Cooking Comforts on a Mission

Here at Cooking Comforts my mission is to teach beginners to cook easy, tasty, everyday foods with ingredients you can find in any decent supermarket. I will give recipes that I like to use but don't be afraid to change things up for yourself. In reality people are influenced by recipes from other chefs all the time then make them their own, its like a culinary Chinese whispers and it works. happy cooking. After many years of burnt tops, over cooked meats and thin sauces I am finally starting to put together some dishes to be proud of.

Just to clarify with you I am not a professional chef with lightning fast slicing speeds and tiny yet beautiful servings, I am just a guy who learnt to cook on a fire station where the comfort food in large portions reigns supreme. The fire station is a great place to learn to cook, it is also possibly the most unforgiving environment to do so. Fire fighters pay for their food in what they call a mess, they are always hungry and above all enjoy sitting down to a food in a timely fashion, especially after a 'shout'. So when they have been waiting an hour for their food and it comes out burnt or foul tasting, not only do they let you know about it, you may find it in your face. The issue with fire station cooking is that food is bought to be made into a meal as quickly and easily as possible, jars of sauces and packets of pre made seasoning are essentials on the Watch shopping list, these items are easily obtainable from any supermarket. Whilst they may appear a quick solution, they are also full of salt and additives, not to mention the cost which is far to much for what you are actually getting. What upsets me about this is that if you start with raw ingredients you control exactly what goes into your food, you control the flavours, you control the outcome, meaning you have the potential for tastier healthier dishes that can be altered and changed each time you whip out the pan or fire up the oven. To be totally honest with you by staying away from the products designed to draw in customers who want as easy life, you will have better tasting, healthier food and have pennies left over which will add up and eventually you can buy a set of those sexy chefs knives you've always wanted... or maybe thats just me. As I said I'm not a chef and like most of you I don't have time to source locally grown organic produce that all the celebrity chefs tell you to do. Yes they are right that it will taste nicer if you do but lets be realistic a lot us just don't have the time or bank accounts. Having said that I am conscious to buy free range if the supermarket provides this option, but that is a personal preference.