Help with basics

[Rtfairy]

I need some advice on making easy simple meals for myself and boyfriend. I'm not a very good cook at all and find we are often relying on convenience foods and takeaways. I don't want this to carry on as we are expecting our first baby and so I want to learn to cook from scratch as it's healthier and we will be on a budget whilst I'm on maternity leave (£50 food budget per week). Please help, don't want to live on frozen food and jars forever! Please could you give me a recipe that is easy to make, nutritious and cheap, thank you.

If you are any where near East Sussex, I'd be happy to come & show you a few easy cheap basics that can be built up from

Otherwise, try & get yourself a copy of Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course. I often see it in charity shops & she starts with telling you how to boil an egg!! I'm not being patronising saying that, just showing how she really does go through all the basics. I first used it 30+ years ago & still cook from it.

I've just made a chilli, it's a really simple one so here goes:

500g minced beef

I large onion

3 fat cloves of garlic

200mls stock, from stock cube is fine.

I tin red kidney beans - drained & rinsed well under the tap in a sieve.

2 tablespoons tomato puree

1 teaspoon of powdered cumin

1 teaspoon of powdered coriander.

A tablespoon of oil.

Salt.

1 teaspoon of chilli powder.

( I use Schwartz mild chilli powder as I don't like my food too hot. DH adds some extra firey chilli sauce to his as he likes his hotter. If you use another sort of chilli powder use just half a teaspoon. You can always make it hotter but it's not easy to make it cooler!)

Chop the onions fairly finely. Put the oil in a medium/large saucepan & heat it & add the onions. As soon as they start to make a noise turn the heat really low, stir & let the onions cook (it's called sweating in cookbooks) for ten minutes.

Add all the spices & fry for another minute.

Turn the heat up & add the mince & fry it, stirring it & breaking it up as you go until it stops looking raw (about 4/5 minutes). Then ad the stock & the tomato puree & the beans & the crushed garlic. You may need a little extra water if it looks too dry, but no more than half a mug full.

Simmer it on the top of the stove for half an hour & then taste it & add some salt. I can't tell you how much as it will depend on how salty your stock cube was. No more than half a teaspoon at the very most. Simmer for another 10 minutes & it is done.

Serve with some salad, rice or pita bread or garlic bread.

Apologies if I have gone into too much detail & let me know if I haven't made my self clear. And let us know how it goes!

There are lots of good recipe and cooking websites online that you could browse through, might be more productive than asking MNers to post their recipes here.

I wold also recommend Delia's Complete Cookery Course book, itis fantastic!

Thank you, I have also been looking through the bbc good food website, its just there are so many options I find it overwhelming.

Tonight I'm going to try to make this:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1364/spicy-root-and-lentil-casserole

I will try the chilli recipe another night, thats exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for, simple recipes without too many ingredients.

I will have a look at the Delia cookery book. I can boil an egg just about but simple things like peeling potatoes and chopping veg takes me ages!

Well today's dinner was a success, was delicious but took me ages to chop the veg as I'd anticipated. Got lots left over though, what should I do with it? Freeze it in containers? And how would I heat it up? From frozen or would it need defrosting first? Sorry for all the questions hoping someone I can help!

I would freeze in containers (take away ones are perfect for single portion).

Either reheat in the microwave or defrost and reheat in the oven until piping hot.

Well done on delicious dinner!

Freeze in containers & try to remember to defrost first.

If not put in microwave on defrost setting & then put in saucepan on the stove & make sure it has heated to high heat (near boiling) for a couple of mins. As it is all veg you will be very safe.

Re the peeling & chopping - you need at least one good knife & a decent veg peeler. Look in TK MaXX - they have amazing stuff in their kitchen section for very little money.

I'm a bit meh on Delia, but I recommend Jamie's ministry of food as a great basic guide.

I'd also recommend a Delia cookery book. She's very good at guiding you through basic techniques and traditional meals. Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food is also good and his website has some videos you can follow... my DS copied his omelette instructions very successfully.

You'll get quicker at preparing things the more often you do it. Good quality knives and other equipment really does help and I think all new cooks should have a good timer. If I have a tip for speeding things up further it's to do what French chefs call 'mise en place' which is getting everything you need for a dish out, prepared and ready before you start cooking. Saves time and also saves burning the thing in the pan while you're hunting through the cupbords for the next ingredient.

Good luck and have fun.

BTW.... I trust that your boyfriend is learning how to cook alongside you and will be pitching in making 50% of the meals. Start as you mean to go on.

I would recommend buying some veg ready chopped and frozen - onions, peppers and casserole veg are particularly good.
Not only does it save time, but it reduces the chance of wastage because you can just use what you need. I make a beef stew in the slow cooker with ready diced stewing steak, some frozen casserole veg, worcestershire sauce, a squidge of tomato puree, some beef stock concentrate, thyme and a bit of hot water. I might add some red wine if I have it or a splash of balsamic vinegar but I make it to taste.

You can also plan ahead and make enough for two meals in advance and freeze one, so you can have a couple of "free" meals in the freezer.

I make things in bulk like the filling for a cottage pie, chilli, bolognaise and curry. Then the chilli can be used with either rice, jacket potatoes or tortillas. The cottage pie can be topped with mash or served in yorkshire puddings, bolognaise can be served with pasta or used to make lasagne or canelloni etc.

If you're trying to keep costs down adding extra veg/pulses to things is a good way of making a meal go further (and making it healthier too). So for example of you make a bolognese by following any cook book recipe you could add about a mug full of red split lentils (to approx 400gmince), you'll also need to add more liquid as the lentils soak it up so I tend to fill one of the tins of tomatoes I've just used with water and use that. For chilli I add extra kidney beans (use the value ones as they're just as good) and occasionally a tin of baked beans as well.

Mince based meals are great when you've a newborn as they ca be ready in half an hour but can also sit on a low job or in a low oven for hours. I tended to make them if i had a spare 10mins in the afternoon, then once it was at the simmer stage I'd leave them til I was ready to eat.

The other cheap way to eat is to by a joint of meat and them use the leftovers in the week for meals, so a medium chicken will do me, DH and my 9mo DD a roast dinner the day I cook it, then a stir fry, chicken salad and a pie. A roast pork shoulder ( I get mine at aldi for about £4) will do a roast, BBQ pulled pork (meat mixed with BBQ sauce and served with wraps and coleslaw) and 2 lots of sandwiches. You have to be fairly stingy with tr meat portions in each meal but if you serve lots of veg/ potatoes no one notices!

The biggest saving ive made is swapping to aldi though. I used to spend between 60-80 per week at tesco and now I spend about £40 at aldi. This includes a bottle of wine and crisps/biscuits etc so you could be even more frugal than that.