I love cooking. I’d consider myself as a good cook – not MasterChef quality as I lack the ability to plate up. But I know how to put flavours together as well as I can put an outfit together. Cinnamon, cardamom, tumeric, green fresh green chilli and cumin added to lamb curry creates magical curry. Figs and stinky cheese on a home made pizza is heaven. And puréed peas and spinach topped with feta is the ultimate comfort food.
A colleague asked me what I was cooking for dinner. Soup, I told her. I live alone so it’s often assumed its hard, lonely or excessive cooking for one. So I wasn’t surprised when she asked whether I was going to heat up soup from a can. “No way!” I exclaimed. “I don’t eat soup from a can”. The closest I get to doing so is when I’m in hospital and order that insipid broth from the menu. When I arrived home, I chopped up some fresh vegetables – pumpkin, tomato, sweet potato, onion and carrots – and added some stock (that time I used powdered, sometimes I use liquid stock, other times I make my own from bones) and water, and boiled it on the stove for half and hour. Then I blended it up until it was a rich orange colour, and served it with a scoop of Greek yoghurt. So much yummier than canned soup. Healthier too.
I love being in the kitchen. I love being inspired by recipes and then cooking from my imagination. I love my gadget rack hanging next to my stove. And I love my cute scales and panda cup. Most things I cook turn out pretty successful. Successful enough for people to like my instagram photos of dinners cooked, and for colleagues to tell me my lunch smells good in the tea room. But I have had a few disasters. And they make me laugh.
Once I was just out of hospital, and I grabbed a quick kebab from a shop around the corner. A friend called to say she was coming over to see how I was, so I did a mad cleaning dash around the house. By the time I got time to eat, my kebab was cold, so I stuck it in the microwave for a minute and stacked the dishwasher. 30 seconds in, I looked up and saw flames. My kebab was on fire. In the microwave. Because it was covered in a combination of paper and foil. So I turned the microwave off at the powerpoint, opened the microwave, and threw a glass of water on the flaming kebab. And then I (don’t try this at home!) realised water and electricity don’t mix. Fortunately the only thing that suffered was my kebab. Soggy and inedible.
Carly’s kitchen scales
The second kitchen disaster also involved a microwave. Until recent years, I only ate eggs in frittatas, cakes and scrambled. I wasn’t keen on the taste of yolks. One day I felt like a boiled egg with asparagus soldiers. Only I have never known how to boil an egg. And I am too impatient to wait for water to boil on the stove. So I popped the egg in a cup of water, and whizzed it in the microwave. Only – the microwave door flung open, the plate fell on the floor and the egg exploded. All. Over. The. Microwave. Who knew one little egg could go so far?!
And finally, a lesson in thrift. I’m not keen on food wastage. I like to get value from my food – I make stock from roast chicken, I use leftover broccoli soup to make a pasta bake, topped with cheese, and I chop my vegetables and fruit and freeze them before I go on holidays. Years ago, my parents bought me a juicer for Christmas. I used it so much in the early days, and now it sits sadly in the cupboard, next to my toaster. I’d juice vegetables and collect the pulp in a plastic bag, freeze it and use it for the base of a risotto later. It worked well – carrot, celery and spinach bases, juicy chicken and pumpkin stirred into aborio rice, oozing with parmesan. Except, one day I made a big mistake. I juiced my veggies, and then juiced a watermelon – again collecting the pulp for the risotto. I froze it, and a week later, made a risotto. Watermelon and chicken risotto in fact. Not my finest culinary moment. It was fruity, pippy and a little bit yuck. I learnt my lesson there – thrift does not always pay. And while watermelon risotto may be great cooked in Heston’s kitchen, it’s not so tasty when it’s an accident.
What cooking disasters have you had? Ever made any weird combinations?
Image 1 Image 2 author’s own
