Learning how to cook

[Deleted User]

Make friends with a canteen cook at uni if you can, folk love to pass on their knowledge,and buy the simplest cook book you can find or borrow from the library.
Doesn't matter if its aimed at children it will teach you the basics.Cooking, like all things, takes time and patience, and with a good helping of both you will be fine
Never be afarid to ask on this forum, as we all had to learn at some point and we all learned by trial and error.No question is daft or silly.I have been cooking for well over 60 odd years first at home with my late mum, then as a young wife and Mum myself. I have had disasters (I once blew up boiled eggs :)) and learned from my mistakes. Be honest if something goes wrong with some food its not going to stop the world, in years to come you will look back and think 'Did I really do that' :)
But enjoy the learning experience as you will end up with a skill that you never forget
(I learned never to leave a pan of eggs on the cooker and forget about them:):))
Good luck

LameWolf

Anselm, are you open to the idea of vegetarian food sometimes? Mushroom risotto is easy-peasy, and only uses one saucepan.;)

Also, my husband often does us his "omelette-with-everything" ie 2 eggs each, and add onion, cheese, seasoning, Qu0rn bacon-style strips (or you can have "proper" bacon, if you like it of course):D and any bits and pieces of veg that want using, just chop everything up small and mix it in.

I think knowing the amount to put in per helping is good - I weigh out 8 oz pasta fusilli for pasta in cheese sauce for 2 of us; 6 oz rice for the afore-mentioned mushroom risotto for two, 4 oz rice if I'm doing boiled rice as a "side" for two of us (such as nut loaf with sweet'n'sour sauce with rice). If I was cooking for just Mr LW alone, I'd halve the amount. It depends if you've a large or small appetite, but once you know the amount of your base ingredient, you're half-way there.:o

sonastin

If you really don't know where to start with cooking, one of the easiest places to look is on packets of stuff. Jars of sauce often have recommendations/recipes to follow on the side. Bags of pasta/rice are usually sold with cooking instructions. Pick up a sauce you like the sound of and the other ingredients it recommends (e.g. chicken, mince, peppers, onions, or whatever plus pasta, rice, cous cous or whatever goes with it) and the follow the instructions on the packets.

Once you have an idea of what goes together you can start changing things around to suit your own tastes - chucking in extra veggies to bulk it out for instance. Also take note of the recognisable ingredients in the jars of sauce so that you can start experimenting with making your own when you are more confident. Use youtube etc to learn how to thicken sauces as well and before you know it you'll be able to cook from scratch and happily experiment with flavours.

As for you question re: passata... Personally I don't think its worth making your own. You can pick up cartons for far less than the tomatoes would cost to buy so unless you grow your own and have a massive over-supply, you might as well just buy the passata.

mickaveli2001

OP... I would suggest the first thing to do when learning to cook is Soup. You can't go wrong with soup. It will enable you to experiment with different vegetables and foods, and also enable you to utilize other ingredients such as flavorings, spices, powders etc.

It is after all, coming into the Xmas period, a fine time to start with soup. All you need is a large pot. Most of the dried veg, barley and other packets of single grains and so on are quite cheap meaning you can try out 4-5 different recopies before having to buy new ones

Once you have mastered soup, you can move onto other simple dishes such as pasta and spaghetti

littlegreenparrot

Another vote for Ministry of Food by Jamie Oliver, I found that really good.
I was bought How to cook by Delia Smith before I went to Uni, and its excellent on the techniques - but I found the actual recipes needed a lot of ingredients, which a student doesn't necessarily have (but in your case, your mum might)

I would get a few out of the library and see what you like the look of, for example I wouldn't dream of doing a Heston Blumenthal recipe, but immediately want to make and eat almost everything in a Hairy Bikers book.

Just have a go and don't worry about it.

Anselm

Wow thank you for all the responses, I'm most indebted. I don't have a lot of free time up until Tuesday because I'm currently writing an essay (boring!) However once this is done I think I'll have a crack at cooking something next week. I was thinking of doing something like sweet and sour chicken if it isn't too complex - and if it is well I'm sure my mum could help.

Thanks, once again, for all the replies.

FloralRainbow

Have you signed up to the 'Student Beans' website? I can't post a link, but if you go to their homepage and search 'cookbook' it comes up with their downloadable PDF cookbook, which is designed for beginner cooks with limited ingredients. I am lucky enough to have picked up a lot of ideas from my dad, but my flatmate in halls (complete cooking novice) used this and had great success!

Good luck with the essay:)!

Anselm

Cheers Floral I'll look tomorrow

mickaveli2001

Soup cannot be ruined as easy as other dishes which makes it an ideal starter..

Just throw it all into the pot so to speak. Leave it for long periods of time without constant supervision. Ideal

Butterfly_Brain

A recipe is just a set of instructions and if you follow them you usually won't go far wrong. I fully agree with the Ministry of food cook book or try these sites they have lots of step by step pictorial instructions.

http://step-by-step-cook.co.uk/

http://www.focusonfood.org/cookingtech.html

http://www.studentcook.co.uk/cheese-and-egg-main-meals.html