Delia's How to Cheat at Cooking by Delia Smith

    • Categories: Quick / easy; Side dish; Vegetarian
    • Ingredients: spring onions; packaged grated Gruyère cheese; packaged grated Parmesan cheese; frozen roast potatoes
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Notes about Recipes in this book

  • Bangers with caramelised red onions and mustard mash

    • redjanet on December 27, 2012

      This is one of my OH's favourite dishes which I regularly make. It's a very easy way to make flavourful sausages by frying them in a pan and adding red wine, red wine vinegar, thyme, seasoning and caramelised onions from a jar and it comes out well every time no matter what type of sausage I have used. Delia gives instructions on how to make mash using frozen mashed potato, but I just make my own.

  • My mum's macaroni cheese

    • redjanet on December 27, 2012

      Aside from the ready-made cheese sauce this dish incorporates, I'm not really sure how much of a, "cheat's," recipe this really is considering I had three saucepans on the go on the hob as well as getting the grill ready for the final finish. That said, this was not a difficult recipe to make, and though the ready-made ingredients made it a bit more expensive than normal, it was really very tasty. Unlike Nigella's "Express" mac and cheese that I recently tried, the cheese in this recipe didn't coagulate and was still smooth and consistent throughout. I didn't add cherry tomatoes as suggested as I'm not really a fan of roast tomatoes and felt the dish had enough flavour anyway with the added bacon, onion and mushrooms.

  • Caribbean chicken with salsa

    • redjanet on December 27, 2012

      This was a bit different for my OH and me, but as it was pretty straightforward I thought I'd give it a go. The marinade on the chicken worked quite well and tasted better than I thought it would once it was cooked, as I was worried it might be a bit too sour with all the ginger and lime juice. The mango salsa was very nice, though maybe slightly too oniony. I left out the coriander as I don't really like it, and it wasn't missed. I stirred in the leftover black beans (unheated) with the basmati rice I made on the side as suggested and overall it was a colourful, flavourful dish which was very filling.

  • Sesame scallops with rice noodles

    • cook_fresco on December 01, 2021

      Really nice. Next time I wouldn’t toast the sesame seeds and only 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil. Used Amoy straight to wok medium rice noodles which worked well. Could sub prawns or squid for the scallops.

  • Burgundian braised pork with borlotti beans

    • redjanet on December 27, 2012

      I'm not really sure why Delia classifies this as a cheat's recipe. Not that it was difficult, in fact quite the opposite, but unlike a lot of other recipes in this book it didn't use a lot of pre-packaged ingredients (unless you count tinned tomatoes). It was a simple enough stew to throw together and then leave for a couple of hours while I got on with other things, so perfect for a Sunday. Overall, the results were okay, if a bit bland, so I was kind of disappointed. This didn't taste bad and was perfectly edible, but when I have something bubbling away in the oven for a couple of hours I generally expect something a bit tastier when it's ready.

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  • ISBN 10 1846072468
  • ISBN 13 9781846072468
  • Published Mar 13 2008
  • Format Hardcover
  • Page Count 240
  • Language English
  • Countries United Kingdom
  • Publisher Ebury
  • Imprint BBC Books

Publishers Text

In 1971, Delia Smith published her very first book, "How to Cheat at Cooking". She wrote it as a book for people who didn't want or didn't have time to cook. Three decades later life is even more hectic, and tasty, healthy, uncomplicated food is high on the agenda. This new, completely updated edition of "How to Cheat at Cooking" has never been more relevant, and is the book from Delia that we've all been waiting for. Everyone wants to eat well, something more than a dull ready meal, and we would like our friends and family to think we've spent time on preparing meals. Here, Delia offers 150 recipes that can be made with minimal fuss but without sacrificing taste. She suggests tricks and shortcuts for classic dishes like Steak and kidney "easy" and A very quick moussaka, and gives tips on using store-bought ingredients instead of spending hours at the stove, with weekday suppers including Seafood linguine and Hot smoked salmon with quails eggs. Delia also gives store-cupboard standbys that can be made without even a shopping trip, such as Crab tart, and super-speedy desserts that can be thrown together with little notice and few ingredients (Ten-minute raspberry cheesecake, Sparkling wine jellies with summer berries). With colour photographs throughout, clear instructions and Delia's invaluable tips and advice, "How to Cheat at Cooking" is a must-have for time-poor novice cooks and experts alike.

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