Psst! Want to know a secret? Cooking yourself good, tasty meals from scratch, despite what the big convenience food industry would have you believe, isn’t that hard. You don’t need to read Larousse Gastronomique cover to cover, or have mastered a number of advanced culinary techniques. That is hard, and definitely not where epicurious newbies should start. Oh, and unless you’re defrosting something or heating up leftovers, good cooking almost never involves a microwave. Basic cooking only takes a bit of knowledge and a bit of practice. To start, try this recipe: it’s dead simple to make, but impressive as all get-out when served. Don’t be intimidated by the name: salmon with jewelled saffron rice, oven-roasted fennel and cherry tomato sauce. Nice, right?
Know how to use a measuring cup? Can you tell time? Then you can make rice. First, take one cup of basmati rice and rinse it under cold water to get rid of any foreign objects, then toss it in a pot that has a fitted lid. Next, measure two cups of cold water (no more, no less) and pour that into the pot as well. Drop in a tablespoon of unsalted butter or olive oil, add a pinch of sea salt and put it on the stove. Turner the burner to high and let the whole thing come to a boil. Put the lid on, reduce heat to low and then cook 22 minutes longer. Remove from heat, let sit five minutes, and bam! You’ve got yourself some rice.
Now, let’s talk about jazzing it up a little. Next time, replace one of the cups of water with a cup of vegetable broth. (You can buy it from the store, or you can make your own: three litres of water; a carrot, a couple of stalks of celery; a peeled onion; a bay leaf or two – put it all in a pot, bring to boil and let simmer for 35 minutes or so.) Next, add 15 to 20 strands of saffron. Do everything else the same and you’ve made saffron rice. Congratulations! Dice up some red bell peppers (get out the Slap Chop if you must) and mix into the rice for extra tastiness.
On to sauce. Take one can of puréed tomatoes; a couple of cloves of mashed garlic; a teaspoon of chopped ginger; a pinch of sea salt; a teaspoon of soy sauce; a whole carrot; a quarter wedge of red pepper; a capful of olive oil; and a teaspoon each of ground coriander, fennel and cumin. Put it all in a pot along with a half pint of cherry tomatoes, bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes (“simmer” means lowering the heat so that it’s bubbling gently around the edges). Serve with the carrot on top if you want. (It’s there to cut acidity.)
Now for the salmon and fennel. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Take one bulb of fennel, cut off the top and bottom and cut it into eighths. Toss with olive oil and put on a lightly oiled, low-lipped baking pan and drizzle with a bit of honey. Take four six-ounce salmon fillets with the skin on, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and then lay them skin side up beside the fennel. Stick the pan in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Flip salmon and cook for five minutes more. Arrange everything artistically on plates, garnish with some herbs or whatever, and you’re done. I’ll bet you never go back to Easy Mac ever again.
The top 10 things you need to hack your dietThe first step to cooking for yourself is stocking your kitchen with the right stuff
1. A NOTEBOOK: A food diary is the best way to assess how you’re eating, call yourself out on bad choices and reinforce the good ones.
2. CANADA’S FOOD GUIDE: Riding the rainbow is an excellent way to start understanding the basics while you’re developing your tastes and menus. Get the standardized copy or an individualized version for free at
www.hc-sc.gc.ca.
3. BLENDER: Make homemade shakes in the morning for a nutritious breakfast when you’re running late. No excuses. Plus: it’s fun to use.
4. CROCK POT: Minimal labour in the morning for maximum delicious meals at night means fewer stops for pizza on the way home from work.
5. CHEF’S KNIFE: There are approximately one million cool-looking cooking tools at Williams-Sonoma but the only thing you really need to get started is a decent knife.
6. FRUIT AND VEGETABLES: The idea here isn’t buying up armloads and tossing them into the fridge until they’re rotten two weeks later. Take them home, cut and chop, and make them your de facto snack instead of Miss Vickie’s. You’re supposed to eat seven servings of these a day!
7. FRESH-GROWN HERBS: Saves money and is an easy way to make a difference in the quality of home-cooked meals. Buy a starter herb garden at the grocery store or garden centre.
8. NON-STICK PAN: You get what you pay for with pans, and a decent non-stick one (try All-Clad, Calphalon or Le Creuset) cuts down on the amount of butter or oil you use.
9. HEAVY-BOTTOMED POT: Distributes heat evenly so you’re less likely to burn
your efforts.
10. SCALE: A small kitchen scale will help you understand portions and makes measuring ingredients more precise.
Maria Ionova