Learning to Cook

[Halla74]

Wedekit,

I'm real big on instinctive cooking. I'm also the same way at the gym, I show up with a pre-conceived plan of what muscles to work and that's it, I don't have a routine all planned out, I show up and see what equipment is available and go from there. The same applies in a kitchen. At any given time, you will have different ingredients to work with. So, it's all about nutrition, efficiency, cost effectiveness, and of course being tasty.

My generic tips:

(1) Keep as much good "raw materials" around as possible. Shop from the perimeter of the supermarket: (A) Fresh lean meats, (B) Fresh Organic Dairy/Eggs/Cheese, (C) Fresh Fruits and Veggies, (D) Fresh whole grain breads

(2) Use smart balance, or olive oil, not butter or margaine.

(3) A complete meal consists of at minimum 1 serving of protein (meat, tofu, egg, cheese, whatever), 1 serving of carbohydrate (bread, pasta, rice, potato), and 1 serving of vegetable or fruit. If you pick 1 of each category that intuitvely will taste good together, you are on the right track.

(4) I am pretty brutal when it comes to demanding the most amoutn of benefit from the least amount of effort. My favorite base of ingredients in the world to add to anything is: 1 red pepper, 1 green pepper, 1 vidalia onion, 1 package of portabella mushrooms, 3-4 minced cloves of fresh garlic, dash of salt and pepper, cook it all up in olive oil.

You can add the above to chicken, steak, pork tenderloins, salmon, whatever, THEN pick out pasta, bread, or rice, and VOILA! You are done. The meal is tasty, nutritious, and you look like a genius. Serve with wine if you want to get laid.

Happy cooking!

-Halla

 

[Biaxident]

Wedekit,

I'm real big on instinctive cooking. I'm also the same way at the gym, I show up with a pre-conceived plan of what muscles to work and that's it, I don't have a routine all planned out, I show up and see what equipment is available and go from there. The same applies in a kitchen. At any given time, you will have different ingredients to work with. So, it's all about nutrition, efficiency, cost effectiveness, and of course being tasty.


Happy cooking!

-Halla

Same here. I take whatever is close by, throw it into a pan after judging by smell and taste if it goes well together with whatever meat I may have.



Just add a cup or two of rice 10-20 minutes before it's time to eat.

 

[Halla74]

Same here. I take whatever is close by, throw it into a pan after judging by smell and taste if it goes well together with whatever meat I may have.

Amen. Smell and taste are majorly important feedback tools.

Just add a cup or two of rice 10-20 minutes before it's time to eat.

Send me the Chicken Eclectic Nooooooooow!!!!!!!
That looks damn good!

 

[Biaxident]

Amen. Smell and taste are majorly important feedback tools.



Send me the Chicken Eclectic Nooooooooow!!!!!!!
That looks damn good!

Hehehe...Just threw a bell pepper, a lonely garlic clove, a couple of tomatoes, a tomatillo, an onion, some fresh Basil, Salt, Pepper, a dash of olive oil, and a bit of Thyme in some chicken broth with the chicken boobs.

 

[Halla74]

Just in from Mrs. Halla:

Recipes and Cooking Tips and Techniques : Food Network (Giada and Rachel Ray recipes are some of my favs)

Epicurious.com: Recipes, Menus, Cooking Articles & Food Guides

Laura's Best Recipes

Wicked Good Dinner

 

[Biaxident]

Just in from Mrs. Halla:

Recipes and Cooking Tips and Techniques : Food Network (Giada and Rachel Ray recipes are some of my favs)

Epicurious.com: Recipes, Menus, Cooking Articles & Food Guides

Laura's Best Recipes

Wicked Good Dinner

Good sites. But she forgot Recipezaar

Not that I follow recipes religiously, not even close. If someone catches me following a recipe exactly, I am probably ill.

 

[ceecee]

Just in from Mrs. Halla:

Recipes and Cooking Tips and Techniques : Food Network (Giada and Rachel Ray recipes are some of my favs)

Epicurious.com: Recipes, Menus, Cooking Articles & Food Guides

Laura's Best Recipes

Wicked Good Dinner

I like Wicked. Here's a couple I like, step by step pics make it good for beginners too.

Pioneer Woman

Kitchen Parade

Food Porn

 

[Tiltyred]

Seconding Pioneer Woman, yes indeed.

 

[kyuuei]

Really, everyone is spot on. Following a recipe is such a simple way.. I'd suggest, first of all, going with methods you're comfortable with. (aka, if you're best at baking, pick a recipe that involves popping things in the oven. Or pan-frying, or boiling, etc.) And use ingredients you know.

After that, you can step it up to trying something new. Or making your own sauce from a different recipe to use in that recipe. Make a foundation of confidence using recipes that sound like you can easily accomplish them, and then work your way trial and error style from there.

 

[Qre:us]

I had to "cook" with my best friend, some pasta a few weeks back (I hate getting cajoled into such bullshit). I just want to eat, goddamnit!

I was responsible for grating cheese. I now have a dried-up yellowish scab with a hole, it seems, in the middle, on my right hand, where I grated the skin off my hand.

NO! I do not want to learn to cook.

 

[Mad Hatter]

NO! I do not want to learn to cook.

I agree. You should learn to grate first.

 

[Qre:us]

I agree. You should learn to grate first.

After that, no, I do not want to learn to grate either. The kitchen is a deathtrap.

 

[Mad Hatter]

I now have a dried-up yellowish scab with a hole, it seems, in the middle, on my right hand

Judging from that description, are you sure it isn't just a leftover slice of ungrated cheese you haven't removed yet?

 

[EffEmDoubleyou]

I recommend the America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated series of cookbooks. They aren't really beginner level, but they're not super hard. And every book in the series has an article before each recipe that explains WHY each recipe has the ingredients and techniques used. They're great for learning how recipes work instead of just mindlessly following directions. Make a few of the easiest recipes and you'll soon learn to understand cooking in a fundamental way. I strongly recommend "The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook" as a first step, and also "The New Best Recipe", which is my favorite general interest cookbook.

 

[miss fortune]

oooh... you guys have good suggestions!

I started learning thanks to my habit of trying everything in the kitchen out of curiosity as to what it tasted with- including getting yelled at by my mom for eating the spices out of her spice cabinet when I was younger

After that it was trial and error with various recipes found in my mom's recipe box, different cook books and random combinations of things that seemed like they would be good together- when the dish was good I remembered it, when it was bad, my mom tended to tell me what I did wrong

after you get the basics down, cooking is pretty much just theme and variation on certain processes and ingredients

I'd also suggest Good Eats to learn more about the ingredients... Alton Brown is AWESOME!

 

[Magic Poriferan]

I find cooking pretty easy. The hardest part always comes down to the meat!

 

[sleepy]

I find cooking pretty easy. The hardest part always comes down to the meat!

I often only bother to cook the meat. The rest is stuff that dont need cooking. Simplifies things.

 

[miss fortune]

I find cooking pretty easy. The hardest part always comes down to the meat!

I identify... my biggest cooking failures are steak and bacon... and I LIKE steak and bacon

I can grill a fish like nobody's business though

 

[Biaxident]

I identify... my biggest cooking failures are steak and bacon... and I LIKE steak and bacon

I can grill a fish like nobody's business though

Fail? At bacon?

No one fails at bacon.

You've got two choices, extra crispy, or chewy.

If you didn't cook it to the desired consistency. That, is where you failed.

 

[miss fortune]

it's called a 1 second attention span... I wander off and return in a panic when the fire alarm goes off