The last bit of brown turkey

So, the children won't eat it and you're not so sure you want to yourself, but it's still edible and seems such a waste. The trick is to disguise it as something else - not a whole lot you can do to make it look less like turkey in a small amount of time with all the month's money spent on Christmas already, but the fajitas below cost well under £10 (possibly even £5) and will feed at least four people.

Turkey Fajitas

Ingredients

• Packet of tortillas or deli wraps
• Red / green capsicum pepper, sliced thinly
• Turkey, sliced into thin strips
• 200g cheddar cheese, grated
• 2 tbsp sunflower / olive oil
• 1/2 - 1 tsp chilli powder, salt, pepper and 1-2 tbsp tomato puree (or ketchup) - alternatively buy a packet of fajita seasoning
• Small pot of natural yoghurt
• Small tin of refried beans (optional)
• Small jar of sliced, jalapeno peppers or guacamole (optional)

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan on a moderate heat and fry off the chilli powder and tomato puree for about 30 seconds. Add the turkey, red / green capsicums and salt and pepper to taste. Fry until turkey is piping hot.
2. Heat the refried beans and spread these on the tortillas.
3. Place some of the turkey on top of the refried beans, sprinkle with grated cheese, natural yoghurt and jalapeno peppers.
4. Fold bottom end of tortilla upwards, then roll in both sides.
5. Serve with salad to get some of your five fruit and vegetables a day!

I don’t have the equipment!

This may be true enough right now, but firstly we don’t need kitchens that are kitted out like some top notch restaurant in order to prepare and cook most things. A set of pans, a baking tray, a couple of jugs, a bowl, colander and sieve will suffice as far as containers is concerned. Decent sets of cooking utensils are pretty cheap – a wooden spoon is always a good idea. Otherwise the rest of it is optional.

Below is a list of the equipment I have and what I use it for.

Pans

One large wok, purchased from an Asian food supermarket in Bolton. This is a real wok and after 10 years of use it’s well seasoned, normally only needing a quick rinse and reheat after I’ve cooked with it. I’ve also got a smaller wok and a non-stick version which I tend only to use if I’m preparing a few different dishes at once, although stir-fry dishes (like the ones from Chinese takeaways) take minutes to cook and will stay warm whilst another is in the making.

I’ve also got a set of eight Cook’s Essentials pans (casserole, large, small, 2 medium – one with a pouring lip, omelette, pancake and frying pan), all of which can be placed in the oven or on the hob, although it’s enough for them to be hob-proof. There are lids that fit all of the pans. The pans are heavy-based and have a non-stick coating. They are most definitely the best pans I’ve ever owned.

Ovens etc.

A cooker with six rings and double oven – not entirely necessary in my house or anyone else’s, unless you have 12 children and your parents have come to stay. A normal sized cooker would suffice, but I liked this one and it was on special offer.

Microwave oven – the microwaves on our old oven used to knock out our wireless internet signal, but otherwise this remains a most advantageous piece of equipment, especially for the heating of instant things from tins. The other wonder of microwaves is that suet puddings take one minute to cook instead of an hour and a half.

George Foreman grill #1 – I grunted when my mother bought me this for Christmas a few years ago, but it’s actually very good for toasting paninis, toasted sandwiches, grilling steaks and bacon.

George Foreman grill #2 – My dad bought me another grill, which has a baking tray in it and is the most amazing device for cooking roast pork, chicken and vegetables.

Toaster – the typical sort that toasts a third of the slice, burns a third and leaves the remaining third virtually raw, but it’s all right and a good toaster is a great thing to have.

Heat-proof / microwave-proof vessels

Pyrex and plastic measuring jugs can be used to measure ingredients, obviously, but they can also be used to cook in, so are rather handy to have around. Needless to say, plastic jugs can withstand a certain amount of heat, but they are not conventional oven-proof.

Casserole with lid – this is great for use in the microwave or oven, or in fact for when something has to be moved from one to the other.

Pyrex deep oval dish – again, this great for cooking in the oven or microwave, but also can be used for serving.

Pyrex round dish – this is the same shape and size as a sandwich cake tin (20cm diameter), and can be used as such in both the microwave (cake in 5 minutes) or oven (cake in 20 minutes, but it tastes better).

Silicon loaf tin – this is a fantastic piece of equipment that has saved me trying to free a loaf from its grip on the tin quite a few times and well worth putting up with its dayglo orangy-ness.

Various oven trays, silicone sheets etc. - all very versatile and used for multiple purposes, including roast potatoes, pizza, roasting joints and so on.

Mixing Bowls

A large, plastic mixing bowl that gets used for everything, including temporary goldfish accommodation in the past.

A smaller, plastic mixing bowl that gets used in the same way. Having at least two mixing bowls is important if preparing complex cakes, as there is a method to be followed.

A large, earthenware mixing bowl that I bought from a second hand shop. It’s the sort my Gran had and it’s great for Christmas cake, because it stays still during mixing.

Utensils

Set of plastic, heatproof cooking utensils, including slotted spoon, solid spoon, spatula and masher.

Wooden spoon, plus various bamboo utensils – very good for cooking rice, as they are less likely to break up the starch and make it stick.

Ladle – this is the sort that is used in Chinese takeaways and is excellent for ladling, but also for moving food around a wok, because the handle is very long and sturdy.

Other Electrical Equipment

Food mixer – I’ve had my Kenwood food mixer for about 20 years and keep wondering when it will give in to old age. It’s indispensible for brandy butter, blending spices and chopping anything that needs chopping to tiny pieces.

Electric whisk – it’s cheap and cheerful, comes with four speed settings and works perfectly for mixing cakes, butter cream icing, whipped cream etc. as well as getting rid of lumps in gravy and sauces when they go wrong (and no-one need ever know!).

Hand mixer – this is a stick with a button at the top and a rotating blade at the bottom – it’s very simple and excellent for mixing batter (pancake / yorkshire pudding).

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.

Too busy to cook?

Let’s face it, most of us can’t afford to eat takeaway every night of the week, and even if we could we wouldn’t want to. I’ve only done it once, and after five days of the incredibly cheap pizzas, burgers, cheese steaks and other delights that the city of Philadelphia has to offer I felt terrible, like a hangover but worse, with my body demanding proper nutrition. I was devastated to hear that the nearest place to obtain fresh vegetables was a supermarket that was ten miles away. Fortunately the local dollar store sold bananas; no other fruit, just bananas and rather a lot of them for a dollar too. Indeed, there were so many on the bunch that I was concerned that they would ripen too much before they were eaten, particularly as it was early summer, with humidity levels of over 90% and temperatures that made it feel like a tropical rain forest, but with more pollution and less trees.

I needn’t have worried, for even though my friends were used to this lifestyle they too seemed to be missing out on some vital nourishment and the bunch of around twenty bananas was gone in a day. So I bought more the next day, and the day after and so on. It is possible to tell when one’s body requires specific nutrients, but more on that later. My point is that being ‘too busy to cook’ is an excuse, and before you read this and throw something in rage, I’m not suggesting that cooking requires no effort or time at all. It just doesn’t need quite as much as you think.

Look at it this way. Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that in your busy lifestyle you don’t seem to have time to cook and can’t afford takeaways. The next step down from this is ready meals, what they used to call ‘TV dinners’. Supermarkets, knowing we are too busy to shop, let alone cook, present a vast and diverse array, usually not far from the entrance, making it possible for even the busiest of mums, dads or professionals to grab something and make a quick exit. From lasagne and cannelloni, to pizza, burgers (in buns with cheese for heaven’s sakes), shepherd’s pie and stew and dumplings. It’s all there. Every meal in a box, cleverly designed and priced to make them affordable, quick to heat through and what’s more you can eat it out of the container, in front of the TV if you so desire. Want to go a bit more up market? Why not buy a ‘takeaway bag’ – a whole takeaway meal, authentically packaged and presented just as it would be from your local Chinese or Indian takeaway.

What nonsense. Now, it would be too much to imply that we should never buy these meals, although we really should never buy these meals. In reality sometimes we genuinely are ‘too busy to cook’ and there’s a place for them. But consider for a moment just exactly what these ready meals are. ‘Freshly Prepared’? Well, yes probably they were, five days ago, but that doesn’t make them fresh. The preservatives keep them kind of ‘fresh’ and give them a shelf life. ‘Made with the finest ingredients’? Perhaps, but to be honest once you’ve stewed carrots to mush it doesn’t matter how fine they were to begin with and they’ve now journeyed from an industrial kitchen to a warehouse, to the supermarket shelf and to your house. They are a very very long way from any freshness or finery they possessed originally.

There’s also the excessive packaging to think about. All right, so we can all feel a little less guilty on that score, as we separate the bag from the foil containers, putting the cardboard lids in one bin, the boxes in another. Recycling is better than throwing away, but it still costs money and resources that wouldn’t be necessary if we’d cooked the same thing ourselves at home. Then there’s the ingredients. I managed to find one ready meal in my freezer – macaroni cheese – and the box states proudly that not only is it suitable for vegetarians, it also contains no colours, flavourings, preservatives or hydrogenated fat. All good so far. On the down side it may ‘contain traces of nuts and/or seeds’ and it definitely contains gluten, milk and wheat. A look over the ingredients tells me that my macaroni cheese is 27% pasta and 16.5% cheese in total – less than half my macaroni cheese actually consists of macaroni and cheese. This meal in a box, 580 calories, contains half my daily salt and fat allowances, hardly surprising as there is additional salt in the ingredients, when cheese itself already contains a substantial amount.

Consider this: if you don’t hate cooking yet you’re too busy to do it, then your life is running away from you. If you hate cooking then of course you will always be too busy to do it. Yet cooking gives you so much control over what you eat. Ingredients can be replaced by alternatives (milk with soy milk, butter with low fat products, salt with ‘lo-salt’ if necessary). My box of macaroni cheese takes almost 10 minutes to heat up, which is about the same as it would take to cook dried pasta, during which I could make a cheese sauce from scratch and still have time for a quick sit down. Time how long it takes to order and collect / wait for delivery of takeaway, even if you know exactly what you want beforehand and preparing a basic meal will still win hands down.

So don’t give me ‘too busy to cook’ excuses. I work. I’m a wife with a house, two children and two dogs. I’m not a saint, nor do I have a time machine, but I can find the time to cook – sometimes! Why? Because there are plenty of things we can make that take about the same amount of time (or less) than it does to get a takeaway. Plus it’s cheaper, healthier, tastes better and it really is ‘freshly prepared’.