From simple cooking skills to a love of Hullabaloo Food

Out of the mouths of babes!

My son recently departed to explore the world for the first time as a young adult – he is delighted with his amazing adventures but shared with me that the worst part of travelling was food.

His objection wasn’t that food in the United States or South America was terrible, or even particularly expensive – but of the constant struggle of filling his ‘growing lad’ belly with more than gruel at the end of a gruelling day.

His complaint targeted how much effort it took to find and buy food, choosing what to cook, how much time it took to cook it – and finally that there is never enough when you eventually come to eat it!  It is not that he hadn’t appreciated home-cooked food or a well-stocked pantry before he left home – but that dawning and depressing understanding that it isn’t easy to consume healthy but inexpensive food day after day.

Filling our bellies is one of the most time-consuming things we do – so it is no wonder that many people choose instead to buy take-out or buy pre-made meals from the supermarket.  

But unless you have a personal chef- it is terrible news.  When other people prepare your food – it costs more and isn’t as healthy for you. The ingredients that go into these dishes are selected to make it taste super appealing – more salt, more sugar, more bad fats, more preservatives!

Master Simple Skills

Learning to prepare quick and easy meals is the best way to save money and stay healthy. Becoming a ‘home cook’ means knowing a thing or two about the basics of food chemistry and how different ingredients work together, to understand the principal flavours and ingredients for different international cuisines and most importantly to know what you can cook when you have an overwhelming bounty of just one ingredient.

There are other posts on this site which have great suggestions on how to improve your cooking, including; stocking your pantry, making the most of your ingredients and understand some of the essential cooking skills.

It is also important to develop your ‘signature’ dish. This is the one that you can rely on to throw together quickly with very common ingredient; pasta and a simple sauce, fried rice, or an omelette. By practising your dish over and over you will know exactly how long it will take, how much you can vary it, and will be able to knock it out – even when tired.

Hullabaloo Food

I always had a passion for creating and preparing food – but this became my full-time occupation when in 2007, my daughter developed severe allergies to food. I had no choice but to make most of her food from scratch and this dedication to developing food paved the way to my own business. ‘Hullabaloo Food’ was my passion and occupation for nearly a decade.  We created a wide range of allergy-aware food and ingredients that were simple and healthy.

Magic Cakes, Carob Sticks, Acid Rock, Blackberry Crunch, Wheat-free Playdough, Skinless Dried Pear, Egg-free Macaroons, Gluten-free Chocolate Cookies, Rainbow Meringues, Buckwheat Pancakes, Popples and Maggots and Natural Food Colouring.

During that time, I learnt a lot about food science and spent many curious hours in my commercial kitchen experimenting with creating everyday foods which avoided the key allergens: wheat, egg, dairy, soy, fish, nuts, peanuts, preservatives, and many others.

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I would receive requests from many Australian families asking for ideas and cooking solutions to help them feed their allergic children, or at least provide some of the treats that other children took for granted.

Although I no longer run the business, this blog includes many of the recipes and resources that were created by Hullabaloo Food in response to the “Make a Wish” tab on the Hullabaloo Food website, such as the essence of making ice cream.

Cooking can also be stressful when friends and family have other ‘dietary requirements’ such as following a vegan diet or avoiding spicy food.  I know because we have all kinds of dietary restrictions in our family, so you will find some recipes which cater for them as well.

If you have any puzzling food questions that you can’t find an answer to then you can always leave a message. I might have a suggestion!