Posts filed under 'How to Teach Yourself to Cook'
How to Teach Yourself to Cook Part IV
By Kara Morris, written on Nov. 12, 2008
Part IV: Sit Down at The Table
One final way to learn to cook and encourage others to cook is by holding “family dinners.” You can have these dinners daily, weekly, or monthly, based on your roommates’ availability.
When my roommates and I hold family dinners, we take turns cooking. Someone will make a the entire meal or two people will split the meal between a main course, a side, and a dessert. Since two of us are out of the house [too] often (as our roommates have complained), family dinners give us a good chance to catch up with each other. We usually play “Yos and woes” where we share the highs and lows of our week. It’s a good game to generate discussion, though lack of conversation is never a problem with my roommates.
You might think you don’t have time to cook, but you can always save an hour here or there for a good meal. Whether you live in a house of six or an apartment with another student, cooking with others is a great way to learn about food, spend time with your roommates, and eat that home-cooked meal you’ve been craving.
Your First Crêpe Recipe
By Kara Morris, written on Oct. 11, 2008
When I was younger I followed my best friend’s parents around their house asking them about food; her father is a limitlessly curious and creative food epicurean and her mother can throw together any pie or cake without a recipe.
Inspired by this culinary duo, I began to teach myself to cook. The first recipe I learned was from a children’s cookbook. It’s a fairly simple crêpe recipe that doesn’t use sugar so you can serve it with ham and eggs or as a dessert with berries and whipped cream. I passed it on to my younger brother when he was 5; by 6 he could flip the crêpes without a spatula and we’d make them together for our sisters and parents.
Crêpes
If you want to challenge yourself, try making this recipe sans spatula.
1 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
2 eggs
4 tablespoons melted buttter
2/3 cup milk and 2/3 cup water mixed together
1. Mix eggs and some water/milk mix in bowl
2. Mix flour and salt in separate bowl and whist dry ingredients into liquid a little at a time
3. Pour in remaining milk/water and whisk until well-blended; add the melted butter
4. Heat a skillet on medium then brush with 1/2 of melted butter bit of butter*; you can also cut a thin slice of butter and spread around your pan with the tip of a knife.
5. Pour about 2 tbsp of butter in pan and immediately tilt from side to side to spread batter
6. Let cook for about one minute, or until the edges have curled slightly, then flip and allow to cook for 10-20 more seconds
7. Serve with jelly, whipped cream, berries, pudding, chocolate sauce, eggs and ham, etc
* if you don’t have a brush you can cut a small potato in half, stick the rounded end with a fork, dip the flat end in butter and spread–this is traditional French technique, according to a French friend
This summer I made crêpes for dinner with my roommate. In France, crêpes are actually eaten fairly infrequently and are only served for dinner.
How to Teach Yourself to Cook Part III
By Kara Morris, written on Sep. 19, 2008
Part III: Get Off the Couch
The Food Network is another good way to learn about American or international dishes, but it will not teach you the valuable lessons you can learn in the kitchen. Think about it: of all the times you’ve watched a Food Network host prepare a recipe, how many times have you actually made the dish?
Food network shows can be useful–you can usually pick up some good knife tricks or get inspiration for a good recipe–but any real learning you’ll do will be in the kitchen. So, for every half hour spent watching the Food Network, try to spend at least an hour in the kitchen.
Don’t feel bad if you can’t blend flavors and come up with original dishes like so-and-so’s “shrimp and banana sauté.” It’s ok—you’re learning. Sometimes it’s better to just stick with the recipe, as I found out when I was experimenting and added “a little red pepper, and a little more, and a little more…” to my pork. Ultimately, the dish turned out inedible but, as a penny-pinching college student, I ate it.
How to Teach Yourself to Cook Part II
By Kara Morris, written on Sep. 17, 2008
Part II: Do Your Research
First, read about food. There are many magazines and books about food preparation and cultural variations that you can find at the library. One quick warning: The Science of Ice Cream is not nearly as much fun as it sounds.
If you’re interested in subscribing to a magazine, keep it simple. Gourmet magazine has a lot of fun and really exciting dishes, but they often use ingredients and restaurant processes that aren’t really accessible to students.
You can also read cookbooks. Some have excerpts about the origins of an ingredient or the best way to cut up a vegetable–that’s what draws me to snuggle up in bed with a good [cook]book.
Next, talk about food. Many people are passionate about food and love to share their knowledge with others.
Finally, do a bit of sleuthing online. There are millions of free websites offering recipes. I would recommend epicurious.com or recipezaar.com because they’re overflowing with recipes and have a good rating system. Really any website will do if it has cooks’ feeback or rating system options.
Create a “food” folder in your bookmarks. If you are interested in a recipe, but don’t have the time or ingredients to make it, put it in your food folder and save it for when you go shopping.
How to Teach Yourself to Cook
By Kara Morris, written on Sep. 14, 2008
Your mom has cooked all of your meals and has sent you to school with a bagged lunch every day through high school. Freshman year you were liberated: you could set your own schedule, skip all the classes you wanted, and choose, within dormitory limits, exactly what you wanted to eat. So you’re living in a house or apartment of your choice and you are even more liberated, right? Exactly…but that’s the problem.
You have just realized that you do not know enough about cooking to get you through the year. Grilled cheese sandwiches and $1 Backroom pizza may be adequate for the first few weeks, but pretty soon you’ll be aching for a home-cooked meal. So, how do you solve this problem? You’ll just have to bite the bullet and learn to cook.
Allow me help. I’ve been teaching myself to cook nearly my all my life. My parents always made sure to put food on our table and to encourage us to make healthy decisions. However, food was never a priority to them. My mother tends to burn everything she puts in the oven; when I come home and the air is full of smoke, I know “Mom’s been cooking.”
So, I love to eat food, read about food, talk about food and teach others about food. In the same way, you can learn to cook for yourself.
The following is part of a 4+ part series on teaching yourself to cook.
Part I: Find a [Simple] Recipe
The most successful way I’ve taught myself how to cook is by trying a new recipe every time I go to the grocery store. Pick out one recipe or meal and write the ingredients on your shopping list.
It’s best to stick with simple ingredients in case you don’t like the recipe or don’t know how to incorporate some of the ingredients into your cooking. Really, how do you plan to use that anchovy paste?
If you like the new food, keep the recipe and prepare it from time to time but try to make something new every time you go shopping. By consistently trying new meals, you will expand your food knowledge and keep yourself from running into a food rut.