This isn’t my cookbook. 4 Ingredients by Kim McCosker and Rachael Bermingham isn’t a book I was all that interested in cooking from either, as the whole idea of cooking with only 4 ingredients wasn’t particularly appealing. I understand that this book is aimed at people who have little experience with cooking and/or who are budgeting for meals, and for that demographic, this book is pretty amazing. For me, it is pretty awful.
The instructions are fairly clear, the authors sometimes sneak in extra ingredients in the instructions, which still doesn’t make the recipes interesting, and the results are fairly bland (except for the chocolate mouse). If you’re new to cooking, I recommend this book, if you have been cooking for a while, there are a lot more quick and fast recipe books which will produce better results. As someone who has been cooking for many, many years, this book wasn’t interesting enough to keep my attention, and I can’t rate it very highly.
Creamy Meatballs
Ingredients:
- 750g extra lean beef
- 250g lite sour cream
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder
Method:
- Combine all except half of the sour cream. Using a generous tablespoon, roll into balls. Brown in a frying pan and place in a casserole dish. Dilute remaining sour cream with 2 tablespoons of water and mix well. Spread the cream mixture over the meatballs and bake at 160C for 30 minutes.
Notes on this recipe:
- It looked good, but was bland. I’d mix some seeded mustard into the cream mixture, onion, actual garlic, and cheese into the meatballs. Hey look – a different recipe!
Pasta with Tomato and Basil
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of pasta
- 400ml Italian sugo (tomato pasta sauce)
- 1/2 cup freshly chopped basil leaves
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shaved
Method:
- Cook the pasta on high for only 8 minutes, drain, and add to the simmering sugo and most of the parmesan. When the pasta is al dente, stir through the basil leaves and serve with remaining parmesan and a basil leaf on top.
Notes on this recipe:
- Boring. Saute some onions and garlic before adding about 500g of tomatoes and let those simmer down into a sauce. Add oregano, basil and finely chopped carrot – now you’re talking a tasty sauce (and terrible instructions from me).
- For a bit of a kick, add some chilli powder and dried mixed herbs to bring out the flavour of the tomatoes.
Chocolate Mousse
[no photo, it didn’t turn out]
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup quality dark chocolate
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 eggs (separated)
- 1/2 cup thickened cream
Method:
- Melt chocolate with butter carefully in a bowl in the microwave (or in a double boiler – recommended), stir every 15 seconds until smooth. Remove and cool for a few minutes then stir in 2 beaten egg yolks and half a cup of lightly whipped cream. Whip 2 eggwhites until soft peaks form, then gently fold into chocolate mixture. Spoon into small dishes or glasses (4) and refrigerate for 3 hours, or until firm.
Notes on this recipe:
- This was really good, nice and creamy and chocolaty, and everyone wanted more (there wasn’t any). This is a quick (that’s relatively of course) chocolate mousse recipe that is simple and tasty.
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