following on from another thread, i would love to know what people's favourite simple, cook from scratch kinda recipe book is?
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following on from another thread, i would love to know what people's favourite simple, cook from scratch kinda recipe book is?
For simple you can't go past Day to Day cookery. It's the one they use for Home Ec at high school and it has all the basics. Pretty much down to how to boil an egg.:
Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals has lots of simple meals but you can just the recipes on a stand alone basis too. Most of Jamie Oliver's cooking is simple and tasty. I think that's part of the secret of his success; people can make it and it turns out well.
I've said it twice in the last 24 hours but the coles mag is free and has some good recipes that are usually seasonal. Taste website is good. To browse Taste you can look through their collections. I think there is one called fast and fresh or similar with lots of uncomplicated recipes.
Those Women's Weekly cookbooks they have near the checkouts in supermarkets are usually good value. I like that they are themed so you can get one pot meals or Asian or Italian etc.
Joining cause I love cooking!
My mum learnt to cook from nanna's Edmond's cookbook, I think you might only be able to get it in New Zealand though? She had to get het sister to post a copy over. Everything is from scratch in there... I think even mayonnaise recipes, there are diagrams of chickens, lamb, beef etc and what cuts of meat come from where and how to best cook the meat.
Mum always taught me to cook from scratch, and I remember when DH and I got married and did our first grocery shop it was over $400 because I stocked up on so much pantry stuff - herbs and spices, all sorts of flours, sugars, tinned vegetables and what not.
I have one common sense cooking I was given it when I moved out of home.
The other one I love is a recipe book that the oldies at my Nans respite centre put together. All the yummy stuff I remember as a kid. Have just made the lemonade scones from it. Yummy!
Wasn't there a huge thread on cooking from scratch a while ago? Had heaps of recipes in it.
ETA here 'tis
I cook everything from 'scratch', because I have to and because I like to cook.
Buy having no access to shops I have realized how the food industry has us fooled. It's actually really easy to make taco or fajita seasoning. Tortillas are dead easy too. Tahini is just processed seasame seeds. Pesto takes 30 seconds in a blender. The list goes on!
None of it is hard, it just takes time (a luxury not all of us have)
If I want to cook something and a recipe is not in one of my hundreds if cookbooks, i generally google the recipe. If there is an ingredient I don't have I google that to see if I an make it. I made mango chutney last week and needed crystallized ginger. I didn't have any but google and sure enough it's super easy to make. So I did.
Having to make bread does give me the iritis sometimes just because it takes so long with rising etc.
But when I go to Aus the first thing I do is pull into Maccas and buy the kids a meal I don't have to cook, and they love it!
I use fb for recipe inspiration too. I love when my friends talk about what they are cooking, then I copy them and cook the same thing next week, saves on brain power.
Blogs and Thermomix forums are great too as everything Thermomix is from scratch. :-)
What's your taco seasoning mix recipe?
My favourite is what used to be used for Home Echo in school. It's Cookery the Australian Way. All ingredients are easy to get, it shows you pictures of animals with each one showing what meat comes from what part of the body.
Mine is so well loved and used. It's my go to for cooking.
I am part of a FB group called Recipes and Tips. It's a fantastic group, one of the friendliest groups on FB. Everyone helps with ideas and suggestions.
Hang on, I'll link you. I just googled it and found two recipes on a blog. I make it without chilli for the kids....
Actually are you allowed to link here? I'll cut and paste...
Sorry I can't modify my post mods, poor Internet...
This is from taste.com
1 1/4 tablespoons chili powder
3/4 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano (preferably Mexican)
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
3/4 tablespoon onion flakes (minced dried onion) or 3/4 tablespoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
Mix! Store in airtight container. Will last upto a year.
This is from another site;
Ingredients
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
Cool, thanks. So how much of that all combined do you use when making tacos?
I used Taste at least once a day when I was working. Only problem I found was that there were so many recipe's for one thing that some weren't as good as others. It often too 2 or 3 attempts to find the one that worked best.
I mostly used it for desserts & packets for croc pots etc, but thats because I was often short on time & I had to use the ingredients that were available to me. Which was mostly packets.
Mum bought me the CWA cook book, but I haven't had much chance to use it yet. It has sauces etc. Common sence cookery book is pretty good too, but there are newer recipes I was looking for that weren't in there. Its easier to have a variety of books. Magazines are great too.
The Thrifty Kitchen - written by the daughter and granddaughter of Margaret Fulton. Not just good, thrifty recipes, but some good basic tips on food storage, how to shop, how to season a cast iron pan etc
Catering/professional cookery books are brilliant. With sauces they will give the basic one, then what you do to vary it. Of course there is also the scaling if you happen to be cooking for 100+ ;)
I just made lemonade scones from taste. com. Yummy!! Do you reckon they would taste as good or work if whole meal flour used??
I bought a woman's weekly magazine recipe book too. Gonna have a look through it for dinner.
i agree about taste.com - good site but when you're a beginner, you type in one phrase and SO MANY recipes for that come up, it is confusing to know which one to use. I typed in carrot cake and got SO MANY recipes pop up.
some great ideas in this thread, of simpler books. (eg less recipes for the one thing).
thanks for starting this thread Ginger. i need it too.
Mum STILL won't part with her copy of this - i try every couple of months to get her to give it up - i have every other cook book she has ever owned, but she won't give this one up!:
I bought mine when I moved to Melbourne, I got Angus and Robertson to order it for me. They have updated it every now and again. Mine is 5th edition. I still remember the pink/salmon colour jacket it had when my siters did Home Echo at school :D Pretty sure my Mum still has it in her books.:
mums is a cream colored book falling apart at the seems
i googled after posting, and they are up to 8th edition - but it wouldn't be the same - i want MUM's one! i know whats in it lol
I made pork chilli con carne for nachos from scratch (cept I used our store bought corn chips from cupboard) AND I added cooked quinoa (however the heck you spell it) and it was pretty good! :-)
The same as a packet mix... just enough to coat the meat. a couple of spoonfuls i guess? you can double/triple/quadruple the recipe and just store it in a jar.:
Gigi -i search on taste and then i click on the tab to sort by rating. It then gives you the highest rated recipe in your search, i figure it's more likely to be good if lots of people have tried it and gave it good feedback. :-):
I bought Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her recipes are so easy to follow and, the best part is that she has a lot of "master" recipes that you can incorporate into other recipes. Everyone in the family now eats every pea that I put on their plate. DH would NEVER eat peas, so I made them a la Julia and he loves them!
I also got a couple of good cookbooks from the library, The Cook's Book and Mastering the Art of Baking. Again, a lot of "master" recipes and showing you how to do different things. I have put both books on my christmas "wants" list!
Oh, and lastly, I inherited my mum's Cordon Bleu Cookery Course books. They were published back in the 60s and show you step by step how to make amazing meals and even have the forward planning thing - the Christmas dinner one has a do this on this day thing. I've often seen these in vinnies and salvos shops or second hand book stores.
BTW, Women's Weekly recipe books are pretty failsafe.
There is a great blog too - the $120 food challenge and also the A beach cottage blog has some really easy recipes as well. I think the key is to just try and give it a go! Doesn't matter if it is not perfect first shot! I try to do a new recipe every week or so.