Cooking Easy Food

Food preparation

Vegetables and fruit should always be rinsed in clean water and dried. Think about what happens to your food and who handles it.

Roasting - see roasting vegetables.

Blanching - boil a pan of water and put vegetables in for just a few minutes to soften - don't overdo. Before cooking cabbage cut out the white stem from the bottom to the top of the leaf, as this is quite hard and not very pleasant to eat even when cooked and then slice the leaves into strips before adding to the pan. (Actually, I use kitchen scissors for this and sometimes for chopping bacon and herbs up).

Microwave cooking - I have found microwaving the best method of cooking vegetables - they keep their colour, texture and vitamins better. I particularly like the way microwaves allow you to time to the minute, meaning you can fine tune your cooking so that your vegetables come out just right.

Cut your vegetables to roughly the same size (so that they cook the same time), put them in a microwave steamer or microwave proof dish and add two tablespoons of cold water to the vegetables. Then cook on full power for 3/4 minutes and so on until they are just right. They should have a slight crispyness.

You can microwave a 'medley' of vegetables, as I call it. Use similar density vegetables and cut them up roughly the same size so that they cook together e.g. tomatoes cut in half, sweet peppers cut into about 2" pieces and peas or baby sweetcorn, leeks cut into about 1" rounds and thin beans or mange tout or carrots sliced in half inch rounds, parsnips the same, brocolli flowers.