Delia's Coconut and Lime Chicken

I actually made something on Saturday night which tasted of something. Usually when I attempt to make something from scratch, it tastes of water. Delia didn’t fail me though and it tasted lovely. Super, super easy, so easy in fact that clearly even I couldn’t bugger it up. Just chicken breast, spring onion, coriander, fish sauce, green chillis and coconut milk. BOOM. My only glitch was having brown rice rather than white rice, not actually a glitch I know, but as I said before, I really want to try and do things properly! On the plus side, the brown rice was lush and now I not only know how to cook rice but I also know that I made waaaaaaaaaay too much.

SUCCESS

Woah that is a tiny photo.

So that went well.....

Got home from work last night, all raring to go and then promptly watched tv while my Mum presented me with a risotto. Not a good start to my cooking revolution. She really trumped my lack of cooking by not only making a risotto but a pie and stock. Oops. My first task is to work out what I am going to cook first….. I need a recipe that I will stick to, and by stick to I don’t mean go all creative and do my own thing, I mean actually pay attention and not remove ingredients that I don’t like (nutmeg, ginger, coriander, cinnamon, five spice, the list goes on and on). I’m not ever going to be able to cook off the top of my head if I don’t start establishing what I am crap at and what I am really crap at and to work that out I need to teach myself the basics. As that wise, wise lady Julie Andrews once sang “let’s start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start”, and to me, the beginning is Delia. I have the full copy of How to Cook that I bought last year when I had one of these “must cook more” moments, I hasten to add that while that was a moment, this is a definite life plan. Promise. So. Step 1 – find appropriate Delia recipe that won’t scare me and yet still feel like I have done something new, which shouldn’t be hard as my cooking experience is extremely limited.

About time too.

I doubt I will ever let anyone other than myself read this, but I need to try and enthuse myself into cooking more. Don’t get me wrong, I by no means struggle to consume copious amounts of food, but I need to start trying to be slightly more adventurous when it comes to cooking.. I can talk the talk but I really can’t wok the wok; well, not at the moment. Bit by bit I am going to try and build up my confidence as by I currently am far too scared to cook for other people in case it tastes like poo and don’t see the point of cooking elaborately (or lets be honest, just anything much more than a baked potato) for myself. My lovely Mum has bought me a new lovely Sabatier knife block (knives included, she didn’t just get me a branded bit of wood, that would be a bit crap) for Christmas, so in the words of Martine McCutcheon, this is my perfect moment. So here goes………..

DISCLAIMER: This is not a New Year’s Resolution. Incidentally, that is to go to the gym more.