Cant Cook, Wont Cook.... Shouldnt Cook :)

DeVore

Hi there,

I'm a reforming take-away addict. I'm (slowly) learning to cook, anyone else out there want to trade EASY recipes for complete cooking morons?

I'm kinda collecting recipes that someone could make for a g/f or b/f and not look like a complete twat. (Ie: fish finger butties dont count as a recipe). I'm not talking about gourmet 17 course meals either....

Ok, I'll start: This is a dish my mates call Chicken Ala Tom, because
it basically has everything I like in it.

Ingredients:
Fillet of Chicken breast
Mushrooms, brocoli, sweetcorn, chopped plum tomatoes, bacon, pasta/potatoes, cheese (emental and white cheddar are good).


Instructions:
Boil the potatoes or the pasta (whichever you have chosen). Dont use Spaghetti its not going to work, Penne or just about any other kind is fine.

chop heads off brocoli and put them in a bowl with about 2 teaspoons of water and a pinch of salt. Put in microwave for 30 seconds. Microwaves are your friends. They dont have to be soft or edible, they'll cook in the oven.

Drain tomatoes and sweetcon (using top of can, of course) and dump the brocoli, tomatoes and sweetcorn into a casarole dish and bung in oven while you cook other stuff.

Cut up and fry the chicken. Dump in casarole dish and stuff in oven to keep it warm again.
Fry mushrooms, dump in casarole dish (are we seeing a patern here?)
Grill the bacon to crispish and cut into bits. Dump in casarole.

Now this is the trickish bit. If you went for pasta then just dump it on top of the casarole dish,throw the grated cheese over it, whack it back in the over, jam up the heat a bit until its all nice and hot and the cheese is brown.

If you went for the potatoes then slice and fry them a bit before putting them on top of the casarole with cheese on top.

Take out and serve. Sod all washing up to do, and it looks and tastes great.

Anyone else got good easy recipes?

Delia DeV.

Victor

Stick to things you like and are easy to do.

For example:

Get some of the more 'gourmet' chicken fillets, I got some very nice (and big) Chicken Kievs (breaded garlic breast of chicken) the other day (about €4.00 for 2). Grill or bake in 20 minutes. Put them with some frozen mix veg. and a staple (potato, rice, pasta) and you have a simple meal that still looks like you tried. Do some packet soup and fresh bread rolls for a starter and ice-cream for desert and you can impress most people.

Of course, if it's a date, careful with the garlic....

Beruthiel

one of my favs. - dead easy and tasty!

Pasta
rashers (cut them up into small bits)
mushrooms (sliced)
garlic (if you like it, adds taste)
carton of cream


fry rashers in pan
throw in mushrooms and garlic
just before you are ready to serve, throw in cream - don't let it come to the boil, take off heat just as it gets hot.

meanwhile pasta should be done at this stage, mix the lot together and serve with a bagette or garlic bread.


bon app.

MiCr0

well to go with chicken ala tom, we have chicken ala david

i'm a big fan of stir fry
the best thing is thatas it s quick tasty and really does look like you tried.

You Need:
chicken for 2 - cut into eatable sizes
2 peppers, red/yellow/green/what ever
mushrooms - diced
1 red onion - diced
1 wok
chili noodles for 2
hoisin sause
(some sause if desired - blue dragon make good ones)

To Do:
cook the chicken in the wok, adding some hoisin sause

when browned, add the veg
add the other sause if you have one
stick the noodles on to cook

thats about it
the whole thing takes about 10 minutes to cook and about 5/10 to prepare.

Bon Appétit
MiCr0

Jaden

Try this. It's easy, quick, and can feed half a dozen people, or do you for 3 days or so.

Rob's Chilli.

The quantities below will make a fair sized amount of Chilli, about 6 servings, so scale it down to get a nice meal for 2.

Ingredients.

1.25 - 1.5 pounds of minced round steak. (A little more expensive than normal mince, but worth it.)
2 x medium sized white onions.
2 x medium peppers (red and yellow look nice).
1 can of sweet corn.
250g of mushrooms (vary to taste).
2 x tins of bachelors kidney beans (with added Chilli sauce). You can boil your own beans, but **** it, this is cooking for the reformed take-away addict.
2 x tins of chopped tomatoes. (I squish my own, but there is very little difference).
Garlic to taste (I use about 1/4 of a clove).
1 x Bag of tesco's finger chillis (the little green ones rated hot). Any chillies do, but these have a lovely flavour, and are easy to get. If you can't get fresh chillies, buy a jar of fresh chopped chillies (normally for sale where you see the herbs and stuff. The quantity of chilli varies from person to person. My tip is to use about 3 of the two inch by half inch sized chillies per serving.
Tabasco sauce, Soy sauce, and Wostecher sauce (optional).
Black pepper, olive oil.

Method.

Shove on the frying pan to medium heat (half way or just over), and a splash of olive oil, plenty of black pepper, about a teaspoon of Tabasco, a tablespoon of Soy, and stir it up over the base of the pan.

Now chop up all your chillies, (pea-sized pieces) and when you've done that, pop two-thirds of them onto the pan, for about 2-3 mins. (Some people de-seed chillies, these people should be shot, don't do it).

Add the mince, and stir frequently, to make sure it cooks evenly. While this is cooking, chop up the onions and add, and then the peppers. Finally, add the chopped mushrooms, the rest of the chillies, and a tablespoon of Wostecher sauce if you're using it. Ad the garlic (crushed) and stir for another 5 minutes or so, bump up the heat a bit.

At this stage, if you're pan is looking a bit full, you can transfer to a big pot, but it means that you have to do a bit more stirring to stop everything sticking to the end of the pot.

At this stage, boil up the kettle, and throw on the rice, it will be ready when the chilli is.

Add the kidney beans (pre-cooked from the tin), and stir in. Now add the chopped tomatoes and a little more Tabasco.

Simmer this for about 20 minutes or so, until it has reduced down a bit. Add the sweetcorn after about 10 minutes of simmering (although sweetcorn is optional, I like it, some people don't).

Taste from time to time, and add Tabasco or devil's pepper sauce to taste. Drain the rice, and serve the out the chilli on a bed of it. Sliced French bread makes a great accompaniment. So does beer.

Enjoy.

koneko

Ooh muchos agree on the Stir fry. Very easy, and very tasty.

It's very nice with fried rice aswell (just fry an egg basically, cut it up in the little bits, and mix it with your boiled rice. Then fry it some more in your wok).

One of my fave quick casual meals is chicken coujons. Basically cut chicken fillet into finger-type strips. Make a mixture out of floor, cajun pepper, paprika, garlic, any spicey type herbs you like really... Put them all in a plastic bag, and shake it to mix it all up.

Then mix some more of the herbs with breadcrumbs. Throw the chicken fingers in the plastic bag, and shake well, to cover the strips in the lovely floury herb mixture.

Make up a small mixture of eggs and water, and dunk the chicken strips in them and then roll them in the breadcrumb/herb mixture. Put them in the over for 10-15 mins or so, and hey presto, lovely crispy chicken coujons.

Samson

Buy a cook book (something by Delia Smith or Darina Allen) and pick out a few recipes that sound nice but don't look too complicated.
If you follow the directions in the book step by step, you can't really go wrong.

MiCr0

i hate to say it but the jamie oliver book is meant to be very good, especially if you like good old fashion tasty food, rather than stuffed heart of goat with pine nuts and cherrys

EL_Diablo

When you're telling people what it is make it sound a lot more complicated than it is. Eg. Oriental flash fried steak on a bed of basil mash
What you need:
Some steaks
Soy Sauce
Chinese spices (you can buy them in most supermarkets)
Potatoes
Basil (or whatever herbs you want)

How to cook:
Marinate the steaks overnight in the soy sauce and chinese spices
Boil and mash the potatoes and bung in whatever herbs you have
(I use a wok for this but you can use whatever type of pan you want) Put the steak on a really hot wok (or pan) for not too long on each side (just enough to give it a colour. Or if you don't like rare steak cook it for as long as you want. If you want to know how much it's done make a small slice in the top and look in and you can see the colour of it)
put some mash on a plate and put the steak on top.
Serve with a side salad if you want.

Really easy to do and looks and sounds like a lot of effort has gone into it.

suppafly

Another recipe thats really quick and easy and looks and tastes great is this pasta dish. You just get the past (i usually use the twirl one or the bows), stick pasta in a pot and boil it up. then stick it in a dish and pour some of that dolmio pepperoni sauce or the white one in on top of it, and then if you want put some pepperonchino in it to give it a bit of spice and then grate cheese on top. Stick it in the oven then until the top is all crispy(about 10 mins). And there you go a great meal that tastes gorgeous and only takes about 20mins in total to make!