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

[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]

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.

[tubewalker.livejournal.com]

Add just a pinch or two of sugar to myfirstkitchen's recipe above, I always add a touch of sugar to tomato sauces, it makes quite a difference.

[cosmolinguist]

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

[cosmolinguist]

Duly noted.

[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

[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.

[lostpositive.livejournal.com]

Adding sugar is also a good way of taking some of the heat out of something if you've accidentally added too much chili powder etc. :)

[lostpositive.livejournal.com]

Also planning a week's meals in advance is a good way to budget and also to cut down on impulse buys...

[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.

[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]

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.

[cosmolinguist]

Good way to make sure I'm not just eating grilled cheese sandwiches all the time. And to possibly avoid the need to run to the shops every day. :-) But then I often only have the money/brainpower to worry about what I want Right Now and am likely to go 'oh, a pizza, that'll work' and run off again, only to have the same conundrum the next day.

That's something else I want to think about properly, eventually: how to get my food without destroying my sanity/the environment/the lives of the people who grow it...

[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.

[nannyo.livejournal.com]

the good thing about the sauce is that it cooks to almost solid, so it's a bit like a quiche or something; so is possibly less suspect than a sauce!

The thing with the roast veg is that you can roast anything, so if you don't like the courgette/aubergines, you could do peppers, or corn on the cob (actually I roast that still in it's husk, and the just eat it), or any fairly solid veg that you like.
N.

[keithlard.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you like them, it is basically that I do not have a very scientiffic approach to cooking. I know what tastes good though!

I do have a pestle and mortar, which I think I got for about a fiver, and I use it just about every day so I think it is a good investmint! You do not need one though as you could use a rolling pin or such to crush spices. It is just messier.

Good luck with your cooking! Post your triumphs here so we can enjoy them vicar-ously.

[keithlard.livejournal.com]

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

[nannyo.livejournal.com]

hmmmm, potato lust! I get it for gratin, and for cheesy, garlicky, peppery mashed potatoes. I think I could probably live on that for weeks at a time.

[cosmolinguist]

I am not scientific either; my mom and grandma, who taught me what I do know about cooking (and baking; they are great bakers) are of the "put some of this in, you know, until it looks like enough" and "cook it for a while" school.

I think I might be a bit like this too because my husband, who's afraid of poisoning himself if he cooks his own food, doesn't seem to like it when I say "put some of tht in--I don't know! just ... some, there, that looks good, doesn't it?" and "it's probbly done! go check! does it look done?" But even he is gaining the slightest bit of confidence in this because it's just a matter of experience.

Then you can feel like a member of the Sekrit Cult of Cookery Masters and that is almost as good as having a mortar and pestle and being able to get those things you wrap samosas in.

[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.

[ex-catachre.livejournal.com]

Well, that and he follows practical interests and I write poetry.

Chicken gravy? Well, it would make for some... memorable risotto.

But you never know; when Amanda met me I couldn't even boil water (in fact, I remember asking her how once when we were in high school). I only learned to cook when i got out into the real world and away from my mother's kitchen and found that there was a whole crazy world of food that actually had flavor out there. (Most kids go to college and experiment with drugs and alcohol; I'd already done that, but I developed a terrible garlic addiction that continues to this day.) So there's always hope.