I cannot cook
actually that is a bit of an exaggeration, I would not be the size I am, or even still be alive, if I couldn’t cook. This non-talent has been with me all of my life but is now obviously exasperated by the fact that I am totally blind. And just for your information over the last 10 years I have not bought a takeaway meal or had any food delivered to me other than by a supermarket. I can cook some meals for myself but they are not very varied and I assume the presentation is quite bad, but I would not offer anybody else a meal that I have cooked because I don’t hate anybody that much; well actually I do but they would hardly come round to have a meal with me. If I offered to cook a meal to any of my friends that visited they would immediately wonder what they had done wrong to get such an invitation and probably find a good excuse to leave. Even if I make somebody a cup of coffee or tea I tell them that they will have to add their own milk and sugar as I am not going to be responsible for how I mess that up either. I have always had black coffee and black or flavoured tea.
I was very fortunate in that about seven years ago a lady in Sheffield took the time to show, and explain, how to make a few basic meals just using a microwave oven. This gave me the motivation to attempt to find all the meals that I could make just using a microwave oven as I do not have a hop in my kitchen. At the time I was told that there are special pans to use within a microwave to cook the rice and the pasta and it seemed to work there but as soon as I attempted to use the same pans at home I had problems.
It did not take me long to find that solutions to my problems were easily available. There are rice cookers and pasta cookers available for microwave ovens and they are simple to use. Details of use are as expected available with these products but basically you put a measured quantity of rice or pasta in the Cooker, measure out the corresponding amount of water, seal the container and place it in the microwave oven following the cooking and timing guidelines accompanying the product.
You should be able to find recipes to make meals within a microwave oven on the BBC good Food website, other websites are available but I am just lazy and have not seen the point of looking for other meals.
trying to find more help
in my attempts to find suitable recipes for me to use I decided to start with the obvious. I started listening to radio programs that were dedicated to the blind and visually impaired when they were advertising that a feature by a blind cook was to be aired, I listened to similar podcasts, I attained newsletters from three or four different organisations dedicated to the blind and visually impaired, and came up with absolutely zero. Every recipe I found required the use of a hop and some sort of pan. As I have stated earlier I do not have a hop of any kind. I discussed the option of having a hob unit with my carer, who is also a qualified rehabilitation officer, when I moved into my apartment 10 years ago and we both decided it would be a very bad idea. The reasons for this still seem valid to me, and if the phrase more valid made sense I would say more valid. I realise there are induction hops which only get hot when pans are placed on them but it is not the actual hop that is my biggest problem.
I have called a few organisations about the lack of suitable information regarding cooking and I am always informed about induction hops and how I cannot burn myself on them. When I point out that I know about these hops but that is not my problem and list some of my problems as not being able to see what is going on in the pans, not being aware of the location of pan handles if I feel I have knocked them accidentally not knowing how to interact with the food in the pans such as when two stair or turn the food, and other such problems. At this point they generally tell me that they will pass my message on to somebody else and they will get back to me and surprise surprise nobody ever gets back to me.
currently my kitchen appliances include a talking microwave combination oven, a slow cooker, a small air fryer, and a sandwich toaster. I can make a number of different meals with this combination of appliances but I have recently added the Tefal OptiGrill+. I plan to review it very soon. It seems like a very good appliance to be used in a blind person’s kitchen as it informs you of the cooking process by a series of bleeps and melodies.
Related links
Microwave Pasta Cooker / Vegetable Steamer
