How to be a Better Cook

432 Pages·2014·53.03 MB·English

by  Lorraine Pascale

Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
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First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2014
FIRST EDITION
Text © Lorraine Pascale 2014
Photography © Maia Smend, 2014
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library Lorraine Pascale asserts the moral right
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Jacket photograph (front) © Hamish Brown Food styling: Annie Rigg and Joanna Farrow (Cover)
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Source ISBN: 9780007489688
Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2014 ISBN: 9780007489695
Version: 2014-08-26
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction
Canapes & Cocktails
Starters, Snacks & Soups
Salads
Mains: Chicken
Mains: Pork, Beef & Lamb
Mains: Fish & Shellfish
Vegetables & Sides
Desserts, Cakes & Treats
Tips & Tricks
More from Lorraine Pascale
List of Recipes
Acknowledgements
About the Publisher
Introduction
It’s never too late to learn to cook. I am living proof! I didn’t start cooking until I
was in my thirties. And now I’ve taught absolute beginners to make some tasty,
impressive dishes in one day. They’ve gone from only being able to boil an egg
(just!) to working on a street food stall. Anybody can cook – and I mean
anybody. It just takes some enthusiasm and a little practice.
So if you’ve always wanted to be able to entertain friends and treat them to a
delicious celebration meal or you just want to rely less on ready-meals in your
day-to-day family life, this book is designed for you. Before you know it, you’ll
be dishing up delicious, simple meals with confidence.
The first thing you need to learn is my mantra: ‘It’s all fine!’ That’s the secret
weapon. It’s all in your attitude. If you can relax and just take it easy, you’ll be
fine. Learning to cook is a process and you might make some mistakes along the
way, but you’ll learn some lessons and maybe even improvise.
My hope is that after playing around with the recipes, you’ll start to trust your
palate. You’ll even be able to do a bit of freestyling: experimenting with spices
and playing with the balance of heat and cool in your dishes. I don’t want you to
be scared to add a bit of chilli. You’ll learn that you don’t need to be TOO exact.
The ribs recipe, for example, is delicious even if you add a little more or a little
less of this or that.
In this book I took on an experiment, too. My family and I were bored with the
usual roast chicken so I decided to mix it up and try roast chicken every way I
could imagine from Tandoori Roast Chicken to Whole Roast Thai Green Curry
Chicken. We still can’t decide which of the five kinds in this book we like best!
But it was a fun experiment and that’s what I want to inspire you to try at home.
And most important of all, I hope you’ll learn to trust your own palate, to really
taste the food and play around to make a meal just right for you and whoever
you are cooking for. If you’re cooking for kids, you might want a little less of a
chilli kick; if you’re making a meal for adults who have grown up with power-
packed spicy dishes, maybe you want to turn up the heat. I hope you’ll become
more sensitive to the balance of flavours – sweet with salty whether you’re
creating your very own signature cocktail or making a curry. And once you get
the right mix of flavours, you can also start to consider the texture (the
crunchiness of red pepper against the softness of avocado in a salsa) for dishes
that intrigue and delight.
I’ll demystify the art of baking and inspire you to get your mixing bowls out,
even if you’ve never baked a cake in your life! I’ll show you how to dress up a
simple sponge with fruit and chocolate: you can choose white or dark, berries or
mango. And you’ll start to see that it’s not rocket science.
Let me say it simply: cooking is just putting food together in the right way, the
right order and the right amounts! That’s all there is to it. The classic newbie
expects cooking to be more complicated than it is. But once you roll your
sleeves up and get stuck in, you’ll start to relax and the kitchen will become a
fun family place to be.
And cooking isn’t just an idle pastime. Mealtimes bring people together, whether
it’s busy weekday suppers to nourish your family or celebrations to mark special
milestones. Eating and sharing food is a necessary daily ritual, so we might as
well make the most of it: dazzling our palates, having fun creating menus,
getting your guests – and kids – involved in the prep.
To help you really get started, I’ve also collected my favourite tips, which are
scattered throughout the book, and a few handy tricks at the end. I’m letting you
in on all my tried–and–true kitchen secrets – from how to produce the perfect
poached egg every time, which can be very impressive perched atop my
asparagus starter, to little life-saving cheats so that you never have a cheesecake
that cracks down the middle again.
Best of all, I’ve included a recipe I invented by complete accident – my secret
meringue trick! One time when I was in a hurry, I started to put the ingredients in
the bowl in the wrong order, but the meringues turned out better than ever. Now
I follow that method every time. I hope you’ll believe me when I say that
mistakes can be the best way of learning sometimes, so get cooking and, above
all, have some fun. Indulge your senses and adjust the seasoning to satisfy your
palate, and then add more crunch if that’s what you like. It’s your kitchen, your
food! The biggest secret of all is that being a better cook is just about trusting
yourself! You can do it!
Lorraine x