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I want to cook more

johnjohn320

johnjohn320

Diamond Member
I'm not a complete and total n00b at cooking, my girlfriend and I used to cook a lot. Now we're long distance, and she's not around most days, I'm realizing how much of our cuisine resulted from me following her directions (she's a great cook). She bought me a couple of beginner-type cookbooks, (A Man/A Can/A Plan, Betty Crocker's Home Cookbook, etc). I've got some basic supplies and whatnot. I guess my reason for posting is asking all you good cooks out there how you got started and subsequently improved. A lot of trial and error? Follow a recipe or improvise? Discover ways to gain efficiency so you don't spend 3 hours cooking a meal that takes 15 mins to eat? I work 7 days a week and am pretty busy, so I'm interested in things that don't take forever. I'm just tired of eating out.
 
In general, there is no easy button. Make a weekly menu. You don't have to stick to it but, it will give you some structure. Making large batches and freezing smaller portions is a good idea for when you're tired and just want to nuke something.
 
I'll add in that you should probably budget in some serious time. Like, 1.5hours or so a night for the first while - this includes time spent at the grocery store picking up stuff and cleaning all your dishes. Probably worth it, since you'll be saving money and eating better. Then after you can make stuff that you like and is actually edible without really thinking about it, the time commitment goes down - just cooking and cleaning at that point.
 
A lot of trial and error?
Follow a recipe or improvise?
Discover ways to gain efficiency so you don't spend 3 hours cooking a meal that takes 15 mins to eat?
Click to expand...

all of the above.

What types of food do you like?

go from there.

We like fresh veggies.....we often make the following:

Onion
Garlic
Zuccini
Peppers (red, yellow, green)
Black Pepper
Olive Oil

all sautéed together can then be combined with just about anything:

-By itself

-add it to a salad

-boil some noodles then toss veggies & noodles in a casserole dish with some sauce, cheese and some spices then bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or so and you have a meal that will last you a couple of days.

-add them to a Pita pocket with some turkey or roasted chicken, some dressing and Feta cheese.

-they compliment a good steak

-great base for a good soup in the winter.

-good for Americanized Chinese

food network is your friend.
 
watch cooking shows, good ones where you really learn technique and other things. Good Eats is good, Essence of Emeril is good (emeril live, not so much)

Get "Im Just Here for the Food" by alton brown, amazingly great introduction to the basic cooking techniques
 
You could go to AllRecipes and follow recipes or you could watch something like the Urban Peasant which makes Cooking less a Science and more an Art. Personally I prefer the Art, occassionally looking at recipes for ideas on new Dishes.
 
Watch Alton Brown. He's one of the few cooks I've seen on TV that actually instruct and tell you how to make a dish, not show you.
 
A lot of trial and error. You can minimize error by at least knowing what flavors you like and what they pair well with mostly just by eating some of your favorite dishes and paying attention to what you taste. It's sort of fun to taste food and try to pick out the ingredients.

If you really want to learn, I'd suggest making a trip to a local market every weekend and buying whatever is seasonal, fresh that day, and local. That's how the rest of the world cooks. I'm talking farmers markets, butcher shops, things like that. If you're in or near a larger metro area, there are usually outdoor markets that set up seasonally. Try to look those up. Worst case, you can do Whole Foods, but you'll pay 1.5x as much as it would cost to buy it more directly. The key is to stick with seasonal ingredients and whatever is fresh.

Use the internet or past experience for ideas and try to combine it in a way that you like. A French or Italian cookbook, preferably one for beginners since it will have more explanation and less assumption, is a good way to get started. Personally, my two go-to books are Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook and Mario Batali's Molto Italiano. Hard to find some ingredients, but both are generally based on seasonal cooking.

Finally, don't be afraid to fuck up. 9 out of 10 times, you'll still have something edible, but it might be slightly burnt, oversalted, etc, but you'll still have dinner out of it. Mediocre results are a lesson in themselves.
 
Start with simple things.

Try pan frying a nice steak and then just make a very stupidly simple salad. You can use the steak method to cook pork chops too.

Roast a chicken. Make mashed potatoes.

Soups are fantastic and easy to do. Make sure you get some good low-sodium stock to start out with though.
 
Try to do things that don't take a lot of ingredients, make large quantities and eat as leftovers. I like to find some complicated recipes and simplify them.
 
Just get a "Home favorites" type of cookbook and follow the directions on a few recipies that sound good to you. Really, cooking is just "follow the directions", then after a while you understand how certain things go together.
 
Originally posted by: sandorski
You could go to AllRecipes and follow recipes or you could watch something like the Urban Peasant which makes Cooking less a Science and more an Art. Personally I prefer the Art, occassionally looking at recipes for ideas on new Dishes.
Click to expand...

with a better understanding of how heat affects food and materials in the cooking process you can cook good food consistently. you definitely need experience to make the best of it, but a solid understanding of the basics can be applied to lots of situations with or without a recipe.

learn how to cook, not just how to follow a recipe. with the abundance of information available, theres no good reason not to.

edit: the joy of cooking is an excellent recommendation, as it has a wealth of information on food and cooking, as well as hundreds and hundreds of recipes.
 
Something incredibly easy and incredibly nice is a beef stif fry - all you need is a wok, which should be seriously hot. Cook your thinly sliced steak rare in oil with ginger, garlic, and chilli, then add honey and soy sauce and boil it down for 2 minutes. Serve on rice with some steamed or stir fried veg.
 
Originally posted by: xSauronx
watch cooking shows, good ones where you really learn technique and other things. Good Eats is good, Essence of Emeril is good (emeril live, not so much)

Get "Im Just Here for the Food" by alton brown, amazingly great introduction to the basic cooking techniques
Click to expand...

Which one? It appears to be a whole series...
 
Originally posted by: johnjohn320
Originally posted by: xSauronx
watch cooking shows, good ones where you really learn technique and other things. Good Eats is good, Essence of Emeril is good (emeril live, not so much)

Get "Im Just Here for the Food" by alton brown, amazingly great introduction to the basic cooking techniques
Click to expand...

Which one? It appears to be a whole series...
Click to expand...

Yes.
 
Originally posted by: johnjohn320
I'm not a complete and total n00b at cooking, my girlfriend and I used to cook a lot. Now we're long distance, and she's not around most days, I'm realizing how much of our cuisine resulted from me following her directions (she's a great cook). She bought me a couple of beginner-type cookbooks, (A Man/A Can/A Plan, Betty Crocker's Home Cookbook, etc). I've got some basic supplies and whatnot. I guess my reason for posting is asking all you good cooks out there how you got started and subsequently improved. A lot of trial and error? Follow a recipe or improvise? Discover ways to gain efficiency so you don't spend 3 hours cooking a meal that takes 15 mins to eat? I work 7 days a week and am pretty busy, so I'm interested in things that don't take forever. I'm just tired of eating out.
Click to expand...

I really got started when my Italian wife (who is a good cook) had to leave myself and my young son behind to go visit her elderly father back in Italy. This was 8 months ago. Cooking is now my new hobby.

3 weeks on our own, and no way I was buying crap in a cardboard to heat up. Once in a while? OK. Days on end all in a row? No effing way.

Yeah, I had been watching cooking shows like Alton Brown where he really explains what's going on. It's helpful and gives you confidence and ideas.

I consider recipes a 'suggestion'. Don't be afraid to change 'em. I suggest you use your imagination. That's what I do. I think (or imagine) what I want to eat, how it should taste etc. I rarely use any recipes anymore. I just make 'em on the fly. Use your taste, smell and your imagination. Hell, I probably couldn't identify many spices or herbs by name in a taste test, and I don't care. When I'm cooking something I go through the spice rack smelling them and pick out the ones I wanna add to my dish.

I think your challenges are gonna be finding the time to shop, and then cooking for just one person (yourself) brings the 'portions' into play.

In my case the grocery store is on my way home. Pretty much everyday I stop by to see what looks to eat, or what's on sale. I hate having a bunch of stuff in my fridge.

Buying smaller portions is expensive; sometimes not even possible.

You may need to use your freezer, or find ways to use the item in multiple dishes. E.g., a bag of potatoes - baked, mashed (sometime put shredded cheese in, fried onions etc), sliced and fried etc. Or ground beef - hamburger, salsbury steak (basically hamburger with gravy on it served over rice or pasta), bolognese type sauce (ground beef with green peppers diced carrots simmered in tomato based sauce and served over pasta), or in stuffed peppers etc.

Don't be afraid to experiment. My family's never refused to eat, or complained about, any one of my 'experiments'. The only things that are really fatal in terms of making edible dishs are under-cooking or burning them. Don't be afraid to sample, or cut into the meat to see if it's done enough etc.

Just watch what you're doing. Watch the food.

Start out with one or two cooking techniques. I mean, grilling, frying, sauteing, baking, stir frying, using a pressure cooker etc. As you get comfortable, add another one and you get all the new dishes it brings.

What's quick?

Stir fry, pan searing meat or fish, and grilling.

What takes me the most time?

Food prep. Peeling potatoes, carrots, slicing and dicing. Clean up can take a while too. Consider one-dish meals.

While baking and simmering pasta-type sauces takes a longer time, once you get passed the food prep part and you put it in the oven, or set the pan on stove simmering you can go about your business. You don't really need to check in on that stuff often.

Don't be afraid to trust your instincts and experiment. I think that's the most important thing. As I said, unless you burn the heck out of it, it'll be alright and you'll learn a bunch.

One other thing - organization. I set out my ingredients, spices, and pots/pans etc before I start cooking. My wife has tendancy to get into the middle of something and find we are all out of some ingredient then I have to run to the store. I hate that crap. When you set out your stuff, you won't find yourself going "Oh snap. I forgot we're outta this ot I forgot to add in the xxxx".

If you want any recipes, just google. There are a ton of sites out with them. Don't settle on the first recipe you see either. Some are more complicated, some have exotic ingredients etc. There are many ays to skin the cat (make the dish) so find the one you prefer.

Good luck with it.

Fern




 
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