Experimental Cookery Tuesday: Final Thoughts

And so, I have come to the end of my Experimental Cookery series. I said at the outset that I would carry on until I gave myself food poisoning, I reached the end of the book, or I got bored. Well, frankly, I got bored, and so have decided to stop (a decision made easier by reaching a point where all that remains is seafood). Also, I am now busy three Tuesdays of every month, which has really created problems for the series going forward; at the very least it would have had to be moved to a different day.

I know quite a lot of people have been enjoying the series (mostly because they have said as much). I hope you won't be too disappointed at it coming to its end. As much as anything, I didn't want this blog to turn into "I sat a sandwich today". I shall try to write more entertaining things in future, albeit on different subjects.

I have felt that this experiment has been a resounding success. I have tried a number of things that I simply would never have tried otherwise, including some seafood and even parsnips. I have cooked a range of food quite beyond what I would have done otherwise. I now have a freezer filled with several weeks of curries. And I have generally enjoyed myself.

My favourite chapter in the book was most definitely the curries chapter, followed closely by the stir fries, and then the mince. Between these three chapters, I could probably eat quite happily for a year. The weakest was the salad chapter, followed by the pastas.

I do recommend "Jamie's Ministry of Food". The book is a nice, simple introduction to cooking, and Jamie clearly knows what he's about. There was basically nothing in there I couldn't handle, and the range of meals was pretty good.

Going forward, I do intend to continue expanding my repetoire of meals. To that end, I have purchased a book entitled "Chinese Food Made Easy" by Ching-He Huang, which looks decidely intriguing. I'm also on the hunt for a really good Indian cookbook; if you know of one then please suggest away! However, I have no intentions of working through another cookbook in the same manner as this one; my intent will always be to dip in and out at random, with an emphasis on trying new things. (Oh, and in restaurants I will continue my policy of ordering largely at random.)

And so, that's that. Thanks for reading!