Want to learn to cook? Don’t know where or how to start? Try this!

I am not a professional chef. I am just a food lover who has learnt to cook good home-food! It’s taken me a while, perfecting each of these dishes to the point that they are repeatable. So, if I can cook these recipes, then so can you. You do not need a huge kitchen with endless cupboards full of stuff. Just a few essential things, like a pestle and mortar and a spice grinder, together they make most curries reasonably quick and easy to make; a selection of good sharp knives and a sharpener; a few metal oven trays, a few oven dishes, and a few pots and pans.

I have always enjoyed good food and was fortunate to work in a job that kept me fit. Home cooking has always been a normal everyday pleasure and even after a long days work I would happily come home and cook a stir fry for the family in 30 minutes. Not only did it help clear my mind, it also provided a healthy meal after a tough day.

When the pandemic struck, I was home like everyone else. So the radio was a constant companion during the long quiet days. Slowly, listening to talk shows, I realised how difficult it was for many families. How do we feed the family, every day, three times a day? The need to learn to cook became a serious one. Home cooked food is also healthy food, so to begin to learn has that added bonus too.

So, with encouragement from family and friends, I decided to write My Lockdown Cookbook hoping I might help just some of those families who wanted to learn but did not know how to. If I can help some people, in some small way, to begin to enjoy home cooked food, then I will be very happy.