I am a reasonably competent cook. I have some excellent strengths and I also have some weaknesses. My weaknesses include boiling eggs, funnily enough (but because I prefer to eat eggs in just about any other form that soft-boiled, I never practice...)
I think that I am actually pretty good at 'make do and mend'. I am a firm believer that 'rescue' is one of the most important aspects of cookery. If your sponge cake sinks, use a can of fruit and call it a flan. If your biscuits all crumble, make it into a base for a cheesecake or a tart. And so on.
I brought some prawns for today but when I got them home I realised that their use-by date was Friday. Now, this is where my personal habits aren't really good enough. If it were just me, I'd have kept them in the fridge and taken a chance. But I don't think it's right to force that risk onto Jimmy. So I stuck them in the freezer and forgot to take them out last night.
Again, if it were just me, I'd have stuck them in a sink of water to speed up the defrost. Instead, I consulted with Jimmy whether he would agree with me them sticking them in a sink of water to defrost. He did. He also suggested sprinkling some balsamic vinegar and some chopped coriander on them. I was thinking 'yeah, addition of balsamic vinegar isn't going to delay the defrosting'. I then thought that balsamic vinegar and coriander are big strong flavours that will really change the balance of what I intend using the prawns for.
It suddenly dawned on me that he was really jumping the gun. I tend to think a lot about food, try and work out what combinations to put together, and so on. He just has ideas off the top of his head and forges ahead. Which is fine when it's his turn to cook, but not so fine when it's mine!
