Simple recipes for someone who can't really cook!

foreign_correspondent

you sound like you are doing s great job, to be bringing up a baby without your mums help, and it sounds as if the litle one is well fed!

What do you really like to eat? Post on here and we can see if we can come up with some easy recipes for you! You mention fish pie... basically fish pie is cooked fish in a white or cheese sauce, topped with mashed potatoes.

You need to peel, chop and boil your spuds in salted water. Drain and mash spuds, add a splash of mulk, some butter or marge and salt and pepper.

Cook fish - cod, smoked cod or haddock, salmon, or pollock (like cod but cheaper), or a mixture of these. Either cook it in a frying pan with some milk till it flakes apart with a fork, or pop in on a covered dish in the microwave till flaky. When cooked, peel of the skin, if it has any and chuck it away or feed it to the cat! pick out any bones and break the fish into chunks.

Make some white sauce. Warm 1 pint of milk in a pan till almost boiling, mix some flour (couple of big tablespoons) or cornflour with a little milk in a cup till smooth, slowly add to the hot milk whilst stirring all the time, till the sauce is thick enough. (You might not need all the flour).

Add flavourings to the plain white sauce- maybe a crumbled veg, fish or chicken stock cube, or some grated cheese, or some chopped or dried parsley, plus salt and pepper to taste. It is nice to throw in a handful of frozen peas at this stage too.

Bung the fish and sauce in an ovenproof dish, top with the mash, sqish the mash flat with a fork, add some grated sheese on top if you like, and bung in the oven (medium/hot - gas mark 5 or 6 I guess) till it browns a bit on top!

Serve with some crusty bread, or veg, or both!

sunni

Hi there

Am abit embarassed really saying this but I can't really cook. Well I did try Shepherd's Pie and was found it easy! I used to buy ready meals etc but would really love to try and cook more recipes.

If anyone has any simple recipes for lunch/dinner then I'd love to try them out.

Sunni

Pink.

Hi sunni,

Don't be embarrassed....we all had to learn to cook at one time or another. The best thing that you can do is to think of something you would like to make and then ask for help on here.....there will be lots of people who will be happy to help you.

In the meantime, these threads may help:

Son wants to cook

ashamed cant cook

A son who loves to cook......

food help for a non cook

I can't cook, can you help please?

I wanna basic cook book

cook book for someone leaving home?

Moved in with OH now wanting to 'cook from scratch!'

Can't cook don't cook! Time for change.

How did you learn to cook?


Pink

Rikki

:hello:Hey You missed out Mr Badexamples Cooking Index

Cooking with humour. :rotfl:

Pink.

Rikki wrote: »

:hello:Hey You missed out Mr Badexamples Cooking Index

Cooking with humour. :rotfl:

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I didn't! I knew when I was typing that you'd be right behind me with it!

Pink

sunni

Pink-winged wrote: »

Hi sunni,

Don't be embarrassed....we all had to learn to cook at one time or another. The best thing that you can do is to think of something you would like to make and then ask for help on here.....there will be lots of people who will be happy to help you.

In the meantime, these threads may help:

Son wants to cook

ashamed cant cook

A son who loves to cook......

food help for a non cook

I can't cook, can you help please?

I wanna basic cook book

cook book for someone leaving home?

Moved in with OH now wanting to 'cook from scratch!'

Can't cook don't cook! Time for change.

How did you learn to cook?


Pink

Hi, thanks very much for those links, thats great! Hopefully I'll be an expert in no time lol

ashbart

Sunni - My MIL bought me the book 'How to Boil an Egg' by Jan Arkless. It's £4.49 on Amazon. It taught me all sorts of basics and I still refer to it, even now. I would highly recommend it to anyone. It really is fantastic! Hope this helps.

HelenYorkshire

Hi

Don't worry!

I find the two most useful things I learned to make were a white sauce and a simple tomato sauce.
Both can then be modified into all kinds of things, eg white sauce goes into rum sauce for puddings, cheese sauce for cauliflower, "supremes" and other savouries (think chicken, onion, mushrooms in white sauce )...
Similarly tomato sauce - add mince for bolognaise (sp??) or lassagne filling; add spices or curry paste for curries, add diced veg to go with pasta, add diced veg and blend for soup....!

So my guess-the-amounts recipes are:

White sauce
In a small pan, low heat, melt a dollop of butter or marg, then sprinkle in an equal amount of plain flour, stir into a paste (is called a roux I believe). Say half a tablespoon of each.
Gradually add in milk and keep stirring - don't worry about the lumps! ggradually it will thicken up, if too thick add more milk. Cook for longer than you think - I once had cauliflower and "dough" tasting sauce lol. Once milk is in and you're stirring, you can raise heat a bit.

I always make too much, experiment with quantities to suit you, would be good if it could freeze but not sure it would!


Tomato sauce
Chop 1-2 onions, small amount butter / marg / olive oil, I also add a splash of water. Fairly low heat, so the onions "sweat" and soften rather than burn. Pinch of salt apparently helps this. Add some chopped garlic if wanted. After say 5-10 minutes, when onions soft, add other veg eg diced carrots, courgette, mushroom etc and stir through, soften again.

Throw in tin of chopped tomatoes (and tomato puree if using cheap tomatoes), leave to bubble and voila.

Add herbs eg basil, oregano for an italian sauce, throw in mince when the onions are soft for bolognaise...

It can simmer away for a while if you forget to put the pasta on and have to wait for it to cook..... :whistle:


Hope this helps!

moo2moo

Go to the library and borrow all the cookery books from the childrens section. They are fab. Not only do they include recipes for things you'll actually want to eat buts there also an idiot proof explaination of all the terms that most people take for granted and lots and lots of pictures. The recipes are designed to be easy enough for the average 6 year old but are also a great place to start from if you're clueless.

I have to admit that one of my favourite recipes (fish pie) came from a book called "cooking for children".

Stephen_Leak

Rikki wrote: »

:hello:Hey You missed out Mr Badexamples Cooking Index

Cooking with humour. :rotfl:

Mr. BE's padiwan learner here. Do a search on my name in this forum, and you should find the recipes I've posted. I have tried to keep them as simple as possible. They also link together: for example, I've got one for a basic Italian tomato sauce, add minced beef and you've got Bolognese sauce, add chilli powder and beans and you've got chilli con carne.

They don't come much simpler than this ...

GARLIC & OIL PASTA (AGLIO E OLIO)

Per Person

INGREDIENTS

1 clove of garlic
1 tablespoon of olive oil
125ml of water
¼ of a teaspoon of salt
100g of spaghetti
Ground pepper to taste

METHOD

Peel the garlic and chop it into tiny pieces.

Put the oil into a frying pan on a moderate heat. Add the garlic. Fry the garlic for about 5 minutes until it is brown, stirring to stop it sticking.

Put the water and salt into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Put the pasta into the water. Stir it to stop it sticking to the bottom of the pan. Bring back to the boil and continue to cook, stirring to stop it sticking.

Begin testing it about 2 minutes before the packet instructions say it should be done. The best way to judge if pasta is cooked is to bite it. This is tricky, because if you fish out a bit and stick in your mouth you may burn your mouth on the boiling water. Wait a bit and blow on it, then bite it. If it is hard it needs longer. If it is chewy (or al dente, Italian for "to the teeth") it is ready. If it is soft it is overcooked.

Drain the pasta in a sieve or colander. Season with the pepper.

Always "take the pasta to the sauce". Put the pasta in the pan with the sauce and stir until thoroughly coated.

ADDITIONS & ALTERNATIVES

Use any other long thin plain pasta, like linguine (thin and flat), tagliolini (very thin and flat) or spaghettini (very thin and round), instead of spaghetti.

TIPS

If you use enough water, add the pasta when the water is boiling, stir the pasta and don’t wander off ("Gli spaghetti amano la compagnia" or "Spaghetti loves company") and don’t overcook it, adding olive oil to the water to stop it sticking is totally unnecessary.

PS. I have seen this dish on a restaurant menu for £8.50!