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'.
To try some of Nigel's recipes, click here
Over the page: More quick tips
Nigel Slater's new cook's survival guide
- Try to cook only as much as you'll eat today and tomorrow; come the third day you won't want it, however much that casserole/curry/soup is supposed to improve with keeping.
- Remember that there is nothing quite so useful to have around as a cold roast chicken. You can feast off it for the next couple of days.
- Overestimate the amount of potatoes and rice you will eat. Anything not eaten today will be fine tomorrow. Think sauté potatoes and fried rice. Think bubble and squeak.
- Underestimate the amount of pasta you will eat - there's always a temptation to cook too much and reheated pasta is horrid. Remember there is no such thing as a nice pasta salad, despite what women's magazines would have us believe.
- Try to keep at least something in the store cupboard, say olives, pasta, tinned flageolets, olive oil, anchovies, tomato passata, wine, coffee. This way you will never come home to no supper, even if you skip the shops.
- Pillow packs of ready-prepared salad may seem expensive but the alternative - several types of lettuce in the fridge - will prove more expensive in the long run. What is wrong with a green salad from just one type of lettuce anyway? It's all in the dressing.
- Frisee, the mop-haired pale salad leaf, keeps almost as well as an iceberg lettuce and is much more interesting to eat. Try it with bits of hot bacon and a mustard dressing.
- Ignore anyone who tells you that you shouldn't drink alone.
- A bag of pasta, a lump of Parmesan and a bottle of olive oil are probably the best friends you will ever have. It's another supper for those nights when you cannot be bothered to shop.
- Always keep a bag of frozen peas in the house. It will get you out of no end of trouble.
- Poached fruits such as gooseberries, damsons and rhubarb may seem a time-extravagant dessert just for one but remember that they can be eaten the next day for breakfast, too.
- Two cannot live as cheaply as one. It is a myth put about by people trying to justify a decision they have just made.
To try some of Nigel's recipes, click here
Over the page: More quick tips
Nigel Slater's new cook's survival guide
- Buy one decent lump of cheese instead of three or four different ones. Otherwise you'll only end up with lots of little dried-up bits in the fridge. Most food keeps in better condition, for longer, in large pieces. Parmesan, for instance. Buy small whole salamis rather than ready sliced. You can then slice off as much as you need.
- Putting little bits of leftover food on plates is not a good idea. They will only dry up and haunt you every time you open the fridge door. You might as well throw them away in the first place.
- Smoked salmon and champagne is not an indulgence.
- If you halve or quarter a recipe, remember that this may also alter the cooking time. Avoid scaling down recipes that involve gelatine or baking powder; it sometimes takes as much to set/rise one portion as four.
- Cultivate recipes that use stale bread or breadcrumbs. Few of us can get through a whole loaf before it goes stale. Dead bread makes very good garlic croutons when fried in oil till golden and crisp, for scattering willy-nilly over salads and pasta.
- Don't be afraid to make large quantities of your own salad dressings, pesto, tomato sauce. They will keep well enough in a jar in the fridge.
- When you are shopping for supper, remember that as well as steak, chops and liver, poultry and game can also be perfect for one. Think partridge, pigeon and poussin.
- Nothing gives you quite so much confidence as making your own bread. It is one of the easiest things to make and everyone will think you are a genius.
- A bottle of wine is not a challenge. You can put a cork in it and keep some for tomorrow.
To try some of Nigel's recipes, click here