I know most of the people joining in Denyse’s linkup today will be husbands, wives and parents and sharing their own family’s favourite meal. Alas, this singleton lives alone so my thoughts immediately jumped back to my family of origin and meals of my childhood.

I’m very fortunate however as I see my mother regularly since my seachange four years ago and she loves to cook. I believe I’ve mentioned the research I invented to prove that the domesticity gene skips a generation. So this means I can get my fave meals from mum without even needing to whine pathetically or remind her I fix stuff on her computer from time to time. 

Having said all of that, I’m still struggling to enjoy any food since my weight loss surgery two months ago which means the idea of food is currently more exciting than the actual act of eating. Nevertheless… here we go.

My childhood favourites

Interestingly the absolute favourite things my mother cooks are things I’ve attempted myself and though I follow her instructions diligently (there are no official recipes) THEY NEVER TASTE THE SAME!

Even the most basic, her roast gravy…. I make up the gravy powder, cornflour and water, add some vegemite (gluten-free MightyMite) and juices from the roast and yet it’s still bland rather than rich and delicious like my ma’s.

And then there’s her braised steak. Essentially she buys cheap cuts of blade steak – which I normally wouldn’t touch with ten foot pole – and then slow cooks it with gravy and onion. And voila… the meat falls apart and the gravy is AMAZING.

And finally, the last of my childhood favourites… a fried curry. We didn’t do ‘foreign’ foods when I was young and I was in my final year of high school before I came across spaghetti bolognese… but my mother did a curry using Keen’s curry / mustard powder, gravox which she cooked with cubed fried potatoes and cubed leftover roast, onion and peas and corn. Now that I’m far more evolved I know there are red and green curries and the like so I struggle to aptly describe the deliciousness of mum’s fried curry which required no coconut cream or similar. Again I’ve tried it myself and…. yep, you guessed it. It was nothing like mum’s.

MY family’s favourites

Mostly I’m accustomed to cooking for one. And pre-surgery I was kinda boring as I cooked the same things again and again. But… as the spokesperson for MY family it has to be said my fave was always fillet steak with peppercorn sauce (made with Gravox Pepper Sauce powder – which is gluten-free) with mashed / roasted potato and some veges because I’m apparently a grown-up and supposed to eat them. I usually cook onion and garlic in the frypan with minimal oil (GF soy and worcestershire sauce) before adding the steak which I prefer pretty rare, and then I add the Gravox (diluted lump-free with water), to the pan with its juices / fragrance and stir in some cream to finish it off. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!

Interestingly my mother tells me she can’t cook certain dishes in the same way her mother could. Perhaps there’s a conspiracy of sorts. These so-called-mothers hold something back – a secret ingredient or special technique – so we’ll never emulate THEIR meals and will have to keep visiting to enjoy our favourites. Little does mum know I’d visit anyway.

What was favourite childhood meal?

I’m linking up with Denyse Whelan for ‘Life This Week’.

*Main pic from Pexels.