I don't know how!

When my eldest daughter was fourteen, she brought a swiss roll home from school; two days earlier she didn’t have the faintest clue how to make a swiss roll, yet a quick demonstration and a practical lesson later, there it was. It didn’t have a single crack in it and I was extraordinarily jealous, but very proud of her for achieving something I still haven’t.

My youngest daughter, under home-based instruction this time, produced fantastic profiteroles and taught me a lesson or two in cooking choux pastry (if you don’t know already, this is the stuff that profiteroles, chocolate eclairs etc. are made of). Clearly there is a big difference between knowing how to cook and being able to, and even the best of chefs will have some dishes that take a lot of mastering. But I wasn’t about to be outdone by a twelve year old, so I had another couple of attempts at choux pastry and finally got it right.

Much of the food we eat on a day-to-day basis doesn’t require exceptional culinary know-how or an in-depth understanding of food science and method. Sometimes a few simple instructions are sufficient for us to be on our merry way. After all, we haven’t always known how to brush our teeth, yet we can do so. Similarly those of us who drive cars don’t often stop to consider the many complex operations occurring as we journey. Most drivers will tell you that their lessons taught them to pass a test and then they learned to drive. That’s not strictly true, but there are many skills we develop as drivers the more we do it that are not in the test and maybe should be (like filling the petrol tank for example).

Thus this blog (and hopefully one day accompanying book) is a guide to cooking in the same way that the Highway Code is a guide to driving, except that the only penalties for not sticking to the rules are at most wasted ingredients and the need to acquire a new cake tin or saucepan. The thing is that there are many ways in which certain dishes can be prepared. At school I learned how to make a sandwich cake using the ‘creaming method’, which involves first beating butter and sugar together, then gradually adding the eggs and sieved flour. Meanwhile my Gran had demonstrated to me the art of ‘bunging it all in the bowl’ – everything at once and whisking it with an electric whisk. The end result? Well, my Gran’s sandwich cakes are still the best I’ve ever had.

So, start with the simple stuff, then begin to experiment a little. It’s definitely more fun that way and it does give a certain sense of ownership – you made it yourself and you adapted the recipe successfully. Where possible, the recipes here include more simple alternatives, for example: there are recipes for making your own marzipan and icing, but quite frankly getting the stuff on a cake is traumatic enough, so the easy option is to buy it ready made.

There are also some little tips and tricks along the way that really do make producing something spectacular possible. Even a Roast Dinner can be as good as that served at a 5 star restaurant with just a little thought given to colour and layout. I’m not talking about that Nouvelle Cuisine silliness either. I just mean that carrots, broccoli and sweetcorn separated out on the plate provide interest and colour and make the whole meal appear even more delicious than it is already.