Cooking & food
Recipe sites assume you have every ingredient, unlimited pans, and nobody asking when dinner is. These prompts assume the opposite. They start from what you actually have, how long you actually have, and how much washing up you are willing to face. Several force a single recommendation rather than a list of options, because at half past six you do not want to choose. Others are diagnostic: why the sauce split, why the bread did not rise, what the recipe is not telling you before you start. There are prompts for rescuing a dish mid-disaster, scaling a recipe without wrecking the seasoning, writing down the thing you cook from memory before you forget it, and getting three dishes to land hot at the same time. Written for people who cook on weeknights, not for photographs.
36 prompts in 5 groups
Cooking & food21 categories
Cooking from what you have
Dinner out of the fridge as it stands, leftovers to use up, and swaps for the thing you are missing.
- Cook dinner from what is actually hereLongIt is half six, the fridge is a random assortment, and you are not going to the shops.
- Substitute an ingredient I do not haveLongHalfway through a recipe and the one thing you assumed you had is not there.
- Use up a specific leftoverLongHalf a tub of something staring at you and three days left on it.
- What can I make with this?ShortThe fridge is a random assortment and you are not going to the shops.
- Substitute for this ingredientShortHalfway through a recipe and the one thing you assumed you had is not there.
- Dinner from what is in the kitchenMediumHalf six, a random fridge, and a deadline for getting food on the table.
- Use this leftover up properlyMediumHalf a tub of something and three days left on it.
When it goes wrong
It split, sank, or tastes flat. Work out the cause and the fix while dinner is still rescuable.
- Rescue a dish that has gone wrongLongThe sauce split, the soup is salty, the sponge sank, and dinner is in twenty minutes.
- Diagnose what a dish is missingLongYou have tasted it four times and it is fine but flat.
- Why did this go wrong?ShortIt split, sank, or seized, and you want the cause in one line.
- Is this seasoned enough?ShortYou have tasted it four times and it is fine but flat.
- What is this dish missing?ShortIt is close and something is not there yet.
- Fix this now, lecture me laterMediumSomething has split, burnt, or oversalted, and people are sitting down soon.
Adapting a recipe
Scaling, converting units, cutting the cost, the pans, the time, or an ingredient someone cannot eat.
- Scale a recipe up or down without breaking itLongCooking for twelve or for one and the arithmetic is not the hard part.
- Adapt a recipe for a dietary restrictionLongSomeone coming to dinner cannot eat something central to the dish.
- Convert a recipe into units my kitchen usesLongAn American recipe in cups and Fahrenheit, and a fan oven and a set of scales.
- Cook this with fewer pansLongThe recipe uses four pans, a bowl, and a sieve, and you are cooking alone on a weeknight.
- Make this dish significantly cheaperLongA recipe you love with an ingredient list that has quietly become expensive.
- Cook one meal for a fussy eater and everyone elseLongYou are not cooking two dinners, but someone at the table refuses most of this one.
- Scale this recipe to sixShortCooking for more people than the recipe was written for.
- A quicker version of thisShortA recipe you like and a weeknight that will not accommodate it.
- Cook this with one panShortFour pans, a bowl and a sieve, and you are cooking alone.
- Convert this recipe to my kitchenShortCups and Fahrenheit, and you have scales and a fan oven.
- Make this cheaper without ruining itMediumA recipe you love with an ingredient list that has quietly got expensive.
Planning and hosting
Week plans, shopping lists, batch cooking, drinks, and getting several dishes hot at the same time.
- Plan a week of dinners around real constraintsLongSunday evening, planning the week, and wanting it to survive contact with Wednesday.
- Turn recipes into one organised shopping listLongThree recipes chosen and you do not want to walk the aisles three times.
- Work out what to batch cook and howLongTwo hours free at the weekend and a desire to not cook on Wednesday.
- Pair a drink with what I am cookingLongDinner is decided and you want something to drink with it that is not a guess.
- Get several dishes to finish at the same timeLongThree dishes, one oven, and a table of people expecting it all hot.
- What goes with this?ShortThe main is decided and the rest of the plate is not.
- Get these dishes to land togetherMediumSeveral dishes, one oven, and people expecting all of it hot.
Technique and recipes
Why a step works, what a recipe is not telling you, and writing down the dish you cook from memory.
- Explain why a technique worksLongYou follow the step every time and have never known what it is for.
- Write down a recipe I cook from memoryLongThe thing you make constantly and have never written down, before you forget it.
- Read a recipe critically before I startLongBefore you commit two hours and a chicken to a recipe from a stranger.
- Work out how to make a restaurant dish at homeLongYou ate something excellent out and want to reconstruct it in a normal kitchen.
- What is this recipe not telling me?MediumBefore you commit two hours and a chicken to a recipe from a stranger.
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