How to learn? Cooking course?

omb0wyn5ehpij9

Hi all,
I think it's time for me to admit that I'm an awful cook and my food and cooking knowledge is basic at best ! It's time to change that and I want to learn more about food and cooking. What is the best way of going about it? Would it be worth my while doing a beginners cooking course until I have a good grip on the basics and enough confidence to experiment on my own? Any recommendations on courses? Or would I be better with a cook book and just getting stuck in?
Thanks!

dee_mc

I'd say invest in a basic cookery book and equipment and see how you go from there - I'd recommend the Smart Cooking books used by Home Ec teachers in schools, as they give clear directions and equipment lists for each recipe as well of pictures of the various stages in the method, and bits and pieces of nutrition advice etc. The Delia Smith cookery course books are good too but I'd say Smart Cooking is the best place to start

Dr.MickKiller

What about starting out with the Cooking Club: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1355

There are plenty of recipes with step-by-step guides and many are accompanied by lots of photos showing each stage of the cooking. Also, there's plenty of feedback from people who have tried the recipes, along with questions/answers and typically the OPs are really good with replying to new questions.

Lovely Bloke

If money is tight or you're too lazy to actually do a course, then triall and error is a good way to learn.

The cooking club, and this forum are also excellent resources.

Honestly, the first time you put the effort into cooking and then eating something you've made yourself will be a revelation, and you'll also discover that "I'm an awful cook" isn't really true.

At the beginning, follow recipes to the letter, that way you can't make any mistakes, and you'll end with something at least edible.

Do you like Italian tomato sauce with pasta? It's extremely easy to make your own sauce, and once you do you'll never go back to jars.

Tin of Chopped Tomatos (brand does not matter, so get the 19c ones from Aldi, if they don't have chopped, get whole and chop them)
an onion
some garlic
salt and pepper
sugar
herbs (whatever you have, but Oregano and Basil are good "Italian style" herbs, dried is fine)
Olive oil

Prep everything first, that way you'll be ready to add each ingredient as you need it, instead of panicking about chopping an onion while oil is burning.

Chop an onion, you don't need it too fine, but no large chunks either
finely chop the garlic, or mince it if you have a mincer
if you need to, chop your tomatoes

put enough olive oil in a deepish pot to cover the bottom, then heat it on a medium setting
add the onion and allow to cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure it's not sticking, also don't allow it to brown, it needs to start looking kind of sticky and a bit see through
after 5 mins add the garlic, and again cook for 5 more mins, not allowing either ingredient to brown
it actually starts to smell quite good at this point, and you can tell that "something" is happening
add your herbs and tomatoes, stir to combine, then up the heat to the highest setting and bring to the boil, stirring all the time to ensure nothing sticks to the bottom
when it's boiling nicely drop the heat right down to the second lowest setting, get a spoon and taste
most tomato sauces require some salt, so add it in small amounts - remember, you can always add more, but it's harder to remove salt from a sauce
a few squeezes of pepper
also, if it's quite tart, add some sugar, but salt can also work as an "opposite" to bitter. For a tin of tomatoes, one TEAspoon of sugar is usually enough.
leave it on the low heat for 30mins, again, stirring occasionally.

and done, a basic tomato sauce for pasta

Merkin

Hi there BDJW, you're definitely in the right place!

I personally think that if you're starting off in the kitchen, then the natural thing to do is cook the foods that YOU like. Is there a particular cuisine you like? What are your favourite dishes? Are you a homely cottage pie or casserole man? Do you like Indian curries? Mental for Mexican? Or are you crazy for pasta and other Italian delights? Have a think about what foods are your favourite and that's a great starting point. I think if you're enthusiastic, and you obviously are, then that is a great basis to start from! Cooking is great!

The first thing I tried to cook when I was nine was profiteroles :rolleyes: I must have dumped about twenty batches of very sad and depressing looking little choux buns and I still haven't mastered it. I say that to advise you not to start off too ambitious. Start simple. Start on dishes that don't require a dozen different techniques and a gazillion different ingredients.

As far as cook books go I don't think you can go wrong with Delia really, she uses all the classic techniques and her books have stood the test of time.My hubby buys me a lot of cook books and one that he bought me recently that I absolutely love is the Hairy Bikers book. Their recipes are really easy to follow, none of the ingredients overly exotic or are hard to come by and their methods are straightforward. You're also guaranteed to come out with a tasty plate of food! I love Darina Allen as well. Another great thing to do is go on the BBC Good Food website. It's amazing! There are thousands of recipes on there and all come with a difficulty rating. Look for the little chef's hat and they go from Easy (here's a nice one for Italian stuffed chicken http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9593/italian-stuffed-chicken) to more complex dishes.

If you like, let us know what kind of grub we really enjoy and I'm sure we can point you in the direction of some nice recipes to get you started!

Animord

I don't want to insult you in any way but you could do worse than buying a children's cookbook. This one seems to have lots of reviews from adults that think it is great.

Most, if not all of the cookery books out there assume a knowledge of cooking, which you may or may not have and it is very frustrating when they, say, tell you dice and then sauté your mushrooms if you don't know what that means.

Or, you could just decide on a recipe, give us the time and you could have the entire of the Boards cookery people on hand to give advice!

Merkin's idea of deciding what you like is very good and important - no point cooking something that doesn't appeal to you.

confusticated

The children's cookbook isn't a bad idea, but they tend to focus on desserts and sweet things a lot I think (or else my sister hid the savoury pages so we'd have to just make cakes with her). A student cookbook might be better - got my brother one for Christmas a few years ago that gave instructions on how long to boil potatoes for, for example. You can get seriously basic ones if needed, and because they're for students they tend to not have horrendously expensive ingredients or anything not easily available in supermarkets.

Mostly though, as above, cook stuff you like already when you start - it's a bit demoralising to spend hours making something that it turns out you don't like!

Tom Dunne

As others have said - just do it. If you can follow instructions, you can cook.

I never knew how to make a pizza until I tried it from the Boards.ie Cooking Club. Sure, it took me nine (yes, nine) hours to make, but it was well worth it. (For the record, I have it down to one hour now, and it tastes fantastic. )

Also, the pasta sauce mentioned above - incredibly easy, very tasty and much better than the jars.

I find myself getting more adventurous - I now have a few staple dishes that range from chilli to stir-frys to Mediterranean chicken. I even made lovely chicken kievs there a week or two ago. All through trial and error. And, more importantly, no more boring meat-and-two-veg dinners.

So don't be afraid to try something. Yes, there will be the odd occasion where something doesn't quite work, but that's half the fun.

amklo

Jamie's Ministry of Food is a great book for beginners...lots of basic recipes including quick meals, roast dinners, brekkies etc. Step by step with pics

MissFlitworth

Youtube is an excellent resource for learning to cook, especially if you have a tablet or a laptop you can bring into the kitchen with you. You can pick a recipe from something like the BBC Food Channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/BBCFood

where they have Delia's cookery course

http://www.youtube.com/show/deliacookerycourse/videos

and she can talk you through making scones etc. and you can pause & rewind to your hearts content. I find I don't use cookbooks that much (even though I have dozens) but I use my phone a heap for recipes and tutorials.

Mrs Fox

MissFlitworth wrote: »

Youtube is an excellent resource for learning to cook, especially if you have a tablet or a laptop you can bring into the kitchen with you.

Videojug is also excellent for step by step cooking instructions, as they go to the very detail of what utensil and equipments needed for each recipe.

omb0wyn5ehpij9

Thanks for all your helpful replies. My knowledge of cooking is incredibly basic and so is the range of foods I eat. I want to expand both and decided it's time to do something about it (well actually about 10 years ago was the time to do something about it!). I think I'll go with one or 2 of the basic cook books recommended above and start off that way. Once I get a decent grip on it, I'll move onto the cooking club receipes and I'll also have my laptop handy to keep me going too!