Table of Contents
It is my intention with this cookbook to help every busy person rediscover the wonders of quick, easy & delicious home-cooked meals.
I truly hope you find some inspiration within.
With Love
Kim
With Thanks
Although I have been collecting recipes, hints and tips for this book for nearly 3 years and had a vision for the kind of book I wanted to pull together, it was only possible with the help of some incredibly consistent and supportive people
Janelle McCosker: | 8 months pregnant and you stood for 2 solid days, cooking, styling, eating (yes we saw you) and laughing through a gruelling photo shoot |
Melanie Roberts: | Chocolate, Butter, Love is her facebook page. I will never look at a bunch of grapes the same way, check out p.178 to see what I mean. |
Leonie Wolfsen: | The consummate professional, poised and graceful are these really the qualities of a fine chef? |
Kay Gear: | You opened your house and let me raid it for elegant plates, beautiful bowls, terrines, vases, and so much more |
Jan Neale: | My Mother-in-law who tirelessly washed dishes (then tried to find them again) for 2 days non-stop and is still talking to me! |
Jennette McCosker: | The Worlds BEST MUM No more needs to be said. |
Melinda, Kate & Michelle: | You are my A Team just trying to work out which one of us is Mr T? |
Glen Turnbull: | Who Im sure now does own the record for the most trips to a supermarket in a day although there was a noted 4 hour absence on Day 1 how long does 18-holes of golf take? |
You combined contributed to the look and feel of this beautiful book. Know that what you did is in a format now that will help thousands around the world rediscover the wonders of gloriously easy home-cooked meals.
Kim
Abbreviations Used
Gram | g |
Kilogram | kg |
Millilitre | ml |
Litre | ltr |
Oven Temperature Guide
Making friends with your oven really helps when cooking. Basically the Celsius temperature is about half the Fahrenheit temperature.
A lot of ovens these days offer the option to bake or fan bake (amongst others), as a rule, having the fan assisted option on will greatly increase the temperature in your oven and will shorten cooking times.
Our recipes have been compiled assuming a static conventional oven (non fan-forced) unless otherwise stated. If however your oven is fan forced as a general rule of thumb, conventional cooking temperatures are reduced by 20C (this may vary between models). So if the recipe reads bake for 1 hour at 200C that will be 1 hour at 180C fan-forced.
Heres some help:
Guide to Weights and Measures
All you need to make the recipes within 4 Ingredients are:
1 teaspoon: | 1 tsp. |
1 tablespoon: | 1 tbs. |
1 cup: | 250ml |
or the following:
Product | Grams per Cup |
Almond meal | |
BBQ sauce | |
Butter | |
Basil Pesto | |
Breadcrumbs | |
Cheese | |
Chutney | |
Cornflakes | |
Cornflour | |
Desiccated coconut | |
Dried apricots | |
Dried mixed fruit | |
Flour Plain | |
Flour Self Raising | |
Honey | |
Icing sugar | |
Jam | |
Maple syrup | |
Mayonnaise | |
Natural muesli | |
Nuts Almonds | |
Nuts Pecans | |
Nuts Pine nuts | |
Nuts Pistachios | |
Nuts Walnuts | |
Pasta (dried) | |
Pasta sauce | |
Peanut butter | |
Popcorn | |
Polenta | |
Raisins | |
Rice | |
Rice bubbles | |
Rolled oats | |
Salsa | |
Sour cream | |
Sultanas | |
Sugar Brown | |
Sugar Caster | |
Sugar Raw | |
Sugar White | |
Sweet chilli sauce | |
Tandoori paste | |
Tomato paste | |
Tomato sauce | |
Yoghurt | |
* Hint: When you measure dry ingredients like flour and sugar, always hold the measuring cup over the container of flour or sugar while you fill it up.
In the Cupboard
My aim in this section is to help you stock your kitchen pantry with those basic ingredients that will help flavour, or make and save many a dish and event from peril.
Please note: In this book we have not included salt, pepper and water as part of the 4 Ingredients.
Savoury | Sweet |
Sea salt | Plain flour |
Peppercorns | Self-raising flour |
Vinegar | Icing sugar |
Lemons | Food colouring |
Soy sauce | Vanilla essence |
Fresh garlic | Condensed milk |
Minced ginger | Jams: apricot, strawberry |
Sweet chilli sauce | Cream cheese |
Whole-egg mayonnaise | Mixed fruit |
Basil pesto | Puff pastry |
Cold-pressed extravirgin macadamia oil | Arrowroot biscuits |
Extra-virgin macadamia oil spray | Honey |
Breadcrumbs | Caster sugar |
Sour cream | Evaporated milk |
Tinned soups: mushroom, chicken tomato, asparagus | Tinned crushed pineapple |
Dijon mustard | Mixed spices |
Wholegrain mustard | Cinnamon |
Spaghetti and noodles | Nutmeg |
Brown rice | Cornflour |
Jasmine rice | Eggs |
Sesame seeds and sesame oil | Marmalade |
Pine nuts | Gelatine |
Tomato sauce | Jelly crystals |
BBQ sauce | Bamboo skewers |
Worcestershire sauce |