Cooking for a beginner

  • Thread starter Thread starter A2Z
  • Start date Start date

A2Z

A2Z

A2Z

Soldato
Joined
9 May 2005
Posts
9,004
Location
Earth
I need to start cooking more as I buy too much ready to eat food during the week. Also my girlfriend loves to cook and well she's not impressed by my lack of ability.

When I do cook, it's mostly breaded chicken simply cooked in oven, or salmon on the George Foreman, rice, pasta, sauce, fried eggs, tomatoes, tuna, frozen things such as (sweet)potato wedges and vegetables when I remember.

Not all together! But when I do cook food at home 90% of the time its some sort of combination of the above foods. Rest of time I buy already made!

Yes I am being very lazy/making excuses such as 'not enough time to prepare'. It's time to fix up. No more excuses.

I have had a look on youtube for cooking videos. I tried one for Chicken Penne Arrabiata, used things such as basil and thyme, salt and pepper, for the first time ever in my life. It didn't turn out the best to be honest... the one I buy that's ready made tastes better.. guess it was just a first time though.

Anyone have ideas or maybe links to recipes/videos of simple things I can try to make to start off with? Things I like are chicken breast, mince beef, salmon, pasta, rice, anything with tomato in it.

I could off course just search online and find other stuff and try but I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations. Needs to be easy and fairly quick to make, nutritious, if it can last a few days so I can take it to work would be a bonus.

Thanks.
 
Easy thing i do is make a huge basic batch of bolognese Pasata minced beef garlic ect... portion it up and freeze in tubs this can then be used for all sorts of pasta dishes but also can be turned into chilli by adding a few spices and some kidney beans. Also chilli works great as a cottage pie filling and can change it up with sweet potato mash.

Pretty easy to bake a batch of chicken coated in some sort of seasoning or rub cook up some veggies you like and rice or pasta portion it up easy to reheat in a microwave.
 
The way I got first got into it to be honest was through this forum...there are some old 'Cooking with' threads on here which give very step by step recipes along with pictures. I've posted a couple, but I think there was a curry by someone called Jhonny or similar a good 8 or 9 years back which convinced me to try because the step by step pictures showed me exactly what it should look like at each stage. They might be worth a try?
 
Try try and try again!

Best bet is to work out what you actually want and would like to eat then nail that, some of cooking is a bit of a science such as the temps and time so start getting those right on the basic rice pasta potatoes etc then Slowly work on your other cooking skills!

Curry’s are usually a good starter as if you mess it up at least you’ve got something with some flavour!
 
Two books we have used for years and are well work both by Gary Rhodes, new British classics and keeping it simple. We've had tons of books bought and given over the years. They are the two we have kept. Simple and easy to read.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Tasty is a YouTube channel that is very easy to follow. Lots of simple tasty recipes with video instructions.
Click to expand...

+1

Recently stumbled across ‘Tasty’ or ‘Tasty101’ whatever it’s called when looking up a brownie recipe. Discovered they had loads of really good videos and great recipe ideas. They have quite a cool style of filming/ editing as well.
 
Lima said:
+1

Recently stumbled across ‘Tasty’ or ‘Tasty101’ whatever it’s called when looking up a brownie recipe. Discovered they had loads of really good videos and great recipe ideas. They have quite a cool style of filming/ editing as well.
Click to expand...

I like that they have very little talking, or any talking at all. Just go straight into it.

All you need to do is the go through it once, pause it and get all the ingredients and volumn and weight that, note that the amounts of equipment you need. that's your recipe.

Then watch it while you make it, follow it, when it looks like the video in terms of cooking on the stove or whatever, stop.

Simple.
 
These are all one pot meals, so although they have a few ingredients, they are pretty fool proof.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7769/chicken-chow-mein

I love this chow mein recipe. We never buy a takeaway chow mein now. I add more chicken or tiger prawns, baby corn sliced long ways, thinly sliced carrot, a tin of water chestnuts & a tin of bamboo shoots. I may also add a few roasted cashews.(cooked seperatly. A splash of olive oil, give them a stir then roast on 160 till they go brown).

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2468641/moroccan-chicken-onepot
I don't usually bother with the cherries but add dried apricots, cut into 2-3 pieces. Usually I find the butternut squash will take a good 1 to 1& 1/2 hours to cook. May need a touch more water during cooking the squash.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipe/fish-tagine-saffron-almonds

I have never changed this one.

If you don't have a garlic crush I'd recomend you buy one. They cost about £3.
 
A2Z said:
I need to start cooking more as I buy too much ready to eat food during the week. Also my girlfriend loves to cook and well she's not impressed by my lack of ability.

When I do cook, it's mostly breaded chicken simply cooked in oven, or salmon on the George Foreman, rice, pasta, sauce, fried eggs, tomatoes, tuna, frozen things such as (sweet)potato wedges and vegetables when I remember.

Not all together! But when I do cook food at home 90% of the time its some sort of combination of the above foods. Rest of time I buy already made!

Yes I am being very lazy/making excuses such as 'not enough time to prepare'. It's time to fix up. No more excuses.

I have had a look on youtube for cooking videos. I tried one for Chicken Penne Arrabiata, used things such as basil and thyme, salt and pepper, for the first time ever in my life. It didn't turn out the best to be honest... the one I buy that's ready made tastes better.. guess it was just a first time though.

Anyone have ideas or maybe links to recipes/videos of simple things I can try to make to start off with? Things I like are chicken breast, mince beef, salmon, pasta, rice, anything with tomato in it.

I could off course just search online and find other stuff and try but I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations. Needs to be easy and fairly quick to make, nutritious, if it can last a few days so I can take it to work would be a bonus.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

get yourself an airfryer it cooks food in under 15 mins and get yourself an electric pressure cooker with 10+ modes like an instant pot or pressure king pro.

an example of something easy you can do in an airfryer is roast potatoes

get bag of baby potatoes - throw in to airfryer - spray with oil - cook for 15 mins - done

don't buy frozen chips / potatoes any more, airfryer can do them from raw in under 15 mins (chips take around 8-12 mins depending on cut)

pressure king pro works on the same basis. you throw all the fresh ingredients in. press a button and wait 15 mins and it's done.
 
Learn how to make 1 or 2 things properly and go from there. Yes it'll not be great the first few times until you realise where you went wrong but it's totally worth it.

When I lost my job, and money was/is tight, I learned to cook to a fairly reasonable level without being able to make anything other than toast until I was in my 30s so it's not THAT difficult. You like the same sort of things I do, I mainly east chicken breast, minced beef (not a fan of steaks sadly) and pasta dishes.

Chicken is obviously bland on its own but learn a half decent pasta sauce, which is really just onion/garlic/tinned tomatoes/salt/pepper/sugar if required/some herbs like basil and oregano. Nail that and you are golden for any pasta, add chilli for arrabiatta. Don't overcook chicken though or it's minging. You can buy peppercorn sauce and it goes great with chicken and chips, then learn to make it yourself once you are a bit more confident.

For mince I go with simple things like a basic ragu/bolognese, and that is you set for spag bol/meatballs in sauce, and a passable chilli isn't very different either. Homemade burgers are a doddle with some mince/salt/pepper and onion if you like it. They taste way better than pre-made ones and work out way cheaper and they freeze good too.

Keep it simple, taste as you go, don't try too much too soon as you can try more once you get the basics nailed properly. Do NOT get disheartened when things don't go perfectly, it happens. BOttom line is that it's way healthier and works out significantly cheaper once you are even fairly competent. One of the best skills I have ever learned, and I doubt I would have done so if I hadn't lost my job.
 
Youtube channels I recommend are Binging with Babbish (he does a 'Basics with Babbish' series which is great for elarning), and Bon Appetite.

You can also watch Ramseys master class videos, I heard they were availble on Amazon Prime Video, but that may not be the case anymore.

I also recommend picking a meal that you love to eat at restaurants or when you buy ready meals. Practise making that. Follow receipies, make some small adjustments when you start learning what you do and don't like.

EDIT.

I also nearly forgot. A website that I love to use is www.budgetbytes.com. On here you can learn to make cost effective, easy, tasty meals.

If you don't have the time to cook every day, think about meal prepping; https://www.reddit.com/r/MealPrepSunday/
 
Learn some simple things to add flavour to what you already make. Marinade your salmon beforehand even if it's in some yoghurt and tikka paste, or a dollop of pesto .with chicken cut the breasts almost all the way through, put a little bit of cheese in th,e middle, then close the chicken back around, wrap in bacon and cook. I think the more successes you have, the more confident you'll feel going on
 
I'm into the Tom Kerridge books at the moment, quick, easy and very tasty food that isn't horrifically calorific or expensive to make.

One of the best things I like about them is he uses lots of simple basic ingredients and cupboard staples for the flavourings so you don't need an artisan deli or shares in a lemon/olive oil farm to actually made the food (*cough* Jamie Oliver). Nor do you need much kit, everything I have made so far just needed basic kitchen equipment.

I made some satay chicken yesterday and some quesadillas today, both very nice and very easy to make. Tomorrow it's pea and ham pasta, super quick and easy but seriously tasty.

I think one book was called Fresh Start and the other Loose Weight for Good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom