I’ve made a lovely new friend here in Edinburgh and she wants to learn how to cook. Cooking is one of my many passions and a huge obsession for me so I’m more than happy to help someone learn and I’m excited to see food through a fresh pair of eyes… but where to start?
I’ve been called ‘The Rain Man of Cooking’ before because cooking comes so naturally to me and I take that as a compliment. I find it easy to pair ingredients and to make meals out of whatever I have to hand. This began for me when I was a small child as both of my grandmothers were cooks. One was a home cook who made her own bread, took time to make fairy cakes with me and as soon as I was tall enough had me stood on a stool in front of the cooker making my on scrambled eggs for breakfast. My other grandmother was a pub cook, her approach to cooking was very different as she wouldn’t measure ingredients, everything was done by eye and feel… the results were always perfect.
I’ve picked up elements of both of them in my cooking. For everyday cooking I throw things in a pan without through or measurement and rely on what I want to eat that day and how it tastes. When it comes to cakes and bread though I carefully measure things so that they are done properly but not everyone can do this. Some people find cooking difficult and complicated. I’m incredibly fortunate to have to have been brought up around a range of cooks and I want to share that with other people so that they can enjoy cooking as much as I do.
I’ve been trying to reverse engineer my thought process when it comes to cooking and I’ve begun with a shopping list with a breakdown of what it is and why it’s on the list. This shopping list which will be free to download so that it can be printed and taken to the supermarket. Following that will be a weekly meal planner with added extras to make cooking that little bit easier.
If your brand new to cooking what else would help?
a year of vegan eats 