Beginner Cook's Questions
Hey, does anyone have any advice for a beginner looking to take a break from the college meal plan and leftover pizza? Basic tips, budget meals, meals that can be cooked quickly, etc.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Badchef on -
Robert,
The best taste for little cost that I use is whole chickens. Use salt, pepper, paprika, or montreal steak seasoning over it and bake until the timer pops. Then chicken can then be quartered, giving you 4 nights worth of meals. There are also some basic online meal planners that you can find. Lastly check out www.angelfoodministries.com, they have very inexpensive food distributed throughout the country.
Scott
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Permalink Reply by Will on -
I think you need a book, something like Basics of Good Cooking, or Cooking for Dummies, that tells you the very basics: what to have around, how to measure, how to cook without burning things, etc. The library should have one!
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Permalink Reply by alophant on -
I agree with Will.
I strongly suggest anything published by America's Test Kitchen. These people make it easy and really spark your interest on how food science works. Their magazine is called COOKs, and their BEST of is the best way to go. They also have a show on the public channel. Trust them they've done all the mistakes for you and just deliver the best.
I also would say to go adventure. In college i lived on Chad's 3 for dollar burritos and chicken sandwiches, so eating Thai food really turned my palate on. Adventure with all sorts of foods and then adventure into those culture's food markets to buy the curries, or coconut milk, or sundried tomatoes, and bbq rubs. It's good to have a pantry with seasonings from different cultures. Then you can turn chicken into anything.
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Permalink Reply by Jacob M Lee on -
Another book that's great for technique as well as recipes is 'How to Cook Everything'. He walks you through cleaning a chicken, how to pick produce, and meal frameworks that you can plug in with your own choices. Very helpful.
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Permalink Reply by Bret Gillan on -
Yeah, that's a lot of ground to cover. I guess find a cookbook that has some cheap recipes and start there. I learned to cook just by doing it and talking to other people who did it.
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Permalink Reply by Nic on -
Quick Budget Meal:
1 box of Mac n Cheese
1 can of peas
1 pouch tuna in water
Cook mac n cheese in pot add peas and tuna stir, eat.
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Permalink Reply by Gregory Throne on -
Works equally well with CostCo canned chicken. To add a bit to it, add some dried onion flakes to the mac&cheese water & fresh ground pepper. Also feeds kids really well!
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Permalink Reply by Geoff Nicholson on -
It depends on what kind of kitchen equipment you've got access to; if you're in a dorm with a hot-plate, a mini-fridge and a microwave, your options will be different than with a full kitchen.
I've always made full and complete use of my freezer, and I've been considering getting a chest freezer as well. While you will have to keep control of inventory (finding peas from 2003 is always a little chilling), it allows you to buy in bulk, and then freeze, which saves on money in the long run. Also, having the freezer allows you to do a lot of prep work when you've got time, and then pull a pre-prepped meal from the freezer and cook in twenty minutes.
As a fan of fresh soups, I often will dice the vegetables for two or three batches of soup and then freeze whatever I'm not using today. Generally, a single bunch of carrots and a single bunch of celery will provide enough vegetables for three batches of soup. Dicing a medium-sized onion for each batch will get you a full mirepoix for pretty much anything. You can either freeze just the veggies, or make the broth and then freeze it, your choice. To make a basic and tasty soup, thaw the veggies, sautee them, then add meat and/or potatoes and enough water to cover it all. Boil until the meat is cooked through and the poatoes are soft; serve.
In the realm of budget meals, pasta is a filling and cheap starter... but skip the whole "Hamburger Helper" genre of boxed meals; you can make better (and better for you) by yourself. Add frozen peas and carrots to boiling pasta, drained and toss with a cream sauce, you have a pasta primavera. Simmer a can of crushed tomatoes with browned ground beef crumbles and italian seasonings, pour over pasta and you've got pasta bolognese. Other budget meals can centre around ground beef; the most handy 'leftover' I keep in my fridge these days is 'taco meat': ground beef browned with taco seasoning (made of powdered chile, garlic, dash of salt and a bit of cumin). Wrap this in a tortilla and top with lettuce and cheese: tacos. Sprinkle this on tortilla chips with salsa and shredded cheese and bake: nachos. Roll this in tortillas with salsa and cheese: burritos. These are all cheap, quick and easy meals, with a splash of preparation one afternoon between study sessions and exams.
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Permalink Reply by Shaun Daws on -
I think pasta is a good way to begin. I would suggest starting with a jar of Paul Newman's spaghetti sauce, to which you just add 500g of ground beef, a few mushrooms and an onion. Boil a small handful of spaghetti for 10 minutes, combine, and serve - easy! Simple side dishes are always veggies, such as broccolli or carros, cut up into bite-sized chunks and microwaved in a cling-wrap covered bowl with a couple of tablespoons of water, for 4 minutes....lovely, steamed vegetables :)
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Permalink Reply by Topher White on -
Get a small crock pot. You can do all kinds of things in a slow cooker that are cheap and easy and impossible to burn. And you don't have to worry if you need to dash off to class - just keep it there simmering practically all day. Check out slowcookerrecipes.com.
Of course, there's always the ironed cheese. (Make a cheese sandwich with the bread buttered on the outside. Wrap in foil. Iron like a shirt.)
BTW, on the first episode of Top Chef Masters, they challenged six master chefs to make a three course meal for 8 people. When the cooks got there, they discovered that they weren't cooking in a kitchen - they were cooking in some kids dorm room, with only a hot plate, a microwave, and a toaster oven. Unsurprisingly, the challenge disn't phase them in the least - they cooked up 4 star cuisine. The funniest part was when award winning French chef Hubert Keller ran across the hall to use a shower stall to rinse hot pasta!
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Spiehler on -
Get yourself a well-seasoned cast iron skillet and learn how to cook on it. Something cheap and easy to make in one is a frittata - basically an omelette that you start on the stove top and finish under the broiler.
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Permalink Reply by Sean Klein on
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If you don't mind fussy writing*, I recommend Cook's Illustrated and their associated books. They are filled with good tips and good recipes. There's one for make ahead meals which may work well for you. Grab The Joy of Cooking also. It has a zillion basic go-to recipes and articles about food, cooking, and tools.
* The editor of CI has an extremely fussy and non-manly style. I had to stop reading his editorials because every month I felt like slapping him around a bit once I finished with them. And I'm not a violent guy. He needs to channel his inner Anthony Bourdain.
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