The Kitchen Playground

I often hear from people that they can’t cook…or more specifically, can’t cook like me. I usually hear this from Mum’s who do cook. Every night. So I find these claims of ineptitude a little puzzling. I am no master chef. I just love to cook and rarely stick to a recipe. I prefer to come up with my own. I am not afraid to make a mistake. I rarely use a difficult technique and my recipes do not tend to be particularly time intensive.

So, what is it that separates those who are confident in the kitchen and those who are not?

Of course a complete lack of interest in cooking is an explanation that makes sense. Those who hate cooking are, of course, more likely to bang some food together as quickly and simply as possible to get the task out of the way. Indeed, I sometimes feel that way myself. usually when one of the kids is having a growth spurt and demands fresh fare every 5 - 10 minutes for a few days straight. The best way to reduce the burden in this case is to have a good strong base of 10 minute meals. Something I can provide and will endeavour to do so in future posts.

Another category of those lacking kitchen confidence is the poor unfortunate who would like to be a better cook but lives with a family addicted to the plainest of fare. While a constant diet of meat and three veg is most certainly uninspiring, perhaps the situation could be improved by collecting a list of permissible foods and flavours and experimenting from there.

Then there are those who simply lack confidence for no discernible reason. All I can say is, if you want to gain confidence, take a deep breath and try. Have a back up meal necessary if you don’t trust yourself and unleash experimental arms on the kitchen. Know what flavours you like, look at recipes that take your fancy and see what ingredients are most often combined to produce those flavours and set your creativity free.

One of the best books I had when starting to cook was an old home economics text book discarded by a friend. It is full of plain hearty (boring) fare but it’s beauty lies in a wonderful collection of straightforward table and recipes covering all the basics of cooking. Simple sauces, custards, how to roast certain cuts of meat. All those important basics are there. I still refer to it from time to time when my memory for something basic fails me. I highly recommend the acquisition of such a book if you are on a mission to improve your culinary skills.