Delia says cheating is ok.

maypole

I agree with you thriftlady. I first learned from Delia, why I had to "rest" the pastry and you need to know some of the basics. I used to love watching her programmes, she always looked so clean and tidy ( like Margo in the good life!) I am always "up to the eyes" when I cook.

I don't think I will be "cheating" with her though. It is ok sometimes, but when you cook from scratch you get such satisfaction.

I do like watching the other chefs too though and I think Jamie at Home has been quite a good series, he doesn't seem as wild as he used to be :eek:

competitionscafe

Never been a big fan of Delia and certainly won't be buying this book. If you want a decent book for beginner cooks then get Sophie Grigson's excellent 'First Time Cook' which is full of recipes which you would actually want to eat (and at around £8.50 at amazon it the same price as Delia's offering) - or even Nigel Slaters Appetite, which is also good for quick evening meals and has lots of good cooking info at the front.

As for frozen mash and tinned mince - yuck! It's not that difficult to fry or grill a piece of meat or fish and steam or boil some veg, short cuts are fine but I don't see the need for buying overpriced, over processed supermarket convenience food in order to make a quick evening meal. Meat or fish with some veg - or pasta with an endless variation of additions can be made just as quickly and it will be tastier, healthier and cooked from scratch. Do we really need a 'recipe' for opening a tin of mince and piling some frozen mash on top!? Some of the brands she has recommended are full of hydrogenated vegetable oils (trans fats) eg the Jus-Rol ready made pastry - why recommend these specific brands when better alternatives are available...eg Sainsburys own brand (taste the diffeence) ready made pastry which just contains flour, butter, water and salt - as you would do if you made your own. Nothing wrong with ready-made pastry, it's a great time-saver - but at least recommend one with similar ingredients to home-made, not one with hydrogenated vegetable oils and mono- and diglycerides of Fatty Acids on the ingredients list.

Interesting comment here too about how she is going against the seasonal, local food trend: http://www.bigbarn.co.uk/blog/?articleid=267

And an article in the Times on a similar theme:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3375585.ece

Sarahsaver

I saw someone try the 'shepherd's pie' on tv, and it sounded disgusting, expensive when you added all the ingredients, and by the time you have gone to at least 2 different shops (M&S tinned meat, aunt bessies potato...)you may as well buy either ready made or complete raw ingredients.
IF this gets some non cooks cooking then maybe it is a good thing but she seems to have no joy or passion about anything. Shops will be going mad about the 'must have' ingredients and thats surely a bit of a slur on her integrity?

spendthrift66

Katgoddess wrote: »

I've had a request for Delia's baked fish fingers. I can't print the recipe for copyright reasons, but I'll list the ingredients and cooking time. It's basically a packet of fish fingers topped with tinned tomatoes, tinned mushroom, onion and grated cheese.

14 oz packet of fish fingers
salt and pepper
tablespoon of lemon juice
6.5 oz can of tomatoes, drained
Medium onion, sliced
7.5 oz can of grilling mushrooms
2 oz of cheddar cheese
a little butter

Bake at gas mark 4 for 20-25 minutes.

Am I the only person that thinks this sounds repulsive?!

competitionscafe

spendthrift66 wrote: »

Am I the only person that thinks this sounds repulsive?!

No, I think it sounds disgusting too - but then I don't like fish fingers to start with.

As for the tinned mince and frozen mash shepherds pie - there was an article in one of the papers showing that it was cheaper to just buy an M&S ready meal shepherds pie and tastier too (although obviously nowhere near as good as homemade) plus you saved time (which seems to be the main point of 'cheating') by only going to one shop rather than two (M&S for the tinned mince and somewhere else for the Aunt Bessies frozen mash).

I don't mind cookbooks recommending certain brands occassionally when that brand is of much better quality than it's competitiors (for an example quite a few cookbooks recommend Ortiz tuna and anchovies for something like Salad Nicoise where really good quality tinned tuna makes a big difference, and Ortiz anchovies and tuna are both way better than most other brands) but Delia and the Delia effect means she has far greater influence than most and therefore such frequent and constant product placement of dozens of different specific brands in one book (many of which are clearly not the best quality or best tasting compared to other brands of the same product) just looks like blatant commercialism/advertising.....

Sarahsaver

The fish finger thing is from the 1970s isn't it? It SOUNDS very 70's. I would rather have a baked spud with some cheese and salad;)

thriftlady_2

Sarahsaver wrote: »

The fish finger thing is from the 1970s isn't it? It SOUNDS very 70's. I would rather have a baked spud with some cheese and salad;)

It certainly isn't in the new book, which I have donated to Oxfam-I'm never going to use it.

Note to self -get new cookbooks from the library :rolleyes:

thriftmonster

I don't think I would do that to a fishfinger - but we have a weakness for fishfinger butties for Sat lunchtime here (pollack MSC natch!) with loads of tartare sauce.

I do like Delia - the original Cookery Course, the Summer collection and the Christmas book. She was starting to lose the plot with the Winter collection and as for "How to Cook" - forget it. The original 70s cake book is pretty good as well. Won't be buying the new one - and hopefully my family know me well enough not to buy it for me - watch this space!

Sarahsaver

She did do a 'cheating' book in the 70s AFAIK!
I got bought a Delia book a few years back but I since sold it on ebay.
in the 70's My Mum had the marguerite patten book, dad had 'living off the land' and nanna had mrs beeton, a really old well used copy;)

studentgirl_2

HI all, Just got this book from my local library I think it all looks great and is cheating, but is it OS.

I can say that I would never have thought to buy mince beef in a tin. Does anyone buy this? whats it like?

Really not sure about the recipies though not sure they are even healthy.

Has anyone looked at it??