Can't cook won't cook or Masterchef Sharon?

- Using butter (instead of oil) to cook paëlla...
- Frying raw lentils in the hope that they will turn into a nice daal...
- Placing a ceramic fondue pot on a hot hob to make a cheese fondue (needless to say, within 10 minutes of me placing it on the hob and to my sheer bewilderment, the fondue pot cracked allowing the cheese to serenade the cooker)...
- Liquidising raw vegetables and then simply boiling the mixture to make cabbage soup...
- Adding uncooked/untenderised cow feet to a stew five minutes before I'm due to take it off the boil...
- Being shown up by a child when pounding meat in dear Angie's kitchen...

...these are some of my culinary disasters to date. Couple these with the acclaim and accolade that I got from my loved ones after they had sampled the fruits of my labour...and what does one get? A no-goer in the kitchen.

Well, after much coaxing from the boyfriend and taking some inspiration from Julie Powell in the film "Julie and Julia" (http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/julieandjulia/), I've chosen to turn around my "Can't cook, won't cook" ways to being "Masterchef" Sharon...one of a few New Year resolutions, if you will.

Yesterday, I started off my food odyssey --if it can be called that-- by making a fish curry. I wasn't clever enough to take any photos of the final outcome, but I scored a modest 6/10 from my mum (which in my books is good as it's like getting a 2.1 for a degree). The reason for the deduction of 4 marks: (1) there was no chilli in the curry (not my fault as the recipe didn't say I should add any), (2) not enough salt in the dish (not my fault either as the recipe said "salt to taste" and to my taste, my sprinkling of salt was enough) and (3), too much onion in the dish (possibly my fault).

So, where does one go from here? Unlike Julie Powell, I won't be setting myself a challenge of mastering the art of French cooking or aspiring to cook 524 recipes in a single year (least of all making use of recipes that involve boning a duck...i.e. stuffing a duck with meat and baking it in pastry). What I will do is set myself the task of mastering some simple favourites, which friends can add to, should they please. The list goes like this (not necessarily in that order though):

1) Bengali mustard fish curry
2) Nigerian red pepper soup with Okra (attempted before but not quite mastered)
3) Pork and prawn dumplings
4) Hot and sour soup
5) Paëlla (attempted before but not quite mastered)
6) Soupe de poisson
7) Coq au vin
8) Spicy crab (attempted before but not quite mastered)
9) Moquecas
10) Biryani
11) Gigot
12) some sort of an English roast
13) Jollof rice

This is all I can think of for now but I will continue adding to the list and will await any suggestions.