Do you know how to cook?

[Halfhidden]

I was reading the other day that 1 in 20 people don't know what an orange is! I found that statistic horrifying! Then I started to look closer at friends and family to see what culinary skills they had. I noticed that a lot of them buy frozen meals or take a ways.
I was lucky enough to train as a pâtissier and worked at Richmond Restaurant, Warrens, Oven Door and the Buttery for many years between them. I was passionate about cooking but disheartened by the wages paid for highly skilled chef's.

We cook from scratch as much as we can and on rare occasions we spoil ourselves with a take a way.

I was just wondering do you cook or perhaps bake!
Also what's your favourite meal or do you have any culinary hints and tips to share.

 

[symons55]

I can cook basic food, but I love basic food, roast beef, lamb etc, steak, cottage pie, liver & onions, fancy food.....forget it. Mind you I'm no good at baking, I must try it sometime, I've not bothered just for me, but maybe I'll try it in the winter. The trouble nowadays there are too many ping meals, but I for one do not like them, so stick to the basics, it's what I was raised on.

 

[treeve]

Cook? Who cannot? I learned from a young age. I was not fazed by the cooker or the hob. People have faced worse and lived. Basically, if you can read, you can cook. There are books galore on the subject, it has all been sorted for you. All you have to do is to select, buy, take it home, store it properly, prepare it, cook it and eat it. Wassa big deal?
I learned from my mother, my mother in law, my wife and by necessity.
I can cook and bake anything - from lasagne to mousse, stir fries to french fries, victoria sponge to carrot cake (my own special recipe), Roast dinner, Italian, French, Chinese, Thai, various African or Morroccan, Lebanese, Greek, breads and biscuits, full dark fruit cakes, Dundee .. Christmas Cakes ... I can make a mean soup, rich and thick. I can make relishes, sauces and jam. And great Pasties.
Trouble is that now, there is no one for whom to cook and bake.

 

[Halfhidden]

Impressive list treeve... and you're right about ping food.
so it seems that we have our mothers to tank us for teaching us about fruit vegetables and meats.... so where has it all gone wrong if it is true that 1 in 20 people don't know what an orange is.
To be honest there are lots of vegetables that I don't like and many I haven't tried. I only recently tried sweet potato and quite liked that. I've never tried butter squash.
We have been all over town looking for real garden peas in the pod.... has anyone found any in town?

 

[symons55]

Peas in the pod...mmmmmmmmmm, Thornes used to be the best place to buy them, along with my all time favorite gooseberries, I could sit and eat half a pound, go on a gig and the band would be real proud of me.

 

[Halfhidden]

I haven't seen a gooseberry in years!
Another favourite of mine (but far to expensive to buy) and that's rhubarb .....mmmmm! scrummy!

 

[symons55]

Rhubarb, another fav. We used to grow it, I used to pick sticks and take the yo School and eat them at School. I just love the tase of uncooked, rhubarb, gooseberrys, peas in pod, cooking apples, anything sharp I just love to eat raw.

 

[treeve]

I used to use butternut squash a lot in cooking. Lovely stuff. Finding 'unprepared' veg like carrots on the green and peas in the pod is getting more difficult, basically you need to graw'yerown for that. Best potatoes I ever had was straight out of the ground, washed of couse and cooked right away. Tomatoes 'on the vine' are best and available, even in Lidls - rich taste.

 

[Halfhidden]

Funny you mentioned tomatoes on the vine because up until the other week we hadn't tried them. Since then I will never buy any different. In fact I had forgotten how tomatoes use to taste... like when I was a kid.
Raw rhubarb... Yep! I've done that as well.
Don't suppose anyone wants to admit they went scrumping do they?
Come to think of it where have all the apple trees gone from peoples gardens?

 

[treeve]

Rhubarb ... anyone heard of oxalic acid?
Strip off the outer layers before cooking (or eating raw).
I promise you it is grossly unwise not to remove the skin.

 

[symons55]

Tooooooo late........

 

[treeve]

Oxalic acid is a poison; it is stored in the leaves, but some is in the skin of the stick; it depends on the age it is picked and how thick. Picked red and not too thick (all leaf and base cut off) and it should not be too bad to eat raw, but cooked ... ouch, all the oxalic acid is drawn out into the fruit. That is the bitter taste in the fruit.

 

[Halfhidden]

Hell I didn't know that! at least I can offer up a reason why I'm deaf, short, blind and fat.... its all down to rhubarb

 

[symons55]

 

[tabtab13]

Both my wife and I love to cook - we love good food! Nancy does a fine roast dinner - we often get a large piece of shoulder of pork from Lentern's, have a roast for one meal and then have a couple of different meals with what's left. She also bakes at the weekend, so we have cakes etc during the week. We grow veg too - spuds in containers, runner beans, tomatoes etc - nothing beats going out into the garden, picking produce when you need it and eating it as fresh as possible. No air miles there!

Cooking should be seen as a pleasure, and not a chore and the ritual of preparing food is just as important (and fun) as the eating of it. I guess the problem these days is people live busy lives and we live in an convenience age, so it's a lot easier to put something in a microwave and frazzle it.

I feel sorry for those whose diet consists solely of processed food, they don't know what they are missing plus I'm sure it works out more expensive eating that way than cooking from scratch.

Cooking is like anything else, learn the basics at first and then an element of trial and error should you want to get more adventurous. I ALWAYS look forward to the evening meal!

Nancy makes a mean carrot cake - I'd be interested to hear more about your special recipe, treeve!

 

[treeve]

Raymond’s Carrot Cake

The cake ingredients
4 eggs
1¼ cups vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking soda and 2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups very finely grated fresh carrots. Grate just before mixing, and not until
1 cup chopped cashew nuts ( a few seconds in the grinder ), not too fine.

The topping ingredients – do not prepare until cake is cool.
½ cup butter, softened a little, cut into slices ¼ inch thick.
8 ounces soft cream cheese
4 cups icing sugar
1½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

The ingredients are enough to make two cakes. A ten inch and a six inch pan will be right. Baking times will depend on the depth of batter in each. The smaller one takes 30 to 40 minutes and the larger one takes 40 to 60 minutes.
The time also depends if the pans are round or square.

Line the pans with parchment paper (or greaseproof).
Leave the paper hang over the sides of the pan an inch.

In a large bowl, combine grated carrots, flour, white sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

Stir in eggs, oil, vanilla and cashews nuts. Do not beat hard.

Spoon batter into prepared pans. The batter should be no more than one third the height of the pan, to allow for expansion and to prevent burning.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes to 1 hour, checking after 30 minutes with a steel skewer (not a knife) inserted into the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean of mix, the cake is done. Place tin on a rack and allow to cool for ten minutes, then gently ease the sides and pull out the cake by the lining paper and place the cake on the rack to cool further. Do not remove paper until ready to top. This all helps to keep the cake moist but not soggy.

To Make Frosting:
In a medium bowl, combine icing sugar, cream cheese, butter and vanilla.
Combine only until the butter has been reduced to tiny pieces.
Spread onto the cooled cake.

Best kept in a refrigerator and eaten within a few days.
Not much fear of it having to be thrown away in my house!

To get any response at all after handing out the cake is impossible until the Mmmmm mm Mmm mmmmm song dies down.

 

[tabtab13]

Ah .... cashew nuts, eh?! We always have a big bag of those from Holland & Barrett and put them in stir fries, curries etc, so must give that a bash next time.

Many years ago, I remember being quite sceptical about carrots in a cake, but then having tasted it, have been hooked ever since!

Many thanks for taking the time to type all this out!

 

[treeve]

Passion cake is often confused with Carrot cake - Passion cake includes fruit especially pineapple. In Passion cake, the walnuts are more evident, is topped with walnuts and the topping is beaten creamy, in contrast with the cake which is quite crumbly and has a dryness of taste, the carrot is very roughly grated using a wide shredder, and chunky.
I wanted to make a really moist Carrot cake, that would blow the socks off my daughter, as she is an officionado of the carrot cake, and I 'played around' with the ingredients etc, until it was as I wanted it. Her birthday arrived, and the cake disappeared very quickly.
It has proved successful on other occasions. Best of luck with it.

 

[tabtab13]

Speaking of vegetables in cake, have you tried courgette cake - or as my wife calls it, zucchini cake (as she's Canadian).

Not sure if it originates from here or whether it's purely North American.

 

[treeve]

Not tried that one ... I love making marrow jam. Used to grow my own marrows.