Food

[Guard Dog]

I had my usual breakfast, three asprin and three cups of black coffee. For lunch a six inch sub from Subway. But dinner, now that will be blackened catfish with steamed zuccini & home made cornbread. I can't wait! Oh, and of course there will be liberal consumption of domestic beer before during and after dinner, it is Friday after all!

[Hurlshort]

Cooking is also not something you need to be exact with (unlike baking). Just experiment with different seasonings and stuff.

 

Lately I've really been enjoying cooking different cuts of meat. I got this set of awesome marinade sauce, and it is really good.

[Gfted1]

I cant cook anything more complicated than spaghetti, nor can I watch more than one pot/pan at a time. Since its Friday Ill be treating myself to my only-eat-lunch-out-once-a-week, a Tuna sub from Cousins Subs. Damn the Italian bread from there is delicious. Im pretty sure they put crack in it.

[LadyCrimson]

I'm not sure I ever learned to cook, exactly. I'm no chef for certain. I liked cooking breads as a kid for Xmas, but that was about it until I left the parents, moved in with my boyfriend, and started trying out recipe here and there. From that I learned the basics of general temps for general cooking concepts & other things. Beyond that I usually wing it. For instance, I started with a basic tomato base noodle sauce, decided I preferred tomato paste over tomato sauce, and just toss everything I like into it until I figure out what tasted best. Same with stir-frying. I like beef, so I sliced it up really thin and started playing with sauces, spices, vegies, etc. I decided that cookie recipe needed another half egg, more vanilla, and more chips.

 

To me cooking is either about following known recipes exactly, or about lots of experimentation to make up your own recipes/versions of other people's recipes to suit your personal tastes. I think most of my stuff never comes out quite the same each time because I don't actually follow a recipe. I just go "garlic" or 'needs a little more pepper' and start tossing it in.

Edited November 5, 2010 by LadyCrimson

[Oblarg]

My mom's side of the family has a long history of cooking, so I learned most of my cooking from her (mainly Armenian and Greek cuisine). Traditional Armenian food is absurdly time-consuming, but worth it.

 

The main problem is that I can't spell any of the dishes, only pronounce them.

Edited November 5, 2010 by Oblarg

[Monte Carlo]

I am a reasonably accomplished cook.

 

My advice to the newbie is

 

(a) buy a decent set of knives

 

(b) one decent cast iron skillet and one decent casserole dish

 

© find a cook book you like

 

(d) learn to marinade and slow cook, both techniques are easy and provide good easy-win results for the neophyte cook

 

(e) taste things, not eat things when you cook

 

(f) choose a cuisine you like and learn why you like it, for me generally this means Italian which in turn means the provenance of ingredients. Italian food is awesomely simple to make and provides a impress your friends divident far beyond the effort you invested in making the meal

 

(g) eat actively, not passively. Why does that taste good? How was it made? What was the technique? Etc

 

(h) buy a small herb garden, you will save a small fortune

 

(i) learn your way around a very basic wine list

 

 

---

 

Why make all this effort?

 

(a) life's too short not to eat well

 

(b) the opposite sex, and indeed probably the same one, will love the fact that they've met a cook

 

© one of the most generous yet easy ways to engage with another human being is to make them something to eat

 

(d) it's cheaper than going to a restaurant

 

(e) cooking can be deeply relaxing

[Enoch]

I'll take issue with the 'set of knives' bit. Unless you're doing some tricky stuff that requires specialty tools (boning certain types of fish, etc.), most of what goes into a set isn't going to be used all that much.

 

What I'd do, knife-wise:

1) Get a high quality 8-inch chef's knife-- pick one that feels 'right' in your hand. Treat it well.

2) Buy a honing steel and use it regularly.

3) Buy a half-dozen cheap paring knives. Treat them terribly (read: feel free to store in a drawer and wash in an automatic dishwasher). Toss and replace when they're no longer useable.

4) Buy a cheap serrated bread knife. The $2 ones will slice a bagel just as well as the $50 ones do.

 

(Maybe a set of steak knives for the table, too. But, again, cheap ones work fine.)

 

That'll cover 98% of what you need. Take the portion of the knife-set cost that would've gone towards the carving knife, boning knife, scaling knife, etc., and sink it into the chef's knife. (And if you find that you do need one of the extras, just buy one a la carte. The boning knife is probably the next one I would recommend, if, for example, you buy a lot of whole poultry and piece it up yourself.)

 

For a good generalist cookbook, I like Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.

Edited November 5, 2010 by Enoch

[Oblarg]

I disagree about the paring knives.

 

Get two or three *really good* paring knives. Trust me, they're worth it. Expensive, yes, but a good investment - I probably use a paring knife more than any other tool in the kitchen. And there's nothing wrong with automatic washing machines, even for your good knives - that's just paranoia.

 

My all-purpose cookbook of choice would be The Joy of Cooking. Superb cookbook, especially for technique.

 

Get a large wooden cutting board. Plastic cutting boards aren't terrible, but nothing beats a good quality wooden cutting board. Size matters - if you only have one cutting board, it must be a big one.

Edited November 6, 2010 by Oblarg

[theslug]

My take (which is relatively unqualified):

 

Enoch 100% right about the chef's knife and steel. If you're an amateur chef, which I'm pretty sure everyone on this board is, that will cover you for just about everything you'll ever need. Most every ingredient you pick up at the store is already prepared or in a state in which it can be easily dispatched with a good sharp chef's knife. And if it isn't, you can just ask a butcher to take care of it for you free of charge. Obviously, learning to take dismantle poultry and other unruly creatures is a valuable technique to learn but definitely not required by any means.

 

Additionally, on the thought of cutting boards. I'm with oblarg about a healthy sized wooden cutting board but honestly a nice medium/large plastic board is in my opinion a necessity because it's just so much "faster" of a space to work on and will do everything you need.

 

And finally, you definitely need some good cookware. All we have in our house is this god damned freakin pos sons of unrespectable jalopy good for nothing trollop whores in the form of old, worn down and scratched teflon pots and pans. How can man create a majestic sauce of infinite complexity and deliciousness if he's forced to work with these kinds of conditions? Well he can't. He can just try and be a worthless a hole for it. Get some good cast iron or if you can copper. That being said, I have virtually no knowledge of cookware so if someone disagrees enlighten me please.

 

I got kind of screwed in my introduction to cooking. My father is a great home cook, he comes from a line of great home cooks in my grandparents. I unfortunately never got any real hands on experience in the kitchen with any of them besides some simple prep, stirring, keeping an eye on things and the general mindless flailing around when the smoke alarms went off. Now, some years later I'm all alone with nothing but the vague rememberings of times long past and the very few tricks I've learned along the way.

 

I suppose my greatest disadvantage is the fact that I cook for only 2. Its not that it's hard to motivate yourself to cook but its hard to justify all the extra's. The extra work, time, attention to detail, the love; everything that could make a dinner go from moderately good to spectacular. It's a harsh reality but one I battle 5-6 times a week.

Edited November 6, 2010 by theslug

[Irrelevant]

Thanks for all the advice, I'll experiment with what I have and see if any of those books are in the local library.

I got lucky on the knifes, the company I got mine from replaces them for free at no cost.

I will probably focus on getting a herb garden started first sounds like fun.

 

-Hmm, I mostly want to cook because I want to be self-sufficient, I mostly rush when cooking because I just want to eat, but chances are making a meal in advance would be better even if it won't taste as good.

Edited November 6, 2010 by Irrelevant

[theslug]

http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/

My favorite go-to food site. Chef John is hilarious and awesome. All videos, entirely incredible site imo. Great for just about everything. You won't find too many crazy specialty items or cuisines but really solid recipe list.

 

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/

Another great site, high quality photos and solid writing instruct you in the ways of all sorts of partially rustic but fantastic (mostly) American meals.

 

http://www.recipechimp.com/

Never used this site but basically you can type in an ingredient or idea and you get a generated list of recipes with the related tags.

 

http://summertomato.com/

Never used this site either but was recommended it by a friend. It's more health oriented.

 

If anyone has any other great and interesting sites (ie not allrecipes, food network, epicurious, etc) please include

[Monte Carlo]

Sorry, I invested in a set of Global knives and they've lasted 7 years and are as good as new. I use all of them.

[Walsingham]

I have to agree with Oblarg on the knives. Investing in a good paring knife makes more sense for the obvious reason that paring knives are much cheaper.

 

However, I don't see why you can't get away with _carefully chosen_ knives of all sorts rather than expensive. By which I mean soft-ish steel, which you sharpen regularly on old broken crockery. I sharpen mine maybe twice per session, and they cost a couple of pounds each, but cut through meat with surgical precision. For big stuff I buy big chinese cleavers. Again, these cost you a few quid in the right store.

 

Do sort this out, as a good knife encourages the urge to craft your food, rather than sawing away at everything which has the opposite effect.

 

~~

 

Reheated pasta for lunch from yesterday. Normal procedure of adding chilli powder, and tomato paste, then cooking up very slowly on the stove. Delicious! Really getting used to wholewheat everything, since realising it just means darkening the flavours and using a little molasses.

[Enoch]

Had a food mishap this morning. Made some oatmeal, which I usually flavor with a bit of cinnamon and ground ginger. About 5 seconds after adding the spice, though, the smell hit me, and I realized that I had grabbed the garlic powder from the cupboard instead of the ground ginger. Had to scoop the top third of the bowl into the trash.

 

So, as it was a lighter breakfast than intended, I went for an early lunch. A sandwich on a small toasted roll, with tomato, mustard, hot sauce, a squeeze of lemon, and a canful of sardines.

[LadyCrimson]

I'm with Enoch. This average joe uses good butcher/larger knives but cheap everything else. It works just fine. Heck sometimes if others are dirty, I use steak knives to slice carrots. Hubby doesn't know how I can do that effectively ... it's all in the wrist. haha

 

I like the idea of wood cutting boards but everyone I've had wouldn't hold up in the dishwasher or in giant buckets of bleach-water. So I prefer plastic now because I'm (overly) paranoid of nicks in the surfaces & germs. In fact I have three cutting boards ... one only for raw meat, one for vegies/breads only, and the third for actually slicing a cooked roast or whatnot.

[Oblarg]

I'm with Enoch. This average joe uses good butcher/larger knives but cheap everything else. It works just fine. Heck sometimes if others are dirty, I use steak knives to slice carrots. Hubby doesn't know how I can do that effectively ... it's all in the wrist. haha

 

I like the idea of wood cutting boards but everyone I've had wouldn't hold up in the dishwasher or in giant buckets of bleach-water. So I prefer plastic now because I'm (overly) paranoid of nicks in the surfaces & germs. In fact I have three cutting boards ... one only for raw meat, one for vegies/breads only, and the third for actually slicing a cooked roast or whatnot.

 

Wood cutting boards, even when hand-washed, are more sterile surfaces than plastic ones. Look it up - people have researched this.

[LadyCrimson]

I would disagree about a generalist more sterile statement. There are always conflicting "studies" about things like that. The pro-wood one from 1993 didn't have a lot to back it up tho. Last I knew many commercial food service still aren't supposed to use wooden ones, but it's been a while since I've checked that.

 

Plastic should be replaced more often because it damages easier over time (especially w/serrated blades) giving germs more "area" to cling to, but they also tend to be cheaper, so it's easy to have many separate purpose ones/buy new ones. They're also light.

 

If you replace them often enough, clean them w/bleach, etc. the non-porous surface & other conveniences still beats wood, imo.

[Guard Dog]

I am making vension chili in the crock pot. I seasoned it with garlic, salt, chili powder, and it has two white onions chopped, one green pepper, one red pepper chopped, five jalapenos and one small habenero, plus a pound of red beans and a pound of ground venison rump. It's starting to smell good too. I'll steam put some white rice to pour it on and enjoy with a glass of Guiness.

[theslug]

I made potato leak soup. I had a ton of leaks but I still should have added more onion to it and probably another potato but all in all pretty solid. I always throw in some chopped kielbasa and it gives it this really nice smokey, meaty, salty flavor that is really quite delightful and satisfying. Can't wait for some tomorrow when all the flavors have had time to properly complete the sexual melding ritual by which all soups, stews and other related parties must undergo.

[Gorth]

Had a food mishap this morning.

Hey, thats how new dishes gets invented. Nothing like a bit of garlic oatmeal for breakfast. Especially if you are trying to enforce a "privacy sphere" at work >_

 

Had some nice simple lunch with some rolls, ham, cheese, stuffed olives, sundried tomatos and some funny little red capsicum thingies with fillings.

[Oblarg]

Indian food again. This place really knows how to make their curries nice and hot - it's the only way to have them.

[mkreku]

I have found a place close to where I work with a buffet for 80 SEK (which is cheap here). The problem with this buffet is that it's delicious. Every dish they make is fantastic, no matter if it is fish based, chicken, beef, whatever. They must have the best chef ever to be able to produce such quantities and of such high quality.

 

The buffet also includes a dessert buffet. Yes, you can also eat as many cookies, puddings, icecream, cakes, etc., as you want. And after that there's a fruit buffet..

 

I can barely fit in my jeans anymore.

[Gorgon]

I'm eating carrots. To lose weight.

 

It doesn't work if you eat them by the bag though, also they contain a vitamin you can overload on, or so I hear.

[Nepenthe]

Started a diet after gaining 20 kilos in ~8 months. Blood pressure's probably also gone through the roof, so I really need to stay motivated with this.

[Hurlshort]

Started a diet after gaining 20 kilos in ~8 months. Blood pressure's probably also gone through the roof, so I really need to stay motivated with this.

 

My blood pressure is a problem too. This getting older stuff is messed up.

 

I made some pretty good burgers last night, 1/4 pound Angus steak with a bit of Worcestershire Sauce and Steak magic seasoning. I cooked some Ore-Ida fries in the oven and served it with carrots.