Adulting: Cooking

I was 19 when I got to Legune Station in the Kimberley. I was very young, very naive. However, being out there made me grow up fast. Just as I was starting to get into the swing of things I got bucked off a horse, broke my back, spent four days in hospital, another month just lying in bed and that was it for me for the rest of the year. I came back to work onto light duties just as the camp were wrapping up mustering.

For the first part of the year our cook was actually a professional chef. I learned to like mushrooms because of his cooking. I learned from him how to chop certain veggies really quickly. Then he quit to go to Thailand. That sucked. The gardener got the interim job of cook until another one could be found. I learned to hate onions because of his cooking. Then we got this utter psycho (diagnosable psycho who wields pig-sticking knives and throws pots and pans at people) who was cook for about two weeks before he got fired. And then I was cook because I was on light duties. I hated it. Number one because I didn’t actually know how to cook. I continue to hate cooking because of all the preparation and cleaning involved and when I cooked for others I often felt like it was unappreciated. Now I’m on my own it’s much easier to peel back the corner of some plastic film and chuck it in the microwave.

Being shoved in the kitchen at 19 and being told to cook for 40 people was a bit daunting. At this point, I only knew how to cook pancakes, sausages, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, spaghetti bolognaise, some cakes and bacon the way I like it. Home economics at school taught me how to bake the cakes and it was my mum that taught me to cook the other things listed above. I was screwed. I was supposed to be able to whip up four meals a day and the only thing I could safely do was breakfast. What saved me was a dusty 1980’s reprint of Margaret Fulton’s first cookbook. That lady has no idea how much of a saving grace her cookbook was. She has no idea even that she taught me how to cook. Next thing you know I’m bashing out goulash, braised steak, stroganoff and biscuits.

Below are a few recipes that helped me survive cooking for big mobs of people or things that can be bulk cooked and frozen in portions.

GOULASH

1kg Diced beef
1 can Diced tomatoes
200mL Beef stock
1 Green capsicum, diced
1 Red capsicum, diced
1 Celery, diced
1 Onion, diced
1 tspn Paprika
1 tspn Cumin

Chuck it in the slow cooker in the morning on the auto setting, stirring it through thoroughly and it’ll be ready by dinner time. There’s enough in this recipe to feed a small crowd or portion it up and freeze it. Serve with mashed potatoes.

EASY CURRY

500gm Diced Beef
1 can Coconut cream
2 potatoes, diced
1 ½ cup Peas
2 Carrots, diced
1 heaped tbsn Curry powder

Mix the curry powder and coconut in a bowl before pouring it over the rest of the ingredients and stirring it through. Chuck it in the slow cooker on auto in the morning and by dinner it’ll be ready. This recipe will get you through a couple of nights. Serve with rice.

 

ANZAC BISCUITS

1 cup Plain flour
1 cup Rolled oats
1 cup Brown sugar
½ cup Coconut
125g Butter
2 tbsn Golden syrup
½ tspn Bi-carb soda

Mix the flour, oats, sugar and coconut together. Melt the butter in a saucepan then add the golden syrup, a dash of water and stir in the bi-carb. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and roll into balls and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Put it in the oven at 175 deg for about 15-20mins.