Doing A Delia

I am, admit, confused.

Just watched Delia Smith on BBC2 this evening, and she seemed to be advocating cooking everything from packaged products. Tins of this, jars of that, ready grated parmesan(!) and weirdest of all, frozen mashed potato(!!)

Now I'm not entirely sure what's happened to dear Delia, but wasn't she the woman who just a few short years ago, explained to people how to boil eggs? The woman who single handedly turned Britain onto Balsamic Vinegar? The ever so slightly drunk woman who shouted "Let's be having you" over a microphone at a football game?

What has gone on? Jamie Oliver is now doing recipes from first principles and showing you what vegetables look like when you take them from the ground, and Delia is cooking stuff out of tins. To quote Will Durst, "there's something wrong with the world when Oliver North is doing concert tours and James Brown is in prison"

Untypical, Again. Which Is Typical, Really.

According to today's Daily Mini Quiz on the BBC's Magazine page, the average person knows how to cook only four different dishes. Now, I'm assuming that they don't mean that they know how to cook four different things (eg. rice, pasta, eggs and fish) but four complete meals.

So I got to thinking, what can I cook without actually looking at a recipe book?

Full Roast Dinner (with Yorkshire Puddings and Roast Potatoes), Thai Green Curry (making my own paste), Bolognaise sauce (with chicken livers, natch), Roasted Stuffed Peppers, Griddled vegetables with pan fried fish, Beef in Filo pastry (which I don't make as it's a pain in the arse), Roast Mediterranean vegetables with cous-cous and griddled minted lamb, Cassoulet, Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, Paella & Risotto (essentially the same, but different), Stuffed Mushrooms, Caesar Salad (making my own dressing), Beef Stew, Quiche (and I do make that pastry myself), Chilli Con Carne, two different Indian Curries, and a Five Bean Stew of my own creation.

And that's just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Oh, and many, many various things with chicken.

Okay, so it's hardly Masterchef material, but I'm surely not *that* atypical. The only thing I can think of is that when they asked people they answered "starters, soups, main courses and desserts". And I know, I need to practice my desserts.