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I remember my first trip to the UK; I was visiting my fiancé in his home country. On my first day in his house he asked, “What would you like to eat; sausages and mash in onion gravy, coq-au-vin, beef in ale, spagbol, or chilli con carne?” I assumed that perhaps there was going to be a shopping trip before we dined, which concerned me because I was very hungry. Fortunately I was wrong. An hour later we were enjoying our coq-au-vin served with baby mushrooms, shallots, carrots, celery and jacket potatoes. I'd been a chef for many years but have to say I was impressed. He had previously prepared lots of home-made ready meals in his freezer. They were in foil containers and stacked very neatly in rows and columns. He just needed to take out what he wanted and place in the oven, still in their foil containers, to heat through. On this evening, he started the two large baking potatoes in the microwave oven and then put them in the oven to finish alongside the two coq-au-vins. We have since married and are living in the UK now. I’m still working as a professional chef, and the kitchen in the family home is now mostly my domain. In our house, it’s not unusual for me to do batch cooking with the type of “one pot” dishes my husband used to cook, and then to store them in the freezer just as he had. Recently, some sad circumstances have dictated that some of our friends are living alone for the first time. They have been sharing their stories of adjusting to shopping and cooking for just one person. The problems are exacerbated if you have limited experience of cooking. This has inspired me to write a cookery book. However, it could take a while to complete writing a whole book while still working full-time as a chef. I’ve therefore decided to put my manuscript on this website, so that people can start reading it even before it’s finished, and start enjoying the first of the recipes without having to wait for all of them. I've started with the easy peasy one pot cooking described above. These dishes require no expertise and can be cooked in larger quantities than needed on the day, and then the surplus quantity can be frozen, "ready meal" style, in batches as required. These recipes are here for you to enjoy now. I’ll next produce other recipes for people to enjoy; Stir frys, hot and spicey, millionaire’s table, dishes from around the world, Sunday roasts, a selection of starters and desserts to impress your guests, cakes and other sweet things. There’s also a techniques section ("Basics" for the novice cook) full of useful tips and general information. Novice and lesser experienced cooks may want to read this section before trying the recipes. My website is dedicated to Sam, Bob and Malcolm. Their situation has given me the motivation I needed to start writing my recipes down. I would also like to thank our regular customer Paddy, for coming into the kitchen and praising my food - you've done wonders for my self esteem! And finally... my work colleagues Ellie, Felix, and Pippa are going off to university, and so I wish them good luck, and also hope they enjoy cooking some of my recipes. Tan Mackay |
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