A few weeks ago news media reported on Michael Gove’s plan for all children to learn to cook.  This plan features 20 “must learn” recipes.

What’s He Been Smoking?

The recipes, as reported by Telegraph, include French mustard vinaigrette.  Mustard Vinaigrette?

From the comments about each recipe in the Telegraph I can only assume Michael has been passing around whatever he’s been smoking!

What Is The Point?

Well what is the point of forcing all children to learn to cook?

Surely it’s so they can feed themselves without ready meals or a trip to the chippy?

And if feeding yourself is the aim why not focus on enabling people to do that as simply as possible (without resorting to corn flakes – not that there’s anything wrong with cornflakes).

You Have To Have The Ingredients At Home

Surely the simplest is bread and butter – providing you have some bread and butter.

Then you can get more complicated by adding  jam, marmalade,  marmite, pea nut butter or cheese.

Having mastered that how about a sandwich?

Toast

Is there anyone who doesn’t love toast? Freshly cooked, hot toast, with butter.

How about cheese on toast or toasted sandwiches.

Bacon And Sausages

My children found bacon and sausages some of the easiest things to start cooking.

Parent’s worry and hot pans and burns – bacon can cook over a medium heat and sausages over a low heat.  Even better there are no heavy pans to lift.

What Have Your Children Achieved If They Can Do This Much?

Independence – they can feed themselves. Maybe, if you’re lucky, you’ll get some too. Breakfast in bed?

Hopefully their confidence and pride in their achievements will have  a big boost too.

Eggs

Fried, scrambled, boiled, omelettes  – eggs are only bit harder than bacon and sausages – at least if you want a fried egg without a broken yolk.

Cake – Or What’s In It For Me

Aren’t cup cakes most children’s introduction to cooking?

My children particularly like chocolate Victoria Sponge which is easy to make.

Do you remember licking the bowl after the cake mixture had been put in the oven?

I always encouraged my children to help even if they were only really watching and getting ingredients out of the cupboard.

Perhaps  because they were familiar with cakes being made they gradually got more involved until they were doing everything (then I was told to go away as I was interfering!).

One of my children has been making cakes by herself since she was 9.

Bread And Pizza

Once you can make a cake bread is only a little bit harder.  I’ve baked my own bread for years. Again, having watched, my children wanted to have a go themselves and soon got to the point they were independent.

As a bonus once you can make dough you can make your own pizza – with the help of the next recipe.

Italian Tomato Sauce

Chop up and fry some garlic and onions in olive oil.  Add some (lots!) of herbs.  Then a tin of chopped tomatoes.  Let it simmer away for a bit, then  blitz with a whizzer.

You can eat as it is with pasta, or return to a low heat and let it simmer away until it becomes thick and put on your pizza.

Chopping onions might seem simple to a grown up – but it takes a while for children to learn.  They’re hands are smaller, they’re not so strong and being smaller their eyes are closer to the onions – which means their eyes are more likely to water.

Pasta And Rice

Pans of boiling water are obviously more dangerous than a frying pan over a low heat.

Also a full pan is almost certainly to heavy for a pre-teenager to lift, so this is best done by you.

But children can still help by measuring out the rice or pasta, and  serving out once cooked.

Chicken Breast  And Steak

If you can cook bacon you can cook steak.  Just put some butter or olive oil in a frying pan and fry for a few minutes on each side, depending on how well done you like your steak.

Chicken breasts can be fried in butter, though these take a bit longer than steak (though you can always cut them into strips so they cook quicker).

Alternatively brown on both sides then add some water (or white wine) and herbs, put a lid on the pan and simmer for 15 or 20 minutes.  Turn the breasts over half way through. If the liquid boils away just add some more.

Stews

Tomato sauce is a sort of vegetable stew.  A meat stew is similar.  Fry some onions (and may be garlic). Cut the meat into pieces (say 1 inch cubes) fry for a bit then add some liquid (water or stock) + tomaotes if you wish.  Cover and leave to simmer away gently for a few hours (the lower the heat and longer the cooking the tenderer the meat will be).

Pastry Pies Pasties

If you can make a cake or bake bread why not try pastry?

Then, if you have already made a stew, you can make pies and pasties.

What If You’ve Never Cooked?

Pick one thing, maybe the simplest thing but something you think you’d like and give it a go and see what happens

It may not work out perfectly the first time, but if you keep trying it’s bound to improve.

Even if it was brilliant at the first go, still keep at it. Things almost always get even better with practice.

John Torode (the aussie guy on master chef) says he’s constantly amaze that people who would never expect to sit down with an orchestra and give a performance of a piano concerto (without ever having learned to play) beat themselves up when they cook a dish for the first time and it does turn out as stunningly as they hoped!

Delia Doesn’t Agree

Interview on Radio 5 live, Delia wondered how schools will by enough teachers and fund classrooms with kitchens.  Good point – though some schools already teach cooking (although it’s called Food Technology for some reason).

Delia also said young people were “afraid to cook” and that much TV cookery failed to “get down to basics”.  Surely all this means is cooking is something they’re not familiar with. The best cure for that is patience and practice – just have a go.

Isn’t home the best place to cook?

Anyway who is Peppa Pig?