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Nigel Slater's new cook's survival guide

Getting stressed in the kitchen? Relax, pour yourself some wine, and follow Nigel Slater's simple steps to kitchen karma

Cooking is about giving pleasure to ourselves and others. So why do we constantly beat ourselves up over it, turning the simplest of suppers into a bit of a palaver?

Some of us seem to get some perverse pleasure from standing over a stove littered with steaming saucepans and being imprisoned by tottering piles of washing up. But surely the cooking is being used as a scapegoat for some other, more complex scenario.

Even so, I do think that we're often guilty of turning dinner, particularly when others are coming round to eat, into a bit of a performance. It could all be so much easier:

• Don't think you have to cook every day.
• Don't think you have to cook at all. Good eating is as much about shopping as cooking. Think about cheeses, hams, bread, ready-made fish/vegetable/fruit salads, ready-made meals, shop-bought puddings. They can all fit in somewhere, but preferably not every day. They're ultimately an expensive, unfulfilling way to eat.
• You can live on homemade soup and toast.
• A diet of homemade soup and toast gets boring after a while.
• Take a look at the ready-made meals in the supermarket; they'll save you cooking every day. Some of them are not that bad for a once-a-week lazy meal.
• Pour yourself a drink before you start cooking.
• Some things are worth making in amounts larger than you'll need for one meal. Some dishes - casseroles/curries/soups - actually improve overnight in the fridge. It's good to come home to 'something I made earlier'.

From Nigel Slater's Appetite

To try some of Nigel's recipes, click here

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