Home cooking

As part of my mission to eat healthier, my latest "enthusiasm" is taking my cooking more seriously. Instead of winging it or just eating king prawns or avocado for dinner (yeah.) I've been buying cooking books, oils that aren't olive based, cuts of meat that require more than 2minutes frying on each side... I even gave the slow cooker we got for Christmas a maiden voyage!I thought it was a bit complicated and erm... post WW2, but it is actually a lot less hassle than my usual cooking methods. Here is is in action with 24 hours stewed lamb ready for a post work dinner chez moi on Friday:

I would also like to point out that I made that humus (in the foreground) manually. As in, I don't have a blender. It was done with a fork. Yup. Like our forefathers would have done. One of the things that brought on this mad cooking jag is Rachel Khoo's Little Paris Kitchen show on the BBC. I don't know if it is because she is from Croydon like me, or that she has a tiny kitchen like me or that she upped stick to train as a pastry chef in Paris (she IS Sabrina!) but her show and book are very inspiring.

 

 Above is one of her Croque Madam muffins that I made this morning. There is a cookbook worthy post on these at the Eat, Little Bird website, whose very talented owner seems to be cooking her way through the book.

 I have also been enjoying geeking out and learning more about the actual process of cooking. I want to know WHY we do things not just blindly follow the recipe. How will I become a south London Heston Blumenthal if I don't know what is going on at a molecular level?! Luckily I managed to find this Sunday Times Cook's Companion book in a charity shop for next to nothing. It is a bible for anyone who wants to know what self raising flour actually contains, why kidney beans can poison you if you don't boil them etc etc. It also has some great chapters on the history of national cuisine. Apparently British cooking is traditionally dull because English produce was good enough that we got spoilt and never developed a cunning range of seasonings and preparations to make it taste better.
 

 

 In the past week I've cooked fresh fish in two different sauces, steak, lamb ragu, a Ken Hom stir fry, lemon and cardomom shortbread and ... some flapjacks. Ironically, my healthy eating drive will probably see me gaining weight!