Cooking!!
 

Any budding cooks here?

I've always liked cooking but never given much time to it. Just recently I've started to cook more from basic ingrediants and the feeling of satisfaction and achievement when I complete a meal and have people like it is great!

I work with someone who's an amazing cook and he's given me some chicken dishes to try this weekend so I'm to buy the bits I need in a minute.

One thing I also want to try is making my my own pesto sauce, but where would one buy a pestle and mortar?

Any good recipes to share?

I'm a big fan of cooking, although, for the majority of the time, I tend to keep it simple. I like fresh ingredients, in season, if possible. You should be able to get a mortar and pestle from most homeware shops, I would have thought. I've had a bash at pesto myself before and it wasn't wonderfully successful. Make sure you use fresh herbs (you can get basil plants in all supermarkets) and I'd recommend grana padano over parmesan (parmesan's a bit harsh in those sort of quantities).

My specialities (!) are quite simple things like lasagnes and chillis, although, when I'm feeling a bit more adventurous, I do like to cook different meats. I used to work on a butchers stall, so I'm quite big on good cuts of meat at the right time.

My recommendation: marmelade pork chops. There are a tonne of recipes out there for it, but I like the glaze to be 2/3 marmelade (bitter) to 1/3 soy sauce.

The main thing is jsut experimenting, I think. Let me know how those chicken dishes go, I might be stealing those recipes from you.

as real king I live alone...so I'm cooking everytime and I love it

I'm a pretty full-on cook; my first job was in an Italian Restaurant as a Junior Chef :)

I like to cook using flavours, not especially ingredients. I use things that I know taste a certain way and that I know will taste beautiful with another flavour.

Last thing I cooked for more than myslef was Medailions of Beef wrapped in Pancetta and topped off with A Tomato and Red Wine sauce thing.

Simple flavours, done well - like Jamie Oliver's style I suppose.

My favourite things are Squid, Sirloin Steak, Sea Bass, King Prawns, Chorizo, Pancetta and Sun Dried Tomatoes. Yuuuuuuum.

Try Debanhams, Selfridges or other department stores for a pestle and mortar, or maybe a specialist cookware shop if you have one nearby. Make sure you get a stone one, wooden ones absorb flavours and are a complete sh*t to keep clean.

I use a mixer for my pesto. I know it's a sin. Doesn't break my wrist though and I can make a decent quantity and keep it in the fridge for a few days.

I like cooking from scratch. I try to eat/buy organic whenever possible and make my own pizza dough.

I also make big batches so I can freeze them for a quick meal during the week or bring as a lunch (though I don't remember the last time I brought my lunch to work).

I use my pestle and mortar only to grind up those huge chondritin pills for the dogs as they won't eat a big pill no matter what I stuff it in.

Oh, this summer I got into grilling. I used to grill a bad steak and hamburgers, but this year I got a couple of books and a very good grill. Don't think I cooked inside all summer. Loved it. I even learned to make pizza on the grill. This is part of my survival skill training ;)

I can cook, though I don't always enjoy it! I started cooking for my family when I was about 13, so I've done a lot of experimenting through the years. Now that I don't have to cook for other people, I tend to stick to really basic stuff and convenient things. I'm not completely vegetarian, but I tend to eat mostly vegetarian and organic foods.

im actually quite a decent cook considering i almost got kicked out of school for being terrible in home ec.

you can make a really nice chicken dish just by marinating some legs in lemon sauce for a bit, glaze with soy sauce and put in the over for 45-50 minutes with some new pototoes then serve with veg.

turn the chicken over halfway through and baste with more soy sauce and if you do it right it'll be lovely and juice and fall right off the bone.

I didn't really learn to cook until I was older. I got married when I was 20 but my husband was an excellent cook so I didn't bother. After I had kids (11 years later) I learned how to cook really well though - probably because I had more time.

I also make everything mostly from scratch. Since I'm from an Italian family I mostly cook Italian food. I bake my own bread (from sourdough starter), I make my own yogert and I can (preserve) all my own tomaotes for the sauce.

I can tell you for a fact that you don't need a mortar and pestle for pesto. I have a big mortar and pestle that I got from an online store here:

http://www.surlatable.com/product/gr...sc=true&page=1

I use it mostly to grind fresh herbs. When I want to make a big batch of pesto I use the Cuisinart - this way I can make a big batch and freeze most of it. Pour the pesto into paper cups and float a bit of olive oil over the top and freeze. It lasts forever in the freezer and during the winter you can have a dinner that smells like summer!

you're my hero :)

I tried the sourdough started but it ended up all over my kitchen floor - in florida - which means it's probably 78 degrees inside... LOL...