Basic cooking

joedenise

Re the microwaved scrambled eggs - I suspect you cooked them too long if they were rubbery. I do mine 30 seconds at a time and stir each time. Takes longer but find I get much nicer scrambled eggs. Takes about the same length of time to do as my toast:D.

Denise

Ruby789

Thanks Denise, I will keep experimenting . Read that you shouldn't interfer with them too much if doing in the pan so assumed the same was tru of the microwave. It's certainly a learning curve!

Re-tried the sweet potato wedges last night and they were much better! Brushed them lightly in oil (as I couldn't find my spray oil), I turned them once during cooking, and all in they took about 25 minutes. I'm making them again tonight (using the other half a potato) and might try adding some cinnamon or cumin to the oil this time and see what happens.

They were still not prefect (not like I had in the pub that one time), but I would have shared last nights wedges with another humanoid Progress

savetosave

275g butter
4 eggs
2tsp vanilla essence
115g plain flour
115g cocoa powder
450g caster sugar
225g choc chips ( I use 2 packs which is 200g)
115g chopped nuts ( optional I don't use them)

Melt the butter with the cocoa
Beat eggs with the sugar
Add four, choc chips and nuts (if using) and mix
Pour mixture into tin greased and lined with baking paper.
Bake for 15-20 mins at 180 (160 fan assisted oven) gas mark 4
Th brownies will not look done, you will think you need to cook them longer - don't! Trust me!
The top will look like it's starting to crack and the will be squishy.
Take them out and leave the in the tray.
If you serve the warm with cream whoever you are cooking for will think you are fantastic.
If there's any left cut them into squares, put them into a airtight tin.
They will be fine for several days , but tbh you'll be lucky to have any left- you might need to hide the tin:rotfl:
Good luck

CT19720

Sally_A wrote: »

Ruby, this is the best, easy, yet impressive, spud recipe ever.
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1794/garlicky-fondant-potatoes

Thanks so much for this link, I made these on Sunday along with a coq au vin from scratch (something I have never done before) and the potatoes were absolutely devine:D My DS1 at 13 will not eat new potatoes under any circumstances, but I made him try these, and he loved them. I made meatballs tonight, and hada request to do these potatoes again for DS1. Here's my dinner from Sunday, so you can see that these recipes that are posted really work:

littlegreenparrot

I have a confession, I was in my late teens before I cottoned on to it being possible to make pastry, as far as I was concerned it came from the freezer! A tradition I am proud to maintain:rotfl:

Mum bought me the Delia 'How to cook' books when I was about 17, as preparation before leaving for uni. Very good on basic processes.

When you want to try white sauce try this http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/all-in-one-white-sauce.html

Mum was a complete convert, having spent the previous 20 years making a roux, which is much more complex, and having assured me it couldn't possibly work.

Easiest muffin recipe from Nigella
http://100cookbooks.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/blueberry-muffins-nigella-how-to-be-a-domestic-goddess/

I use it as a base and add whatever flavour I fancy. Recent successful experiment was replacing some flour with oats.

Love all the easy recipes :T

suki1964

Ruby789 wrote: »

I'm so grateful for all the replies, feel a lot less anxious about the cooking thing now I have all these tips and recipies to try.


Well my weekend practices were not great …. tried scrambled eggs in the microwave and they came out a bit rubbery. But think I either stirred them too much, or left them on too long. It also wasn't my microwave. Know they're all the same essentially, but you get used to stuff. Did a better job of them in the pan on Sunday and he cleared his plate. Will try them in the microwave again too though, don't think it wasn't a fair comparison.


My chilli was ok, but not my best. I did rice in the microwave and it was a bit dry. But the cheesecake was good, we ate it all! The base was a bit too crumbly, but the taste was there. Think I need to really compact the base in next time.


Thanks Lizling, will try it this way too. Think there is a fool proof method for everyone and I just need to find mine! One of these methods is bound to be the one for me.

savetosave, yes please to the brownie and balsamic mushroom recipes :-) Will try the mash tip next time too.

meritaten, thanks for the recipe, sounds easy and yum. Looking forward to trying it out. And the variations are very helpful too.

CT19720, Apple and berry crumble sounds amazing! Will try that one out as soon as possible. Thanks very much.

Thanks Sally A, will give this one a go too. It can be one of my side dishes. Like things that have few ingredients but seem more impressive. He’ll definitely like these if I get them right.

maman, I had forgotten about hasselback potatoes! They do just look sooo impressive and taste divine. Might have a bash at them tomorrow night ….

Syman, yes it was interesting about the age of eggs. I don’t use that many regularly so they do tend to be stored at home for a period of time as well as the time they spend on the shelf so I need to maybe buy boxes of 6 not 12 in future. Though with all this baking and egg practice i'm getting through them just fine!

suki1964, scaredy_cat, Eyeore and Pitlanepiglet I will be following these tips when I graduate to pastry J

Emm-in-a-pickle, Thanks for the tips Emm. A steamer is on my wish list J My soggy veg will be no more!

Chris25, my sweet potato wedges were the most disgusting ever, I used far too much oil and over cooked them! They were soggy, floppy, oily and far too sweet. I’ve had really nice ones when out, think I might try again with spray oil and less roasting. I’m slightly addicted to sweet potato J. White sauce is on the list. Would like to make a really nice lasagne one day very soon.

So this weeks practice dishes are: fried egg, hasselback potatoes, poached egg, sweet potato wedges. All aligned with what I need to use up .

I'm not going to be popular with this but until you can perfect scramble egg in a pan, don't even attempt to cook in a microwave

Same as rice, learn to use a pan first

Littlegreenparrot isn't far wrong. Learn with delia

Her recipes are fool proof as long as you follow them. It's not for nothing that if she says buy this product, there's a run on the item

What Delia does is teach you how to cook something the good old foolproof way. She gives exact measurements and timings Once you get comfortable with them, can do it blindfolded , then you move on to the short cuts

I cook for a living and am a from scratch cook at home. I don't have a huge repertoire ,and I'm not adverse to lifting down my delia books to check timings and temps

Steve059

I can never get scrambled eggs in the microwave right. I suspect that, if I ever did get it right, the same time wouldn't work again. The eggs wouldn't be exactly the same weight/volume and even one second more or less would make the difference.

Doing them in a pan gives you much more control. Don't use a stainless steel whisk in a non-stick pan, though.