I am not an experienced cook.

Need a little more information. You are asking for recipes for baking that are good easy and inexpensive? So baking, rather than cooking? So if yes to baking, then cookies or cakes or bread or muffins or ??? Can you help out a bit here? wendy

----- Original Message ----- From: "onket" Newsgroups: rec.food.baking To: Sent: Friday, March 03, 2006 10:55 PM Subject: I am not an experienced cook.

Look for a publication at your supermarket or bookstore called "Everyday Food." It is a small format magazine published by Martha Stewart. It has a month's work of easy, but good recipes that require a minimum of easy-to-find ingredients. You can subscribe to the magazine at

And some of the "food tips" are very interesting. I enjoy the magazine a great deal.

nice... i will check that out. to be more specific... i'm thinking like unique pasta dishes or baked pasta, i really like asian foods too, i really like currey./

Curries = expense. In order to make good/great curry you will need best quality spices, which (sadly) do not come cheap! (least not here in Australia!) For most curries you'll need approximately 6-10 spices (ground:cumin, coriander, paprika, turmeric; cinnamon; garam masala and chilli. whole: cumin, mustard seed (black & yellow); cardamon pods and saffron. I do not believe that the current variety of manufactured sauces are really any good - the salt content is WAY high and the end result (daughter makes her own butter chicken from a bottle mix...uggghh!) is not pleasant. (IMHO) I have a couple of very nice curry dishes on my website if you're interested. The recipes can be time consuming - I usually make up 3 different curries at any one time and that gives everyone a selection. (usually a lamb, a chicken and vegetable one for balance) May sound like a lot of hassle, but if you make up a large batch, it keeps extraordinarily well - in fact curries (like most casserole/stews) are far better 24,48 and (if still around 3 days later!!) 72 hours superb!

I buy mixed, powdered "curry" spices at local Asian markets, here in the US.I don't get the control I would by blending them from scratch, but they are inexpensive, and I can find a variety of blends, without buying a dozen or so indivicual spices.

Some of these recipes look very good! I'll have to work my way through them... A couple of the desserts specify a "packet of suet". How much is in 1 packet? Is your suet the same, solid, white animal fat (beef?) that we can sometimes find? Would an equal amount of lard work as well, given that lard is considerably softer than the suet I remember?

Dave

Don't know if you can get it "down under". But I seen a show concerning curries on Public Television. The program I was watching is 'America's Test Kitchen'. They did some blind taste tests and came to the conclusion that Tome's Curry Powder was the best pre-mixed curry powder on the market.

Gordon in SW Indiana, USA

All well and good if you want all your curries to taste exactly the same. Gladly I/we don't. There are an extraordinary number of different types and styles of curries which suit varied tastes and are well worth experimenting with. Bottled pastes and starters are ok if you just want to throw together a quick (nevertheless expensive) meal. I just think the bottled varieties have far too much salt which ruins the taste... and bear no real resemblance to any authentic curries.

LadyJane

-- "Never trust a skinny cook!"

If by "bottled", you mean pre-mixed sauves, I agree. The curries I buy are a variety of mixed spices, and there is no space wasted to salt, generally speaking.

Dave

The suet is actually a blend of real suet and flour, so no, I don't think lard or straight suet would sub. The packets (Cerebos/Tandaco manufacturers) are 250g - 44% of which is suet - the rest is wheat flour. One can still buy real suet from quality butchers here in Oz, but for those times when you want to whip up a hearty, winter steak & kidney pudding, or steamed sticky pudding, this beats racing around town trying to find real honest to God suet. For traditional steamed puddings you really do need to use real suet if you can get it!

cheers,

LadyJane

-- "Never trust a skinny cook"

Thanks!