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Good dishes to practice cooking?

Beev

Beev

Diamond Member
I'm an average cook, very average, but I really enjoy doing it and want to make more (and more, and more...). I can make a pretty good chili imo, and I also think I make great fried rice, but I want to make portion sized stuff. I want to know how to make a good chicken parmigiana, I want to be able to make good mousse, I just want to make things people will be happy to eat.

So, what are some good challenging, but not too challenging foods I can make to better myself? I don't want it to be my career or I would go to culinary school.
 
Chicken Parm is pretty simple...the only thing I could see messing up is having the pan/oil too hot (burning the cutlets), or too low (making the cutlets cook slow and absorb too much oil). Just read a recipe from a few different places and try one. (Edit: FYI I've never read a recipe for chicken parm...I make mine by first breading and frying chicken cutlets, then putting them in a pan with sauce and mozz and throwing it in the oven until the cheese melts. I assume everyone makes cutlets first and people don't bake the chicken.)

When you're teaching yourself to cook, you need to do a little bit of experimenting and you're pretty much garunteed to burn something, over-season something, or even pick a recipe/ingredients that just don't appeal to your tastes. Don't be afraid of messing up a meal...take-out chinese is usually ready in only 10-15 minutes, and pizza in 30. You won't go hungry if your food is inedible.
 
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Paella. There are many many details to be aware of yet it is a simple dish. Truthfully, any dish is good practice. The key word is "practice."
 
seepy83 said:
When you're teaching yourself to cook, you need to do a little bit of experimenting and you're pretty much garunteed to burn something, over-season something, or even pick a recipe/ingredients that just don't appeal to your tastes. Don't be afraid of messing up a meal...take-out chinese is usually ready in only 10-15 minutes, and pizza in 30. You won't go hungry if your food is inedible.
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This. Don't be afraid to experiment and practice.. and get yourself a decent cookbook that isn't punishing to beginners (here's looking at you Momofuku).
 
Usually I just think of something I want to try and then find the recipe on foodtv.com. I modify it slightly sometimes, but I'm not too daring as I don't know what most spices are and what flavors work well together.
 
Go to:

http://allrecipes.com/

Pick out some things that look like you can handle them, give 'em a shot and learn from your mistakes. To start with go with dishes that require different techniques. Learn a pan roast, a stew, a braise, a sear and some basic pastry baking. The fundamentals like that are pretty simple and each new thing you learn opens the door to other new things that are a little more advanced.
 
how I learned to cook:

-buy a good, basic cookbook (I recommend Cook's Illustrated "New Best Recipes;" it's an invaluable book and the only recipes I've ever seen online that compare are ones that were stolen from it)

-open up to a random page

-cook whatever you just opened up to

repeat once/week (or once/month, depending on time, desire, and need)
 
Steak on cast iron skillet, with a little bit of bacon grease.

Beer can chicken, with a bacon blanket.

Bacon Weave (woven bacon, you can pretty much put it on top of anything, and it will become epic.)

Penang Curry .. nice yummy Thai curry

Egg Curry ... nice yummy Indian curry

Omelets ... easy to make, but takes practice to get the flip right ... also best if cooked on cast iron skillet, in bacon grease!
 
Ravioli from scratch - no machine, use a rolling pin or mead bottle. You'll dig your own eyes out by the time you're done with 4 servings.
 
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I say you should learn a few key recipes very well, then use that technique to easilly branch out to cook things very well that you have never made before.

For example, learn to do a killer tomato sauce. Then with
1) some wine, veggies, and optionally meat you have a great spagetti sauce,
2) some garlic bread, and you have a marinara sauce,
3) cook it down more and swap oregano for basil, and you have a perfect pizza sauce.
4) some beans, meat, and change a few spices, and you have a fantastic chili.

Same goes with curry (easy to swap from thai, to indian, to english, etc). Or stir fry. Or several other base dishes.
 
The spices you see in the kitchen cabinets of everyone's moms house didn't get there magically on their own. The spices are there because everyone who has prepared a meal from a recipe has learned that you must enhance the ingredients to unlock their flavors.

Cooking classes are fine if you have the time and money, and even watching shows on tv can teach you, but the real way to learn how to prepare food is to have a female show you. (Excuse me while I put on my anti-sexist flame suit). 😉

So go out and find a mother, aunt, sister or girlfriend to teach you the basics.
 
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you need to start catching reruns of "good eats" with alton brown, or maybe get his cookbooks. "im just here for the food" should be owned by anyone who wishes to learn to cook
 
Zedtom said:
The spices you see in the kitchen cabinets of everyone's moms house didn't get there magically on their own. The spices are there because everyone who has prepared a meal from a recipe has learned that you must enhance the ingredients to unlock their flavors.

Cooking classes are fine if you have the time and money, and even watching shows on tv can teach you, but the real way to learn how to prepare food is to have a female show you. (Excuse me while I put on my anti-sexist flame suit). 😉

So go out and find a mother, aunt, sister or girlfriend to teach you the basics.
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ngl, my mom and sister are pretty terrible cooks.

if I learned from a female, I'd probably be making hamburger helper tonight.

Christopher Kimball > magical vagina cooking powers
 
Mousse can be really easy (melt chocolate, whip cream, mix chocolate into cream). It can also be quite complex. It's a great dish for a beginner, and a great thing to experiment with lots of different recipes.

What to cook? Whatever's on sale at the grocery store.
 
I know this is probably going to sound cliche, but watch good eats and just follow along. Youtube has plenty of eps. Personally I would start with the most basic things such as cooking eggs.
 
There are lots of good things to do, find dishes you like when you eat out. Look online for recipes, try to get a dish that tastes like or better than what you were looking for.

Figure out what dishes are supposed to taste like, or how to make these dishes good. This is key, if you don't know what the dish should taste like when it's done great, you won't even know what you're looking for.

Also good ingredients, if you start with frozen crap you won't end up with a great end product.
 
Pick a few dishes to learn some techniques, then just go for it. Half of the shit I cook isn't based on recipes but by throwing ingredients together that I like.

Try making some pizza from scratch. Moderate difficulty, but it's cheap and damn tasty, and you can throw your own twists on it.
 
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