I want to start cooking

[Beggy15]

I had literally never cooked before ever due to various reason.

I want to start whilst I'm off for a while. Where will I find some good basic recipes for starters?

Or can anyone recommend a dish for my to try it can't be sea food or red meat (limited I know)

Thanks

I wasn't a cooker until I had to start feeding myself at Uni. I found the BBC Good Food site reliable and had lots of yummy things.

Chicken is always a great choice! www.bbcgoodfood.com/

Have a look on the recipe section on here, most of the recipes are really easy as the posters have cut out the waffle.

easiest meal for me is roast chicken - stick it in the oven for as long as it says on the packet, baste with olive oil, make sure that when you stick a skewer or fork in the thigh and breast that the juices run clear. Jobs a goodun. Roast potatoes are easy too, boil them for about 5 minutes, drain, shake, put them around the chicken - they might do with a bit of a blast whiile you rest the chicken (so the chicken will need to stand for about five minutes before you carve it).

fresh carrots, washed and sliced, boil or steam for about 10 minutes, frozen peas, frozen yorkshire pudding.

Pasta dishes are really easy too, fry up some chicken breast chunks, some mushrooms, add a bit of stock (get bullion powder) and keep heating until its cooked, meanwhile cook the pasta for about 15 minutes (look on the packet, they vary) Add some cream and pesto to the chicken bits, mix with the pasta - yum.

I always suggest it on here, but Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food is soooooo good for approachable basic dinners, and how to twist basic recipes into something different. It might be worth searching out a copy from library or to borrow from a friend? Lots are meaty or fishy so you'd probably not want to buy the book, but it would be great to have a read through to get ideas and instruction on how to cook.

Also, Delia has a website that is great for how-to info also.

What's your favourite ready meal or favourite style of food? can you learn to cook that...even a cheats version and then build from there.

The book I started with was Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course. It had a lot of basics in it... Apple Pie, Roast Chicken, Bread... and I just went through them one by one learning from my mistakes. Jamie's Ministry of Food is pretty good and he has some videos online you can cook along with. Pick recipes that are things you generally like to eat, contain few ingredients and preferably have a photo so you know what it's meant to look like at the end.

Good luck

Thanks everyone! Actually excited to start trying some recipes

Definitely the BBC good food site.
I am not the best cook in the world but I use it more than any cook book.
Made an aubergine bake thing last night..yum.
Looked like the picture too.

To start with buy rice in bag for boiling.
It saves a lot of hassle.
When you master curry or chilli - then is time to move on to cook some rice :)

Easiest chilli recipe?

Buy smallest pack of beef mince.
In frying pan put some oil, open packet and put content of it on hot oil. Frying should be changing colour of meat from red to cooked 9not even brown but you know what I mean). Keep stiring with wooden spoon if pan is non-stick or you could damage it.
Once meat is cooked add a can of Tomato and bean (sometimes is three bean) soup. Add some powder chilli, but no more than 1/4 of tsp. It may need a bit of salt but best to to a pinch and no more than 1/4 tsp at a time. If salt is coarse it takes time to dissolve so don't rush adding more!
Start cooking your rice in bag according to time on packet and during that time mince with soup will be slowly cooking as well.

Serve hot

I think stir fry is one of the easiest meals. Especially if you use fresh noodles as they are either already cooked and you can just throw them in, or you just need to put them in water out of the kettle for a minute.

Chop some chicken or steak (sometimes cheaper) or use some prawns. (I buy frozen ones)

Chop some veg into similar sized pieces. You could use
Peppers
Carrots
Cabbage
Courgette
Mini corn
Pineapple
You can also throw in a handful of frozen corn

Put oil in frying pan or wok. Fry the chicken first then add the veg and then after about a minute add the noodles then some sauce from a packet or jar. We like teriyaki the best.

Delias complete cookery course will teach you any basic process you could ever need. Some of the recipes are a little outdated now but not all and you really can't beat it.

Jamie's Ministry of Food is also fab. Really easy to follow and stuff that you would make good family meals that can be done again and again - pasta / stir frys / curries / roasts etc.

Good luck!

Len Deighton's Ou Est le Garlic if you can find it, and Robert Carrier's Great Dishes of the world taught me how to cook when I was a nipper. Ou Est le Garlic has cookstrips illustrating common processes/basic recipes- basically cartoons for cooking. Magic.

Nigel Slater's Eat - The recipes hardly use any ingredients, only a few things in each. And they're organised by cooking method so if all you have is a frying pan you have a collection of recipes for that. And there's an index to look up an ingredient you have and need a recipe for. Simple and usable. Brilliant book.

I also suggest starting out with mostly vegetables - even if you end up not cooking them right through, the worst you'll end up with is a bad meal, not food poisoning!

I started with Delia Smith's complete cookery course too. It's really good for basic techniques and I still refer to it now. My copy is more than 30 years old!

And her recipe for banana bread is the best.

The need to cook is spurred on mostly by the need to feed people/eat generally or because you fancy something. What do you WANT to cook or eat?

May I recommend microwave rice until you get more confident? Saves you having to worry about two pans at once. Aldi sell it for 49p

I found rice really hard until I stumbled on this, it is foolproof. Put 1 cup of rice and 1.5 cups of cold water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil. Stir round with a spoon so rice isn't sticking to the bottom, bung a lid on and turn heat down to lowest. Leave for 10 minutes. Take pan off heat and leave with lid on to sit for another 15 minutes. Take off lid and fluff up rice with a fork, it will be perfect!

Nicer than microwave rice and a fraction of the price

Whatever recipe you use read it from start to finish before you start cooking. Make sure you have all the ingredients & pots ready - when I started I used to burn things while looking for the next thing. Do all the cutting and other prep first - it takes longer, but removes the pressure & allows you to concentrate.

Preparation is the key when you start

1. Read te recipe
2. Assemble the ingredients
3. Prepare everything
4. Note down the timeline so you know when things start and finish
5. Cook
6. Serve
7. Eat

if anything goes wrong don't panic! If you get to 5 and you've missed something then carry on, you'll get it right next time and really it wont taste that bad.

You will now notice I missed the h in step 1 but it all made sense in the end

Another recommendation for Delia's complete cookery course book. That's how I started as well. There's some really simple casseroles that turn out great, amongst other stuff.