Teaching kids to cook

Amanda65

Agree with all the above and would add Shepherds Pie, Pizza or toad in the hole. What a lovely mum :T

serena

There's a brilliant cookbook written by a teenager for other teenagers, which I bought for my DD (now 15) last year - 'Sam Stern's real food real fast', special offer from WH Smith's, and probably in the library.That will have loads of good ideas.

I have cooked with my two sons and one daughter since they were about five, because cooking is fun!

Pizzas, biscuits, fairy cakes, roast chicken, stir fry - and also the basics like white sauce, chicken stock for soups and casseroles, pastry. Lots of directions to take with those.

Gingernutmeg

I found this website the other day and it looks fun - Spatulatta, cooking for kids. It's American, but the recipes look good, and it has videos.

Also, the magazine Delicious (expensive but great recipes) are running a cut out and keep series called (I think) I can cook, and that's really good, and really informative.

squeaky

You can also choose from the recipes given here...

http://www.be-ro.co.uk/f_insp.htm

Click on the link for "Children's cooking" on the right hand side.

HTH

Jet

Thanks everyone. He loves toad in the hole and I hadn't thought of that! There are lots more ideas. Thanks. I want to keep his enthusiasm going, so need to find things that are easy but also that he will enjoy eating too.

purpleivy

Soup making would be invaluable, even if he does it with stock cube.

spaghetti_monster

I would say too that you could do more complicated stuff - if you work together, he could do simpler things, watch you do the more complicated bits and gradually learn.

Parcels, HM soups and burgers are great ideas - I guess cos you can vary ingredients whilst following basic recipes. Then you get to develop a sense of what flavours you like. Does he like salads?? You can do so many different combinations, add maybe different kinds of cheese, fish, ham, chicken etc as well as different veg, maybe some nuts/seeds?
Also making dressing would be fun (bit like chemistry experiment???) - different vinegars/oils/lemon juice/herbs/mustard/honey - try different combinations, try for taste etc

There's nothing wrong with repeating recipes (of course that's also what real life is like I guess) - then you really get to learn and develop them.
I recently found myself trying new recipes all the time - actually never remembering any of them. Now if I find something I like I "practice" it- which I did with risotto - until recently I could only make it from recipe. Now I can make it without a recipe (and it feels a bit less stressful too!)

But anyway I'll stop rambling! good luck with it and have fun!

mrbadexample

Obviously, I'm going to say cauliflower cheese. With bacon in. And broccoli. And pasta.

belfastgirl23

Risotto and pizza are both easy and cheap but look impressive.

Well done on getting him cooking. you will increase his pool of potential girlfriends hugely in times to come men who can cook are very attractive

ubamother

barbecue sauce for marinating chicken etc. He can go to town with all sorts of spicy ingredients - get a basic recipe off the net and he can play around with proportions to taste - he'll get a sense of really doing it himself, and if it goes horribly wrong, it hasn't cost a fortune!