To ask how tf to cook?

[Easeljeasel]

Ok, this is embarrassing. I was raised in a house where the most ‘cooking’ that ever happened was fish fingers and oven chips. On repeat. Interspersed with potato waffles or, if extra effort was being made, a boil in the bag fish in parsley sauce with mash... Big processed potato theme as you can see.

Anyway, I went off to uni, have done well for myself career wise and now find myself late 30s, married with kids and in this crazy middle class world where people can actually really cook (I know it’s not a discretely middle class thing being able to cook btw, but over the years I have felt like the class thing has introduced dishes, ingredients - not to mention wines etc - others from my background have probably never heard of either).

Obviously this hasn’t been an overnight thing - in reality I’ve spent years and years going to dinner parties and cringing at the thought of reciprocating, buying cookery books and trying to learn but tbh just not sticking with it long enough for anything to ‘stick’ such that I feel I could achieve it without having to follow each step by step etc. All in all I find the whole thing intimidating and I’ve been too soft on myself for too long and not biting the bullet and getting on with learning.

As lock down starts to ease I know the invites are going to start returning (ultimate first world prob, I know) along with my anxiety about not being fit to reciprocate. And even outside of that my poor kids. They’re fine - more balanced diet than I ever had (not hard) but I’d love to start raising them with a lovely weekly schedule of healthy, home cooked meals rather than pastas and Waitrose fishcakes (my childhood fish fingers in slightly posher disguise!)

Any ideas on ‘starter’ meals to cook that:

A) kids will like on a school night

OR

B) I can use as a dinner party ‘go-to’, without having to perform 20 dry runs and a sleepness night of worry about it going tits up?!

SOS!

I think as long as you keep trying, even when you cook something that misses the mark or just straight up tastes awful, you will learn! Don’t let it put you off when things go wrong. Once you get your head round the cooking techniques and which flavours go together, you will naturally start making up your own recipes.

@Chicchicchicchiclana well, when the OP goes on a cookery course, why don't you sign up for a charm school at the same time?

Get hold of a copy of Nigella's "How to Eat" lots of basic techniques explained very simply.

It will talk you through boiling an egg! There's no pictures to make you feel bad if yours doesn't look as stylishly plated and she talks about what swaps you can do / store cupboard basics.

If you can get hold of Delias origami all cookery course it is brilliant. My mum gave me hers and much as ignore stuff like chicken Veronique, if I need a recipe for say a bordelaise or pepper sauce I will always go back to that book over the Internet.

Jamie's how to cook is good but might be too much to start with, Ministry of Food is great for a beginner.

Definitely get hello fresh and or gousto for a few weeks, they’re all very easy step by step recipes with all the ingredients you need.
There’s loads of discount codes about too!
To start with you do need to follow recipes and then as your confidence grows or you start to remember how to do things you can go off piste and just start knocking things together.
BBC food website and delia have so many no fail recipes to try too.

Not quite ‘dinner party’ but a great recipe to eat with friends (or with kids). I love the way this recipe properly talks you through every step. Also love that I found that marjoram goes well in all mince dishes!

Start straightforward, serve with a lovely red (or Mexican beer) after a few margaritas! Rice, tortilla chips, wedges, guacamole, sour cream
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chilli-con-carne-recipe

Or if you are worried about reciprocating invitations, go for bbqs. Be the ultimate summer host and then people will invite you back in the winter!

And for what it's worth Nadiya Hussain gets my vote. She's a mad genius, she writes very clearly and has some great time hacks for working around kids. I just leave out the chilli...

I'd also suggest a Delia or Jamie or beginners book. If you do get any of the boxes, just a tip to do the prep before starting to cook as some of the in-between prep time isn't long enough. If you need to learn how to chop etc you'll easily find that now on you tube etc

Easiest dessert in the world

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/lemonpossetwithlemon_85812 All prepared the day before dinner party and serve in pretty glasses

tasty.co/recipe/creamy-tuscan-chicken This made, pop in casserole dish and into oven on a very low heat gas one or electric 100 serve with new potatoes and two fresh veg - put in warm serving bowls to keep it simple

Find a cold make ahead starter,

That way two of the 3 courses are already in the kitchen/fridge and only the main course needs to be fiddled with

Keep it simple and keep topping up people’s drinks 😉

OP I'm really sorry but now I fancy a potato waffle.

Not helpful, I know.

If you would like a free try of Simply Cook here's a code
I like it as it's a simple recipe card, and spices. Lots of familiar favourites as well as more unusual take away or restaurant style food. Just buy your own ingredients when you want to try it out. Just click on the picture of the recipe you like the look of to find out the ingredients. Lots are based on mince which is quick to cook.
Can I recommend Sichuan Dan Dan Noodles, they are one of our favourites!
The pack had 4 recipes with enough spice for 4 people (although the recipe is for 2 it is generous and we often don't need as much spice even for 4).

simplycook.com/invite/JS8088

@Princess28

Not quite ‘dinner party’ but a great recipe to eat with friends (or with kids). I love the way this recipe properly talks you through every step. Also love that I found that marjoram goes well in all mince dishes!

Start straightforward, serve with a lovely red (or Mexican beer) after a few margaritas! Rice, tortilla chips, wedges, guacamole, sour cream
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chilli-con-carne-recipe

Or if you are worried about reciprocating invitations, go for bbqs. Be the ultimate summer host and then people will invite you back in the winter!

This is my go to chilli recipe too. It always tastes amazing

Ps I always add red wine n Worcester sauce too

I use some of the organised mum recipes..they are so easy! If you check her blog etc. I did one tonight, simple salmon en croute..it was 4 skinless salmon fillets covered in pesto and sliced tomatoes then wrapped in ready made puff pastry. Yummy

Personally I’m not a great one for recipe books. I learned to cook by working my way up. So I started by making pasta dishes or curry using a jar of sauce, making a lasagne but again with a jar of sauce and a jar of white sauce. It’s less intimidating than cooking it all from scratch but you still get more used to cooking by chopping the onions, frying off the mince etc. Once I was confident with that, I graduated to making my own sauces.

I had zero cooking skills when OH kept inviting his ultra foodie relatives around and endured some embarrassing disasters.

But you have You Tube Mary Berry is very good at explaining and I also use J Oliver- he got the DC cooking. BBC Good Food is brilliant, you can save stuff and send yourself shopping lists. Also You can get nearly new cookery books so cheaply on Amazon now.
Pick one recipe a week and have a go. Also Weigh Everything before you start. ( learnt that from hard experience too).

I couldn’t cook much until recently when I had a baby and realised I needed to be able to do more cooking and not rely on DH as much.

I recommend Miguel Barclay’s cookbooks because each recipe uses only a few ingredients and there aren’t many steps. Rukmini Iyer’s roasting tin cookbooks are also great.

I like making one pot meals and serving with something simple. So I’ll make ratatouille from the Miguel Barclay cookbook for example and serve with couscous or pitta breads and feta cheese.

Jamie Oliver's ministry of food is aimed at novice cooks, or delia has basic cooking books (both can be found on you tube too)

Start simple, repeat often to master them

Or Morrison's has its own version of hello fresh, cheaper though

Is the Simply Cook stuff all freeze dried? Seems odd.

Is it easy enough to cancel? I've just seen a first box for £1 thing.

Dinner party - go for curry. Honestly, everyone loves it, you can make it in advance, and it’s really easy. Made from scratch it’s always delicious. I regularly hosted dinners of up to 20 friends pre-lockdown and would do:

• onion bahjis/ samosas as nibbles with drinks (not made myself! Waitrose/ Sainsbury’s small ones from frozen - bloody delish)
• a dahl, a vegetable curry and an interesting chicken curry, served with rice. Middle of the table, people help themselves. Small bowls of poppadums, a simple raita, a few chutneys decanted on the table.
• pudding - bowl of meringues, bowl of coconut yoghurt, bowl of chopped mango. Again, middle of the table, everyone helps themselves for a slightly more interesting Eton mess style dessert.

Keep the booze flowing! God, I miss hosting.

Fry chopped chicken breast in a large frying pan. I usually do one breast per person. As the chicken cooks add about 150 mls of full fat crème fraîche per person. I then add chicken stock cube or stock pot for extra flavour but you don’t have to. Once the chicken is cooked add green beans About a handful per person. These are chopped to bite size. Once the beans have softened a little add whole cherry tomatoes - about 5 per person. After about a minute of cooking The tomatoes add a flat tablespoon of pesto per chicken breast and mix into the crème fraîche sauce. Heat everything through and serve with rice or little roast potatoes. If you don’t like pesto you can add the juice and zest of one lemon or a spoonful of Dijon mustard. Enjoy

We all love this and it doesn't take too long

Another vote for Delia & Jamie.

Yes, Delia is a bit old-school these days, but her recipes are meticulously tested and if you follow them precisely, you will succeed. My copy of ‘Complete Cookery Course’ is well over 20 years old, and looks it, it’s so well used.

Most of Jamie’s recipes are based on Italian cooking, so they are all about great ingredients & flavour. ‘5 ingredients’ is great for beginners and ‘30 minute meals’ is also superb.

I have the same issue, I come from a long line of shit cooks, but I need to lose some pounds so in a search for healthy recipes I've stumbled into a load of easy but really tasty recipes on the British heart foundation website of all places.
Last night we had chicken and broccoli risotto and the night before aubergine, spinach and chickpea curry and they were fantastic if I say so myself. OH was just staring at it saying "I can't believe you've cooked this!!" Its opened up a whole new culinary world!

Try Nigel Slater's book ... Real Fast Food. If you pick up a cheap second hand paperback copy it doesn't have any photos of the food so you won't beat yourself up if it doesn't look like the picture! Easy quick meals with not too many scary unfamiliar ingredients or techniques. Nigel Slater is a very forgiving kind of cook.

I pretty much taught myself how to cook from that book in my late teens and early 20s, and I still refer to that book now I'm in my 40s.