Save me from the Force

[cosmolinguist]

For such a long time I did what my parents expected of me or what someone else wanted of me, that it's left me bewildered and worried just trying to find out what I want, much less actually doing it. Nothing new. So I'm going to start writing things down here, in hopes that I stop forgetting these things and get a little closer to actually doing them.

So, here's an easy one.

I want to be a better cook.

I'm not too stupid and I don't like ready meals but I did have about a week recently where I don't think I ate much other than grilled cheese. I'm not just lazy, I'm also uninspired. Or clueless.

I grew up with hamburger as a main ingredient and cream of mushroom as the Force, which runs through everything and binds it all together and I'm trying to avoid that.

When I got to college I made a lot of friends who could cook. Especially the veg(etari)an ones: I tink once you get rid of the pound-of-hamburger crutch you are more likely to know about the sorts of things that my mom would consider dangerously exotic. I envied them a lot and learned a little but forgot most of it.

I know I can google for recipes as easily as I can ask this, but I'd like to know what actually works for you, and anyway now that I have explained my latest Thing I Wanna Do I figure it won't hurt to ask: what's good for someone who might go so far as to eat poultry on special occasions and doesn't like mushrooms or tofu and doesn't know what she's doing? You can be as vague ("try risotto!") or specific ("look at this website!") as you like.

C'mon, I want my mom to think I'm dangerously exotic!

Comments

[myfirstkitchen.livejournal.com]

I'm going out in a minute, but for a start - stop wasting money on jars of pasta sauce. Chop and fry an onion and a clove of garlic (gently, don't let it burn) in some olive oil, tip in a tin of chopped tomatoes and a squeeze of tomato puree, simmer until thick and add fresh or dried basil or oregano plus salt and pepper to taste. 30p, instead of 5 times that.

Deliaonline.com - search for ingredients. She basic. She easy. She works. Also bbc.co.uk/food

[cosmolinguist]

It's actually pretty rare for me to buy the sauce in jars these days (or really to use much at all; I jut toss it in olive oil and spices and/or sprinkle cheese on it, or occasionally make something resembling cheese sauce because I'm not overly fond of tomatoes. I can do Italian okay. So yes, that's sort of a lie now but it's still the sort of thing I epxect from myself.

cool

[zammis.livejournal.com]

I'll just be stealing the Delia link, thanks! :)

[lostpositive.livejournal.com]

http://www.digsmagazine.com/nourish.htm

I like this website even though I've never cooked from it....

I like to make Dal lentils and veg are cheap and it makes a lot so you could freeze it....

Rose Eliot books are straightforward and the recipes are easy to follow (I use Vegan Feasts a lot)

Em oxo

[cosmolinguist]

That site looks really cool actually. Norwegian food! Swwet. :-)

[keithlard.livejournal.com]

Huzzah for having the courage to ask for advice! It is the best way to learn new things after all.

I would say pick a dish and make it a few times, experiminting with different ways to do it, until you feel confident enough at it to serve it to some friends. That is a big boost as they chomp it up hungrily and say what a great cook you are. Then you can boldly sally forth to try out a new dish.

I usually start with a published recipe, just to get the idea of it, and then tweak it until I feel I've got something nice and a little bit original. There are some of my intresting recipe ideas here:

http://keithlard.livejournal.com/tag/recipes

[cosmolinguist]

I love how you write your recipes. :-) Not just because you keep pointing out the double entendres but also because they include ingrediments like 'some fish' and directions like 'heat oil in big pan.' None of this 'you need a special magic kind of pan for this that costs £50' and 'this is a crucial ingredient you've never heard of and will never find at the store' kind of stuff! Most encouraging.

[cosmolinguist]

You do claim to have a morter and pestle, though, so perhaps I should hate you after all. (No, they are ace really; I am just jealous.) Plus all your recipes seem to end with 'serve with cold lager' so I like that.

[dermfitz.livejournal.com]

My idea of cooking as a student - a student who put tomatoes and lettuce, on the first day he arrived at university, in the freezer - was boiling things, mainly, but now my idea of cooking is: stocks and soups! Learn about stocks and soups and how you can boil a stock down, what you can add to it, and the bases for things like soups - veg and garlics and onions and what-have-you, and the world is your table, honestly. This all sounds a bit glib probably but it was a great way of getting to understand flavour a bit more when you have to build it up bit by bit from raw ingredients.

[cosmolinguist]

I don't believe you: what was a student doing with tomatoes and lettuce?!

It's not glib it's a good point. I've been making stew for Andrew all the time recently and when the kitchen isn't permeated with the lamb smell, making me never want to eat againi, it just reminds me that this is really fun and easy. I should get my act together and buy stuff to make chili because I do love it. It's a good way to mess around with vegetables and spices and stuff too because it's nearly impossible to mess up.

[nannyo.livejournal.com]

I love baking loads of veg. I know this sounds wierd, but I think it's particularly tasty. Basically, I cut up my veg of choice: pretty much anything, but normally carrots, potatoes, courgette(zucchini), aubergine, and onions, sometimes with added mushrooms or beetroot, or other exciting root vegetables; I put them on top of a tin-foil covered baking tray, and sprinkle a LOT of cumin, paprika and cayenne + a little celery salt over the top. Then I drizzle some olive oil over it, and put it in a hot oven until everything is squishy. I think it's really really tasty, although I'm not sure what protein I would have with it, normally I have sausages, or possibly a chop, and some spinach leaves with lemon juice.

It's also really nice if you put it in a salad bowl, with some lettuce leaves, a whole lot of lemon juice, some caraway seeds and a ton of pepper.

I am addicted to potato gratin, done the way my mum does it: slice some potatoes really thin, grate some strong cheese; in a dish layer potate and cheese layers, adding loads of pepper and herbe de provence or other seasoning at each layer. Then I beat together 2 eggs (for 2 of us, more if there are more people eating) and a small amount of milk, and pour it over the top, grate some cheese over the top, and into the oven. It does need to bake for ages, but when it's done it's all golden and puffy, and the potatoes are soft and tasty. In Nigel Slater's book, he adds anchovies to the mix, which I haven't tried, but could be delish. I really like his books, because they are chatty, and he awknowledges the need to swap ingredients, and to just be greedy for flavours.
N.

[cosmolinguist]

That doesn't sound weird! I would like that, except I'm not sure yet if I like courgettes and aubergines. The potatoes au gratin sounds lovely (and better, doable!) though I think Andrew would kill me if I made something like that as he's trying not to eat potatoes even though he loves them. He'd probably be worried about the sauce, anyway, even after I told him everything that was in it and pointed out that he liked those things. :-) He doesn't trust sauces.

[keithlard.livejournal.com]

I will be making that tonight as now I am crazed with potato lust after reading your description of it! :D

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

Those "how to bake" recipes in the Guardian always look quite tasty, although admittedly I've only ever tried one..

http://www.danlepard.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=7

Recently, I have mostly been eating:
Butternut squash and leek soup
Vegetable fajitas
Baked vegetables

I got a steamer for Christmas and don't know what to do with it. Tch.

[ex-catachre.livejournal.com]

Just for you, I give up more of my secrets: Jack Zall's Secret Szechuan Chicken (http://catachreses.livejournal.com/29761.html?mode=reply)

[cosmolinguist]

Aw! I am impressed. Thanks. And I'm still going to make your risotto one day, but last time I foolishly sent Andrew to the store and now I have to teach him the difference between chicken stock and chicken gravy. But, yes, some day.

You know, the only ways I've discovered so far in which you and Andrew are not completely alike is that you cook and throw parties. Apparently your Amanda had slightly better karma than I from a previous life, or something.

yay cooking!

[zammis.livejournal.com]

A couple of my favorite sites:

www.foodnetwork.com has recipes for about anything you can think of, with measurements for spices and what-not, in case the whole "add a little..." wigs out himself too much.

I also like www.whfoods.com- World's Healthiest foods, has some easy recipes involving poultry, fish etc. I made the Lamb Sweet Potato curry with ground turkey instead of lamb, and Karl likes it.

I made the chicken and sausage gumbo from www.gumbopages.com last night and it came out decent (though I have not yet mastered the roux.) Thre's a whole bunch of cajun recipes there, and recipes for how to make your own stock and seasonings, so you don't have to buy cajun seasoning.

If there is an ingedient you need shipped in, let me know, I wouldn't mind sending it! :)

Re: yay cooking!

[cosmolinguist]

Oh, Andrew won't really cook, much less with spices, but thanks; that's good to know.

And thanks for the offer! I'll let you know if I need to take you up on that. :-)

oh

[zammis.livejournal.com]

one other thing, in terms of frugality and "good for the earth" sort of thing- the More with Less cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre has a lot of frugal recipes with less meat and such. Focus is on forming complete vegetarian proteins, and there were a few recipes in there that could be considered low-carb. A lot I couldn't have due to being based in grains, but I think you'd appreciate the philosophy. ;)

Re: oh

[cosmolinguist]

Thanks! There are a handful of little reasons I don't like to cook meat, and poverty is one of them, so that sounds good to me.

[belladonnalin.livejournal.com]

I think that the best thing I ever did for myself and cooking was experimenting with spices. You know ('cause we've comisserated) that I grew up in the same "ground beef plus cream of something soup equals dinner" household, so I got to college and was all "ummm ... what's tumeric?"

I have found that cooking with vegetables (stir fries, fried rice with veg, pasta with veg, roast veg) was a good way to experiment with spices. Because they have a less overwhelming flavor than meat, you can taste more what the spices do.

Personally, I love making curry (Indian-style and Thai-style). I'd be happy to send you (vague) recipies if you want.

[cosmolinguist]

As I'm sure I've said before, you give me hope. :-) Because you started out just like I did and ended up being an awesome cook who knows all kinds of things I wish I did, so it must be possible.

I love Indian curry and at least sometimes like Thai curry and would be quite happy to have recipes from you. Vagueness doesn't scare me. :-) As I say somewhere above, I do not think this is an exact science. I just need some idea of, y'know, what to shop for, and what to do with it.

[baphomette.livejournal.com]

I absolutely love this recipie for a spicy (could be made non spicy, if you fancy) fish stew.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/russell_howard/fish.shtml

If *I* can make it, you can. My previous cooking experience = take out of packet, put in oven, take out of oven, eat. Burn mouth.

[cosmolinguist]

Your cooking experience sounds a lot like Andrew's. :-) It's crazy and cool how Actual Cooking is not that much more difficult than taking things out of packets.

I gotta love a recipe that includes things like "3 cloves of garlic (use less if sexually active)".

[donttouchmyhat.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I can't help you on the recipes (though I can tell a person how to lose 60+ lbs. and still have 3 sodas a day). Er, no, what I really want to say is that I really truly Laughed Out Loud at the cream of mushroom soup line. Still am, in fact.

[cosmolinguist]

I'm pretty sure now I stole that line from somewhere, but I haven't the slightest idea now where that might be. Glad you liked it anyway.

[donttouchmyhat.livejournal.com]

Almost but not completely unrelated to your post:

[nodressrehersal.livejournal.com]

I love to cook, and I don't often use recipes...I'm more of an instinct cook, but I've been doing it for almost 30 years.

Stock your cupboards with things you like, for example, canned artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, sundried tomatoes, water chestnuts, different beans, things that are fine canned. I keep a jar of minced garlic in the refrigerator. I always have the boxed cartons of chicken, beef, and vegetable stock on hand. Have different kinds of pasta available.

If you eat fish or chicken or meat of any kind, buy it bulk, and then repackage in dinner-sized ziploc bags and freeze.

Now all you need to do is melt some butter, add a spoon of garlic, chop some onion, saute it for a few minutes... add some flour to thicken and slowly stir in some of one of your broths until you have the consistency you want, thick or thinner. Throw in something from the cupboard and one fresh veggie that you love, change the flavor by adding a few tablespoons of a marinade, a dressing, sour cream, veggie dip, anything... add meat or shrimp if you eat it, boil up some pasta and voila, you've got a yummy meal that you can change a hundred ways, and it takes you 20 minutes to cook.

I keep shredded asiago cheese, pecorino romano, feta, and crumbled blue in the 'fridge at all times, too. A sprinkle on top, and yumm..

The bags of Uncle Ben's long grain rice that you cook in 90 seconds in the microwave are incredibly easy and good. 90 seconds! I keep half a dozen in the cupboard.

If you don't eat enough dark greens, here's the best tip I can offer. Get a mini chopper, one that holds 3 cups is great. I got mine for $12 at Wal-Mart. Buy a bag of fresh baby spinach, and chop a handful and add it to every single thing you eat. You can't really taste it, it adds great color, and it's so freakin' good for you. I put it in pasta sauce, goulash, linguine and clam sauce, everything! By mini-chopping it, it's so small you don't even notice it, but you get the goodness of it.

Here's another easy side dish. Take a few whole potatoes and slice them skinny, so you have round potato circles maybe 1/4" thick. Butter a cookie sheet, lay them out, however many you want to serve per person. lightly butter on top, and add salt or pepper if you want. Cook @ 425 for maybe 10-15 minutes each side, 'til they get kinda golden brownish. After you turn them and cook side two, sprinkle the tops with shredded cheddar. Add some crumbled bacon bits (I buy the bacon that cooks in the micro in 2-3 minutes) and heat until cheese melts. Another yum.

If you tell me some things you like, I could probably say more, but I'm thinking I've rambled enough.

[dreamhope.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it is dangerous exotic, but a shocking number of my friends had never had acorn squash until I fed it to them. I love squash!

Some of my favourite recipes are on my work's website's recipe archive page (http://www.greenearthorganics.com/archive.asp?qsArchiveType=Recipe). I can't speak to the quality of all of them, but the great thing about the list is that the title almost always lists all the major ingredients, they are all vegetarian (but mostly tofu-free), and they aren't really complicated.

Oh, a tip: Because of the stupid way the archives work, if there's a typo or a problem with the posting, it gets re-posted with a separate entry in the archives. Always click on the top link for the best version.

Have fun with the cooking!