Published on 12, July, 2020
Does anyone struggle with cooking?
I’ve been trying to lose a bit of weight and thought that cooking fresh meals instead of having microwave/ready made meals would be better for me - but when it comes to cooking I really struggle to follow instructions and when I do and come to eat the food it’s not very nice.
For example, I was recently using one of those “Maggi cook in a bag” and it asks for 100ml of water for a meal that they say serves 4 but as it was just me eating the meal I would (after being told/snapped at by my mum) need to quarter it - i didn’t realise this and it has since meant having to cool more food.
The best way to describe it is that my brain likes to read and re-read the instructions but when it comes to doing them, I completely forget/don’t realise I’m doing it wrong - I do have dyslexia too so maybe it could be just that?
I’m still yet to be diagnosed but wondered if this was something other people experienced.
Not me personally, I'm a good cook. I prefer one- or two-pot cooking, over preparing multiple separate elements, if possible.
Any tips for getting better?
Keep tasting what you are cooking - obviously not with almost raw chicken etc.- and get to know what tastes good and how adding things affects the taste, Too sour, add a small amount of sugar or honey, too salty add a sliced peeled potato, then remove the potato before the food is cooked - the potato will absorb some of the salt.
Don't try cooking a roast dinner, which requires lots of elements to finish cooking at the same time. Try a chicken stew, Irish stew, Lancashire hotpot or even something like paella or risotto, they are all things that just cook in a single pan or casserole dish. You prepare all the ingredients then add them to the pot and cook, admittedly risotto needs fairly constant stirring and adding stock.
Thank you Martin for the tips!
I’ll leave the roast to the family haha - I have plenty of cook books but always put off by big recipes