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

[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.

[belladonnalin.livejournal.com]

Okay, here are a couple of my recipies:

Vegan Rice Fake-Grauitin (http://community.livejournal.com/vegancooking/1118498.html)
To address the "weird" stuff in there:
1) You can use ANY vegetable you like, just add them to the saute in the order of hardness (which more or less lets you know how long they'll take to cook/soften) so you don't get mushiness. A general rule for me is that the more colors the vegetables have, the better.
2) You don't have to use nutritional yeast (which I'm sure counts as "weird" for Andrew). I use it to add a cheesey/yeasty flavor, but you could totally do without it and add some curry/coriander/cumin for a more curry-kind of sauce, some chili powder for a more spicy sauce, etc. Or you could just put some cheese in at the end and let it melt.

Chana Mumbai Masala (http://belladonnalin.livejournal.com/446147.html)
This is totally not a genuine recipe, but it's an easy one. I do the same basic thing with a bunch of different veggies - a favorite is spinach (frozen is fine!) and chickpeas/garbanzo beans. Again, the nutritional yeast is not necessary.

Potato Rice Soup (http://community.livejournal.com/veggievictuals/37403.html)
This is really good. Very thick and pretty damn tasty.