Delia says cheating is ok.

Gingernutmeg

Just out of curiosity, I went on the Ocado site and tried to cost out the fish pie (might have missed something out, I just costed what I could remember) ...

160g pack of hot smoked salmon - £4.39
12 quail eggs (uncooked) - £2.49 (couldn't find cooked, but I assume they'd be dearer)
Jar of cornichons - 99p
Jar of capers - £1.35
Tub of cheese sauce - £1.99
Tub of creme fraiche - 75p
Mash - £1.69
Pack of grated mature cheddar - £2.05
Tub of grated parmesan - £2.29

I make that £17.99 to buy the ingredients ... ouch. Even assuming that you don't use everything that's expensive, especially as it looked like she actually used two packets of the fish. That'd make it £22.38 to buy everything you need ...

jordylass

I watched this and didn't expect to like it at all, after seeing signs for Delia cheats ingredients in every supermarket recently. I thought it was odd, I wouldn't have wanted to eat anything except maybe the bread, but I loved the intimate style of the show, I expect she does talk to the footballers, I think her passion for Norwich has taken over her previous passion for food.
I too thought about ebay when she showed her shed with 40 years of crockery...heaven.

adsk

Like many others I watched Delia last night with mixed feelings. Gingernutmeg is right to point out that cheats don't come cheap. I agree also with earlier posters that it wasn't clear who the programme was aimed at. Leek & potato soup for example - the only real cheat was using frozen mash. Peeling and chopping 1 large spud and sweating it in the pan with the leeks would not have been much more difficult than what she did. Yes, the fish pie was quick but how many jars/packets etc

Bottom line - do you agree with Delia that it's better to 'cook' using some prepared ingredients than to buy ready meals. Personally I'd rather cook from raw ingredients - it's cheaper and the quality is better. She said that people don't have time... that's not true in most cases - people choose to do other things with their time than cook a fresh, healthy and nutritious meal. I can't see people who currently have ready meals being converts to Delia's new approach to be honest.

hilstep2000

I watched last night, and didn't like her shepherds pie! Tinned meat, and FROZEN MASH!!!!! How long does it take to mash potatoes?!:eek:

And she used ready prepared veg, which cost three times as much as the loose ones. Don't get me wrong, I use jars of ragu, and curry sauce for speed, but there are some things that I just can't compromise on, my lot would rebel:rotfl:

comping_cat

I sat watching with my children, and as she did different things, i explained how to do it yourself, how much cheaper it was, and if/how much time was saved, so i suppose i did get something out of it!!!!

Example - the potato rosti, i said, peel a potato and grate it!!!
- potato wedges, cut up a potato!!!

Lillibet_2

I'm not a huge Delia fan at the best of times and don't usually watch her programmes, although I do use a couple of her recipes ( I regulalry use the beef bourguignon recipie mentioned earlier, it's delish). However I tuned in last night out of curisioty & I am going to go against the grain here & say I found it quite interesting & instructional!:eek: Shock, horror, a seasoned OS'er who wasn't aghast at the thought of frozen mash!:rolleyes: Well, to be totally honest, until last night I really had no idea there was such a thing as frozen mash! But if it really is addative-free (as she said when she read out the ingredients) and it saves me the hassel of washing up a saucepan & cleaning the hob then I can see myself using it on occasions. I wouldn't use tinned mince (and I wouldn't cover a shepherds pie in grated cheese anyway! ) but I would brown fresh mince along with a bag of prepped veg for speed & nutrition on busy days. I use the odd ready made pasta sauce but mostly tend to make my own. If I was going to use hot smoked salmon, or whatever it was, I would buy that ready done, but wouldn't most people anyway? I don't like ready grated cheese & would rather grate my own. But I did take something positive away from the programme, that there is a middle ground between cooking from scratch & ready meals/take aways, and it is just a case of picking out the elements which suit your tastes & lifestlyes.

And yes, I have just ordered the book:o

hollydays

I watched this programme with awe.
Was Delia about to become the patron saint of frozen mash ,I wondered?
On what planet is Delia living,where "everyone "has a jar of piri-piri peppers and olives in their cupboard (her words,not mine).
Has anyone here ever seen jars of piri-piri peppers?

Anyhoo,i don't think anyone should feel guilty for feeding their family on convenience food occasionally,and should be applauded for trying to learn new skills,but I feel that all the people I know who lack cooking confidence,have been brought up in families where chicken nuggets and chips are the norm,and are now raising their own families on a budget and want to give their kids better food ,but don't know where to start.

Why are there no cookery programmes to help people like this?

The government are apparently going to teach cookery again in schools,but was it not they that changed Cookery lessons to "Food technology " lessons where kids learnt about the packaging and how to make a pizza from a pre-cooked base and a jar of topping-we need to move away from this and move back to real ,simple nutritious food,for ordinary people. I hope they [EMAIL="don@t"]don't[/EMAIL] think Delias pricey recipes are what is required.

Essex-girl_2

Delia said that she wasnt going to do any more cookery series' but that she found a gap in the market & had to do it. Perhaps when she first thought about it it was a good option but I think that with the country it is today a thrifty cookery programme would be more apt.

I would love watching some one going round the shops grabbing cheap cuts, in season veg and special offers then going home & creating a lovely meal out of it - though obviously us OS'rs would probably put them to shame.

Changing the subject slightly my daughters Food Technology lessons drive me insane - she is not allowed to use salt and fat to be avoided where ever possible, I appreciate that we shouldnt be eating as much salt but most of our dinners are home made and not laden with salt like convenience meals can be, I would understand it more if they were being taught to use other spices instead of salt but there are not. She loves cooking at home but hates it at school.

chloebelle

I find it really refreshing to see chefs advocating the use of convenience food and some things are just so much trouble to make. I saw Keith Floyd cooking an xmas dinner on tv a few years ago and he said that he always uses shop bought gravy and stuffing as they are too much trouble to make!

I enjoyed Delia's programme but it was very choppy and a bit confusing. I would have preferred more focus on the cooking, not all these side tracks into football and her past drunken chanting! If I'm honest the food didn't really impress me, it may have been done using convenience food but there was so much of it that the dishes ended up being quite complicated. I do shepherds pie convenience style and mine is so much easier than Delia's!

morganlefay

I taught myself to cook some 30 years ago from a really good Katie Stewart Times Cookbook (no pictures, just really good recipes which worked) and then from Delia's original 3-part book, and now I'm pretty good. But I really do think she's lost it now. For a start you have to go to lots of different shops to source the cheat's ingredients, so nothing easy about that, nor cheap and then to disguise the instant mash rounds she had to slather ready-grated cheese all over the top, oh very health conscious. I watched the programme and thought that shepherds pie looked awful (I hate tinned meat) and the salmon pie really expensive. At leat Nigella has the grace to look as if she's camping it up on purpose, but Delia still managed to look solemn and schoolmarmy while ladling out the instant mash and I found that really not on. It is impossible to work out who her target audience is, my two daughters are just learning their way round cooking but would never find her approach helpful. I think the young do need to be helped to cook 'real' food, but Delia's approach is not it.