Portblacks is bored with her cooking - too much emphasis on meat & potatoes. Help!

[PortBlacksandResident]

I can do a lovely sauce that can warm the cockles. I can cook meat well and know 100 ways to cook a potato. I'm too heavy on the old onion, pepper, mushroom basics too. I cook them too "heavily" too iykwim.

I need help! I need to know how to cook interesting pasta, rice and to drizzle olive oil on bread so it doesn't go greasy. I want to be less Henry VIII and more Mediterranean / African / Oriental.

Can anyone recommend a good book / website or better still, has any real tips?

Oooh and fish - how can i cook that interestingly without resorting to lemon and butter?

I'm not popping up in active convos am i? . It's a pretty dull question i agree.

i've just spotted you!

bumping cos I'm interested in the answer

Thankyou - i've just put the problem in sight stuff (and it appeared in active convos).

Have you looked at some Jamie Oliver recipes. Ypu could prob google them rather than buying a book. I think you need to do much less, but with really fresh ingredients. eg roast peppers, onion, garlic & aubergine, add some cooked Puy lentils & tin of chopped toms & you've got the sauce for a summery lasagne. just layer with lasagne sheets & cheese sauce. I that the kind of thing you're after?

Yes - that's what i'm thinknig - thanks Chocolateshoes (omnomnom). Maybe go even lighter - is that what Jamie Oliver does?

You see Puy lentils makes me think of the lass off Cbeebies - i know NOTHING about pulses / beans.

Alittlebitshy - it's not just me then?

i use tesco vouchers to get a subscription to good food, find it has a great mix of different types of food, some lovley ideas (but think Olive is pants)

I too am interested in this thread for any more ideas though! I have several Jamie books, Gordan and also quite like a bit of Nigel Slater.

Actually I find the best things are often the things I make up when theres hardly anything in the cupboard, eg spaghetti (once cooked drizzle with olive oil and lots of black pepper) mixed with some fried chopped bacon, tomatoes and basil. yum

My favourite cookery books are by Nigella Lawson, Nigel Slater, and Jamie Oliver. Plus the Moro cookbook is great, a great middle eastern cookbook by Claudia Roden, the Ottolenghi cookbook..... perhaps if you can find those kinds of recipes (or the right kind of blog?) then you could follow some of those and get into that kind of foody groove?

Will try to find link to useful website.....

(Jamie puy lentils are delicious.....)

put salmon, splash of olive oil, some finely sliced fresh ginger and sqqeeze of lemon in foil parcel, bake in oven, serve with couscous & ratatouille. Dead easy & rataouille can be made in advance & freezes really well.

Jamie O has some good light pasta recipes plus some easy fish ones. I often look on bbc website - you can type in ingredients & get lots of ideas.

Pulses & beans are vvvv easy,tasty & healthy. We use Puy lentil & chickpeas the most.

How about looking on Mumsnet own recipes? They're useful if you've got kids as they have kid-friendly rating.

I had fish to do yesterday, and was thinking about making a fish pie (white fish, prawns and scallops) but DS hasn't been that much into mash lately. So ended up doing a lovely fish chowder/soup/stew, partly based on veggie Cranks receipe for sweetcorn chowder (DH is veggie) and added the fish into ours (frozen fish, 'poached' in 10mins, seafood takes less time). Was yummy!

Or if you get a vegetable and don't know what to do with it, you can find out on Earthshare website.

Have you got a local library? May be best to browse there to find a book you like and try it out first.

JAmie recipes from his website
here

bbc food website is brilliant for recipes

Nigel S recipes here and here

i'm a huge fan of risottos... fry onion, garlic and a meat / fish eg chunks of chicken, salmon, bacon etc. all rice, stock and whatever veggies you fancy. leave it to boil up until all rice is cooked.

sprinkle with parmesan
or replace some standard stock for wine or cream to make more yummy.

stir fry with noddles, lots of colourful vegtables, leek, broc, yellow and red peppers, broad beans, french beans etc

Then home made pizza with roasted vegtables - the vegtables left over form the stir fry.

rissotto - smoked haddock rissotto from the bbc website with a poached egg on top

fish, salmon wraped in tinfoil parcels with cocnut milk and a few slithers of vegtables around - seal the tinfoil and bake in the oven - serve with rice

Thnaks for the Jamie website tip Orangina!

oh, also the Delia Summer cookbook would be worth looking at. there's roast peppers stuffed with tomato, anchovy & basil for example or grilled halloumi with salsa verde. You could prob find those online.

These all sound good - thank you soooo much for answering. I will now go off and google! I really do need to extend my repartee.