| How does one become a better cook?
Posted: 5/15/2008 2:34:09 AM | On the question of which pans to use when, it is really a matter of choice. I have used all sorts over the years and have come to think it is a matter of getting used to YOUR pans, learning what they will do and wont do.
Steel pans will do anything if you season them by washing thoroughly and filling with oil and putting on a low heat how an hour or so. Advantage if you make a mistake , get distracted you can scrub them with anything and have them looking like new again. And retry want you just burnt straight away.
This is not the case with non- stick, a little more care is needed when cleaning after a mistake causing burnt items sticking to the pans and yes it is possible to burn things into them.
Sometimes you will find that one pan in the set will do anything you ask of it, this is most likely the one you use the most and has seasoned itself over time of use.
The thing I do watch for in pans is encapsulated bases and non encapsulated bases. Ordinary single skinned pans will lower the heat of cooking the moment you lift them from the heat. I have even cooked sauces in them by leaving the gas cooker on medium / high heat and holding the pan at a differing heights from the flame until things are going the way I want them to.
This is totally impossible with encapsulated bases. You have to work you way up slowly to the heat you want, in some ways like using an electric cooker, the heat stays put after heat source is removed. So you need to be aware things are heading in the wrong direction, that is be aware things might burn sooner and remove from heat a little earlier.
Once you take these things into account, the combination of pans type and cooker type you can cook anything in any sort of pan, if it is big enough to hold all the ingredients
The things I have talked about are just about practise, and consistently trying to push ones boundaries in the kitchen. Once you become aware that this pans and this type of sauce will burn at that heat, another will burn (or should I say cook) faster quicker or slower. Life in the kitchen becomes easier.
That this pan is perfect for making sauces and that one for poaching, try using the sauce one for poaching and you spoil it`s properties and it takes a while before they come back.
With awareness of these things at the beginning and comparing how things went, you will find that it all disappears into the background of the cooking experience like breathing. Things just don`t burn / stick any more. Or at least not as often :laugh:
Hope this helps. | |
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| How does one become a better cook?
Posted: 5/15/2008 4:40:11 AM | If you can read then you can cook,and don't be put off if you have a few failures.
Being able to cook has helped me all through my life,what with not having to depend on someone else to feed me and making that special meal for that someone special.
But best of all,I can eat for half of what it costs most other people.Unfortunately the proof is in the fat belly. | |
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| How does one become a better cook?
Posted: 5/15/2008 2:20:02 PM | Try different spice combinations
Go wild later but start with some simple common sense.
Examples: (just basic guidelines)
Italian -- Lots of basil, medium oregano, garlic
Mexican -- Oregano, different chiles, cilantro(don't cook it though)
Pacific rim -- Fresh ginger, lemongrass
American -- Thyme (fairly neutral, can't really hurt anything)
------- ------- -- Rosemary (very pungent, good for game)
I get depressed watching cooking shows because those folks were obviously born with a major cooking gene.
Not. It has to do with everything in life, desire.
If you're cooking for yourself there's only one rule --- There are no rules. | |
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| How does one become a better cook?
Posted: 5/16/2008 3:20:36 PM | I cook for myself and live by the 'First, break all the rules' rule, which is closely related to the 'there are no rules' rule. I just made two cheese quesadillas for dinner. I added two kinds of onion (I love onions), some ginger and some red pepper flakes.
Absolutely the worst combination of ingredients I've ever put together. One small bite and two cheese quesadillas--including the small bite in my mouth--went into the round white can I have.
It's nice to be creative -- and be willing to chuck it all into the trash. | |
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| How does one become a better cook?
Posted: 5/16/2008 3:45:51 PM | AKT,
You're missing the point! Don't just toss out the dishes that don't work, try to fix them! That's how you get better.
Fixing a bad dish requires that you pay attention to the flavors and aromas that are there, and try to figure out what to add (or dilute) to balance them out.
Add some shrimp, lemon zest, mango, cilantro, and a touch of soy sauce to that quesadilla and you'd have yourself a feast!
Flavor is not an either-or thing. It's more a matter of timing, Different bass notes emerge at different times as you chew. Creating a layering of complementary flavors is about creating smooth transitions that allow the sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and pungent bass notes to predominate each in turn. The aromatic overtones carry your palate from one bass note to the next and tie them together. They "explain" the transitions, such as how you can get from the bitterness (sharpness) of a cheese to the pungency of ginger.
When flavors appear to conflict, it's because you skipped some steps in between that would reconcile the contrasting bass notes. You need to create those aromatic bridges between the bass notes. Once you do that, you can make _any_ combination of ingredients work. Take a Cesaar salad for instance. Those ingredients would be horrible in any other combination.
Generally speaking, you can get away with any combination of flavors as long as the last aftertaste is sweet. That's why people like those painfully hot chili peppers. After the fireworks die down, what you're left with is a lingering sweetness. (In the Ceasar salad, the aftertaste is provided by the Romaine lettuce. ) | |
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| How does one become a better cook?
Posted: 5/16/2008 4:01:41 PM | Well, as a famous radio guy said many times, let me tell you the REST of the story.
I mentioned putting red pepper flakes in the quesadilla. Actually, what happened is that thinking that the little holes would be under the cap and without looking, I unscrewed the cap and poured...the ENTIRE bottle onto the tortilla. Had I looked, I would have seen that I unscrewed the little holes.
No matter how madly I scraped, there were still far too many at the end. The tortilla was inedible and one small bite proved it. That's why it went into the trash. I don't normally do that because I hate throwing away good--or bad--food. I grew up in the Middle East and lived all over the world. I've eaten some pretty strange food in my life, so cooking badly and eating it myself isn't all that bad. | |
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| How does one become a better cook?
Posted: 5/16/2008 4:11:39 PM | No worries. Accidents happen. The point is to try to figure out how to bridge a bad combination with intermediate flavors that will resolve them into a good one.
It's like with jazz. Even the most irritatingly discordant note can be perfect when properly placed in the right progression. | |
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| How does one become a better cook?
Posted: 5/17/2008 1:03:07 PM | | I wouldn't think ginger would be a good quesadilla addition but you never know till you try. Maybe try 4 differnt versions 2 combinations on each quesadilla. | |
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| How does one become a better cook?
Posted: 5/18/2008 2:57:16 PM | This wasn't one of my farvorites but......
Fresh ripe pear and brie cheese quesadillas.
Also I like putting flour tortillas in the broiler to crisp then add and melt cheddar cheese under broiler and add salsa instead of the pan fry fold over method which is probably best for the above recipe. | |
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| How does one become a better cook?
Posted: 5/18/2008 3:11:34 PM | The advice others have given is very good. I concur about Joy of Cooking. If I could only own one cookbook, that would be it. The concept of controlling your heat was a good contribution, too.
Like any skill, it takes time. Follow recipes exactly until you get a good sense of what you can fool around with and what you shouldn't. Develop your sense of taste by paying good attention to your food. What do you taste? Learn to identify tastes so that when you're trying to tweak your own recipes, you'll know what direction to go in.
Keep it simple in the beginning. Find something you'd really like to make, get some recipes, and make it. Talk to other people who are good cooks. Ask them if you can help them some time and ask them for coaching. When you date women, ask them what they like to make (if they cook) and ask them to teach you how to make it. Get a good oven thermometer and basic cooking utensils. If you've got any relatives who have specialties, ask them to teach you to make it.
Some things are easy to learn from a recipe. Other things are tricky and really profit from someone else showing you. Things like bread & pie crust really need a sense of feel that's hard to convey without showing someone how to handle it properly and when the texture it just right.
Learn how to cook a good but simple meal and then impress your date with it. That's sure to be a winner!
Good luck. | |
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| How does one become a better cook?
Posted: 5/18/2008 3:20:02 PM |
Steel pans will do anything if you season them by washing thoroughly and filling with oil and putting on a low heat how an hour or so. Advantage if you make a mistake , get distracted you can scrub them with anything and have them looking like new again. And retry want you just burnt straight away.
You're talking about cast iron rather than stainless steel, I assume? You don't *fill* it with oil, you rub on a thin coat and leave it in the oven at 250°F for an hour or so. I don't like scrubbing mine at all, it ruins the seasoning. I don't really recommend cast iron for beginners because it really should be cared for properly. It rusts. It works best if you *avoid* scrubbing it. I find it doesn't work well for omelets. I've got two cast iron pans that are mainstays in my kitchen. One is used on top of the stove and I'll cook just about anything but omelets in it. The other is used strictly in the oven for baking things like cornbread and pound cake. The latter was passed down to me from my great grandfather, who was a cook. He, too, had two cast iron pans - one that he used on top of the stove and one for baking. | |
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| How does one become a better cook?
Posted: 5/18/2008 3:35:58 PM | Seasoning Stainless steel pans using what ever method you feel right does stop things sticking. The method I described was to fill the pans with oil, as some pans have handles that dont like being put in the oven.
It is not just about stopping from going rusty but building a layer of oil "baked" on to the surface to stop things sticking. It does work as at first I thought nah and went straight to cooking and everything became a mess sticking and burning all over the place. After seasoning this all stopped, rather like a wok. | |
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| How does one become a better cook?
Posted: 5/18/2008 7:04:03 PM | Do you really want to become a "good" cook?
Well, the main advice anyone can give you in your situation is to "keep it simple": Start with the foods you grew up with, the simple dishes you're Mother use to lovingly cook for you (for example: Meat and 3 veg, basic soups, eggs on toast, etc...)
But to break things down a bit, follow these simple steps:
1. Start SIMPLY!
Find a straight forward recipe or two, and then follow the instructions and ingredient quantities precisely. Do not change a single thing (at least, not at first)... Now, you better make sure you choose recipes which your tastebuds are fond of because you're gonna have to keep repeating that recipe until you "get it right"... I say start "simply" (especially in your case), because it's the best way to score a quick win, and in that "quick win" you should find the encouragement to stick at it. Afterall, you yourself have said that "patience" (or a lack thereof) is a major sore point in the completion of your endeavours.
2. Practise, practise and then practise some more... I have already alluded to it I know, but the reality is that this is simply "the" key point which anyone can make. Without practise no one can become good at ANYTHING. It's a plain, simple, fact of life. But again... keep it simple, and you should then score some quick wins to enable you to move forward with relative ease.
Then, once you start really enjoying your cooking, you'll find that you can handle more difficult recipes, because "enthusiasm" is an incredible thing; why, on the back of "enthusiasm" wars have been won by folk who were only small in number, and famous megalithical monuments have been constructed, when all the world said it was "impossible".
So feed your enthusiasm with the production of simple, yet high quality, tasty dishes, and before you know it, you'll be cooking like the Colonel!
Bye for now. | |
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| How does one become a better cook?
Posted: 5/19/2008 3:20:45 PM | So let's fix that quesadilla.
First of all, brie and tortillas just don't mix. So, let's get rid of them and use filo dough instead. Warm brie is too soft and runny to stand up to a flour tortilla, and corn has too much sweetness of its own to highlight the brie.
Second, let's think about those pears. The idea is to create a contrast between the sweetness of the pears and the subtle sharpness of the brie. If you were going to make a tart of pears and another sharp cheese, that would be easy. Roast the pears, drizzle with simple syrup, and plop some slices on of the cheese.
But with brie, it's all about subtle so the pears should be sliced and then gently sweated in butter until they're just soft. A tiny hint of vanilla and nutmeg could work in there too.
Walnuts could make a nice accent if they're toasted afterward in the pan with some added honey. Walnuts & honey, pears & brie, all layered in a sandwich of filo, then baked at 325 until the filo is toasted.
If it were me, I'd put the toasted walnuts and brie inside the filo, and make a pear/butter syrup to drizzle on top. Just simpler and no worries about the pears
forcing all the brie to ooze out of the sandwich when you put a fork in. | |
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| How does one become a better cook?
Posted: 5/31/2008 4:10:35 PM | Question for you food professionals out there.
A friend of mine (not me, really!) and I were having a "discussion" about something a couple of days ago and I need a scientific answer. She is a member of a religion that does not allow alcohol consumption IN ANY FORM and she is a very strict adherent. I told her that when alcohol is used in cooking, the 'alcohol' disappears and the remaining substance is really non-alcoholic. She vehemenly disagreed.
So what is the truth, you trained, scientific chefs? If I use wine in cooking, is the remaining substance truly non-alcoholic? Or is it just MOSTLY gone? | |
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| How does one become a better cook?
Posted: 5/31/2008 5:21:52 PM | My reply is by no means a scientific fact but I've always thought that once it boils it's no longer alcoholic and is how they produce non-alcoholic beer where the .5% alcohol is due to the carbonating process.
Lately I've heard otherwise.
One way to find out. Buy a 5 liter box of wine bring it to a full boil and drink it all day long. All in the name of science of course.  | |
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| How does one become a better cook?
Posted: 5/31/2008 7:55:57 PM | cooking is a craft.
and like all crafts, in order to become good or proficient at it you must have knowledge in the theoretical skills and have a good grounding in the foundations. Once you know the very basics you can go anywhere... | |
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