Improve your culinary skills and take on some fun new cooking projects with our pick of some of the best culinary challenges to take on in 2019.
Whether it’s learning to master the art of bread or taking on a cook book from start to finish, here’s our list of a few fun and interesting things to try this year.
Bread baking is notoriously challenging, but once you’ve got the hang of it, can be a wonderfully satisfying hobby. Why not pledge to only eat homemade bread this year? From quick and simple soda bread to a more traditional loaf, with little more than water, flour, salt and yeast you can unlock a delicious world of baked bread.
Here’s another challenge that you can stretch out to last you all year. Why not try and eat a dish from every cuisine or country around the world. You can start close to home with British cuisine, then move into Europe, the Middle East, Asia and beyond. It’s a great way to challenge yourself to make new things, and done with the family can make for some brilliant dinner parties, too.
From pickles to onions, ginger, and beets, fermented foods are brilliant on sandwiches, as simple side dishes and snacks. And they’re surprisingly simple to do, too. Batch fermenting means you can build up a supply for your own pantry and give as gifts to friends, family members and neighbours.
Good knife skills are an important foundation for any professional chef, and with practice, you can improve your knife skills at home. There’s plenty of brilliant tutorials online like this one from Jamie Oliver that you can watch for free and use to practice with.
If you want the culinary challenge to end all culinary challenges, this one is for you. Julia Child’s famous cookbook The Art of French cooking is lengthy and comprehensive. Why not challenge yourself to cook your way through every recipe, cover to cover. For inspiration, check out Julie Powell’s memoir, Julie & Julia, where she charts her journey to complete this exact challenge.