Cooking…in a wheelchair
I wanted to call this series 'Meals on Wheels' but chickened out.
The strange thing about being disabled is that it's so under-represented in media and under-talked about in life that you often have no idea what you're doing. No one hands you a guide book or shows you how to do things, you just have to figure it all out. As a wheelchair user I've always found cooking tricky (border-lining on dangerous!), but I've found a few things that work for me and wanted to share them in the hopes it will be useful for someone out there!
I’ve been talking about making an accessible cooking show for a while. The idea would be to show low-effort recipes, review energy saving gadgets, give tips and tricks for how to optimise a kitchen for a wheelchair user, that sort of thing. I’ve just published my first ‘episode’ which you can see below (Closed Captions are available).
Today I'm making a Tomato and cheese Gnocchi dish. It's gooey and delicious. Here is the full recipe…
Ingredients (serves 2 hungry people)
1 Large red onion
4-5 Cloves of garlic
1 Ball of mozzarella
100g Parmesan (or alternative cheese)
400g Tin of chopped tomatoes
A squeeze of tomato puree
A large glug of red wine
Large handful of dried oregano
Large handful of fresh basil
Oil, salt, pepper
Method
Dice your onion, mince your garlic, and grate your cheeses.
On a low-medium heat, heat some olive oil in a deep-sided pot/pan and then fry the onion for a few minutes until translucent.
Add the garlic and fry for a few more minutes (careful not to burn!)
Squeeze in some tomato puree and a large handful of dried oregano, salt and pepper, and stir to make a paste.
Pour in your tin of tomatoes (add a little water to the tin to swill around and add this to the pan). Add a very generous glug of red wine and stir.
Bring the heat up and allow it to simmer for 15-20 minutes.
The tomato sauce should be nicely reduced down and cooked through - tasting it it should be sweet and not acidic. Now chuck in your cheeses and stir through.
At this point put the gnocchi on and cook according to instructions, usually in a pan of boiling water for 2 minutes.
When the cheese is fully melted (the mozzarella will first go stringy and then melt entirely), add in your fresh basil, stir, and you’re ready!
Drain the gnocchi and add into the big pot to combine it with the tomato cheesy sauce, then plate up. Put a basil leaf on top as garnish if you’re feeling fancy.