Comfort food to the max!

For the first meal we have two family standbys – both easy to make from what’s in the pantry, and both I know the Boys will eat!  

I’ve tried to make the instructions as ‘foolproof’ as possible, apologies if anything is unclear.  Both recipes were adapted from those in Marguerite Patten’s Everyday Cook Book (1983).

As you can see, I’m no professional photographer, but these photographs show the start and end result.

This is the starting point – all things I had in the cupboard:

Corned Beef Hash

•          1 can Corned Beef
•          10oz (250g) Boiled Potatoes
•          1 Onion
•          1oz (25g) Butter / Marge
•          1 ½ cups frozen peas

Wash the potatoes, cut into pieces, and boil until cooked.  Drain through a colander and leave to cool.  Alternatively, use leftover potatoes from the day before!

Chop the onion into pieces (small if you don’t want to notice the onion at the end, larger if you don’t mind onion slices). 

Melt the butter / marge in a frying pan, and fry the onion gently until softened.  

Once the onion is soft, add the corned beef, and the potatoes.  

Stir to mix them together, gradually mashing the potatoes and mixing in the beef.  This should take 5-10 mins to cook together. 

When it’s nearly ready, stir in the frozen peas.  They will cook in the heat from the rest of the meal.  

Serve hot or cold.

Possible Variation:  Put it into a pastry case and bake (Corned Beef and Tatty pie was a childhood fave of mine).  I’ll get him to try this once he’s mastered pastry making…that’s for a few weeks’ time.

Semolina Pudding

•          1 pint (600ml) Milk
•          1-2oz (25-50g) Sugar
•          2-3 oz Semolina.

 

Bring the milk to the boil (we used a microwave to prevent it sticking and burning), add the sugar and gradually whisk in the semolina. 

Stir very briskly until thickened and smooth (we cooked it for a min at a time, whisking very well between sessions).  

Cook for about 10 mins on top of the cooker, or pour into a dish and bake for 45 mins in the oven at 150⁰C (this is the option we took).  We serve this with a teaspoonful of fruit jam and fight over the skin!

Parental comments:

He did all the prep and cooking himself, with advice and comments provided.  Only things I would have changed was to cut the onion a little finer, and sauté it for a bit longer before adding the other ingredients.  The semolina separated out a little during cooking as he’d not whisked it for quite long enough before it went into the oven but stirred in fine and tastes "amazing!" (his brother's comment).

Comments / suggestions for future recipes welcome - just leave a note.

A slight change of direction….adventures of a Teenage Cook

I initially created this blog as part of my MIS studies, as I was required to blog on library related things as part of that. Now that that’s (mostly) completed, it’s time to change the focus of this blog.

As the family definition of “manavellins” is a meal cooked from whatever leftovers are around, I thought the title remained appropriate, so I’ve kept it.

I’m going to be using this as a way to record (and share) the meals my son is preparing whilst working towards his Gold Duke of Edinburgh award – he’s using Cookery for the ‘skills’ part of this, so will be doing at least one meal a week for several months. This is a win / win situation as he gains a heap of skills he can use when he leaves home, and I get one night a week I don’t have to cook! This means there will be approx. one posting a week, covering the meals prepared by him.

I thought a blog on this subject could be useful in several ways:

1) To document the meals he’s cooked, so his assessor can see what he’s done, and sign it all off at the end.

2) As a place to record and share the recipes he’s used – so others can try them if they want.

3) As a way to record my thoughts on the process – to help anyone else encouraging their kids to cook.  and finally;

4) It will get me writing again on a regular basis (something I'm not as good at as I should be!)

I’m going to start him off on cooking relatively basic meals, building things up as he gains skills and confidence.   I’m also going to be focussing on things I know he likes. Later on, he can choose what's on the menu, as long as it involves him learning something new.

I use a mix of old and new recipes, so some of the quantities will be metric, others in ounces and pints – I don’t promise to be consistent!

 If you need to convert measurements:

1 oz = 25g (near enough)
1 lb = 450g (approx.)
1 pint is 20 fluid ounces, 2 ½ American cups, or 600ml.

 I hope you enjoy this journey with us - please add comments of things you think he should cook, and any suggestions that would make this blog more useful to others.