How to learn to cook?

Hi everyone, I was never taught to cook, and I think it's unhealthy not to mention expensive to continue eating takeaway. However, I'm in a unique situation which complicates things:

- I am an absolute beginner. Meaning I don't know how to slice an onion or boil an egg.
- I work away from my parents' house (thanks goodness) on temporary contracts. I'm currently on a 3 month contract. So a) how do I establish a pantry from scratch that b) is small enough that it won't go to waste at the end? Bearing in mind I don't even know what's required to establish a normal, permanent pantry (we were not allowed to go shopping for food)
- I'm by myself

What can you guys recommend in terms of establishing an appropriate, short-term pantry and receipes for one person? Any good cookbooks out there? Thanks.

Useful things to have in your food cupboard! Bread, eggs, rice, pasta, Tinned foods. Useful foods to have in your fridge! Milk, cheese, bacon, sausages, other meat, fish, fresh veg, potatoes.

Useful things to have in freezer, mince, other fresh meat, frozen veg.

Boiled eggs take between 3 and 5 minutes in a saucepan of boiling water.
Scrambled egg is easy in a saucepan.

Advanced meals: Lasagne, Cottage pie, stews.

I live alone, and usually rely on freezer meals for one, with added veg, but I don't enjoy cooking.

Hello
I suggest that you start with learning to cook one meal at a time. That way you arent going to by things that you might not want to use again. So, how about I help a bit?
Name a type of food you like to eat, and I will tell you how to cook it. For cost efficiency, maybe think of a meal that you will enjoy the left overs of as well. Something maybe you can take to work for lunch for example.
If you cant think of anything, I can suggest something. I LOVE to cook!
Looking forward to hearing from you!
One

Plain dishes for a beginner is good, actually before I use a cook book I learned from watching my mom do it. I dunno since I was a child I have this certain passion on cooking and just by watching I learned how to do it by myself.

lala2 wrote:- I am an absolute beginner. Meaning I don't know how to slice an onion or boil an egg.

When you boil an egg you want to start with cold water. Put your egg in the pan, then heat the water to boiling and let it boil at least 4 minutes or it will be too soft and the white will still be runny..

If you boil the water first then put the egg in it fresh out of the refrigerator it will crack the shell due to the difference in temperatures and some of the white will get out into the water. A little salt in the water will help it peel easier too. Run it under cold water while it's still in the pan for a little bit before you peel it to make it easier to handle and use your thumb to peel the shell away from the egg.

My mom worked as a nurse from 3-11 PM and there wasn't anybody home when I got home from grade school and have been cooking for myself since I was 8 years old. I worked at a group home for developmentally disabled individuals and taught them how to cook in preparation for them moving out on their own into the community.

I live by myself and don't rely on frozen foods or microwave dishes to eat. One of my favorite things to cook is spiral ham, as that will feed me for about a week and I don't have to cook a lot during that time. My favorite is double sugar cured spiral ham from WalMart in the blue foil wrap.

I have a baking pan that is big enough to hold an 8-9 pound spiral ham and use aluminum foil to cover the top. Ham is already fully cooked so about an hour in the oven at 350 degrees will heat it fully. Take the foil off for the last 15 minutes and increase the heat to 375 and that will cook off some of the fat and brown it nice.

It comes with a sugar that you put in a small saucepan with about an 1/8th cup of water and heat to boiling on top of the stove, then baste the ham before you let it cook the last 15 minutes.

After it's done and I've had a chance to eat a little of it I cut it off the bone right away and put it into ziplock baggies, with about 1 pound per bag, and put them in the freezer for later. Put the bone in the freezer too and use it later on to season a pot of beans or something. 15 bean soup is one of my favorites to use it with.

It's a lot easier, and less of a mess, if you go ahead and do it like that instead of waiting to cut it off or just sticking it in the fridge. I wash the pans right away so I don't have to fool with it later.

In a period of less than 2 hours total I have 7-8 pounds of delicious ham that will feed me for about a week and no mess to show for it.

Tonight I had boiled Green Giant Klondike Rose baby potatoes and baby carrots with some of the ham it it for flavoring.

Did I mention I'm a guy and did all the cooking during the 3 times I was married? I had to teach my first wife to cook and was a better cook than any of my ex wives.

We all should learn how to cook because if we cook good and healthy food it will be good for our health as well. the best way to learn it by cooking small meals and breakfasts. Food and health are related to each other as good health comes by good food and good food is which keeps you away from fat or oily things.

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you mate. I have limited cooking experience and have made some pretty big mistakes when I do cook. (For example: I under boiled an egg and because I was too lazy to boil it again, I put it in the microwave. Didn't take into account eggs have a lot of gas in them. Exploded and left the house smelling awful for the rest of the day). I'm yet to learn how to cook properly. Probably should soon! For me - I think using a cook book would help the most. What about you? Might help getting a cook book for beginners? Then there is free recipes online? Maybe even cooking classes? They can be expensive but even as little as three classes really could help.

Cookbooks for students are often excellent, because they assume no prior knowledge, simple ingredients and no fancy kitchen equipment.

Sites like http://www.recipekey.com/ or http://www.supercook.com/ can help you think of meals based on the ingredients you have. AllRecipes has an iOS app if you want to be high-tech. I haven't used it, so this isn't a personal recommendation, just an idea. [Free, search the store for DinnerSpinner. If you find others, post them!]

I'm not very good with cook books because I just don't like following recipes, I don't know why. But they're good to get initial ideas, and then I customise them, and usually the result is edible.

Finally, cooking vegetarian food is great, it's REALLY hard to get food poisoning as a vegetarian.

Spicy Fried Potato.

1 Russet 'baking' potato
Canola Oil (personal pref having less fat than vegetable)
Seasonings: salt, pepper, minced onion (bottled,) garlic n onion salts

On stovetop, set heat to medium - med-low
Pour oil into pan, amount is personal pref again.Too much though and it takes longer, too little it'll brown too quickly making slices brittle
Slice potato into twelths or so (thick enough the middle insides aren't brittle or hard)
Pour all seasonings into oiled pan then place sliced potatos in

Fry to desired doneness. I like em dark brown on both sides but personal pref is fine. Check and flip every 5 minutes or so. If you have a splatter guard for the pan use it or floor in front of stove can get splattered oil and become slippery.

Place done potatos onto napkin covered plate to cool (will be VERY hot from stove.) Add additional seasonings if desired.

Makes a good snack, not super filling though.


Baked Paprika Chicken

1 pack chicken breasts or tenders
1 cube butter (I like salt-free, add pleanty of salt so if I can save a little bit here n there...)
Paprika and other seasonings like salt, pepper, garlic n onion salt

Set oven at 550F (like my meats to be well-done, but lower temps work too, just takes longer)

Season over-safe pan with everything except butter, place chicken into pan, place whole cube butter onto top of chicken, add more seasonings.

Bake about 20 mins, remove from oven, flip chicken over, bake another 10 minutes. Flip again and slice length-wise into halves to ensure middle's cooked and no pink remians. Reason, bake another 5 mins or so. Paprika should blacken and 'carmelize' onto chicken. Butter will evaporate/absorb by the end instead of remaining liquidy like. Remove from oven and slice up into bite-sized morsels so every piece absorbs some of the molten spicy butter. Boil egg-free noodle and dump into pan to eat. Noodles will absorb the rest of the liquid butter. If using tenders, baking time will be much less so keep an eye on it. With tenders can warm tortillas instead of noodles and have as burritos with any other condoments desired.


French Toast

Use whatever bread you like. Like the double-fiber whole wheat premium kinds.

Crack 3 eggs into bowl. Stir up like making an omlette or scrambled eggs. Dip both sides of bread in and fry on medium heat. Flip periodically and stand there monitoring. Do to desire doneness. Can add cinnamon or powdered sugar if desired. Maple syrup, butter, eat.

You can visit the cooking sites. There select a few simple recipes. Alternately cook them.

Then you will have experience of cooking.