Odd Question

smiles302

I was sharing recipes the other day with a friend of mine. She complained that it took her hours to cook everything, so I got her to talk me through how she cooks...

She adds a good jug of water to everything so it won't burn =/

Example: Making cottage pie.

Boil potatoes - fine.
"Fry" Mince and veg... in water =/ in a frying pan.
Wait until all the water has evaporated from the pan...

Place mince mix into oven dish... top up with water =/
Cover with potatoes..

It takes on average 3 hours to make dinner. I haven't tasted any of her cooked food but I can't imagine boiled mince tastes nice?!

I tried talking her around to leaving out the water for taste/time purposes.

She came to me for advice on not spending so much time in the kitchen =/

She says she's too terrified of burning the food than she doesn't mind losing some taste... and that the nutritional value is the same...

My question is, is it?

I know some vitamins are water soluble.. can you lose them in boiling off all the water?

It's the strangest cooking method I've ever come across...

EileenG

Sounds strange to me. Apart from anything else, that amount of cooking time must mean she literally cooks out some of the vitamins. I take it she never makes stir-fry?

Buy a good set of non-stick cookwear with heavy bottoms and it becomes really difficult to burn your food. And put the lid on when cooking. This keeps the food moist and prevents burning.

smiles302

She has made "stir-fries" by boiling the mix of veg and meat in a pan. She cooks everything this way.

I can't quite get my head around it.

EileenG

That's just weird. It's boarding on some sort of obsession. Every single recipe book out gives instructions on how to cook stir fry, and none of them involve boiling.

Davei141

Sounds very OCD imo.