Creative Cooking
No, I’m not going to talk about the Michelin starred creations that look so picture perfect, nor Master Chef and certainly not the current trend trend for butter boards and Hawaiian fare; what I am talking about is the creative cook in all of us. Better people than me have tried to get the nation to eat healthier - for which read cook more from scratch, eat less meat, don’t buy ready meals- so I’m not about to embark on that particular head-banging exercise. I’m talking more, well, creatively than that! If we could get more in touch with our inner, creative, foodie selves, then I think cooking might be a bit more fun. Didn’t you try and make, or at least eat, weird combinations when you were a kid? Didn’t you experiment with mud, or wild brambles and penny chews, or strange ingredients in birthday cakes? My particular penchant was for the extreme sweet and sour of Marmite and jam, yes on the same piece of bread I’m afraid! Whilst my much older self might turn its nose up my 12 year old uncouth youth, there was something experimental and searching in my
younger self, unbothered by opinion, food trends, marketing ploys and fashions. I was just a kid who liked to try stuff!
I’ve spent my life making and trying food, and I’m thankful I’ve never really lost that experimental edge, but it can easily be knocked out of us by parents (‘you can’t eat that!’) peers, and unfortunately our own desire to conform. Recipes can be very constraining: I know people who have searched for days to find a particular ingredient for a celebrity chef’s recipe, and been close to panic if it can’t be obtained at their local supermarket. I’m not anti-celebrity chef’s per se, and admire the efforts of
Jamie Oliver, and Hugh Fearningly-Whittingstall in particular, to get people cooking, but I’m not sure in general how much chefs contribute to people actually making and cooking food. I don’t want to stereotype, people from all walks of life have given up on the chopping board and working with the amazing palette of fruit and veg that nature provides for us.
A few years ago I invented a chutney – Harvest End chutney- all sorts of bits and bobs that wouldn’t be enough on their own, but combined with some orchard fruits and the staples of sugar and vinegar, should make a passable condiment. It wasn’t difficult; I know the basics of chutney making. Lunch today is a leftover soup (in truth I deliberately made extra). I hate wasting food and love finding new and creative ways to use up leftovers. What food does the average household throw away each year? Something like £300 -£400 I believe. Being more creative with leftovers would certainly save us money and go some way to addressing issues like landfill and food
shortages. Cooking more creatively would in general, I think, help us to personalise our food; to use what we have to hand: what we’ve grown, or what a neighbour has given us, what we have at the back of the freezer or cupboard or the salad drawer in the fridge, what’s cheap and good at the local market. It would give us the familiarity with raw ingredients that we lack, and educate our taste-buds to experience unusual flavour combinations, to find out what we like – and don’t- and what works. Age old and classic combinations will always have a place, along with the cook books, but I think losing our fear, and discovering our creative side in the kitchen would have a big impact on our cooking, as well as actually bringing some of the fun back to the kitchen.
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If you live in the Ross-shire, Transition Black Isle are running another series of their Zero Waste Food challenge Workshops and I’ll be running one of them one on the 29th of October on cooking with leftovers. All the workshops are free, but need to be booked.
Links to my workshop here, but do check out the other informative and practical workshops you can book.
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/transitionblackisle/1391735
Check out initiatives in your local area if you feel like you needs some inspiration in the kitchen.
Hi Debbie, yes, using up leftovers is important. I really like the idea of your ‘Harvest End’ chutney! While I’m not an enthusiastic cook, I enjoyed the article, thank you!