Bachelor Cooking

I cop a bit of criticism for my simple and somewhat unimaginative method of cooking. I stand by my method for 2 reasons:

1. I am a bloke – so no need to complicate things
2. I am cooking for one – a difficult enough task for anyone

My pantry comprises of a few dinner essentials

• Packets – Dinner bases as well as pasta and rice side dishes
• Jars – Pasta sauces, Indian Sauces, or any other sauce that comes in a jar. Options are endless
• Tins – Tomatoes, Baked Beans, Soups
• Frozen Veges – Seems to get added to everything I make. Never had fresh veges in my possession.

Every now and then I do a big cook up to store and freeze meals ready to take for lunch. One recent cook up involved 2 kg’s of mince and 20 meal size portions. I even invested in a separate freezer to house these meals until they get to be enjoyed.

Particular favourites include:

• Spag Bol
• Chilli Con Carne
• Butter Chicken

In the end, isn't it just great that I'm a bloke who can cook something for himself??

Blokes Can Cook

My mum and Dad finally got the chance to go on a holiday and my brother went away camping. The result is one semi domesticated male being left home alone. From a previous blog on house-sitting I stated that the only area in which I felt very comfortable was cooking and food shopping. So I put on a dinner for a few friends and me.

Pursuing this has multiple purposes:

• Tests myself to be able to put on a dinner without assistance
• Teaches me a lot of little tricks for the kitchen
• An excuse to have friends over instead of spending the night alone
• A healthy ego massage when I get positive reports about the food

I have cooked for friends once before. On that occasion I did a lamb roast for a Sunday lunch. I surprised myself when I found that I was enjoying the process, even the tedious tasks such as peeling potatoes.

On the most recent occasion I chose a variety of recipes from Annette Sym’s books “Symply Too Good To Be True.” Due to the variety I found it hard to keep up with the different recipes. I did a fair bit of preparation the night before which helped a lot. It all managed to come together at serving time.

What was on the menu:

• Chicken Parmigiana (Book 2)
• Asian Salad (Book 3)
• Caesar Salad (Book 1)
• Potato Bake (Book 2)
• Chocolate Pudding (Book 3)
  

Austrian Schnitzelhaus

For my birthday I wanted to try out a new restaurant to continue my cultural crusade of food. When coming back from work one day (when I was with Sportspro) I noticed this place on Victoria Road at Gladesville and I thought I might be a good as it was something I’d never tried before. I had to bide my time thought because I spotted it many months before my birthday.

It is quite a small place but it does have a separate room for functions. The atmosphere is good and the waitresses spoke with a German accent, which ads to the authenticity. I assume they are from a German/Austrian decent but they could be putting it on for all I know.

Most of us had a schnitzel of some sort. There are many to choose from, but they are all huge, and they all tasted great. Me and Dad washed ours down with a German beer and capped it off with a slice of homemade Apple Strudel. It was almost too much apple.

So if you want to try something different then I recommend the Austrian Schnitzelhaus.