the basics right they can be varied slightly, and that will increase the amount of things I can make, e.g. plain mash, cheesy mash, colcannon.

Can't believe it's never occured to me before now to learn the basics!

Sally_A

Ruby, the best starter cook book in my opinion is The Dairy Book of Home Cookery, they have recently revamped it, so the older cream coloured book can be found for a fiver on amazon, or book clubs that come to work - it may seem a bit patronising at times to those that have grasped the basics; but it is always the one I grab first to remind me regarding pancake or yorkshire pudding mix, or ratios of ingredients for sauces, pastry and cakes.

As for roux sauces, cheese sauce, or any flour based sauce - no more suffering trying to intimidate the lumps with a wooden spoon, get a cheap hand blender/blitz stick, worth their weight in gold and went straight into my top ten of kitchen gadgetry.

meritaten

Ruby - Learn the Basics and you can tweak them to your hearts content! for example - learn a basic easy curry sauce (I will give you my recipe if you want) and from there its easy to make chicken, beef, pork, turkey, prawn or vegetable curry!
or to cook pasta shapes - cos its ruddy amazing how many different pasta dishes can be done with either freshly cooked pasta or pasta leftovers!

Pee

I think with most people it is either good at cakes or good at pastry or maybe mediocre at both. Of course there will always be the odd exception. I haven't cooked pastry or cakes for ages though. My OH thinks i do most of the cooking because I usually do the shove it in the oven for the time stated i.e. chicken kiev and he does the spaghetti bolognese from scratch. he thinks roasts are easy though, and I am beginning to agree. You just stick the rosemary in and shove them in for longer... Depending on what you like eating, do a meal plan and see how you go with it, working on some more dishes to add to it. One of my favourite meals is potato cakes with smoked salmon, sour cream and beetroot. This fits in well with bolognese converted to chilli and sour cream, too. Also filled pasta and pesto or a tomato garlic and chilli sauce is a delicious treat. We have stir fry with prawns once a week and jacket potatoes about once a week. OH would have jacket potatoes every night... I'll also poach some salmon with vegetables. That has to be watched as it cooks very quickly, but it's not long enough for my attention to wander! A good idea is to batch cook and freeze it, like home made ready meals.