Newbie needs help - getting started in the kitchen

gemmylou86

Hi all!

This is my first post, and would love some advice on the following:

Me and my partner are just about to move into bigger accomodation as we are due our first baby in November.
I will freely admit that we previously lived like students, surviving on pasta, take-out and crisps. I'm determined for our new kitchen to be more than just where the microwave lives, and as i'm now on maternity leave, i've vowed to learn to cook from scratch. For the sake of our wallets and waistlines!

So any advice on store cupboard basics, thrifty tips, good books i could read?
Also interested in learning to bake so any advice on that would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

peb

To start off with; what are you comfortable cooking? I see you have had pasta - do you make a sauce/add a jar of sauce/ stir in some pesto?

Book wise - I wouldn't necessarily bother as there are lots of recipies online - I like the BBC food site as you can either search by name of recipe or by ingredients.

If you have a chance search (on forums) for MrBadexample's cokking thread. He is now a competent cook but started off asking for "bloke" recipies so you won't be blinded with science!

Flibsey

personally I'd say do buy a book, but make sure it's a basic student one. this will be cooking small amounts on a budget; and you don't need to have the computer on to look up recipes.

gemmylou86

Thanks for the tips! Was thinking of investing in a cheap printer fir recipies and then popping them into a ring binder or something.

Ok there are a few things I can make from scratch, just never got round to cooking often as I used to work very long hours. I can comfortably make (using no packet sauces):
Spag bol
Chilli
Lasagne (bought the white sauce though... Lol)
Shepards pie.

As you can tell, I have a foolproof tom sauce recipie and not much else.

My cupboards have as follows:
Multitude of snack foods, cakes, biscuits, plus loads of carp like super noodles, microwave pasta pot noodle etc, just junk
(not buying any more now though)
Tins of baked beans, chopped toms, kidney beans.
Pasta, rice, lasagne sheets.
Oxo - red, yellow and green.
Dried chillies, chilli powder, oregano and mixed italin herbs
Tomato puree, garlic puree
Salt, pepper.
Dark soy, sweet chilli sauce.
Ketchup, brown sauce, salad cream.

Only fresh food is two sad looking toms, half pnt milk and some clover...

Shameful...

MandM90

If you want to be reeeeally thrifty, borrow a book from your library/a friend or get a student cookbook from the charity shop.

What meals do you enjoy eating? I'd say the first thing to master is pasta sauce from scratch; fry a chopped onion and a clove of garlic until the onion softens, add a tin of chopped tomatoes, a pinch of mixed herbs or dried basil turn it up til it bubbles then simmer until it thickens into a sauce; easy peasy!

The internet is fab for cooking advice, so just choose a few recipes you want to master, buy the ingredients and have a go.

"One pot" recipes are easy, have little washing up and can often be comforting in winter. The BBC Good Food website has a whole collection of them and it often just involves throwing a load of ingredients into a pan and leaving it for a couple of hours!

Easy recipes: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/recipes/favourites/easy/

One pot: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/recipes/healthy/healthy-one-pot/

Good luck!

Pink.

Hi gemmylou,

These existing threads may help:

I need to learn to cook !!!

Can't cook don't cook! Time for change.

I can't cook, can you help please?

Simple recipes for someone who can't really cook!

Storecupboard Essentials

recipe book recommendations please

If you could only have one book on baking..

Tips and Quick Questions on “How To Start Being Old Style”

Also this website is great for novice cooks:

http://www.beyondbakedbeans.com/

If there is anything in particular that you would like to learn to cook then just ask in this forum and someone will be sure to help.

Pink

MandM90

gemmylou86 wrote: »

Thanks for the tips! Was thinking of investing in a cheap printer fir recipies and then popping them into a ring binder or something.

Ok there are a few things I can make from scratch, just never got round to cooking often as I used to work very long hours. I can comfortably make (using no packet sauces):
Spag bol
Chilli
Lasagne (bought the white sauce though... Lol)
Shepards pie.

As you can tell, I have a foolproof tom sauce recipie and not much else.

My cupboards have as follows:
Multitude of snack foods, cakes, biscuits, plus loads of carp like super noodles, microwave pasta pot noodle etc, just junk
(not buying any more now though)
Tins of baked beans, chopped toms, kidney beans.
Pasta, rice, lasagne sheets.
Oxo - red, yellow and green.
Dried chillies, chilli powder, oregano and mixed italin herbs
Tomato puree, garlic puree
Salt, pepper.
Dark soy, sweet chilli sauce.
Ketchup, brown sauce, salad cream.

Only fresh food is two sad looking toms, half pnt milk and some clover...

Shameful...

I'd have a go at soups and stews next; they are often freezable, hard to ruin and full of veg! Look up a few simple recipes and read them all to get a feel of the key ingredients and methods for them all and you'll probably be surprised at how easy it is.

If I were you I'd ease myself in gently by cooking things you know well 3/4 times a week then trying other things the rest, gradually you'll build up a repertoire.

annasoper

If I were you, I'd buy Jamie Oliver's Jamie at home. It is a pleasure to read, and has some fabulous easy recipes. You can also find the same at http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes. If you like your Italian foods, I'd suggest checking out some recipes there. Yes, you can check out recipes online, but it is much better having a nice recipe book. My OH and I make it a point to cook 1 dish from the book at least once every fortnight.

annasoper

And you can buy the book cheap on Amazon or ebay. I also saw it reduced in a TK MAxx once.

tuttifruiti20

Why not head to the library and grab a few easy cook books. Then you can have a good look through and find things you can do easily without paying a fortune for books. When you find one you like, copy it down into a notebook and you'll soon build up your own cookbook of recipes you're comfy with.

sparklysaver

My two basic cookbooks, which I still use at least once a week, are Delia's cookery course (I've got the 2 part version from when it was first published) and the Good Housekeeping cookery book (1976 edition) - got both of these cheap in a 2nd hand shop when I first left home in the early 90s and they cover absolutely all the basics. I have far too many other cookery books, lots of which I use for specific recipes or for general inspiration, but they're my bibles for the basics (Also, the Good Housekeeping one has a genius chapter on how to be a good hostess at parties, full of useful advice about wine punch for teenagers and warming up shop-bought potato crisps to make them more sophisticated to serve at your sherry party, so if your recipes fail you can always read that to cheer you up ).

There are loads of sites with brilliant recipes, I use BBC good food a lot, but I like to have a cookery book on hand in the kitchen too.

Maybe you could set aside a certain amount of your food budget each month to building up a store cupboard? It can be expensive if you're starting from not a lot. Another book that's good for maybe a bit exciting food than the first two I mentioned is Economy Gastronomy - it's not hugely Economy it has to be said, but it is very nice and there's a really good section at the start about a store cupboard and equipment list.

Good luck!