Are you a good cook? If so, come and help me!

[TourGuideBarbie]

Inspired by another thread, I really want to learn to cook.

I have a DH who is effortlessly slim but with a huge appetite, one fussy DD and one eats everything DD.

We have lived on restaurants, take aways, my mum, leftovers from my mums and my terrible cooking now has to take a front seat as we need to cut down spending a bit.

Everything I make is a disaster. No exaggeration. I tried to make pancakes for DD last week and wasted 12! I've tried to make shepherds pie and stew but both were completely tasteless and the stew was like a paste and the mince in the pie was rubbery and dd wouldn't eat it.

I can do fish fingers and chips but don't really think my family will be happy to have this everyday!

My two biggest disasters were cupcakes I tried to make for DD's birthday were brown, flat and crunchy! And a roast dinner for my parents was everything either overcooked or undercooked and essentially a burnt, cold dinner with watery gravy.

Not only am I trying to step up cooking wise generally, but my DH has invited two sets of friends for Easter dinner!!!

Does anyone feel like giving me some tips? Really easy fool proof recipes? (And an Easter Sunday solution!)

I would massively appreciate it

As mentioned already, Jamie Oliver's book The Ministry of Food is really a great guide to learn the basics. I use his recipes all the time for beef stew, lasagne, bolognaise and chilli. They taste delicious! Very easy to make and the book is full of pictures to help guide you through the steps.

It is my most-used cook book (and I have a few....) and one that I would recommend to all beginner cooks/cooks who lack confidence.

I agree with someone who said upthread to avoid doing a roast for guests and stick with a one-pot style dish, to sthg you can make in advance like lasagne. So much easier than trying to cook something when your guests are present. Plus, a huge bonus is presentation - with stews/casseroles etc, no need to worry about presentation!

A Girl called Jack is also quite a good (and easy to use book) - her recipes for biscuits, bread, pizza dough are really straight-forward and easy to do. Because she is cooking on a budget, the list of ingredients in blessedly short!

If you like eating vegetarian, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's book Veg Every Day has heaps of tasty recipes which are easy to follow and fairly simple. I heard good things and got it out of the library before DH made us buy it as it's the only thing he's ever felt confident cooking out of.

Or looking at top rated recipes on the BBC Good Food website will give you pretty foolproof meals too. If you're cooking for a bunch of people, Tara (Tana? Gordon's wife) Ramsey's lemon drizzle cake is an easy make ahead pudding.

Try looking at recipes on youtube. Sometimes if you how things are prepared it makes much more sense then just reading a recipe.

I always use non-stick pans. Pancakes, steak, salmon,eggs etc so much easier with non stick! Also do you cook on gas or electric? Gas is easy to adjust. Personally I can't cook on electric hobs as it takes a lot of forethought and patience!!

Soups are also very easy to make. Boil broccoli in water with a stock cube. Blend with a stick blender, add some cream to taste.
Or google Gorden Ramsey's pea soup. It's delicious!! Roast butternut makes a lovely soup too.

I love making dishes such as these: course chop up any kind of veg. I love potatoes, onions, courgette, fennel, red peppers and cherry tomatoes. Add about 5/6 whole cloves of garlic. Sprinkle with some herbs de provence and salt and pepper. Then coat in olive oil. Cook in the oven at 180c for about 30min till the potatoes are browned and cooked through. You can also add pieces of chicken (thighs are good), or chop up sausages or chorizo or add some prawns.

Good luck and keep trying!

Without labouring the oven issue, when you say you have 4 ovens, do you mean 4 separate units? Or do you have one big range cooker with 4 compartments? (Assuming it's not an aga, as this would explain extra difficulty)

With cooking on.the hob, make sure you are using the right oil/fat. MIL was complaining about funny tasting food until I realised she was frying in extra virgin.olive oil, which has a low burn point. Normal olive oil is fine, but keep the extra virgin for drizzling!

Not sure if anyone has mentioned but when boiling veg, if it grows underground then start it in cold water, above ground get the water boiling first.

Flick through some cookbooks and find one you like the style of. If you're lacking confidence then short text and lots of pictures will help. There's one called 'ten minutes to table' which comes to mind (but ignore the ten minutes!).

Asian cooking is very simple - stir fries and the like. You could marinate salmon fillets in a mix of soy sauce with a tsp of marmite then fry.and serve with stir fried veg/steamed broccoli and rice/noodles.

What are DHs cooking skills like?

Also, it sounds like you might be having problems judging cooking/heating times. For most savoury.foods, get a cold knife and poke it right in. Hold.for about ten seconds then pull.it out. If the blade is hot then so is your food.

Get the instruction books for your ovens. I have used hundreds of different ones successfully but managed to use my own wrong for a WHOLE YEAR!

Agree with mermaid, tee up some YouTube videos (vintage delia is good fun) and go right back to basics.

With recipes, follow them exactly. It's like any other set of instructions really.

Does your dog cook?

Oh my God....

DH - does your DH cook, not dog

Re putting potatoes in cold water, all veg that grows below ground should be started in cold water, things that grow above ground in hot.