recipe suggestion for someone that doesn't cook ?

tangey

tangey

tangey

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So, I don't cook.

The kitchen needed a major update because it hadn't been change in 40 years. That was 2 years ago. Other than to test operation, neither the hobs nor the cooker have been on, I mention this solely to indicate how "I don't cook" I really am.

I have 1 dish that I've made a few times at my woman's place. I saw it on Nigella once, and thought, "well that looks like a pretty damn good one to start with". It's an all in one pan rissotto style dish, frozen peas, ham cubes and using Orzo pasta instead of rice, bit of Parmesan cheese, literally 4 ingredients, 1 pan and 20 minutes from start to finish. The only thing to watch is not too much water and that it doesn't stick to the bottom. The last time I put in a bit too much water, but solved that by pouring some out towards the end, and all was good.

So I'm looking some thoughts as to expand my repertoire to a 2nd dish, nothing that takes hrs, and nothing that is so niggly that if you don't do something just exactly right it'll be spoiled. Mainly just so I can surprise my woman some day with a different lunch option.

Any links to suitable recipes would be gratefully received.
 
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"My woman" sorry but lol. Not going to let that slide on by :D

Honestly I'd get watching some Jamie Oliver programs and Youtube for inspiration. He gets a lot of flack and a lot of hobbyist cooks like to think they're too good for him, but honestly his recipes (besides his veggie book) and solid, they always work. Which is what you want. Sounds like you want to get a few pasta dishes under your belt first, you're not doing badly with an orzo risotto. With risotto and pasta dishes you can expand your repertoire very easily.

You could also look for student/budget recipes as by their nature they tend to reduce the number of ingredients and be quite quick and simple.
 
I made a decent aubergine pasta the other evening which might be up your alley. The more you cook, the more you'll learn what works, which makes cooking easier as you don't need to bother with recipes, you can just throw stuff together.

You'll need a serving (about 100g per person) of decent pasta (something like fusili works well as it holds sauce). Go for something which is a notch above the supermarket's own brand pasta. Get one aubergine per person, a tin of tomato puree (these are the small tins - about 50ml from memory - not the big tins of chopped tomatoes), some olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Maybe some dried chilli flakes as well if you're that way inclined.

Peel strips off of the aubergines' skin, going vertically (down the aubergine rather than around). Don't peel it completely - alternate with a strip on and a strip off, that way you'll keep the texture of the skin, but won't have too much of it. Then slice each aubergine into round pieces, each about 2cm thick. Coat them in olive oil with a little salt and pepper, and put them in the oven at about 200c for half an hour until they're really soft. Deskin and chop a few cloves of garlic up and stick them in the oven with the aubergine for the last 10 minutes or so.

Meanwhile cook your pasta - use a pan of salted water, bring it to the boil, and put the pasta in for however long it says on the packet. Drain it but keep a bit of the pasta water (about a third of a normal sized drinking glass).

When the pasta and the aubergine are ready, put the pasta back in the pan, over a low heat, and stir in the aubergine with some more olive oil (the more the better, within reason, and subject to your health concerns!). The aubergine should be soft enough to basically mash up and mix in with the pasta. Add the tin of tomato puree, some more pepper, the garlic which went in the oven, and a few flakes of dried chili, give it more of a stir, and there you go. Use some of the pasta water you kept if you need it to be a bit looser (and if you add too much you can always cook it off again). Grate some parmesan on top if you fancy it.

Takes about 35-40 minutes in total, is super easy, and really tasty.
 
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Quick bean chilli

Sweat some chopped onions and chillis in a covered frying pan with a little oil until soft.

Add tinned haricot and butter beans after rinsing in a colander, drained tinned tomatoes and a jar of chilli sauce stir and simmer for 30 minutes.

Alternatively use lean mince browned to replace the beans.

Experiment with the heat of the dish adding chilli flakes, a teaspoon of garlic puree.
 
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pasta bakes are very easy if you buy the jars instead of trying to faff around making home made sauces.

all you do is boil the pasta, throw it in a pyrex bowl, stir in the sauce jar, cover in cheese and bake it in the oven.
 
dave28 said:
pasta bakes are very easy if you buy the jars instead of trying to faff around making home made sauces.

all you do is boil the pasta, throw it in a pyrex bowl, stir in the sauce jar, cover in cheese and bake it in the oven.
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Yeah... don't do this :(

Red sauce = tomatoes (fresh, small, large, tinned, puree)
White sauce = cream or creme fraiche*

*we always have creme fraiche in the fridge, it keeps forever even when open

Red sauce 1:
Fry chopped garlic in plenty of oil, throw in some halved cherry/small tomatoes, cook down with herbs of your choice for 5-6mins. Season. Add a splash of pasta water and stir pasta through. Done.

Red sauce 2:
Sweat some chopped onion, add garlic after 5mins. Add tin of chopped tomatoes and a tablespoon of balsamic. Cook down for 20mins, with herbs of your choice. Season. Cook your pasta, mix through with some pasta water. Done.

White sauce 1:
Slice plenty of brown mushrooms and preheat your pan to a very high heat. Fry mushrooms for 5-6mins without moving to evaporate the water and brown nicely (don't burn!). Turn down heat to low (or turn off for a few minutes) and when at a safe heat, add more oil and a knob of butter. Add sliced garlic. Mix round until the garlic smells nice, then add two tablespoons of creme fraiche, with a nice handful of fresh chopped parsley. Bubble round for 2-3mins and add a splash of pasta water. Season. Serve with whatever pasta.

I honestly don't know why people buy tinned pasta sauces. They're just full of salt and sugar and any plus points of 'oh it's been cooked for hours with all of these ingredients' is completely undone by the preservatives, salt, sugar etc.
 
Scam said:
He gets a lot of flack and a lot of hobbyist cooks like to think they're too good for him, but honestly his recipes (besides his veggie book) and solid, they always work.
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I think most of the flak comes from him doing things like putting Barbecue sauce into fried rice and calling it authentic... or any number of other such mistakes.

 
Scam said:
I honestly don't know why people buy tinned pasta sauces. They're just full of salt and sugar and any plus points of 'oh it's been cooked for hours with all of these ingredients' is completely undone by the preservatives, salt, sugar etc.
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fair enough but i assumed he can not cook at all, let alone reduce down sauces and cook garlic which easily burns
 
ttaskmaster said:
I think most of the flak comes from him doing things like putting Barbecue sauce into fried rice and calling it authentic... or any number of other such mistakes.
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But out of those two videos, which one is going to get people cooking? The Jamie one. I've never understood the appeal of the Uncle Roger character to be honest. It feels borderline racist (not that I've watched many of his videos) and I just don't like the idea of making a living hating on other people's efforts. In that video... barbecue sauce plus sriracha probably makes a good substitute for gochujang, to my palette. That's why Jamie Oliver is smart, he's not going to tell people they have to get in gochujang and dried shrimps and all these specific condiments for one dish.. His audience won't bother. Use things more likely to be kicking around, or more easily found in the supermarket. Hell, I bought some gochujang and after using it once it sat in my fridge until it went off. And I'm a keen cook.

I got very bored of people accusing Jamie Oliver of cultural appropriation during the whole cajun rice fiasco, or whatever it was. I'm not sure there is such a thing as cultural appropriation in food. But we digress massively from the OP. So should get back on topic...
 
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Scam said:
Honestly I'd get watching some Jamie Oliver programs and Youtube for inspiration.
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Or buy his Cook with Jamie book. That's an excellent beginner resource and has some really nice, simple offerings that anyone can make.

Ultimately the most important things any beginner/learning cook can do is A) figure out what they like to eat and B) try to see if they can learn how to make something similar.

Very little point learning how to make something you have no idea how it is supposed to turn out or taste...
 
I can give you some tips, I have been cooking at home most nights for 20 odd years.

Dont rush, my Mrs is ******* awful at cooking, she turns all the pans up to maximum, puts everything in and assume it should all take 5 minutes, burns the **** out of everything, ruins the pans (I have pans she is not allowed to use). It's better to cook things slowly, basically always, until you start building up some experience anyway.

Frying onions for example, takes time. Turning a pan up max and frying for 30 seconds is bad. When I'm doing it for my lamb curry I can be frying them slowly for way over 30 minutes. That's a little extreme but you get the idea.

Use recipes as guides only. It's not like baking where you really do need to be pretty precise. I just look at them for inspiration. If they list 10 ingredients, and you dont have one of those ingredients, unless its a major ingredient (like trying to make an omlete without eggs) then dont worry about it. Also dont worry about precisely measuring everything. If something says add 3 cloves or garlic, and you add 4, or 5, or 8, it'll just taste more of garlic, and you might like garlic anyway.
 
Have a look at Gousto. They will send you a box of ingredients for 2-5 recipes with hundreds of recipes to choose from. They are very easy to follow and you don't need to worry about buying ingredients that you'll only use once if you decide cooking isn't for you.
 
In my twenties, when I was a single young lad and lived in a bedsit, I didn't cook either. Then I saw a book in a charity shop titled (I'm paraphrasing here because I can't remember the actual title) "Cook Tasty Meals From Stuff You Already Have In your Pantry. No Need to Go Out and Buy Special Ingredients."

Bought it. Rushed home with it. Read through it. Dissapointed to say the least. I was hoping it would tell me how to make spaghetti bolognese just using stale cornflakes and powdered milk. Well, that's what was in my pantry.:)

What a con:)
 
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LOL the "my woman" isn't an ownership thing, it's how we talk in this part of N.I., whether it's a Man or woman. I could have said my significant other but that sounds too Delboy for me, or i guess my partner, but we've been together but living apart for nigh on 25 years, so that's how we consider each other i guess.

Anyhow I'll puruse the above and have a think.

I appeciate the time you all took to reply.
 
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