The
birth of my youngest son coincided with my eldest son’s toddler years, which brought
new challenges to what to cook. Early on I decided, on my mum’s advice, to only
cook one meal a night and give them what we were eating - mashed with a fork or
cut into bits their squidgy little fists could manage. We cooked with a bit
less, but still some, spice and learned how to cook meals that would work for
their early and our late dinner times, adding the extra heat or salady crunch
that they weren’t keen on to our servings. Creating food for baby while
blanketed in tiredness in those early days wasn’t all plain sailing, I was
always mislabelling and they often ended up with things like parsnip, instead of
Apple - I remember my disbelief that they didn’t seem to like apple puree!
Life
with older children and more hours at work is hectic in different ways, so the
food I cook now reflects that. Sometimes we only have a 30 minute turnaround
between school and swimming, or getting in and bedtime, so I’ve created recipes
and tricks that mean we can still eat a real meal. However we are all human and
I’m guilty of regularly burning the bottom of pans because I’ve dashed off to
do something and have forgotten. No bother though as I just leave the burnt
bits on the pan and scrape off the good bits.
We
still stick to one meal for the whole family and my boys eat pretty much
everything, most days at least. However, cooking for a career has meant that my
family often ends up with weird meals made up of
leftovers from classes and recipe testing because I hate food waste. I went
through about 10 recipes trying to create the perfect stuffing one Christmas so
my boys were having stuffing sandwiches for lunch for a week and an ill advised
stuffing-frittata one night at which point they told me I had to stop.
People
always ask me what my food is like and I struggle to find a label. My food
always has guts, a northern girl like me needs deep flavour and a bit of bulk.
But those guts are brightened with finishing touches that don’t take much time
but transform the meal into something that tastes balanced and interesting.
I’ll always add some crunch to something soft, salt to something sweet and
acidity to pretty much everything. Chefs know this, but most home cooks don’t.
I know that because I see the ‘aha’
moment in my classes and get the messages when people cook recipes from my
site.
More
than what my food tastes like, I’m proud that my food is real food for real
life. I know that my recipes work for people who never call themselves foodies
but who need to get food on the table each night. They may not enjoy cooking
but once they have some basic tricks shown to them, the time spent in the shop
and the kitchen is rewarded with food that tastes better than anything they’ve
made before.
Look out for some recipes by Gemma coming up soon!
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