Cooks Without Confidence

Hi everybody who is scared to cook!!!

I am here to tell you that cooking is not hard and that if you are struggling it is not you, maybe it is the recipe that you are trying, or the methods you are using but trust me everyone can do it. It may take you 2 minutes or 2 years to really learn how to cook but if you think about some of the people out there who can cook, you should know that you definitely can too!! :)

If you are starting with someone like Julia Child or Adriano Zumbo then maybe you have found the source of your problem, because lets be honest they are not the easiest recipes to start with!! I believe that starting with something simple like Jamie Oliver or Ainsley Harriet is the answer. The big tasks are not for the beginners, so start with something simple like an omlette or scrambled eggs. Begin with something that does not require a lot of preparation and cooking time.

Honestly, if you are spending your life buying bad food or wasting all of your money dining out all the time then try something new. What is the worst than can happen, you might find you actually enjoy it? Anyway wouldn't you love to learn how to make something for a loved one without having to buy a bad frozen meal.

Do you always wish you could wow friends with an amazing dish, or just show them that you don't have to go out when they come to stay. Well it is easy to do trust me! If you are telling yourself that you never have time to cook well then think again, as we have learnt from our friend Mr Oliver you can make simple dishes in under 20 minutes, and they don't have to be great feasts, just a simple meal. If your parents never taught you how to cook well then teach yourself, start small and simple and be realistic about what you can achieve.

Maybe try a toasted sandwich, or try roasting vegetables, or roasting a chicken, brownies or guacamole. A great thing to do maybe to practice your knife skills, teach yourself how to cut an onion, so off you go.

Anyway try it! You will love it and if not then you might save some money.

Curry Pastes

So...

Once again Jamie Oliver has thought of something great.  And once again it works brilliantly. He has recipes for several different curry pastes, they are great and can be used in many different ways. I have made two recently, a Korma paste and a Rogan Josh paste. I used the Korma paste in a Biryani and the Rogan Josh as the base for a Vegetable Curry.

The great thing about these pastes are how easy they are to make, whilst there may be quite a few ingredients if you have a reasonable spices stock then it should be easy. Remember if you don't have the exact ingredient try another, experiment and see what you come up with. The method is easy, put the spices and other stuff in a small hand held blender and mix until it looks pasty.

So I will give you some of my favourites so you can have a go :)

For the Korma paste

• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 thumb-sized piece fresh root ginger
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons groundnut oil
• 1 tablespoon tomato puree
• 2 fresh green chillies
• 3 tablespoons desiccated coconut
• 2 tablespoons ground almonds
• 1 small bunch fresh coriander
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds

Rogan Josh paste

• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 thumb-sized piece fresh root ginger
• 75 g jarred roasted peppers
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons groundnut oil
• 2 tablespoons tomato puree
• 1 fresh red chilli
• 1 small bunch fresh coriander
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns

To make either of these curry pastes, first peel the garlic and the ginger. Heat a frying pan on a medium heat and add the spices that require toasting to the pan (these are generally the wholes spices e.g. coriander seeds). Toast them until golden brown and smelling delicious, remove the pan from the heat. 

Place the toasted spices in a mortar and pestle and grind until fine or just put them in a food processor and grind until fine. When ground whiz them in a food processor with the rest of the ingredients until you have a smooth paste. 

Have fun with your curries, remember just try different things and you never know what you'll come up with! 

Catch ya later :)