I might be going out on a limb here by offering my suggestions because I, for one, love cooking. I’ve never really known what it feels like not to love cooking.  I learnt to cook by my mother at a very young age, maybe 6 or 8 years old and back then, it was a chore. It took me away from playing and they weren’t jobs I really liked doing. Jobs like peeling potatoes, feeding the cat raw kidney or washing the dishes. But I did love weekends for baking and making sweets, which we were allowed to do. I hope I can help you learn to love cooking.

I might’ve been lucky, in a way, that food was very much a part of our lives from a young age. With a Latvian born father and German descent mother, food was very important to us and good food at that. We weren’t very rich growing up but that’s one thing that my parents and grandparents never skimped on.

It wasn’t that they spent a lot of money on it but they got it straight from the source, that is, from my mother’s relative’s farms, Dad caught the fish, fruit and vegetable from markets or grew their own.

My paternal grandmother made food they ate in Latvia and it was delicious! My maternal grandmother was an excellent cook and baker and grew all her own food. I don’t think she knew what a supermarket looked like except to buy basic ingredients like flour, coffee, tea, sugar etc. Everything was prepared from scratch and we were always helping in some way. The end result, I guess, was that it got us involved and wanting to be involved in cooking.

It wasn’t until my late teens when I first moved out of home that I started to research other cuisines and started going to restaurants that my desire to learn how to cook these foods grew. I loved entertaining, planning dinner parties (all the rage in the 80s) and catering for family events.

I must admit. Since having children, I don’t like cooking so much. The meals can be quite boring, that is, without much flare or adventurous but I know I’m cooking food that my family love and will eat. (I was blessed with the fussiest daughter in the world, bless her cotton socks!)

So, to help you enjoy cooking and preparing meals you and your family like to eat, I hope you give these suggestions a try.

Ask yourself “what do I like to eat?”

That’s a good a place as any to start. If you cook the food you like to eat you might be off to a good start.

Start thinking about food you see on cooking shows or in restaurants you visit. Or perhaps ready made from the supermarket or takeaway meals you buy often. If you learn how to cook them yourself you’ll know exactly what goes into them.

Also, research how to cook them the easiest way possible. For example, if you like Thai food, to cook it authentically, you’d have to try and source all the Thai herbs and vegetables to at first make the paste, then fry it off, etc etc. Buying a good quality Thai paste from the supermarket and keeping it in the fridge, you’ll have a classic Thai dish on the table in no time.

First put the rice onto boil, fry a little of the Thai paste of your choice in a little oil, add the meat, any vegetables and a can of coconut milk and dinner will be done in 20 minutes. The only effort required is a bit of chopping and stirring. Put it in a big pot in the centre of the table for everyone to help themselves.

You can apply the same principle to any food you like to eat. Search for recipes with the word “easy” or “simple” at the beginning like “easy indian butter chicken” or “simple Lebanese food” and you’ll be surprised at just how many people have gone before you to make things easy.

Teach yourself to cook

Once you learn the basic cooking techniques like fry, boil, saute, blanch (without sounding patronising), you can apply it to any recipe. If you find a recipe you’d like to cook and don’t know what some of the methods mean, Google it.

There is a Youtube clip for just about anything with hundreds if not thousands of people showing you how to do something from basic food prep to cooking the entire dish.

Find your favourite dishes you’d like to make and teach yourself.

Failing that, enrol in a cooking class. If you do like Thai, Indian, French or Turkish food, I’m sure you’ll find a cooking class in your area. You’ll get to learn about the different ingredients that go into particular dishes. Without going through all that prep when you get home, find the easy version of the recipe and make it yourself.

Keep it simple

Some of the best and tastiest cuisines in the world are the easiest to prepare. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with meat and potatoes (Cote de Boeuf in France) or a ham and cheese toasted sandwich (Croque Monsieur in France).

Not everything has to be ‘meat and 3 veg’. In fact, I find that sort of meal tedious. There are so many saucepans, different cooking times and the washing up! I’d rather try for one pot meals that can be cooked in the slow cooker or a casserole dish and thrown in the oven. A bit of peeling and chopping and it’s done. Just let the appliance do the work for you.

An easier alternative

If you like a particular dish, you can bet your bottom dollar it can be made in a slow cooker, for example, or all thrown into a baking dish and thrown into the oven in about 5 minutes flat. Not much preparation required.

With all the appliances on the market today, there’s one for just about every application. Personally, I find the slow cooker a great time saver in that the meal is cooked for me. I just have to serve it.

Same as a tray bake. Just throw everything onto a baking dish, put the dish in the oven and 20 to 30 minutes later, the meal is cooked. There are modernised pressure cookers on the market that will cook your meal for you really quickly.

Get family members to help you

This can be excruciating sometimes especially if you have young ‘helpers’ and they make more mess than help but you’ll be setting them up for life with some valuable life skills. Hang in there and persevere.

My children are teenagers now and are capable of cooking dinner themselves. It may not be anything gourmet but it’s food. It’s food they like, we can tolerate and we’re fed.

Buy ingredients that will make your job easier

Like I mentioned above, buying a pre-made flavour paste to make Indian or Thai food is going to make your job of getting dinner on the table easier.

It kind of defeats the purpose to buy ready made meals but I mean for things like burgers, for example. Instead of ducking out to the “Golden Arches” because you don’t feel like cooking, buy bread rolls, ground meat for the burgers and make the patties up and put both in the freezer.

The rolls will defrost while you’re cooking the patties, once they’ve been defrosted in the microwave (or you can plan to have them that night if you take them out that morning if you know you’re going to have a busy day). A few homemade potato wedges (or buy a bag of homebrand wedges or fries) and you’ve got a quick ‘fakeaway’ that you know will be a lot better value for money than the takeaway option.

Buy bottles of passata instead of tinned tomatoes. Buy pappadums to cook up and serve with your Indian meal for a bit of authenticity. Keep plain Greek yoghurt in the fridge to make Tzatziki to accompany Greek dishes or make a Raita for Indian meals. Make a salsa to top grilled chicken or fish or add to a fully loaded nachos. All the little accompaniments take ordinary meals to the next level.

Cook double or triple of everything

When you are cooking rice or pasta, for example, cook double or triple and freeze in family size portions. You only need to put it in a bowl and pour boiling water over it to have it ready for your meal.

Cook up 2kg worth of ground meat in the slow cooker which can be made into four meals. Make the four meals up there and then or freeze the meat into 4 equal sized portions ready to defrost and make up the meal in about 20 minutes flat.

 

So, I there’s a few tips I can offer that might help you learn to love cooking. Remember to cook what you and your family love to eat so you know there will be happy and full tummies at the end of the meal. At the end of the day, as a homemaker that’s all we’re trying to do. Looking after our families well being and providing them with food to fuel their bodies. If we can make that as appealing as possible, we’re providing food prepared with love and a home that is welcoming, inviting and a happy place to be.