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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Can't Cook, Won't Cook
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Belle Ringer
Shipmate
# 13379
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Posted
Cooking for yourself is so expensive. Like, Christmas cookie recipe called for something named mace. $7 for a jar. All I needed was 1 tsp. Awful expensive two dozen cookies! Next recipe wants soy sauce, have to buy a whole bottle. All these bottles and jars of things used once go out of date before I see another recipe that uses them, and I don't know which dates I can ignore. Even salt and sugar have "use by" dates, I know they last forever, but milk goes bad.
Oh, that reminds me, I'm milk intolerant, so if a recipe demands milk or cheese, which most of them seem to, and how do I know if I can substitute something or not? I'm going wheatless, can I use a different grain for muffins? So much more to it than just follow a recipe! Confusing.
Speaking of confusing, we're supposed to not cook on teflon because it give off poisonous fumes, aluminum might lead to altzheimers, cast iron you can't let sit a few days before washing or it will rust, glass can't be used on the stove top sort of and I keep forgetting the sort of exceptions -- what do you cook in? And if it says a 9 inch square metal pan and what I have is an 8 inch glass pan how do I adjust temperature and time?
I'm awed by people who can cook. I can only heat things. I can follow a simple recipe but I have to look up words like "saute" so it's a bigger project than it seemed, and if the batter is supposed be "the consistency of peanut butter" - runny or thick peanut butter?
Speaking of instructions, you know all those healthy foods in the store, the ones that don't come with instructions? How am I supposed to cook something that has no instructions? Is it edible raw or does it have to be cooked? Do I peal it or is the peel edible, eat the roots/leave/skin or cut them off?
I can "cook" foods that come with instructions but they all seem to have fake food ingredients.
Every so often I try but it's a tremendous amount of time to make one meal! Or you make a batch and have to eat the same thing day after day.
And you have to be thinking about food long before you are hungry if you want a meal ready when you want to eat, but my mom couldn't cook and so I didn't enjoy eating, it just eased hunger pains, if eating isn't fun then there's no interest in thinking about food when not hungry.
Challenge, can this girl become a good cook and love it?
Posts: 5830 | From: Texas | Registered: Jan 2008
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
Allow me to recommend my artisanal peanut butter sandwiches.
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
quote:
Originally posted by Ricardus:
Aubergine stuffed with glop = there is a Turkish name for this but I've forgotten it
You may be thinking of "imam bayildi". So named because it's said to be so delicious that the imam who tasted it swooned in delight.
I was thinking "Baba ghanoush."
Baba ghannoush is pureed aubergine (or mashed). Either way, it's cooked and pulped and you add your seasonings.
Which prompts me to think it might be time to make that again. It's good with pitta bread, or toast.
[ 09. March 2013, 07:17: Message edited by: Ariel ]
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
Meh, I guess I was thinking baba ghanoush because I like baba ghanoush. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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Ricardus
Shipmate
# 8757
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Posted
Some Googling suggests I was thinking of karnıyarık, although it also looks like the glop part of karnıyarık has specified ingredients, which would make it unsuitable for the Ricardus school of cooking.
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Then the dog ran before, and coming as if he had brought the news, shewed his joy by his fawning and wagging his tail. -- Tobit 11:9 (Douai-Rheims)
Posts: 7247 | From: Liverpool, UK | Registered: Nov 2004
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Mm yes, specified ingredients. However, there are ways of getting around that. I was once invited to dinner with someone who had made a lasagne. We commented on the interesting and unusual flavour. The hostess cheerfully revealed that in addition to the pasta and meat, in had gone a tin of mushroom soup, some leftover kidney beans, and half a tin of pineapple that needed to be used up.
You can put anything into a pie or curry, use up leftovers as fillings for baked potatoes, or, I guess, lasagne. You aren't legally required to stick hard and fast to any recipe. The point is that you enjoy what you've cooked.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Ricardus
Shipmate
# 8757
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Posted
Oh, I absolutely agree - but I can't call something X if X is defined by an ingredient I haven't actually put in it. E.g. dopiaza made with something other than industrial quantities of onions might be very nice, but it isn't a dopiaza.
And I am definitely going to try putting tinned pineapple in lasagne.
(I once made soup that contained apple, celeriac and cinnamon. Absolutely nobody has ever believed me that this could possibly taste nice.
Also soup with sauerkraut and paprika. This is actually a Czech speciality called zelňačka, but again, nobody believes me ...)
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Then the dog ran before, and coming as if he had brought the news, shewed his joy by his fawning and wagging his tail. -- Tobit 11:9 (Douai-Rheims)
Posts: 7247 | From: Liverpool, UK | Registered: Nov 2004
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
I believe you.
At one place where I worked the canteen had a cook who liked to experiment. Not all of his experiments were hugely successful. The gooseberry and onion soup and the kidney and orange soup spring to mind. I finished the gooseberry and onion soup more by willpower, reminding myself that it was vegetarian so wouldn't hurt, but gave up on the kidney and orange.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ricardus:
(I once made soup that contained apple, celeriac and cinnamon. Absolutely nobody has ever believed me that this could possibly taste nice.
I can believe it. The basis of free-form cooking is knowing the essential character of an ingredient, and therefore having an idea of how it will behave in combination with others. Apple and cinnamon often turn up in dessert, and people possibly think of them as inherently sweet - but that's the presence of sugar. Apple is fruity/acidic, and goes very well in savoury dishes.
Not everything works with everything. Black pudding and green pepper sandwiches. Don't go there.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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QLib
Bad Example
# 43
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Not everything works with everything. Black pudding and green pepper sandwiches. Don't go there.
But perhaps black pudding and Peppadew.....?
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Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes Gustav Mahler.
Posts: 8913 | From: Page 28 | Registered: May 2001
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
I am an addict of the aleatory.
Thanks for adding the word 'aleatory' to my vocabulary.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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John Holding
Coffee and Cognac
# 158
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
Cooking for yourself is so expensive. Like, Christmas cookie recipe called for something named mace. $7 for a jar. All I needed was 1 tsp. Awful expensive two dozen cookies! ...
Speaking of confusing, we're supposed to not cook on teflon because it give off poisonous fumes, aluminum might lead to altzheimers, cast iron you can't let sit a few days before washing or it will rust, glass can't be used on the stove top sort of and I keep forgetting the sort of exceptions -- what do you cook in? And if it says a 9 inch square metal pan and what I have is an 8 inch glass pan how do I adjust temperature and time?
Do you have a health food store, or the equivalent of an outlet in Canada called "Bulk Barn". BB isn't a Costco equivalent, but sells food from bins, where you buy as much as you need, sort of like a health food outlet. You need a teaspoon of mace -- buy a teaspoon of mace. It'll probably cost you about 10 cents.
As for the other -- cooking can be precise (baking things like cakes may be) but usually isn't. And there's a lot of room for variations. It really doesn't matter for most things whether you cook them at 325, 350 or 375. In reality, most ovens aren't that precise anyway. 350 is a kind of default temperature for most oven cooking; baking is less forgiving because of the sugar and leavening agents involved. All that means is that you check the oven to see what's happening. If the recipe calls for 30 minutes at 350, and you've set the oven at 375 -- well, you were going to check the oven at 25 minutes anyway, weren't you? And if the accident went the other way, when you check at 25 minutes you'll see that it needs an extra 5-10 minutes.
Cooking's like a lot of things -- it presents as precise when it's mostly really not. 8x8 or 9x9 -- if you have the bigger one, it'll be a little thinner. Glass or metal baking dish -- I've never found it made much of a difference with most of the things I cook on a normal day. For something special -- the kind of thing you might consider as a one off, once in a blue moon -- you probably want to follow the recipe more carefully.
John
Posts: 5929 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: May 2001
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Belle Ringer
Shipmate
# 13379
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by John Holding:
quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
Cooking for yourself is so expensive. Like, Christmas cookie recipe called for something named mace. $7 for a jar. All I needed was 1 tsp. Awful expensive two dozen cookies! ...
Do you have a health food store, or the equivalent ... sells food from bins, where you buy as much as you need, sort of like a health food outlet. You need a teaspoon of mace -- buy a teaspoon of mace. It'll probably cost you about 10 cents.
Two hours away. If I planned meals/cooking a month or two ahead I could buy precise amounts of ingredients on my quarterly run into the city. One of the downsides of small town life is no Asian market, no health food stores, etc. But anywhere you go - standing in line at the post office - is a social encounter with people you know. That's fun.
Posts: 5830 | From: Texas | Registered: Jan 2008
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basso
Ship’s Crypt Keeper
# 4228
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Posted
Ricardus's taxonomy of glop is very helpful.
One I've had before (but not made yet) is the old standby where the 'meat' in the dish is sliced hot dogs. I call it Frankenglop.
Posts: 4358 | From: Bay Area, Calif | Registered: Mar 2003
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Days I'm feeling cheap and a bit German, I love hot sliced smoked sausage and potato, doused in a mustardy vinaigrette with lots of black pepper.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
My lovely bride can cook lovely meals from Julia Child recipes in our little Pullman kitchen, but we often have Tesco ready meals or sausages. Two or three times a month, I cook a steak.
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by basso:
Ricardus's taxonomy of glop is very helpful.
One I've had before (but not made yet) is the old standby where the 'meat' in the dish is sliced hot dogs. I call it Frankenglop.
I'm not sure which label I love better: the "taxonomy of glop" or the "Frankenglop."
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
... hot sliced smoked sausage and potato ...
We buy big packs of assorted sausages from Costco which I bag up and freeze (each pack will make half a dozen meals). One of our favourite standbys is sausages, potatoes and red peppers, chopped and baked in the oven - very flavoursome, and dead easy.
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Barnabas Aus
Shipmate
# 15869
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Posted
I don't know what the situation might be in other parts, but here in country Australia even Aldi is making the move into small towns.
Thus tonight's quick and easy meal for the two of us was a small steak, red sweet potato peeled, sliced into rounds, parboiled for 3 minutes in the microwave and then grilled on our teppanyaki grill with the steak, and a quick steam pack of carrots, broccoli and cauliflower done for 2 minutes 15 in the microwave, all purchased [including the grill] at our local Aldi.
From start to finish dinner was ready in about ten or twelve minutes. Colourful, fresh or snap-frozen produce at a reasonable price, and a very healthy uncomplicated meal.
Some of these supermarkets are targeting the single person or empty nesters with their packaging, and we are finding it easier than we thought to downsize from our previous cooking for five.
Certainly in our community the idea of complicated dinner party cooking has gone. People seem to want fresh uncomplicated food, which makes preparation so much easier. If you are not confident in the kitchen, that would be the path I would recommend.
Posts: 375 | From: Hunter Valley NSW | Registered: Sep 2010
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Celtic Knotweed
Shipmate
# 13008
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
Cooking for yourself is so expensive. Like, Christmas cookie recipe called for something named mace. $7 for a jar. All I needed was 1 tsp. Awful expensive two dozen cookies! Next recipe wants soy sauce, have to buy a whole bottle. All these bottles and jars of things used once go out of date before I see another recipe that uses them, and I don't know which dates I can ignore. Even salt and sugar have "use by" dates, I know they last forever, but milk goes bad.
In my experience, soy sauce will keep for at least 3 years without any trouble, and possibly longer. You might find a few salt crystals forming in it, but that's normal - it used to say so on the labels of one particular brand here to stop people worrying.
Bit late now, but nutmeg is a perfectly good substitute for mace (mace is best described as the husk of the nutmeg nut). If you buy whole nutmeg, then grate as needed, they keep for ages (at least 10 years). An alternative to both is mixed spice (although most varieties of that will also have quite a bit of cinnamon in, so if the recipe also uses cinnamon, then leave that out!) I know you said the cookies in question were Christmas ones, but if they tasted nice, why not make them out of season?
On the dates thing, as far as I understand it, 'best before' means that after that date the item is still edible but will not taste as good. (Most dried herbs and spices fall into this category). 'Use by' means that it will probably be going bad after that date - although the day after I might chance it anyway!
quote:
Speaking of confusing, we're supposed to not cook on teflon because it give off poisonous fumes, aluminum might lead to altzheimers, cast iron you can't let sit a few days before washing or it will rust, glass can't be used on the stove top sort of and I keep forgetting the sort of exceptions -- what do you cook in? And if it says a 9 inch square metal pan and what I have is an 8 inch glass pan how do I adjust temperature and time?
Never heard that about Teflon before. All of our pans except for the 2 frying pans are stainless steel. The frying pans are non-stick lined (probably Teflon...). As John Holding said, unless you're doing baking (and in my experience even then!) cooking is not as precise as the recipe books/fancy cooks on TV like to make it look. I bake sponge cakes now by converting the temp in deg F that I learnt from my Dad into deg C as I have a modern oven. Then reducing temp by 20 degrees or cooking time by 10 min as I have a fan oven. The tins used have varied over the years from 'proper' cake tins to a roasting tin when I was in a shared student house. Cooking time was pretty much the same in all cases (although in the student house I had to get a housemate to explain gas-mark temps on the oven to me).
I suppose I grew up helping parents cook. If I don't know what to do with a vegetable/fish I might ask Mum, or I might ask the person selling it, or check the BBC food website, or I might resort to Google. I wouldn't say that I always cook good food - Sandemaniac still reminds me about one particularly inedible chilli - but I do have fun trying to cook it!
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My little sister is riding 100k round London at night to raise money for cancer research donations here if you feel so inclined.
Posts: 664 | From: between keyboard and chair | Registered: Sep 2007
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Rowen
Shipmate
# 1194
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Posted
I have folk staying with me... But, as ever, I bought a hot, roast chicken. That plus salad for night one. Night 2, we chopped remaining chicken into bits. Threw it into a bowl. Cooked a packet of microwave rice. Threw it into the bowl. Cooked some frozen peas and corn. Bowl ditto. Added a jar of white pasta-type sauce. Warmed the lot in the microwave.
Diner last night, and tonight. Usually I freeze enough for later, but with guests here, we will eat the lot.
Simple.
Easy.
Hardly any prep time at all.
Didn't need to measure anything, just threw in whatever peas and corn I liked.
No oven.
No bewildering array of saucepans.
Just a bowl and microwave.
[ 10. March 2013, 23:16: Message edited by: Rowen ]
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"May I live this day… compassionate of heart" (John O’Donoghue)...
Posts: 4897 | From: Somewhere cold in Victoria, Australia | Registered: Aug 2001
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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688
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Posted
Knotweed's comment about asking someone reminds me - in this country at least, if you buy your produce from a real butcher/fishmonger whatever, instead of the supermarket, the person in the shop will happily advise you about what you're supposed to do with it.
The stuff is more expensive, but I think it's worth it when you're cooking something nice for a treat. A while back, I had some people round for a roast beef dinner. I went in the butcher's and asked for a piece of meat for five people, and without even being asked, the butcher told me exactly how long to cook it and at what temperature.
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Rent my holiday home in the South of France
Posts: 3696 | Registered: Nov 2005
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
Originally posted by Celtic Knotweed:
quote:
The tins used have varied over the years from 'proper' cake tins to a roasting tin when I was in a shared student house.
You can bake small Christmas cakes in a well-washed baked bean tin. I've baked cakes in pyrex dishes. However, (useful tip!) if the recipe says an 8 inch tin, and you have an 8 inch saucepan DON'T put the whole pan in the oven as a substitute baking tin without checking to see whether the handle is made of plastic. I'm just sayin'
Quick question - my mother got a fancy shaped cake tin (from Lakeland Plastics, so it wouldn't have been cheap.) Her cakes wouldn't come out cleanly, so she gave it to me. I have the same problem. How do you get a fancy cake-tin to release cleanly? Being an unusual shape, it doesn't stack into other tins and takes up an inordinate amount of space, too.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Quick question - my mother got a fancy shaped cake tin (from Lakeland Plastics, so it wouldn't have been cheap.) Her cakes wouldn't come out cleanly, so she gave it to me. I have the same problem. How do you get a fancy cake-tin to release cleanly? Being an unusual shape, it doesn't stack into other tins and takes up an inordinate amount of space, too.
Aha! Lakeland has the answer to this too! Just so you can spend more money.
Cake Release
I've never tried it, so this is not a recommendation. You pays your money and you takes your chances.
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"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Cottontail:
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Quick question - my mother got a fancy shaped cake tin (from Lakeland Plastics, so it wouldn't have been cheap.) Her cakes wouldn't come out cleanly, so she gave it to me. I have the same problem. How do you get a fancy cake-tin to release cleanly? Being an unusual shape, it doesn't stack into other tins and takes up an inordinate amount of space, too.
Aha! Lakeland has the answer to this too! Just so you can spend more money.
Cake Release
I've never tried it, so this is not a recommendation. You pays your money and you takes your chances.
That would appear to be an admission by Lakeland Plastics that one cannot get cakes out of their cake tins without assistance.
Mrs Sioni manages OK but I don't think any of her cake tins are from Lakeland Plastics.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Kitten
Shipmate
# 1179
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Quick question - my mother got a fancy shaped cake tin (from Lakeland Plastics, so it wouldn't have been cheap.) Her cakes wouldn't come out cleanly, so she gave it to me. I have the same problem. How do you get a fancy cake-tin to release cleanly? Being an unusual shape, it doesn't stack into other tins and takes up an inordinate amount of space, too.
Line the bottom of the tin with baking parchment?
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Maius intra qua extra
Never accept a ride from a stranger, unless they are in a big blue box
Posts: 2330 | From: Carmarthenshire | Registered: Aug 2001
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Heavenly Anarchist
Shipmate
# 13313
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Posted
I've bought cake release from Waitrose for a fancy mould before and it worked well. It is a mix of vegetable oil and carruba wax in a fine spray.
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'I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.' Douglas Adams
Dog Activity Monitor
My shop
Posts: 2831 | From: Trumpington | Registered: Jan 2008
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Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
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Posted
To be fair to Lakeland, I don't think NEQ is talking about a normal cake tin, but a fancier thing more like a jelly mould in appearance. I myself am proud owner of something like this, also passed on to me by my mother. It is huge, but I am hoping might come in useful some day for a church pot luck. Or something.
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"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
Cottontail's picture gives the general idea, but mine is spikier. Lakeland don't sell my particular one any more (I wonder why not?) but it has 32 separate "bits" - sort of four tiers of eight. If 32 bits break off the cake and remain stuck to the tin, the result is not good!
I will buy "Cake Release" on my next venture into the big city and experiment. Thank you!
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Cottontail:
To be fair to Lakeland, I don't think NEQ is talking about a normal cake tin, but a fancier thing more like a jelly mould in appearance. I myself am proud owner of something like this, also passed on to me by my mother. It is huge, but I am hoping might come in useful some day for a church pot luck. Or something.
Oh, I've got one of those. I just spray it with veggie oil before baking in it. Don't be sparing of the oil; I was the first time I used it, and that cake came out in pieces.
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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Vulpior
Foxier than Thou
# 12744
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Celtic Knotweed:
quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
Cooking for yourself is so expensive. Like, Christmas cookie recipe called for something named mace. $7 for a jar. All I needed was 1 tsp. Awful expensive two dozen cookies! Next recipe wants soy sauce, have to buy a whole bottle. All these bottles and jars of things used once go out of date before I see another recipe that uses them, and I don't know which dates I can ignore. Even salt and sugar have "use by" dates, I know they last forever, but milk goes bad.
In my experience, soy sauce will keep for at least 3 years without any trouble, and possibly longer. You might find a few salt crystals forming in it, but that's normal - it used to say so on the labels of one particular brand here to stop people worrying.
Bit late now, but nutmeg is a perfectly good substitute for mace (mace is best described as the husk of the nutmeg nut). If you buy whole nutmeg, then grate as needed, they keep for ages (at least 10 years). An alternative to both is mixed spice (although most varieties of that will also have quite a bit of cinnamon in, so if the recipe also uses cinnamon, then leave that out!) I know you said the cookies in question were Christmas ones, but if they tasted nice, why not make them out of season?
On the dates thing, as far as I understand it, 'best before' means that after that date the item is still edible but will not taste as good. (Most dried herbs and spices fall into this category). 'Use by' means that it will probably be going bad after that date - although the day after I might chance it anyway!
This typifies some of the issues about cooking 'literacy'. Celtic Knotweed and I both know that we can substitute nutmeg in a recipe that calls for mace if we find ourselves without, whereas Belle Ringer hasn't picked that up. And the same with keeping soy sauce for x years; x in my case is six or seven, as we have a large bottle left over from when we had a cafe.
I'm not sure where that comes from. I certainly had some experience of 'cooking with mother', but that was mainly baking which I don't do much of now. I was in self-catering halls when I went to university at the age of 18, so had to cook for myself from day one.
Cooking 'literacy' is partly about being able to substitute. It's about knowing that mixed herbs will do a lot of the time, but that oregano/basil make things more Italian. It's about using dry sherry instead of sake (rice wine) for a bit of zing in Chinese cooking. And maybe you either have the temperament to pick it up or you don't.
And being single, or in a small household, can make you think twice about cooking from scratch. I was single for years, though often with a housemate. You do get lazy and go for ready meals, but there's no reason why you can't do some of those yourself by bulk cooking and freezing.
I'm also with those who abhor waste. When I get home this evening I will deliberately be doing something that uses the veggies that are already in the fridge. I'm not quite sure what, but I'll decide on the way from work to the shop. Again, that's part of 'literacy' about combining ingredients.
Those of you who don't cook, but want to, whether for health or finance reasons, start small. If you buy hot roast chicken, learn to use the leftover pickings to make something the next day, then make stock from the carcass and soup from that.
Or learn to make bolognese sauce. Stock cubes, tomato paste or even chocolate (yes, I know someone who puts chocolate in bolognese) are all unnecessary additions. Fry minced beef and a chopped onion, add herbs and tinned tomatoes; maybe mushrooms too. Hold back some of the tinned tomato juice so it doesn't become too runny, and add it if needed while it's cooking. Serve with pasta and grated cheese. Make four portions, freeze two for later and have one for tomorrow.
When you are comfortable with bolognese, you can move on to chilli con carne, or lasagne if you feel brave enough to make a white/cheese sauce.
I think that's kind of the way I went about learning. It's much better to think about one pot meals, or about meat and veg, than to go for fancy recipes with lots of odd ingredients or baking.
Mr Vulpior has cooked for a living. I do rope him in sometimes, perhaps because I don't want to turn out a lumpy sauce, or because I'm unsure whether I've cooked something enough, or just because I'm too lazy to chop veg for 25 (Christmas in July, for example). But he is much better at cooking bulk, and tends to leave the household cooking to me.
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I've started blogging. I don't promise you'll find anything to interest you at uncleconrad
Posts: 946 | From: Mount Fairy, NSW | Registered: Jun 2007
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
I would agree with Vulpior's points about knowing stuff. But that in turn may link to the interest in and curiosity about taste, which I think is a driver for cooking. You would be more prone to make a substitution if a) you already had a category in your head for that particular flavour and/or b) thought What the hell, this could be a whole new discovery.
My culinary approach has always been Sin Boldly, tempered with the realisation that certain classic techniques work. It's why I think it's a good idea to read people - like Jane Grigson or Elizabeth David or Nigel Slater - who write about food as well as giving recipes, so that you see the rationale, and catch some of the enthusiasm behind the end result.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Curiosity is a factor. I'm sure many of us have had the experience of looking up a particular recipe on the internet after a particularly nice meal out, or seeing/buying something in the supermarket that you want to try and don't know what to do with.
OK, your attempts might not always succeed in recreating whatever it was, but even cooking simple things like steak and chips with a sauce (you can usually buy the sauce if you don't want to have a go at making it) can make you feel quite good.
The first time I did a roast chicken was when I was a student. The first person I bumped into afterwards was one of my tutors. I said proudly, "I've just cooked a roast chicken." He grinned back with understanding and said, "It's surprisingly easy, isn't it?" And it was (basically you just pre-heat the oven and put the thing in), but it felt like accomplished cooking.
[ 12. March 2013, 08:16: Message edited by: Ariel ]
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birdie
fowl
# 2173
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Posted
I don't know if I'm a good cook, but I am a relaxed one. I've just never found it a stressful undertaking, but I can see how it could be.
It's the timing that's so intimidating with things like roast dinners - it's quite easy to roast a chicken. It's also easy to roast potatoes, parsnips, and steam green veg, carrots etc - but having them all ready AT THE SAME time is a challenge.
This is one of the reasons I love my slow cooker - when the cooking time for the meat is 5 to 7 hours, it allows you to relax a bit. Also learning what can be done in advance and reheated later, etc etc. But I think those things only come with experience.
We tend to view cooking (especially for other people) as a bit of a performance, and that really doesn't help. And I really don't understand it - if these are people I am relaxed enough with to have over to my house for a meal, I'm relaxed enough to put food on the table while saying cheerily "Sorry, there's not as much veg as I'd intended - realised as I was about to put the peas on that there wasn't space on the hob" or similar.
I'd echo the recommendations for Nigel Slater's Appetite, and I think the book that really got me started with what I would describe as 'proper cooking' (by which I mean having the confidence to fling things together) is Nigella Lawson's How to Eat. I don't think I've cooked more than four of the recipes from it but it is like a soothing conversation had in the kitchen while cooking.
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"Gentlemen, I wash my hands of this weirdness."
Captain Jack Sparrow
Posts: 1290 | From: the edge | Registered: Jan 2002
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by birdie:
Nigella Lawson's How to Eat. I don't think I've cooked more than four of the recipes from it but it is like a soothing conversation had in the kitchen while cooking.
And slowly licking chocolate fondant from your fingers while wearing a negligee..
Another aid to timing is the microwave. I know mine will cook potatoes in exactly 10 minutes, no need to keep lifting the lid and hopefully prodding. Other veg can be ready in 3 or 4 - so once the main, cooker-based part of the meal is nearly ready, just bang in the accompaniments (which are sat there ready in their microwave-to-table dishes) in rapid succession and there you are.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
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Posted
A good place to start can be a student cookbook - no matter if you are many years from your student days. The best of these concentrate on low-cost simple cooking.
When a Chinese friend moved to Scotland and wanted to learn British cooking, I gave her this 4 Ingredients cookbook. There are no fancy pictures or anything, and it does exactly what it says: teaches you to cook dishes using only 4 ingredients. And there are no sneaky 'extra' ingredients like an unexpected stock cube or drop of vanilla essence, or whatever. This particular book is currently being sold on AmazonUK for only 1p! (+ sneaky 'extra' P&P of course.)
Btw, the first thing I taught my Chinese friend to cook was Bangers and Mash. Sausages, potato, onion, and instant gravy. And a bit of salt to boil the potatoes.
There was a bit of a mishap when the sausages were waiting in the fridge to be cooked, and she decided to make one for her lunch. Upon inquiry, it turned out that she had boiled it hotdog-style! It had not, she said, been good.
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"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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The Great Gumby
Ship's Brain Surgeon
# 10989
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by birdie:
It's the timing that's so intimidating with things like roast dinners - it's quite easy to roast a chicken. It's also easy to roast potatoes, parsnips, and steam green veg, carrots etc - but having them all ready AT THE SAME time is a challenge.
Ah, roast dinners. We used to be, well, not terrified exactly, but we used to feel like they were a big unnecessary fuss, and they're really not. Half the trouble was having a crappy old oven that didn't hold a good temperature, but there are ways of working round it. Our current technique with chicken is a Delia fast-cook method, but you can cook slowly at a lower heat just as easily.
The trouble, I think, comes from trying to recreate what you think a roast should be, or what you remember your parents doing, or whatever, instead of what you want or can manage. There isn't some holy writ that says:
quote:
Thou shalt serve roast potatoes and parsnips, and three kinds of vegetables and two of stuffing besides, and thou shalt make thine own gravy, for Bisto is an abomination unto the LORD, and thou shalt serve it from fancy dishes which thou never normally gettest out because they were Granny's and all horrible and floral, and a real faff to get clean.
You might like it that way, but it doesn't have to be that complicated. If you want, you can start with the roasting bit and just boil some potatoes and/or veg when you take it out of the oven to rest. But do keep the leftovers, to be put into curries and hashes and things over the next few days.
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The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard Feynman
A letter to my son about death
Posts: 5382 | From: Home for shot clergy spouses | Registered: Feb 2006
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Heavenly Anarchist
Shipmate
# 13313
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
I would agree with Vulpior's points about knowing stuff. But that in turn may link to the interest in and curiosity about taste, which I think is a driver for cooking. You would be more prone to make a substitution if a) you already had a category in your head for that particular flavour and/or b) thought What the hell, this could be a whole new discovery.
I agree with you here. My cooking experience as a child was of the basic meat and two veg plain variety ( as the youngest daughter I was sometimes required to cook for my 4 older brothers ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif) ). But I really learnt to love cooking and be a good cook when I had the time and opportunity to experiment. It turns out I am one of those people who instinctively knows what flavours will substitute/compliment foods. My husband is also cooks but is more 'adventurous' with his flavourings so these can be more hit and miss. He is, however, an extremely good baker as he is better at the technical challenge. I seldom keep to any recipe, I change lots of things, but it is knowing what can be changed and what to that comes with experience.
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'I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.' Douglas Adams
Dog Activity Monitor
My shop
Posts: 2831 | From: Trumpington | Registered: Jan 2008
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Heavenly Anarchist
Shipmate
# 13313
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Posted
Btw, this thread has spurred me on to get my sons (aged 8 and 12) to do more cooking. They've previous helped with the odd cake and the eldest has done a few things at school but now every Friday afternoon they are taking it in turns to cook dinner under my supervision. I've bought them the Usborne Beginner's Cookbook as a child friendly guide and they are really keen to choose their own meals. Zadok made macaroni cheese last week ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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'I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.' Douglas Adams
Dog Activity Monitor
My shop
Posts: 2831 | From: Trumpington | Registered: Jan 2008
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Gee D
Shipmate
# 13815
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Posted
And knowing that many of the cookery books which have come out over the last 10 to 15 years are written by people who don't make allowances for the average domestic kitchen - especially true of those authors who also perform on television. If you open a hot commercial oven to put your chicken in, it will regain heat very quickly. Most domestic ones will take rather longer. The authors often fail to make allowance for this sort of difference. they will also have you pre-heating an oven to 220 C when the food will be in there for only 15 to 20 minutes - very expensive unless you plan an entire round of baking. Get books by such authors as Beck, Bertholle and Child ( very good on basic recipes and techniques, as well as the more advanced dishes) or Elizabeth David. Here in Oz, books by Margaret Fulton make it hard to turn out a failure.
As for timing microwaves are excellent for almost all vegetables, especially green ones. You can take your roast out of the oven to rest and while that happens, or you are carving, the vegetables can go through the microwave and be ready to serve.
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Not every Anglican in Sydney is Sydney Anglican
Posts: 7028 | From: Warrawee NSW Australia | Registered: Jun 2008
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birdie
fowl
# 2173
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
quote:
Originally posted by birdie:
Nigella Lawson's How to Eat. I don't think I've cooked more than four of the recipes from it but it is like a soothing conversation had in the kitchen while cooking.
And slowly licking chocolate fondant from your fingers while wearing a negligee..
I have deliberately never watched her on tv because she seems SO ANNOYING. I stick with the print version.
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"Gentlemen, I wash my hands of this weirdness."
Captain Jack Sparrow
Posts: 1290 | From: the edge | Registered: Jan 2002
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
It's why I think it's a good idea to read people - like Jane Grigson or Elizabeth David or Nigel Slater - who write about food as well as giving recipes, so that you see the rationale, and catch some of the enthusiasm behind the end result.
I'll say it again. Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book. Best cookery book I've ever seen. ![[Overused]](graemlins/notworthy.gif)
quote:
Originally posted by The Great Gumby:
quote:
Originally posted by birdie:
It's the timing that's so intimidating with things like roast dinners - it's quite easy to roast a chicken. It's also easy to roast potatoes, parsnips, and steam green veg, carrots etc - but having them all ready AT THE SAME time is a challenge.
Ah, roast dinners. We used to be, well, not terrified exactly, but we used to feel like they were a big unnecessary fuss, and they're really not.
And if you have a timer sort of thing on the oven you can safely sit down and watch TV or have a drink while its cooking Nice and relaxing.
quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
Cooking for yourself is so expensive. Like, Christmas cookie recipe called for something named mace.
$7 for a jar.
Think that's expensive? Try saffron! But seriously, not many things have mace in them. If you are cooking for yourself start by cooking things you want to eat with ingredients you can get easily. Takes the pressure off.
All I needed was 1 tsp. Awful expensive two dozen cookies! Next recipe wants soy sauce, have to buy a whole bottle. All these bottles and jars of things used once go out of date before I see another recipe that uses them, and I don't know which dates I can ignore.
quote:
Even salt and sugar have "use by" dates, I know they last forever, but milk goes bad.
Maybe not for ever but our salt has been lying around in heaps since the Permian era.
Milk, well yes, but if you use mik regularly at all and have a fridge its not a problem. And if you don't use it regularly, don't' buy it unless you really want to.
quote:
Oh, that reminds me, I'm milk intolerant...
All the more reason to cook syourself so you know exctly what you are eating.
quote:
...how do I know if I can substitute something or not?
Try it and see.
That's one of the benefits of cooking for yourself, if you mess it up and get inedible glop, no-one is likely to know other than you. So none of the pressure that people get when they have to feed a hungry family. It doesn't have to come oput the way you intended it to. Which is kind of relaxing and fun. Also the chances are that your glop won't actually be inedible. Ugly and glopular maybe, and nothing you would want to lay out before guests, but probably not that unpleasant to eat.
quote:
Speaking of confusing, we're supposed to not cook on teflon because it give off poisonous fumes, aluminum might lead to altzheimers...
Again, if you really worry about that sort of thing, cook for yourself, so you know what you are doing. Otherwise you are letting the supermarket or the cafe make that decision for you. (Personally I think the teflon thing is almost certainly cvastly exagerrated. I can make up plausible stories abotu aluminium being bad,m but I don't believe them enough to stop eating things cooked in aluminium pots)
quote:
And if it says a 9 inch square metal pan and what I have is an 8 inch glass pan how do I adjust temperature and time?
99% of the time it makes no difference. Most cooking does not depend on exact temperatures or exact quantities or exact times. The big exceptions to that are cakes and (some kinds of) pastry (which is one reason I tend not to make them very often. Too much like hard work! Bread on the other hand is very forgiving) There are also a few critical things involving cooking with eggs that are expected to rise - come to think of it that's what cakes are aren;t they? - but you soon pick them up if you practice. Most other things, a few minutes either way will make no difference and even if you get them a little wrong, the thing that comes out is still usually edible, jut not quite the thing you expected.
quote:
How am I supposed to cook something that has no instructions?
Like onions and carrots?
quote:
Challenge, can this girl become a good cook and love it?
I would suspect yes. Cook for yourself so you have no pressure to get it just right, cook cheap stuff so you don't feel hard done by if it doesn't work, play around, keep it simple at first - things with rice or pasta, vegetable stews, aforementioned glop - relax, try different things. Have the radio or some music on.
What do you actually prefer to eat?
[ 12. March 2013, 18:05: Message edited by: ken ]
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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Lucia
Looking for light
# 15201
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ricardus:
quote:
Originally posted by Porridge:
Well, as noted upthread, my ordinary meals tend to be glop, spodge, or goo, as described by various posters above. Perfectly serviceable in terms of nutrition and taste, but low on presentability.
Sounds like my cooking, but this is why clear labelling is so important.
Glop with spices + rice = curry
Glop with herbs + pasta = pasta
Glop with herbs + rice = risotto
Glop with spices + pasta = fusion
Glop with mashed potato on top = some variant on shepherd's pie
Glop in a tortilla wrap = Mexican
Glop with paprika + rice (or dumplings*) = goulash
Pepper stuffed with glop = stuffed pepper
Aubergine stuffed with glop = there is a Turkish name for this but I've forgotten it
Foul-tasting glop + tamarind paste + rice = tamarind curry (tamarind is excellent for hiding an experiment that went wrong)
FWIW I take the line that anyone who doesn't like the appearance of my food hasn't quite grasped the point of eating.
* Dumplings are basically bread converted into glop.
I would like to make an addition to this list based on what is currently on the stove simmering for supper.
Glop with spices (and a handful of dried fruit if you are feeling adventurous) + couscous = North African cuisine!
Posts: 1075 | From: Nigh golden stone and spires | Registered: Oct 2009
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
Watery glop = soup.
If you want a cream instead of a clear soup just run it through a blender. No need to add cream, cream here means it has been creamed.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Lucia
Looking for light
# 15201
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Posted
I should add that couscous is the ultimate easy cook food for those who are nervous of cooking. One cup of couscous in a bowl, a pinch of salt and pour on two cups of boiling water. Leave to stand for about 6 minutes. Eat.
Posts: 1075 | From: Nigh golden stone and spires | Registered: Oct 2009
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John Holding
Coffee and Cognac
# 158
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Heavenly Anarchist:
Btw, this thread has spurred me on to get my sons (aged 8 and 12) to do more cooking. They've previous helped with the odd cake and the eldest has done a few things at school but now every Friday afternoon they are taking it in turns to cook dinner under my supervision. I've bought them the Usborne Beginner's Cookbook as a child friendly guide and they are really keen to choose their own meals. Zadok made macaroni cheese last week
When my wife went back to school, our oldest was 14 and our youngest was 8. Each of the three was required to produce dinner (evening meal, biggest of the day) once a week. Initially from our youngest we got a lot of pasta with (previously made) bolognese sauce and (with older brother's help) carrot sticks. But it worked. All three are excellent cooks, both from recipes or on their own.
John
Posts: 5929 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: May 2001
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Hedgehog
Ship's Shortstop
# 14125
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Posted
Personally, I have found that making soups is a really easy way to get into cooking. The best "starter" book IMHO is Twelve Months of Monastery Soups. They are deliberately simplified recipes so as not to intimidate beginners.
And soups have the added benefit that I have only occasionally set off the smoke-detector when making them.
Now that I have grown comfortable with making a variety of soups, I am branching out to making chilis. It is a natural progression. The plan is that I will graduate to stir-fry from that. Someday I may even try using that oven thingee.
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"We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it."--Pope Francis, Laudato Si'
Posts: 2740 | From: Delaware, USA | Registered: Sep 2008
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Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927
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Posted
quote:
When my wife went back to school, our oldest was 14 and our youngest was 8. Each of the three was required to produce dinner (evening meal, biggest of the day) once a week. Initially from our youngest we got a lot of pasta with (previously made) bolognese sauce and (with older brother's help) carrot sticks. But it worked. All three are excellent cooks, both from recipes or on their own.
My three boys started out like this but in school holidays. Then progressed. One was heard to remark after a fairly adventurous meal for him at that stage, that he now knew why mum was tired. He had trouble getting timing right for all ingredients.
The three of them are now all great cooks and two of them also bake cakes and biscuits. They all have specialties. Because they learnt from following me, they rarely use recipes. Just add and taste.
DIL's mum did not let her cook so it was all new to her. Her mum also slavishly followed recipes, to the point of walking down the hill to shops one day when it was 36° C to buy beans because the recipe said, "serve with green beans." We had four other green vegetables she could have used.
After 15 years, DIL is now making up her own recipes and now knows how to adapt others. Her mum has not changed and would rather not watch any of us cook.
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Buy a bale. Help our Aussie rural communities and farmers. Another great cause needing support The High Country Patrol.
Posts: 9745 | From: girt by sea | Registered: Aug 2003
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lucia:
I should add that couscous is the ultimate easy cook food for those who are nervous of cooking. One cup of couscous in a bowl, a pinch of salt and pour on two cups of boiling water. Leave to stand for about 6 minutes. Eat.
Lucia,
You are clearly an experienced couscous cook. Why does the texture and palatability vary so much? A few times it has come out really well: creamy but neither heavy and porridge-like on one hand, nor gritty and undercooked on the other. I suspect the proportions matter as does the need for boiling water (note: I have not eaten it at 6,000', where the thinner air may affect boiling point).
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Keren-Happuch
Ship's Eyeshadow
# 9818
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Posted
Yes, the glop method was how I got cooking as a student. I never did much cooking at home or in my first year (tiny kitchen between 13 students!) but built up from there.
Also need to add glop + chilli powder + kidney beans + rice = chilli con carne
Glop can be made with chicken, mince, sausages, lentils or tuna, all of which produce subtle variations. I used to have sausages with tomato sauce and pasta because I found potatoes a hassle = Italian sausage casserole. And so on.
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Travesty, treachery, betrayal!
EXCESS - The Art of Treason
Nea Fox
Posts: 2407 | From: A Fine City | Registered: Jul 2005
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