Your list of "things I can cook"

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How big is this list?

Chatting to friends this weekend and I'd hazard a guess that most people end up cooking the same 3 or 4 things fairly regularly, if not all the time.

A while ago I made a list of all the things I can cook, mainly in an attempt to try and at least vary my cooking between all the things I can actually cook rather than the same 3 or 4.

It seems my list is about 20 things, which on the face of it isn't bad, but I can definitely see things on there which get cooked at least once a week and some on there I haven't done in months, so even with this list, the variation isn't huge.

Not sure I've added anything new to my list for quite a while though, so I do think I need to broaden my horizons and learn a few new things.

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It's all from scratch, and has evolved over the years mainly from me thinking "I like curry, so I'm going to learn how to make curry from scratch"

List is (some very standard ones and some maybe slightly leftfield ones in there)

Curry, Vodka penne, carbonara, PadThai, Steak, Chicken Parm, Madras Meatball/rice (Jamie Oliver one pan recipe), Chicken and Ham Pie (another Jamie Oliver one), Itsu-style Chicken Terryaki rice bowl, Doner Kebab, Mac and Cheese, Lasagne, Spag Bol, Shakshuka, Sunday Roast, Chicken Wings, Chicken Fried rice, Risotto, Thai Red curry (inc making the paste from scratch), Chicken pesto pasta thing

I don't think I use anything pre-made/from a jar for any of the above - I don't go quite as far as making my own pasta.....yet.

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Forester1965 said:

Lots of skills/knowledge from one dish transfers to others, so if you can cook 20 dishes you can probably cook hundreds or thousands. If you mean 'how many recipes have you memorised?', that's a different question!

Yes good point, as you'll see from the list, they no doubt are easily adapted into other dishes.

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sherman said:

From that list you should explore Fish,Lamb, Pork/gammon and Egg dishes to help you diversify.

Sadly for Mrs UTH I hate seafood, but yes good point, I could really do with adding Lamb, Pork and Duck into my life......eggs to me are just breakfast things, but I could have my mind changed (I did leave off homemade McMuffins and Eggs Benedict from the list)

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nuyorican said:

Sirloin steak.

Well, steak is on there - I usually go Ribeye, Mrs UTH will sometimes be Sirloin.

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droopsnoot said:

Almost nothing, though I'm quite good at heating stuff up. I did a turkey joint and some veg and potatoes on Christmas day, and managed to get it to all finish at the same time, but that was just following times on the bits of packaging and getting advice from the internet. I can do stuff like bacon, sausages, poached or fried eggs, that sort of easy stuff, but there's a joint of meat in the freezer that I just don't know what to do with (I didn't buy it, so not even sure what kind of meat it is).

I'd learn, but I'm only doing it for me and I can't currently be bothered spending all that time producing a meal that I'll have eaten in a few minutes. I like the idea, but there's always something else to do. I do keep an eye on some of these threads in case something catches my eye and makes me want to have a go. I did join a local cookery group on FB to pick up ideas, but I was called out on it as it was "intended for people who cook regularly to share recipes" and the admins got a bit fed up of having to all the sharing. I guess if there was a sudden change to supermarkets and we had to buy everything "loose" again, I'd have to learn.

I am rather lucky in that I am absolutely in my element spending 90mins or more cooking something just for myself. Mrs UTH is quite strict on eating very healthy rather dull stuff during the week, so I'll usually cook separate things - 15 mins spinach mushrooms and chicken for her, 90 mins curry from scratch for me!