What type/style of cook are you?

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What type/style of cook are you?
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wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Sat Jan 22, 05 7:45 pm Post subject:

haphazard! I like simple stuff that I can throw together, and then leave in the oven until it's done. I like cooking big dishes of things to put in the middle of the table, and rarely do farting about with garnish and that suace round the outside of the plate thing (I hate that!) I don't like mixing lots of flavours - I think adding lots of herbs and spices takes away the flavour of the meat or fish or whatever. You don't need it if you have good ingridients (that doesn't mean I don't like herbs and spices - I love them just not the whole sppice rack in the same dish!) That's why I'm no good at curries or thai or chinese I think!

I like social cooking too - where people help, or chat to you, or all bring something, communal cooking round a camp fire is great on holiday (it might not be so much fun on a january tuesday when you want to eat and get the kids off to bed though!)

callas

Joined: 20 Jan 2005
Posts: 60
Location: east coast

Posted: Sat Jan 22, 05 9:09 pm Post subject:
My cooking is plain and simple. Tonight we had pork casserole with onions and a cooking apple chopped up and left to cook slowly with it. With roast veg in olive oil. I would really like to get into the habit of baking my own bread, have bought an Elizabeth David bible on bread making but have only got round to reading it in bed, I suppose more action is needed.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45716
Location: Essex

Posted: Sun Jan 23, 05 9:47 am Post subject:
Have you seen Bugs' excellent article on bread making? https://www.downsizer.net/Projects/Cookery/Bread_Making/

culpepper

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 638
Location: Kent

Posted: Sun Jan 23, 05 12:15 pm Post subject:

Jonnyboy wrote:

His cooking programmes did the same thing to me as a kid that mcdonalds does to nippers now. i can't cook anything without adding cheese, cream or alcohol.

I seem to remember most of the alcohol going in the chef rather than the meal

callas

Joined: 20 Jan 2005
Posts: 60
Location: east coast

Posted: Sun Jan 23, 05 6:03 pm Post subject:
Yes Tahir - read it last night, I fancy having a go at the tortilla style flatbreads. Just finished making a batch of marmalade - after making my first batch I now realise that you have to chop the rind very thinly. I don't like the stuff so have never eaten it hence not known how thinly to cut the skin. Having said that I sampled it this morning with toast and now love it, but with less rind!

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Sun Jan 23, 05 8:45 pm Post subject:

culpepper wrote:

Jonnyboy wrote:

His cooking programmes did the same thing to me as a kid that mcdonalds does to nippers now. i can't cook anything without adding cheese, cream or alcohol.

I seem to remember most of the alcohol going in the chef rather than the meal

I know, the man's a genius, although I'm not sure but I think it nearly killed him. He did have a life changing accident, not sure if alcohol related though.

callas

Joined: 20 Jan 2005
Posts: 60
Location: east coast

Posted: Sun Jan 23, 05 9:47 pm Post subject:
His wife Treena had a stroke or heart attack and he then changed all his recipes to low fat and did a series of cooking programmes featuring them. Some how the new series didnt have the same impact.

Guest

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 05 1:36 pm Post subject:
Used to love Graham Kerr - and still enjoy a "slurp" when cooking..... have one of his cook books somewhere and remember a recipe for a very boozey pineapple boat that just occasionally I still use. I'm all for cooking with what you have and basically slinging it all together and having fun.

Gervase

Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 8655

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 05 2:37 pm Post subject:
'Fraid I can't be doing with much tarting up and farting about - food tends to get bunged on the table as it comes out of the pot in our household! On that basis, though, I reckon I could get a job as a chef at St Dunstan's (or at least to David Blunkett)!

Cashew

Joined: 21 Jan 2005
Posts: 60
Location: UK

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 05 2:37 pm Post subject:

I like to look up lots of recipes for the same thing and then combine the best bits of each. If I only have one recipe, I still normally end up subverting it in some way.

Saturday, I adapted a Nigel Slater grilled chicken recipe involving carrot, celery, thyme, dessert wine, garlic and onion into a stove top version with 1/2 a yellow pepper - rescued from the depths of the freezer - instead of the carrot and what was left of some madeira instead of dessert wine.

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 05 2:46 pm Post subject:
It depends what I'm cooking. I like to think I'm pretty good at making a meal out of what's to hand. On the other hand, if you're cooking a classic why bugger about with it, other people have spent years working out the definitive recipe for rognons sautes turbigo so that I don't have to. And don't start me on onion soup.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45716
Location: Essex

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 05 2:47 pm Post subject:

sean wrote:

And don't start me on onion soup.

Why not? it's always fun talking to you about onion soup

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28252
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 05 3:42 pm Post subject:

sean wrote:

It depends what I'm cooking. I like to think I'm pretty good at making a meal out of what's to hand. On the other hand, if you're cooking a classic why bugger about with it, other people have spent years working out the definitive recipe for rognons sautes turbigo so that I don't have to. And don't start me on onion soup.

The style of cooking is what tends to effect whether I use a recipe. For Asian cooking I almost always will, as the spices to use and how to use them is pretty complex. Though the Rogan recipe I posted earlier is sort of our own, as it is an amalgum of several recipes.

jema

leebu

Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 418
Location: east yorkshire

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 05 4:42 pm Post subject:

My own style is inspired by Bruce Lee:" The art of cooking without cooking": Smallest effort for maximum effect.

It's one of the reasons I enjoyed HFW's cookery- placenta aside, most of the recipes consist of good, fresh ingredients and a few selected flavours added rather than huge, fiddly ensembles. Ditto for alot of Delia's recipes.
I like taking a recipe and then changing it to suit my mood and larder. I don't see myself as a "fine chef" because I usually tend to start from a recipe and adapt it, trying hard to resist the temptation to change too much at a time.
Cooking is ok but anyone who seriously thinks its more fun than eating needs their head examined. With that in mind why spend more time on food preparation than you have to?

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28252
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 05 5:24 pm Post subject:

leebu wrote:

Cooking is ok but anyone who seriously thinks its more fun than eating needs their head examined. With that in mind why spend more time on food preparation than you have to?

Been thinking about that one, and it strikes home to me a problem that I expect a lot of people have. I do enjoy cooking a lot, but with pressures of time because of other stuff, something enjoyable can become a chore rather than a pleasure

Kind of goes to the heart of what downsizing should in some ways be about, changing your lifestyle so you can enjoy it more.
Of course a lot of my "workload" is downsizer.net

which makes it all rather contradictory

jema

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