Module 2. Template Magic
The Art of Cooking Without Recipes

Module 2 Video

Module 2 Audio

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How to Master the Art of Cooking with Template Recipes

Like most people, when I was learning to cook I was a slave to recipes. While it was a good way to start learning different techniques and ingredients, it did have some frustrating limitations.

Like what happens when you can’t buy a particular ingredient? And what do you do with that leftover half bunch of herbs? Or jar of sauce?

Or worse still, what do you do when you need to cook something but don’t have the luxury of time to pour over recipes and go shopping for exotic ingredients?

Over the years, with a lot of trial and error, I began to learn to cook more instinctively, on my own. Without other people’s recipes.

In my head, without really being conscious of what I was doing, I started thinking of recipes in general terms rather than specific ingredients.

From there I developed a collection of starting point or ‘template recipes’. So whenever I walked into the kitchen and looked into the fridge to figure out what to cook, I had a head start.

I knew what had worked before to make that soup or stir fry and could use that knowledge as a springboard for a new dish or meal.

Why use template recipes?

Template recipes provide a stepping stone or ‘training wheels’ to help you take the first steps to freedom from recipes.

They’re designed to give you some support and structure while also providing plenty of ideas to get you started.

At the same time they are there to encourage you to think for yourself. To try new things. To experiment and develop your own recipes and style.

8 tips to mastering the art of cooking with template recipes

1. Trust your instincts
The one thing I wished I realized earlier was that even if you don’t have much experience as a cook, all those years of eating three or so meals a day mean that we all have an amazing natural catalogue of food knowledge in our heads.

So please don’t underestimate your natural food instincts. After all, you’ve been eating for a long time. If you think something is going to be delicious, trust yourself, it probably will be.

I can honestly say, there aren’t many times that I think of trying something and it ends up not working. 90% of the time it ends up even better than I could imagine.

2. Pay attention to the classic flavour combinations.
There’s a whole wealth of food knowledge out there. So there’s no need to go reinventing the ‘flavour’ wheel each time you step into the kitchen. Some examples include bacon and eggs, tomato and basil, goats cheese and beetroot, fish and lemon, chocolate and hazelnuts, honey and almond, apple and cinnamon… You get the idea.

Whenever you’re eating and come across a good flavour combo, make a mental note.

3. Start with less.
Remember in cooking it’s always easy to add more than it is to take away. By focusing on starting with less ingredients or less courses you give yourself a chance to get it right and then build on your success.

4. Read the whole recipe before you start, including the variations.
In the kitchen it’s super important to know where you’re heading and how you’re going to get there. With template recipes this is even more important because you’re in charge. You’re not blindly following the recipe. You’re going to need to take control and make some decisions. To be the chef.

5. Develop a ‘vision’ or picture of the end dish in your mind before you start cooking.
You need to know where you’re going to get there with the least amount of hassle and fuss. So after you read the template recipe it’s important to decide which variation or path you want to follow.

6. Be prepared to taste and season.
I’m convinced that the ability to taste and season – to add whatever needs adding – is THE most important skill. It’s the key difference between a great cook and an OK or mediocre cook. So every time you step into the kitchen be prepared to have a little taste and ask yourself… Could this taste better? What does it need or what is it lacking?

7. Take mistakes as a ‘learning experience’.
Cooking is a natural process and no one can or should expect to get it right every time. I recently went to a talk by Rene Redzepi, chef at Noma in Copenhagen currently the best restaurant in the world.

One of the biggest messages he tells his chefs if that ‘failure IS an option’. So if the best chef in the world expects things to go wrong from time to time then surely we home cooks should expect the same.

8. Have faith in ‘Clancy’s Law of Cooking’.
You’ve probably heard of the great Irish philosopher Murphy and his favourite law, ‘if anything can possibly go wrong, it will go wrong’. When I was little, my Dad used to tell us that ‘Clancy’s Law’ was that ‘Murphy was an optimist’.

Fortunately, I seem to have inherited more of my Mum’s outlook on life and philosophy. So I’ve invented ‘Clancy’s Law of Cooking’. It runs along these lines…

‘If you think it’s going to taste delicious, it probably will.’

9 Ways to Decide What to Cook

One of the biggest challenges we face when moving from cooking with recipes to cooking with templates and creating our own dishes is that nobody is ‘telling’ us what ingredients to include. We have to figure that out for ourselves.

If this freedom and creativity is something that you thrive on, congratulations! That’s awesome.

If you’re finding that actually having to think is more of a challenge… don’t worry! It’s definitely a skill that you can and will develop. It’s just going to take a bit of work.

But as you gain experience and your confidence starts to grow, you’ll find that you’re having to think less. With experience the decision making process will become more instinctive and automatic.

Think about it as being like when you’re learning to drive. Remember when you had to think about every gear change and when to check your mirrors? How often do you ‘think’ about that now? Not very much I’d guess. You just get in the car and drive.

Trust me, with practice deciding what to cook will become ‘automatic’ as well. To help you get there as quickly as possible I’ve pulled together some tips to help you decide what to cook…

9 tips to help you decide what to cook.

1. Don’t start to think about it until you’re in the kitchen.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been struggling to decide what to cook just thinking about it on my way home. Then as soon as I open the fridge and have a look inside, something jumps out at me and the decision is make.

If you’re anything like me, your memory of the food you have in the house will be pretty poor. So save your self the stress and when the ‘what am I going to cook for dinner?’ though crosses your mind, tell yourself ‘I’ll think about it when I’m in the kitchen’. Simple but super effective.

2. Figure out what needs eating up the most.
This is easily the biggest decision making driver for me. I’m hate waste so I’m always poking around the veg drawer in the fridge to help me decide what to eat. Same goes for fresh meat or poultry. So I use the ‘what’s the most perishable?’ question to decide which ingredient to use.

And then let the ingredients, my mood and the time I have available guide me on what to do with said produce.

3. Use Nicole’s brilliant ‘flow chart’.
Nicole, a fellow MYMP student mentioned that one of the things she struggles with most is having to ‘think’ at the end of a busy day. The whole decision making process was her biggest challenge.

I love the solution she came up with all on her own. A decision making ‘flow chart’. It’s brilliant. All you have to do is follow Nic’s decision tree and you’ll narrow down the list of which template recipes you should choose. Nic has generously agreed to share the flow chart with the class so I’ve included it for you to download on the ‘resources’ tab for this module. Thanks Nic!

Although if flow charts make you feel like you’re at school, no problems. You certainly don’t have to use it. It’s just a tool that will help some people, but if it doesn’t feel right for you, focus on the other tips here.

4. Consider the Seasons or type of day.
If it’s cold and rainy out warm or hot food is going to be the most satisfying. Think soups, slow cooked dishes or anything spicy. If it’s the height of Summer and the thought of turning the stove on makes you break out in a sweat you know salad or an outside BBQ or BBQ with salad is the answer.

5. Consider how much time you have or want to spend in the kitchen.
Obvious when you think about it but easy to overlook if you’re under pressure. If you’ve only got 10-20 minutes choose something like a stir fry, salad or something pan fried. Stear clear of anything slow cooked or roasted.

6. Think about what you had last night.
I have a personal rule where I don’t eat the same thing for breakfast twice in a row. But I’ve had the same philosophy for dinners for years. If last night was a big bowl of pasta, then that rules it out for tonight. Not ground breaking but helpful in avoiding any feeling of being ‘stuck in a rut’.

7. Build the meal around your main protein source. Or not.
Sometimes I find it helpful to focus on the protein in helping me decide. OK we’re having chicken, what works with chicken. But of course at other time’s I’ll build a meal around the vegegtables I want to cook.

8. Try using a theme thing.
The idea of having the same rigid ‘theme’ every week just doesn’t work for me. But I do like to have a few theme nights up my sleeve to help me decide what to cook. Examples to inspire you include ‘Friday night pizza’, ‘Irish stir-fry Tuesday’, ‘meat-free Monday’ ‘Slow cooked Sunday’ or ‘Curry night’.

9. Don’t forget ‘Clancy’s Rule of Cooking’.
I know I’m banging on about this a bit but it’s super important. The biggest difference between good cooks and not-so-good cooks is not skill or ability. It’s confidence. You have to trust your own judgement.

‘If you think it’s going to taste delicious, it probably will.’

Top 10 Most Useful Template Recipes

There are over 60 template recipes included in the Master Your Meal Plan program and it will probably be closer to 70 by the time we’re done. If you think about it, there are at least 10 possible variations for each template, and in some cases it would be closer to 100 or more variations.

We’re talking 600 to OVER 6000 possible meals.

Now I’m telling you this to get you excited about the possibilities. BUT I really don’t want you to feel overwhelmed by so much choice.

To help you navigate the world of ‘templates’ I thought I’d share my 10 favourite, most commonly used template recipes. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, I want you to come back to this list to help you narrow your choice.

1. Baked Frittata

2. ‘Smooth’ Veggie Soup

3. Classic ‘Slaw

4. Canned Bean Salad

5. Raw Veg Lunch Salad

6. Simple ‘One Dish’ Supper

7. The Perfect ‘Steak’ [includes fish & veggie options]

8. Quick Stir Fry

9. Thai-Style Curry

10. Pan Fried Protein with Raw Veg Salad

Please remember this list is my top 10. It was quite difficult to narrow it down. I’m not expecting your top 10 to be the same. In fact I encourage you to come up with a list of your own top 10 as we work through the program and you try things out.

It’s all about finding out what works for you and your situation.

7 Step Template Recipe Problem Solving Guide

One of the ways I like to think about cooking without recipes is that if I’m not having a failure every now and then, I’m not trying hard enough!

Remember what we learned from Rene Redzepi, chef at the best restaurant in the world… ‘Failure IS an option’.

But at the same time I hate wasting food. So I always try to salvage the situation.

Here are 7 steps to solving any ‘disasters’ you may have…

1. Diagnose the problem.
Is it burnt to a cinder? Yes then I’m afraid there’s not much you can do. Throw it out and move on.

If it’s not burnt. What’s the problem? Does it taste bad? Or is it just bland and boring? Or is it textural? Too crunchy? Too watery or sloppy?

2. Try some first aid.
There are often minor tweaks you can make to rescue the situation. Here are some places to start…

Bad taste – does it taste off or just not to your liking? If it’s an off taste, best to throw it out rather than risk making people sick. If it’s just a preference thing, can you disguise the problem with another strong flavour. Things like Thai curry pastes, tomato ketchup will often work well.

Bland / Boring – This is usually easy to fix. It’s time to season! Try adding salt and pepper first. If the flavours still taste dull try adding some ‘acid’. Think things like lemon juice or vinegar. Remember to take it slow and keep tweaking and tasting until you’re happy. If you go too far with the salt or acid, sometimes a little sugar can bring things back into balance. But be careful!

Too crunchy or dry – can you serve with a sauce to soften things or moisten. A dollop of natural yoghurt, mayonnaise, pesto, hummus, a drizzle of cream or some melted butter can all help. Even a squeeze of lemon.

Too watery / sloppy. This happened to me with a lamb curry recently. I’d served up and we ate it but I was disappointed especially because we had LOTS of leftovers. So a few days later I started simmering to reduce the water content. At the same time I added cooked chickpeas for more interesting texture, some tomato paste to add depth of flavour and lashings of curry power. The result was a completely different and delicious curry. Another option is to puree some of the solids to thicken your sauce.

3. Store and retry.
Remember food is always changing. There are chemical and microbial activities that happen in the fridge or even the freezer. Sometimes just storing in the fridge for a few days and coming back to a dish will be all that’s needed to take it from boring to delish!

4. Break it down into individual ingredients and re-purpose them.
If you’ve still got a problem, and you can break the dish down to individual ingredients, go for it. Often the ‘repurposed’ ingredients will work surprisingly well in a new incarnation.

5. Make a soup or stew.
Adding some stock and canned tomatoes to turn a disaster into a soup is a favourite trick of mine. The other option is to add Thai curry paste and coconut milk to go for an Asian vibe but I find this less versatile than the good old Mediterranean tomato option.

6. Blend it away.
In wine making when you have a batch of wine that isn’t good, often winemakers will ‘blend it away’ by adding small amounts to good batches of wine. If you keep the additions low enough, you can reuse a surprising amount of wine without having to throw it down the drain. This can be trickier with food but worth considering.

7. And if all that doesn’t work…
Throw it out and move on. Life is too short to agonize over bad food![/tab][tab]

WEEK 2 Daily Updates

A slightly unusual week in our house this week..

:: Week 2. Planning & Shopping Video

:: Week 2. Day 6. Home Sweet Home Tuesday

:: Week 2. Day 7. A Girl’s Dinner

:: Week 2. Day 8. A Normal Thursday

:: Week 2. Day 9. Fish on Friday.

:: Week 2. Day 10. St Patrick’s Day! [/tab] [tab]

Module 2 Resource. Nicole’s Clever Dinner Decision Flow Chart

Click on the image above to download your copy.
(you may need to ‘right click’ and ‘save link as’).[/tab] [tab]

Your Module 2 Funsheet

Click on the cover above to download your Module 2. ‘fun’ sheet.
(You may need to ‘right click’ and ‘save link as’.)

NOTE: To get the most out of your pdf, the best program to open it in is Adobe Reader. You can download a FREE version over here: http://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/.[/tab][tab]

Your Action Steps.

Remember, insight without action is worthless. You’re not going to see results until you do something!

STEP 1. Download Your Funsheet and complete the 5 minute exercises immediately.

STEP 2. Download Your Resource

STEP 3. Share insights in the comments below this video.

MODULE 2 ‘Template’ Recipes

Note: The videos for these recipes are using specific ingredients. Please refer to the written recipes for the ‘general templates’ to make them as flexible as possible.

:: Canned Bean Salad
:: Poached Eggs with Vegetables
:: Legume Ragu
:: Classic Green Salad
:: Fried Eggs
:: Layered Veggie & Ricotta Bake
:: Mild & Creamy Indian Curry
:: The Perfect ‘Steak’ [includes fish & veggie options]
:: Machine-free Ice Cream
:: Cauli Mac & Cheese

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