Family Life - For the Love of Food

We may not expect our offsprings to be cordon bleu chefs but at the very least it would be good if they could cook an omelette. Una Rice has 9 ways to pass on your love of good food and cooking to the next generation…

Food and nourishment plays a central role in family life. Who hasn’t tried to be at least a little inventive and creative with school lunches, the much anticipated after school snack ‘to keep them going’ and the evitable evening meal. Even when we are short on time and inspiration, it is a family affair, often culminating in one of the most important aspects of the day – sitting down at the dinner table, to be together, chatting and catching up. In these days when people often work shifts and juggle so many aspects of life, and are regularly ‘ships in the night’, that time spent around the table is the social glue that helps us stay well connected.

It all changes when college calls, when our young adults move away to study or work, when the nest feels a little emptier, when the evening meal doesn’t have quite so much urgency fitted in between the football training and the boy scouts. But there’ll always be Christmas and Easter and hearty Sunday lunches to get together again. Family gatherings and food go hand in hand.

Clearly, we want them to continue to eat well at college and beyond, and not develop an over reliance on pot noodle and kebabs. Especially when the tables turn and the parents want to visit. But when our youngsters are living away from home for the first time, encouraging them to eat well and healthily and to cook from scratch may be a message you can’t deliver as easily because of distance, and different time pressures, but you can still influence and encourage.

Don’t worry, your teen won’t starve. But if they’re not used to actually shopping for ingredients and putting together a meal from scratch, they may feel a little unenthusiastic and underwhelmed, and tempted to go for the microwave meal section - but this is nothing that a nudge in the right direction can’t fix.

1. When settling your teen into new accommodation, check out the nearest supermarkets, butchers and markets, so they know where to buy ingredients and what to get.

2. Your son or daughter may be conscious of budget, and fast food may be the quick and easy option for dinners, but in reality when you break it down buying fresh and cooking from scratch is more economical, but just takes some planning and consideration.

3. Planning ahead depends on your offspring’s level of competency – do they need food demos, or a few simple recipes up their sleeve to get started? Planning also involves buying foods that are freezable to be cooked later on. As well as cooking in semi-bulk – not huge amounts, but enough that a portion or perhaps a nutritious sauce, can be frozen and defrosted later, on a day when they don’t feel like cooking a full evening meal.

4. Often for the non-cooks amongst us, an intimidating aspect of cooking is being handed a gorgeous giant, glossy cookery book – as though that will solve all our issues. As much as they look the part on a shelf lined up, sometimes long lists of ingredients and amounts and methods are enough to turn us off. But learning to cook is like building blocks. There’s no harm starting with a really simple book that covers basics – like pastas with sauces, pies and omelettes – and then getting more ambitious.

5. Don’t panic about buying your child/young adult gadgets. While we may often adore our kitchen gadgetry like our food processor or reliable slow cooker, other people may not be as enthusiastic. Kitchen gadgets for students are only as useful as the time they can make for them, so unless they’re interested in making soups or freshly baked bread every day, it may well be that the slow cooker or bread maker sits unopened. An electric hand-held mixer and a microwave may be the most used gadgets however.

6. Enjoy cooking shows together as a lighthearted way to feel a little more courageous and motivated. Some of our favourite cooks and chefs are: Nadiya Hussain - Nadiya’s Time to Eat, with her jackfruit curry and kiwi feta salad; Jamie Oliver (his 15 Minute Meals are great); Rachel Allen; Catherine Fulvio and Donal Skehan.

7. Phone a friend. How many friends and colleagues from different countries and cultures could provide you with inspiration? You don’t know until you ask who has got the most tasty recipes up their sleeves that are regular favourites and not off the scale in skills level. Ask your vegan and vegetarian friends also for ideas and demos too.

8. There’s a course or recording for every level of cook and every interest. Some gift vouchers may be the perfect gift for the young adult who would like to learn more in a hands-on way. Well worth checking out is eastcoastcookeryschool.ie, based in Louth, which also offers interactive online virtual cooking classes covering delights such as A Taste Of Asia, and Indian Kitchen. There’s also thehappypear.ie, with their range of courses around vegan cooking and baking. Cookingwithplants.com is another great resource for very quick and tasty vegan options like curried cauliflower rice and cinnamon donut energy balls, and we like the idea of two minute Chocolate Orange Mousse and two ingredient waffles as well!

9. Whilst cookery courses are a fantastic way to boost confidence around cooking, a reluctant cook may be inspired with a hamper of ingredients and some hearty food ideas. Saving your recipes from Woman’s Way magazine and laminating them may well be an ingenious way to ensure your college student or young person living away from home for the first time gets a real taste of home.