Chicken and Red Pepper Tray Bake

 

I’m really getting into these Roasting Tin recipes. They’re much simpler than many other books but still come with flavour and vitamins, and are low-fat.

I moved on from the fish section to the chicken, and started with this treat. The whole thing took around an hour and a half, double the recommended time. Having memory difficulties means that a multi-step procedure, like following a recipe, can frequently take longer to do. You will have thoughts like, What time did I start cooking? Which draw do I keep my garlic crusher in? Have I made enough space to keep my notebook and pen close by? So, I keep photographing the separate stages and keep making notes on the process. Without the notes, I’ll learn very little.

Keeping track of all this bumps up the time a lot. Following the instructions can be quite straightforward if you’re organised, but the other aspect to cooking with memory difficulties goes a little deeper than organisation: it’s acceptance.

Taking twice the time to complete is okay. I’ve learned to be accepting of this difference. I’m not here to compete against anyone. Cooking isn’t a race. It’s a process elongated by damage to the hippocampus, and that is outside of my control.

I crushed the garlic instead of bashing it, meaning it came out like a puree, instead of the process looking, I guess, this:

My oven doesn’t seem particularly good at getting up to temperature, even though I set it properly and check for the light to go out. After 35 mins It still wasn’t cooked through, so I gave it a full hour.

Verdict: nice, but dry. There’s normally an extra recipe for sauces in these recipes, but not this one, so I mixed up some mayo and a little mustard. (I recommend being conservative with mustard. It’s a fierce taste.)