An Important Reason to Learn to Cook

A recent article on the “disturbing ingredients” to be found in fast food has got me going again! More about this in my next post when I’ve had time to check things out but just as a taster these are the ingredients of a Burger King Tendergrill Chicken Fillet in the US (which I believe t is called a Tendercrisp in the UK, I am not sure if the ingredients are exactly the same here) ...

Fancy it?

And these are the ingredients I would use if I made a similar thing myself ...

The only odd thing in my version is the calcium disodium edta in Hellman’s mayonnaise which I have looked into and find that this is used as a preservative in food and is generally safe in small quantities but, according to Naturally Savvy's Article on Harmful Food Additives in Salad Dressings it ...

 “may cause allergic reactions, asthma attacks, skin rash and possible kidney damage. Studies have also found that sustained intakes of calcium disodium EDTA can lead to essential mineral depletion in dogs”.  

I’m going to risk it but, if you don’t want to then coat your breasts (haha) in accordance with my instructions here – or make your own mayonnaise!

~   Lightly grease a shallow ovenproof dish with a little olive oil.
~   Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF/200ºC fan/gas 7.
~   Season the chicken breast(s) with salt and pepper and brush with the mayonnaise to coat.
~   Put the breadcrumbs (which should also be seasoned with salt and pepper) into a plastic bag, add a chicken breast and shake to coat with the crumbs.  If doing several just do one at a time in the bag.
~   Lay the breasts in the ovenproof dish and bake for about half an hour till crispy and golden and cooked through. 
~   Stick it in a bun with lettuce and tomato if you feel like it, you could even “carefully layer” them if you have the time.

There are a couple of easy ways to flavour this just the way you like it (rather than the way Burger King or McDonalds etc. think best) ...

1.   Add flavour to the mayonnaise by stirring in a little garlic or mustard or chilli or curry paste etc.  Get the picture?

2.   Add flavour to the breadcrumbs by adding herbs or spices or lemon zest, for instance.

The Tendercrisp is £4.49 without chips or other sides and weighs 255g.  My version using Tesco skinless and boneless chicken breast fillets (not even the cheap ones!) is £1.75 for the chicken (225g) plus say 50p for the rest of ingredients, so about £2.25 for about 300g of food.

I do, of course, realise that Burger King and the others have to pay staff, rent buildings, pay tax and make a profit but it still makes me question, again ...

Why would anyone pay a comparatively large amount of money for a small portion of not as good as  it could be (to say the least) – possibly 
artificial, maybe dangerous food?  

Why, why, why?

For more on this subject and how to (quickly and easily) make the perfect burger click here.

Related to this I suggest that a really good New Year’s Resolution would be ...

Learn to Cook!

If you do the thing properly this could help you fulfill several New Year Resolutions at the same time, such as ...

Get Healthier

Lose Weight

Save Money

Waste Less

Spend Quality Time with Family

I know some people are daunted by the idea of learning to cook but I promise you it is not difficult. OK there are some dishes best left to the experts (soufflé, crème brulée and oseng oseng wortel dan bloemkool for instance) but good home cooking is achievable by anyone who puts a little (and I do mean a little) effort into it.

I am completely and utterly self-taught, have had my own restaurants which have been listed in the Good Food Guide and many others, I eat wonderful food every meal of my life, feed my real man according to his own peculiar Geordie tastes and I have travelled the world on my credentials as a chef – so it’s worked for me!

Now I am retired-ish so am trying my best to publish (really cheaply) all sorts of useful information so that other people can get on with eating delicious food of their choice, whatever and whenever they want (including Sudden Lunches), made from good pure ingredients, huge portions if they like, in the comfort of their own homes for less money than a takeaway.  Seems like a no brainer to me.

Do you really want to eat this s**t?

I’m afraid I haven’t blogged for a couple of weeks – sadly there have been not one but two deaths in my real man’s family and we have been both very busy and very sad, also away from home.

As I haven’t cooked much this seems a good opportunity to have a bit of a rant about something that has been irritating me for about 20 years, especially as I am already in a bad mood. 

British cooks seem to have a bad rap in the States which I feel to be ironic to say the least and just one of several reasons this is ironic is the prevalence of “recipes" like these in books, magazines and on the web.

Creamy Pineapple Dessert kind of Thing!

1 large can crushed or chunk pineapple with juice
1 large box sugar free, fat free vanilla pudding mix
8 oz cool whip

~   Mix together and chill.

Vanilla pudding mix contains ...

modified food starch, less than 2% of natural and artificial flavour, salt, disodium phosphate and tetrasodiam pyrophosphate, mono and diglyceries, yellow 5, yellow 6, articificial colour, BHA

Cool Whip contains... 

hydrogenated vegetable oil, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, skimmed milk, light cream, and less than 2% sodium caseinate, natural and artificial flavour, xanthan and guar gums, polysorbate 60, sorbitan monostearate, and beta carotene

Why not just do this?  

~   Drain the pineapple well.
~   Whisk some double or heavy cream together with a few drops of vanilla extract or rum plus sugar to taste. Icing (confectioners) sugar will make for a smooth finish but soft brown sugar will add more flavour.
~   Fold in the pineapple and chill till needed.

Even better make this Caramelised Pineapple and Rum Sauce and fold into whipped cream (home whipped, not the spray stuff!).

Incredible (no kidding!) Melted Ice-Cream Cake

Here is the list of ingredients which is all I need to make my point – you can find the recipe here, on the highly esteemed American Epicurious site.

vegetable oil spray for misting the pan

flour for dusting the pan

1 package (18.25 ounces) plain white cake mix

2 cups melted ice cream, your choice of flavor

3 large eggs

Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting

I’m not sure about the above recipe but I have made cake from melted ice cream (you may remember there has been a lot of ice cream in my life) and all I did was mix about 165g self-raising flour into 225g of ice cream (melted). Sometimes I have added something else as appropriate – chocolate chips, fruit, nuts etc.  Bake for about 40-45 minutes at 180ºC/350°F/160ºC fan/gas 4.

Speaking of plain white cake mix (they have yellow cake mix too) how about this little beauty?

Why not just make a cake?  There’s loads of quick and easy recipes about, like this simple sponge cake from the Beeb.

A “recipe” for Strawberry Fudge 

This contained just two ingredients ...

Candy Melts contain ...

sugar, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, whole milk solids, non-fat dry milk solids, emulsifier (E122), salt, artificial vanilla flavour 

Having read a bit about Candy Melts  it seems that some good white chocolate makes a far superior alternative.

The frosting contains ...

sugar, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, corn syrup, corn starch, color added Including red 40, salt, mono- and diglycerides, modified corn starch, artificial flavor, polysorbate 60, potassium sorbate, soy lecithin, citric acid, sodium citrate

I don’t have an alternative recipe immediately to hand but think I might prefer no fudge to all that stuff!

Beef “Casserole”

So far all my examples have been for sweet things but savoury dishes suffer from the same perviness. Many American recipes call for a can of chicken (or sometimes mushroom) soup as the liquid  and I can see that this could work depending on what is in the soup, of course – so perhaps not in this case; beef “casserole” with chicken soup in it! Incidentally casserole means something different in the US to the UK, generally speaking here we meal a stew and there they mean a baked dish often with a cripsy topping.  See here for how to make a real stew, braise or casserole. 

1½ lbs ground beef
8 oz sour cream
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
2 cans cream of chicken soup
½ an onion
2 canned corn
1 pkg Crispy Crowns (frozen)

Crisp Crowns contain ...

potatoes, vegetable oil, salt, corn flour, dextrose, disodium dihydrogen pyrophosphate, onions, natural flavoring, corn maltodextrin and autolysed yeast

Anyhoo – that’s enough of that and you get the gist.  I started looking up some of the longer words and read of cancer and liver enlargement, autism and so on – scary. (Here's the link,  it’s a useful site to check on unfamiliar ingredients.) 

Why, oh why, would anyone make “food” from so many chemicals when real cooking is not that difficult, probably cheaper and you know what’s gone into it? I did see one recipe that boasted 

“no flour or fancy measuring required, because we’re using cake mix”

so maybe that’s the problem; fear of measuring - cowards!  

Eating pure real food is just one of 7 Excellent Reasons to Learn to Cook - have a look here.

In Other News ...

Still lovely weather down here in Cornwall – our primroses are still in flower and this is Charlestown this afternoon.