# Recommend me a new meal to learn to cook



## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

Right now I can cook these kind of meals:

Chili con carne
Curry
Risotto
Spaghetti Bolognese
Lasagne
Beef casserole
Stir-fry
Chicken Kiev

Any ideas?


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

By now you seem to have a range of skills mastered. 

Baked pasta dishes can be done in white/cheese sauce, a tomato based sauce, a meat based sauce, or in an egg and milk custard. 

My favourite macaroni cheese is salted boiled el dente macaroni (other pasta) drained and placed in an oven proof dish. To this I add one egg per person and a "splash/cup/litre" of milk (enough to cover the pasta). I put cheese and tomato on the top and bake this until the custard sets. Macaroni cheese is one of those versatile dishes which is often improved by the addition of chopped onion and tomatoes, small quantities of chili, bacon, haddock (even bacon AND haddock!) and sometimes a few chopped vegetables.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

I can pm you a really good beef stew recipe and I would recommend ceviche.


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## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

Moira said:


> My favourite macaroni cheese is salted boiled el dente macaroni (other pasta) drained and placed in an oven proof dish. To this I add one egg per person and a "splash/cup/litre" of milk (enough to cover the pasta). I put cheese and tomato on the top and bake this until the custard sets. Macaroni cheese is one of those versatile dishes which is often improved by the addition of chopped onion and tomatoes, small quantities of chili, bacon, haddock (even bacon AND haddock!) and sometimes a few chopped vegetables.


Good one. I haven't had macaroni cheese for ages. In fact I don't do cheese dishes that often. I've tried to make a nice pizza numerous times but I can't seem to get it to taste anywhere near as good as restaurant ones.


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## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

kv466 said:


> I can pm you a really good beef stew recipe and I would recommend ceviche.


I can do a steak and kidney stew, but I tend to like it better on the second day when it has cooled and turned into a mushy gloop that looks like a Cornish pasty filling.

Ceviche is totally new to me, so I'll have to look into that. Thanks.


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

Argus said:


> Good one. I haven't had macaroni cheese for ages. In fact I don't do cheese dishes that often. I've tried to make a nice pizza numerous times but I can't seem to get it to taste anywhere near as good as restaurant ones.


Pizza is difficult because the wood oven gives the pizza its distinctive flavour.

Macaroni cheese is nice because almost any firm yellow cheese is suitable.

You should probably try thinking about learning cooking techniques and then working the variations on that technique. Summer is coming up in the northern hemisphere, so you should consider making some nutritious and filling salads as a main course, together with a prepared protein portion of grilled fish, chicken or meat.

If you live alone a roasted chicken should last you several meals and if you are frugal and enjoy soup you can use the carcass to create a delicious soup. When choosing your chicken you should always look for the biggest chicken - least bone to meat ratio. If it has the giblets in it (usually in a plastic bag) remove these and save for soup/stock. The advantage of a nice roast is that one can cook all the meal requirements in one pan, roasting potatoes or sweet potatoes and a variety of other vegetables all at the same time. Roasts are particularly economical for crowds of people, and a chicken can usually be made to serve four (or even six or eight if you are also using stuffing) people. The trick is to cut the chicken into small portions before serving it. The breasts need to be sliced thin. The stuffing also needs to be sliced thin.


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

Argus said:


> Right now I can cook these kind of meals:
> 
> Chili con carne
> Curry
> ...


COOK FOR ME PLEASE. I am a poor starving college student with no money or time, living on ramen and peanut butter!

However, when I do have money to buy real ingredients and time to prepare real meals, one of my favorite dishes to cook for large groups of people (my very popular potluck go-to) is a vegetable casserole. I make macaroni and cheese with cheddar and often add cream cheese and a little bit of mustard (the kind that tastes like wine) to it as well because it is better that way. Then I chop up and stir in a head of broccoli, one or two zucchinis (depending on size), a tomato, and half an onion. (It is a good idea to sautee the onion and steam the broccoli first. I steam broccoli by bringing about half an inch of water to a boil in a small pot and then putting the chopped broccoli in and cooking it with the lid on for five minutes. The zucchini will usually soften sufficiently just by being in with the pasta, but you can sautee it with the onions if you like.) Then I put all this in a baking dish, liberally sprinkle parmesan and bread crumbs over the top, and stick it in the oven until the bread crumbs brown. It's the best.

God, I am so hungry now.


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

Meaghan said:


> COOK FOR ME PLEASE. I am a poor starving college student with no money or time, living on ramen and peanut butter!


Have you considered making a little business for yourself out of cooking (table boarders or sold plated dinners)? Find another starving student or better still, seven starving students. Get them to pay you the cost of a junk food meal. Make them a nutritious plate of food instead (they provide you with clean plates for the week which you fill and cover with cling wrap on a daily basis). Get your money up front. Charge extra for soup, salads and desserts.

You will find that you can prepare a proper meal for about one third of the cost of a junk food meal, which gives you another third for your unseen costs and the final third as profit for your work.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

One unique thing I learned how to make was Polenta. You just buy a certain grind of cornmeal, I believe coarser ground is what you want. Basically its a cornmeal mush that you can slice up and eat with tomato sauce like pasta. It should superficially resemble very fine scrambled eggs.

Very simple, just watch out for sticking to the pan:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/polenta/


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Also, you should buy a steamer to steam your vegetables.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

There's a lot of quite different curries. I recommend you broaden your curry repertoire, Argus. It will pay off, trust me!


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

Seems like you're light on vegetable dishes. Try this traditional French recipe from Jane Grigson's excellent book, _Good things_.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Good-Things-Jane-Grigson/dp/190494387X

*Ratatouille *and *peperonata *

Chop onions, garlic (lots), celery, bacon (optional), a little carrot (optional) and sweat them all in olive oil and butter and optional water (to prevent burning) over a low heat. I use a heavy Le Creuset casserole for this.

After around ten minutes, the onions will have gone translucent. Add tinned tomatoes, chopped, and extra tomato purée (optional, but worth it). Bring back to boil, adding more water if needed plus at least a third of a bottle of red wine, a level spoonful of wine vinegar, a little sugar, salt, pepper, oregano, basil, parsley. Cook for 15-20 minutes more.

This is your tomato/onion base. Add peppers cut in strips to make peperonata, or courgettes (chopped or sliced) and aubergines (chopped) to make ratatouille. Cook for a further 15 minutes or so or until the vegetables are how you like them. For ratatouille, the aubergines will need considerably more cooking time than the courgettes.

You can add different vegetables as you wish (leeks work well). You can vary the seasoning. You can liquidise the base if you like.

If you make extra of the base to be used later, I suggest not adding the seasoning - this lets you change the seasoning each time you use the base.


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

Try making this!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/...with-fennel-thyme-and-lemon-recipe/index.html

I've made this 3 times and it tastes amazing! It's kind of become my personal specialty lol. It isn't very hard either, just takes a bit of time and a lot of ingredients. I assure you though, if you follow the recipe exactly you're in for some of the best chicken you've ever had!


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

Alaskan Salmon marinated in a combination of lemon juice, garlic, rosemary and a little olive oil, baked at 350°F for 23 minutes is absolutely wonderful. Serve over Jasmine rice with sliced tomatoes as the veggie. I could eat this dish everyday if I could afford it. 

Cube steak, cooked very slowly in a pan with onions and some vegetable oil, and roasted rosemary potatoes is a regular at our house. To make the roasted rosemary potatoes, cut red potatoes (unpeeled) into quarters, place a tablespoon of olive oil in a bowl along with two teaspoons of crushed rosemary, mix well so that all the potatoes are equally covered with the rosemary, cover and bake at 350°F for 1 hour. Perfect roasted potatoes every time.

Spaghetti sauce (homemade) and simple: two 14 ounce cans of peeled diced tomatoes, 1 14 ounce can of tomato sauce, and one small can of tomato paste (used as a thickening agent), add some finely crushed garlic, diced onion, a dash of oregano, 3 bay leaves ... and let simmer in a crock pot for about half a day. 

I do 95% of the cooking and housework as my wife still works full time, at least for another 3 years anyway when she can retire, too. I learned to "cook outside the box" ... I don't use any 'prepared' mixes except for salad dressing, and cook totally from scratch ingredients. As for the salad dressing, it's Good Seasons Herb & Garlic, made in a cruet with cider vinegar, red wine vinegar and canola oil. 

Kh


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## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

Thanks for the ideas everyone.



clavichorder said:


> One unique thing I learned how to make was Polenta. You just buy a certain grind of cornmeal, I believe coarser ground is what you want. Basically its a cornmeal mush that you can slice up and eat with tomato sauce like pasta. It should superficially resemble very fine scrambled eggs.
> 
> Very simple, just watch out for sticking to the pan:
> http://allrecipes.com/recipe/polenta/


That sounds like a meal a Zimbabwean lad I used to know ate all the time (I mean nearly everyday in some form). He called it sadza.



Xaltotun said:


> There's a lot of quite different curries. I recommend you broaden your curry repertoire, Argus. It will pay off, trust me!


I'm not a fan of the stupidly hot/spicy curries so I normally make either a korma, madras or a rogan josh. Also, one of the ingredients in some curries seems to give me acid heartburn, so once I've found a curry that goes down well I stick with it.



Jeremy Marchant said:


> Seems like you're light on vegetable dishes. Try this traditional French recipe from Jane Grigson's excellent book, _Good things_.
> http://www.amazon.co.uk/Good-Things-Jane-Grigson/dp/190494387X
> 
> *Ratatouille *and *peperonata *
> ...


Sounds nice and all the ingredients are easy to get a hold of.



Krummhorn said:


> Alaskan Salmon marinated in a combination of lemon juice, garlic, rosemary and a little olive oil, baked at 350°F for 23 minutes is absolutely wonderful. Serve over Jasmine rice with sliced tomatoes as the veggie. I could eat this dish everyday if I could afford it.


I don't know if it's the same where you are, but here the price of fresh fish has gone outrageously high in recent years. I'll have a trout or a salmon once every couple of months but I don't like them enough to pay that price regularly.


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## Mesa (Mar 2, 2012)

When you can cook instant noodles perfectly using just a bowl, a plate and a fork, you know you will be ready to undertake the learnings which can be gained from the sacred text.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Puttanesca.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/puttanesca-i/


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

Argus said:


> That sounds like a meal a Zimbabwean lad I used to know ate all the time (I mean nearly everyday in some form). He called it sadza.


Sadza and savoury sauce is a staple in Southern Africa. For the poorest people the savoury sauce is usually onions, tomatoes and wild spinach (there are several varieties depending on where one finds oneself each with a very distinct flavour). The sadza is typically not crumbly but a stiff mixture. My father used to make us 'sculptures' out of it so we ate it as dogs, snakes, cats (which looked just like the dogs), pigs (which looked almost like the dogs) and elephants. The sauce, whatever that was, is usually heavy on tomatoes and my father's specialty was little human figures in the tomato based sauce which he dubbed 'train smash' much to my mother's disapproval. In South Africa sadza is called 'pap' (porridge) and served with 'wors' or sausage and the aforesaid sauce. I hate to admit it, but I have a very limited liking for it, and avoid it if there is an alternative.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Here's one of my faves: cheap, cheerful, very filling and takes little over 10 minutes.

Peel and dice swede, parsnip and carrot and boil in one saucepan while boiling two quartered medium sized potatoes in another (leave potato skins on if you like). Fry c. 150 gms of beef or steak mince with half a chopped cooking onion in pan on low/medium heat - don't worry about adding oil as mince cooks in own fat. Towards the end of boiling add some garden or marrowfat peas to the swede, parsnips and carrots. Make sure vegetables don't get TOO soft. Put potatoes into a small bowl and mash up - don't worry about lumps as the potatoes just need to be broken up more than anything. Strain other vegetables in sieve and put onto plate and then strain mince and onion of as much of the fat as you can and mix on plate with vegetables. Make some thickish quick gravy with a generous pinch of paprika and a splash of Worcestershire sauce added, pour it over and mix in. Add salt and pepper. Take mashed potato and cover as much as the other ingredients as evenly as you can. Grill until potato starts to brown then remove and leave plate to cool for a bit. Tuck in.


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## Kowtow (May 2, 2012)

There are websites that offer weekly meal plans. It is hard to try to come up with something new every day. I just usually do random Google searches to get new ideas.


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## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

I just made macaroni cheese but instead of macaroni I used penne and had it with cauliflower and spinach. It was delicious but now I want some more.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

You mention beef casserole. Here is an interesting variation on the theme. From Elizabeth David's timeless _French provincial cooking_:

*Boeuf à la Gardiane*

"A dish from western Provence and the Camargue demonstrating the stewing of a tough piece of meat in red wine without the addition of any stock or thickening for the sauce.

"Ingredients for four are 2 pounds top rump of beef, butter and olive oil, 4 tablespoons brandy, 1 large glass red wine, salt and pepper, a bouquet of thyme, parsley and bay leaf, plus a little strip of orange peel and a crushed clove of garlic, about 6 oz stoned black olives.

"The meat should be cut into small neat cubes, not more than 1-inch square. Brown them in a mixture of butter and olive oil. Warm the brandy in a soup ladle, pour it over the meat, set light to it, shake the pan until the flames go out. Add the red wine; let it bubble fast for about half a minute. Season with only very little salt and pepper, put in the bouquet tied with thread, turn the flame as low as possible, cover the pan with at least two layers of greaseproof paper or foil and the lid.

"Cook as gently as possible, on top of the stove with a mat unerbneath for about 3 1/2 hours. Ten minutes before serving remove the bouquet and put in the stoned black olives. Taste for seasoning before serving. A dish of plain boiled rice can be served separately.

"The flaming with brandy, although not absolutely essential, burns up the excess fat and makes quite a difference to the flavour of the finished sauce, which will be a short one, most of the liquid having been absorbed by the meat. The old Nîmoise cook who showed me how to make this particular version of the dish used Châteauneuf du Pape to cook it in (we were in the district, so it wasn't so extravagant as it sounds, and it most definitely pays to use a decent and full-bodied wine for these beef stews), and she garnished the dish with heart-shaped croutons of fried bread instead of rice."

My comments, having done this a number of times: the brandy and orange peel are essential - but don't overdo the orange peel. The quantity of wine, on the other hand, can be thought of as a minimum. Of course you could cook it in an oven - the point is the slow cooking (hence the mat). Even better reheated the next day.


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## Lenfer (Aug 15, 2011)

Argus said:


> Right now I can cook these kind of meals:
> 
> Chili con carne
> Curry
> ...


You could try learning something simple like soup. Broccoli soup, mushroom soup, and potato and leek soup all make a great starter with risotto as a main course. My boyfriend makes the best *Beef Wellington*, this never fails to impress and tastes delicious. If you fancy any of these if you PM me I will send you some recipes, good luck *Argus*.

*Edit*:

Mr. *Marchant* obviously a man of great gastronomic intelligence *Boeuf à la Gardiane* is very nice indeed, I am now very hungry


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

Lenfer said:


> Mr. *Marchant* obviously a man of great gastronomic intelligence *Boeuf à la Gardiane* is very nice indeed, I am now very hungry


How charming! Go for it!

I learnt to cook from Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson. I like their books because they don't need to have glossy photographs and they're a good read in themselves. Mind you, David's books can be a bit quaint. She was writing in England in the fifties and, in one book, she has to explain what a pizza is. In another she assures readers they can buy their olive oil from the local chemist (not available in the supermarket!).

Grigson was the next generation. The main contribution of the current generation of cooks is in reducing the calories. David emphasises French cooking of the day and it can be rather high on the calories. I am a big enthusiast for Heston Blumenthal - an enthusiasm I retain by not watching his tv shows. Television cooks in the UK are just dire; perfectly intelligent people are reduced to gibbering idiots in the presence of a camera (but hey, that doesn't just apply to cooks).


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