You grow. Who cooks?

[alan refail]

I have always been of the opinion that good cooks should understand growing and good gardeners should understand how their produce is cooked. I seem to remember Raymond Blanc saying something like this many years ago.

Both I and my wife cook; she prefers to do the traditional things (Welsh, Irish, English) and I venture out into the more exotic, though I have to admit that I rely on her suggestions as to what I should cook. Over the years I have got to grips with Italian/Mediterranean (largely inspired by Elizabeth David's classics from the '50s), Indian (Madhur Jaffrey is the main bible here), Chinese and Thai (Ken Hom), Spanish, North African and Middle Eastern (Claudia Roden and Yotam Ottolenghi for both of these).

How about you?

[Westi]

I'm the gardener and the cook. The other half will dig a bit in the garden but I don't let him in the kitchen. He can cook & quite well but follows the recipes exactly & lines up all the ingredients first - trying a new curry or something with lots of different spices he uses every spoon to have his 1/2 tsp of this or that spice, doesn't leave things on the chopping board but put them all on separate plates! He says it is satisfying to see all the ingredients lined up - hmmm, see why it had to be discouraged!
Westi

[Monika]

I am afraid that in our household, I do both. My OH still does some of the gardening, especially the heavier work, but I choose the kinds, varieties and amount of vegetables we grow because I know what I need in the kitchen. The kitchen is not really my OH's favourite spot, but he has other strong points!

[Catherine]

We both love cooking and both take it in turns to do our meals. Though I love batch cooking for the freezer and usually spend Fridays cooking up a storm if the freezer is getting low. As I said previously we have lots of cookery books and at least 10 of them are used very regularly. Ainsly Herriott Food for friends and family is a really good basic book with stuff that is so tasty and interesting, Yotam Ottolenghi, Plenty, fabulous, Jamie at Home, River Cotage Every day and River Cottage Veg everyday, to name but a few. But I must admit Alan that we have not ventured into Thai or Chinese. (Neither of us like Chinese). We love Italian, Indian, Mediterranean and Vegetarian.

In the allotment my OH does all the preparing the beds and I sow all the seeds, potting on and getting ready to plant out. He plants everything out into the beds (I actually dont like transplanting into the beds) and we both do the weeding and grass cutting. He also chops all the wood for our multi fuel stove and fire.

[oldherbaceous]

I grow, cook cooks.

[Catherine]

well said OH

[Motherwoman]

I dig, grow, harvest, preserve and cook, am I getting something wrong here? Can I borrow Alan?

I like trad english, italian, curries... I read lots of cookbooks and then never seem to find the time to sort out recipes as I never seem to have all the ingredients.

[Stephen]

I grow, I cook
and
The undergardener also tends the 'lottie, she, too, cooks.

Sometimes we eat together despite living separately.

[glallotments]

Both grow and both cook.

[Primrose]

I grow and he cooks ! I am a much better gardener than he is, and he is a much better cook than I am so we both play to our respective strengths. I do the cooking when it's peasant stuff like casseroles, stews, home made soups and my husband does the more exotic stuff. I wouldn't dare let him loose in the garden. His sole forays out there are limited to emptying the compost crock onto the compost heap and topping up the bird table. He has been known to come home with bags of salad leaves from the supermarket when I have the garden overflowing with them !

[Elaine]

We both grow....only me cooks.

I think I would faint with shock if my husband offered to cook a meal...

[pongeroon]

Haha Primrose, my Fine Young Man came home with a Tesco bag of carrots back in August when we had two long rows on the allotment and a row in the garden. On being asked why, he said he had a blond moment when buying for his spaghetti bolognese (which is always excellent, btw) and bought carrots and wine and forgot mushrooms. I only threw out the carrots yesterday, they had gone a bit rubbery...

[Weed]

I do enjoy cooking and if I say so myself don't do too bad a job of it

I am now banned from cooking completely

I think it came about at the time when I always did the family Sunday lunches, I love puddings....so when I cooked we had a joint, roast potatoes, cream potatoes, oodles of vegetables plus trimmings and of course a variety of puddings...

My two girls loved my puddings....it all came to a sudden halt for two reasons

1. I used far to much food up

2. We all put on weight

[AdeTheSpade]

I grow - we both cook. I can sympathise with Primrose too, when my OH came to help pick broad beans once, he pulled the beans off without taking any care, broke and pulled up several plants - and didn't even notice what he'd done!

[Redfox]

I grow, cook, preserve, and bake. I also must be doing something wrong. Hubby has just this year got into hydroponics so we have had tomato and lettuce plants grown ths way. He doesnt like the regular way of gardening says its too much work.