very new/beginner cook - come and inspire me!

[cherryblossominspring]

I've had lots of upheaval in the last year and have finally just moved into my own place. I've longed to have my own kitchen for ages and finally have one but I'm ashamed to say I've existed mainly on ready meals and takeaways for almost my whole life.

My culinary knowledge is almost non existent. I'd really like this to be a brand new beginning but I'm at a loss as to where to start.

I'd really like to use this thread to inspire and help me and keep track of how I'm going.

Please could I have your help and advice? I'd like to try and see this as a way to start trying to get 70-80% of my diet from home cooked meals and to make it healthy and balanced.

I move in later this week and I don't even really know where to begin about what I should cook for my first meal let alone what I should get in my first shop.

If you have some recommended recipes for a beginner I'd be very grateful. I'm not very good but I have lots of enthusiasm and motivation.

thank you!

Brought= through

If you are coming for one, I totally recommend Miguel Barclays cookbooks.

A lot of his recipes are online, so it might be worth googling.

Just don't do his katsu sauce recipe. Not great. The rest of the katsu recipe is good though.

Cooking for one!

Congratulations on getting your own kitchen! I was so excited when I first set up on my own.

In terms of food, I second the Hairy Bikers - really straightforward and tasty. Also recommend Nadiya Hussain's 'British Food Adventure' and Rukmini Iyer's 'Quick Roasting Tin' series. The recipes are all pretty fail-safe and delicious too.

Enjoy!

Basic tomato sauce -
Chop up courgettes, garlic, red pepper , onion and a bit of sweet potato. Drizzle with olive oil and roast at 180 for half an hour (time will depend on how big the chunks are). Remove from oven and cool. Pour on a tin of tomatoes of a carton of passatta. Blend it all up with a stick blender (no need to remove from roasting tin).

Add herbs(basil, oregano or mixed herbs are good) and seasoning to taste. Maybe a green oxo cube or a teaspoon of Marmite. Mix well. Add marscapone for a creamy sauce. Vary the roast veg, but I find the sweet potato takes the bitter edge off the tomatoes.

Teenage DS1 is starting to get into cooking, this sausage crumble was a big hit over the weekend! Very simple and tasted lovely sortedfood.com/recipe/sausagecrumble

When I left home I couldn't cook at all. I'm now very competent and can pretty much cook anything.

I'd start with the basics, learn to cook things like a chilli con carne, spaghetti bolognese, chicken casserole, beef stew, a chicken curry etc. If you're living on your own, you can batch cook and freeze portions of these , then you've always got home cooked meals to go to rather than takeaways, only needing to add pasta/rice/potatoes etc.

As for resources, BBC Good Food website is a great place to start. Recipes are usually simple and don't need obscure ingredients. The site also has reviews so you can see how others got on. Maybe write a list of your favourite meals and look them up on there.

Just taken a quick look at my cookbook shelf (have over 100+ cookbooks after a clear out!). You may find these books of particular use:

• Jamie's Ministry of Food - A book specifically about teaching people to cook.
• Gino's Pasta - This book is super simple and I cook from it most weeks
• River Cottage Veg Every Day - Easy to use vegetarian cookbook, quick and healthy.

I'd also consider getting a small slow cooker (3.5l) and a suitable cookbook - Slow Cooker Cookbook - Audrey Deane is a book to start with as it has all the classics.

Sorted food videos on YouTube also nice.

Just thought of an easy pasta dish I love.

Cook yourself some pasta, the portion size and cooking times should be on the packet. Boil it in salted water, cheap table salt is fine for this.

When it's cooked, drain it and add it back to the pan, off the heat.

Add black pepper, a glug of olive oil, juice and zest of half a lemon, 2 or 3 really big handfuls of rocket and some bite size pieces of smoked salmon and give everything a big stir.

Really easy and super tasty

It's really

BBC Good Food has every recipe you could ever want, from easy to difficult. Just Google
I tend to revert to Nigella’s “How to be a domestic Goddess” as my go to cookery book abut also like hairy bikers, Delia and MOB kitchen.

Just experiment. With pasta you can’t really go wrong, just try lots of things as sauces. Same with soup. Chop it up, add stock, simmer.

Invest in at least one good knife and pan.

I would start by learning how to make a really good red sauce and a really good white sauce - they are the basis for most delicious food.

Also, I would suggest watching some YouTube videos on basic knife skills for things like the right way to chop an onion etc.

Thank you! This is all really helpful. Today I went and bought some basics. I definitely need to learn how to do simple things like chop spring onions etc as I really lack even that sort of knowledge.

I’ve managed to sort myself out with a pan and some cutlery and plates. However I haven’t got a decent knife. Does anyone know where I can buy a good one from? I’d quite like to invest in some good knives but I guess with most of the stores shut this will be tricky.

Agree re Delia

I bought a kitchen devil from Tesco, when I think about it it must be 30 years ago although DH does sharpen it from time to time

OK, I learned this years ago but it's really useful. Every time I peel anything - onion, carrots, garlic, leeks etc (everything except potato peelings, which I fry and eat with a mayo dip, guacamole etc) - I put all the peelings in a freezer bag in the freezer. When I have roast chicken, I remove all the left over meat and put it to one side. Then I put all the carcass bones into a big pan with all the peelings and lots of water, salt and pepper and boil it for ages to make a huge stock for soup. The peelings add lots of extra flavour, and take up a tiny bit of your freezer. Once the stock is made, I use whatever I need with the leftover chicken as a soup, and let the remaining stock cool and then freeze it, usually in ice cube bags so I can add a few to flavour anything chickeny I make in future. Enjoy learning to cook and your new house!

Oh and I would try to invest in Sabbatier knives. Buy online.

Sorry, another thought. Buy a really good chopping board or two, preferably wood rather than plastic. To clean properly, use sea salt and scrub it in (known as scouring), it helps to disinfect it too. You should really have one chopping board for meats, and a separate one for veg, fruit, bread etc to avoid salmonella etc.

Thank you these are brilliant tips - especially about the peelings!! What are ice cube bags? I’m actually excited to make a chicken in a few days!

What would I use the stock for though?

Ice cube bags are plastic bags you fill with water (or stock) and they um make ice cubes! You could use ice cube trays too. You can use the stock in anything that needs a little extra flavour like a chicken curry, chicken soup, a stew etc. I often keep bones from lamb chops and joints in my freezer bag too rather than throw them away and add all of them when I make stock, rather than buy stock cubes. I like knowing I'm getting flavour from things that would have just gone in the bin otherwise!

Leftover roast chicken can be used in all sort of dishes. You can have roast chicken with a healthy fruit salad or as a accompaniment to some baked potatoes. Or you can make chicken curry with leftover roast chicken as well. Roast chicken can also be served with gravy if you so desire. Additionally you can eat roast chicken with anything really. This is one of my all time go to favorite recipes- www.houseandgarden.co.uk/recipe/roast-chicken

In terms of knives, wusthof are the best, but I would start with a basic set from sabatier.

Simple chicken fried rice recipe for left over chicken. Add some sesame oil to a pan and fry off some sliced spring onions and frozen peas, add some shredded cooked chicken and some cooked rice and heat through, crack 1 or 2 eggs in and stir through to break up a little, add soy sauce to taste. Quick and easy

For pans, I like greenpan and Peter creuset, and actually salter pans are very decent.

Le creuset! Not sure where peter came from!!!