Learning to cook new meals

Bob Z

I am pretty bad at cooking. Its not that i cant cook its just that i dont eat or havent tried a wide variety of foods. basically all i would cook would be spuds, chips, wedges, sausages, steaks stir fries etc. i want to learn to cook other stuff but i want to start of as easy as possible before moving on to more advanced foods

Can anyone give me ideas for simple recipes?

Minder

A thai curry is reasonably simple but packs a huge amount of flavour. Buy a tub of red or green curry paste to make things easy. Other ingredients -

Chicken - cut into bite sized pieces.
Thai curry paste - red or green
400g of coconut milk
garlic and ginger - a couple of cloves and a thumb sized piece of ginger chopped
lemongrass and kafir lime leaves - if you can get them, buy fresh and store in the freezer
Thai fish sauce and a fresh lime
Beanshoots

Fry the chicken for a couple of minutes and add the garlic and ginger. Cook for a couple of minutes and add the curry paste. Stir to coat the chicken then add the whole stalks of lemongrass and whole kafir lime leaves, add the coconut milk and about half a tin of water. Cover and cook for about 15 minutes.

Cook some rice - see the rice thread for a debate on the merits of different methods. Scald the bean shoots in boiling water. Add fish sauce and lime juice to the curry, tasting as you go. Pile it up on plates - rice - curry - bean shoots - sauce - chopped coriander.

LimeFruitGum

Let's take the humble chicken. LOADS of things you could do with that.

You could marinade chicken with all sorts of combinations - take your pick from herbs like tarragon or rosemary, lemon juice, crushed garlic, paprika, yoghurt & tikka powder, mustard & honey/lemon.
Actually, I tried marmalade and orange juice marinade one time and it was really quite tasty!

When you've gotten used to cooking chicken fillets, try roasting a whole chicken. It works out cheaper to buy a whole chicken than to buy fillets. Roasting a chicken is really easy - get onto Delia Online The main thing is to season the chicken, add stuffing inside the body or lemons & garlic inside if you prefer a lighter alternative. Baste the chicken with its own juices every so often.

You can then boil the bones with some vegetables afterwards to get stock. You'll never go back to oxo cubes once you start making stock!

LimeFruitGum

Lasagne is a good easy one to start off with. Just layer the ragu with lasagne sheets and white sauce until you run out or reach the top of the dish Add grated cheese on top. Bung in oven for 30-45 mins. DONE.:D

BlackandGold

Here's another one for the chicken:

You can either cut it up, or leave it whole, put it into a lasagna/casserole dish. Put carrots, mushrooms, peppers, potatoes - whatever veg you like - into the dish. Mix up a chicken casserole packet mix with some water [I'm sure people here could recommend a healthier version from scratch] and put into oven for 30 minutes or so. If you boil up the carrots and potatoes first, and fry the chicken, it saves a lot of time in the oven!

deeper

I only really learned to cook this year. Iam in my own house about a year and started proper meals. I bought the Jamie Oliver book, Ministry of Food. Its got really easy recipes that i never thought id be able to cook. Now iam even cooking for friends. Give it a go.

krankykitty

You could try salmon (or other fish) in a parcel..

Take a piece of baking paper (brown stuff) or even tinfoil, tear off about an A4 sheet size. Put your piece of salmon in the middle. Add some salt and pepper and a few slices of lemon..
Or you could slice up a few bits of veg like pepper, courgette etc and place on top of the fish.
I like chopping up some baby tomatoes, adding a little olive oil and some "Italian Herb Seasoning" (Schwartz) to the top of the fish.

Then sort of scrunch up the edges of the paper/foil so you make a parcel (leaving some space in the middle between the fish and the paper, a good air pocket if you will.

Just throw in the oven at about 190 degrees for 20 mins, serve with the aforementioned spuds, wedges, chips, whatever you like.

Bob Z

krankykitty wrote: »

You could try salmon (or other fish) in a parcel..

Take a piece of baking paper (brown stuff) or even tinfoil, tear off about an A4 sheet size. Put your piece of salmon in the middle. Add some salt and pepper and a few slices of lemon..
Or you could slice up a few bits of veg like pepper, courgette etc and place on top of the fish.
I like chopping up some baby tomatoes, adding a little olive oil and some "Italian Herb Seasoning" (Schwartz) to the top of the fish.

Then sort of scrunch up the edges of the paper/foil so you make a parcel (leaving some space in the middle between the fish and the paper, a good air pocket if you will.

Just throw in the oven at about 190 degrees for 20 mins, serve with the aforementioned spuds, wedges, chips, whatever you like.

Thanks. Tried this last night. i will get to the others

krankykitty

Something like cottage pie can be fairly handy: dice an onion and a carrot finely, fry up for a few mins. (Carrot can be substituted with red pepper or any veg you have handy) Then add mince and brown. While you're at that, boil some potatoes for the topping. When the mince is browned, add an Oxo cube or two depending on taste and how much ingredients, and some mixed herbs (if that is to your taste). I add maybe half a tin of plum tomatoes and then mash them up a little. Add some tomato ketchup or puree (1-2 tablespoons) and a dash of tobasco or worcestershire sauce. I personally would add a few tablespoons of ground cumin but that's personal taste. Then add a teaspoon or two of cornflour to thicken up the liquid, and throw into a casserole dish. Top with mashed potatoes and put in the oven for about 30-40 mins at 180. This is ideal to prepare in advance the day before and keep in the fridge until you're ready to heat in the oven.

Birdie086

I am too just finding my feet in the feet and something i find very handy is garlic paste, saves fiddling around with fresh garlic.

herisson

sweet chilli chicken skewers are nice and easy to make too

Bob Z

Pixie-Fairy wrote: »

sweet chilli chicken skewers are nice and easy to make too

How do you make them?

herisson

well this is the way i make them
you will need some skinless chicken fillets
sweet chilli sauce (i use a small tub of dipping sauce you can get in tesco and superquin near the deli)
skewers (if wooden soak for an hour beforehand)

cut the chicken into bitesize chunks then add it to a bowl with the sweet chilli sauce and mix until they are evenly coated or alternatively get a zip lock plastic bag and put the sauce and chicken into it and shake around

thread the chicken pieces on to the skewers, season with salt and pepper, and place in a grill on medium heat for about 5mins each side or untill the chicken is cooked

enjoy

Seaneh

How about pasta alla puttanesca (Whores pasta)?

Really easy and one of my personal faves.

You will need.

Pasta (whatever shape you want, doesnt matte).

2 cans of chopped tomatos
1 can of anchovi fillets in olive oil
2 finger chilis, finely chopped.
a few black olives, chopped
table spoon of capers, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced/pured
2 challots, finely chopped.
2 desert spoons of ketchup (to counter act the bitterness of the tomato seeds).
300g prawns (frozen are fine)

partially open the anchivies and drain off the oil into a heavy bottomed pan.
heat the oil to medium and add the chalotts, garlic, chilli and sweat for 5 minutes.
Add the anchovi and stirr continously for another five minutes untill they have broken up completely.
Add the two tins of chopped tomatos, ketchup and the capers and olives.
bring to the boil, redice to a low heat and simmer for 45 mins, stirring every 10 mins or so.

cook the pasta.

when pasta is nearly cooked, add the prawns to the sauce and stirr through (they will take about 30 seconds to cook).

And remember, in Italian the sauce in a pasta dish is caled "condimento" and should be used accordingly, yur dish should be pasta with a little sauce, not a soup with some pasta floating around in it.

The best way to sauce pasta is drain the pasta and then return to the pan is cooked in, then add a few ladles of sauce and mix it through.

Enjoy.

olaola

If you can do a basic tomato sauce, you can add anything to it - bacon, chorizo, chicken, mince (make it into spag bol) etc etc.

It's literally - fry an onion with some garlic until soft. Lash in a can of tomatoes, squirt of tomato puree and season. 15 mins simmering will be plenty. I like to add some smoked paprika and a 1/2 tsp of sugar too.

LimeFruitGum

I recommend checking www.bordbia.ie and BBC Good Food website to get some more easy cooking ideas

nerdysal

Beef Stroganoff is dead simple and so easy. I live on it when I'm in college.

Fry some onions and garlic in a pan for about 2 mins, then add your beef (chopped into bite size pieces). Fry until the meat is well browned and then add some mushrooms. Add 1 dessert spoon of flour and stir it in well.
Then add 210ml stock (1 cube) and 2 dessertspoons of tomato ketchup/puree.
Simmer for about 20 minutes to half hour. Just before serving add 2 dessertspoons of sour cream or creme fraiche and serve with rice!

Yummy!!!

Bob Z

nerdysal wrote: »

Beef Stroganoff is dead simple and so easy. I live on it when I'm in college.

Fry some onions and garlic in a pan for about 2 mins, then add your beef (chopped into bite size pieces). Fry until the meat is well browned and then add some mushrooms. Add 1 dessert spoon of flour and stir it in well.
Then add 210ml stock (1 cube) and 2 dessertspoons of tomato ketchup/puree.
Simmer for about 20 minutes to half hour. Just before serving add 2 dessertspoons of sour cream or creme fraiche and serve with rice!

Yummy!!!

what could I use instead of flour? I'm allergic to wheat

sv650

Bob Z wrote: »

what could I use instead of flour? I'm allergic to wheat

Cornflour, maybe? I presume it's just to thicken the sauce a bit.

Edgedinblue

Even a plain ol chicken curry is nice! all you need is an onion, chicken, tin of chopped tomatoes, curry powder and whatever you're serving it with (rice or chips, etc) you could have two days worth of dinner from any of these three. they can also be frozen so happy days

Just chop up the onion, small or big whatever you like.
fry it in a pot in little bit of oil for few mins.
add your chicken, fry until cooked.
i usual add a tablespoon of curry powder to the chicken at this point
then the tin of chopped tomatoes goes in and whatever other veg you want to throw in, bring to the boil then simmer for 15mins.

the amount of curry powder is really up to you and your tastes, but its really easy to make.

another easy one is using a tin of chicken and mushroom soup, chilli powder or curry powder (up to you which one!) chicken breast, veg and rice/chips

i usually half cook carrots and spuds for this one first off
then cook the chicken by itself.
then mix the chicken, veg, soup and whatever spice you want together,
pop in the oven at 200 for around 20 mins.
and bobs your uncle!

or ya cant beat a big bowl of chilli nom!
chop and fry an onion in oil in a pot, add chopped garlic (or tsp garlic paste/powder)
add mince and a packet of chilli mix spice by ol del paso
mix around until mince is cooked
add tin of chopped tomatoes and leave to simmer for 20mins.

i usually add a cup of rice into the mix and it cooks in the sauce, but boiled spuds and chips go nice with it too!

Im hungry now...

The Hill Billy

Bob Z wrote: »

what could I use instead of flour? I'm allergic to wheat

Just don't use flour. It is not essential.

nice1franko

+1 for the Thai curry idea.

You get seriously good food for very little work.