What six recipes would you teach a teen about to head off to university??

[loveyouradvice]

Love your thoughts....

I'm thinking a two or three pasta sauces, a chocolate mousse, a vinaigrette and a simple cake ....

What would be your top six??

Spaghetti bolognese
Veggie curry
Roast dinner
Chilli con carne
Frittata/omelette
Macaroni cheese

Chunky soup

I’d be a bit sad if any of mine couldn’t cook competently by the time they set off to university. I gave them each a cookbook or two. If they are at university they should be able to follow a recipe.
I guess the key favourites for our only one still at university are

• chilli and homemade guacamole
• lasagne and variations.
• macaroni cheese
• a roast lunch
• banana loaf
• homemade pizza
• risotto and paella.

A year in Italy means my daughter can make better pasta and tiramisu than me.

Just give them a student cook book?

Or delia smith?

Students eat cheap and cheerful- potatoes, rice pasta, bread.
Beans cheese egg tuna

Teach them how to make a meal from what’s in the reduced aisle!

Fajitas/stir fry (same method...)
Pancakes/Yorkshire pudding (ditto)
Roast chicken/chicken thighs/pork chops (different times but...)
Proper tomato sauce (spaghetti, chilli, baked eggs, meatballs, ragu, lasagne)
How not to make an arse of eggs.
So basics, but the ones that are a basis for so many things.

Would it not make sense to ask what his favourite meals are and do those?

Full English breakfast.... he’ll be that popular other ppl will probably feed him the other meals lol

A good curry
Some kind of ragu or bolognese
A really good omelette
A fish pie
A nutritious soup
Plus, the necessity of eating veg and fruit (not living in pasta and ramen. The importance of reheating any leftover food properly. (And storing it properly and safely)
How to prepare food with proper hygiene principles.

Corned beef hash
Spag Bol
Lasagna
Stew
Shepherds or cottage pie
Risotto

All pretty easy to make Although dont most university students live off beer and pot noodles!

I really must get on with this, as D1 will be off to university in October 😁.
I think basic cooking principles and methods for cooking rice, pasta, drop scones, cheese sauce, stir fry, egg fried rice, soup etc. Then a few of her favourite meals, especially how to adapt them, varying ingredients, making them vegetarian etc.
My list will include pasta e ceci, macaroni cheese, sausage bake, prawn & chorizo paella, puff pastry 'pizza', Moroccan soup and Nigella's chocolate marmalade cake (no mixer needed)

Having been a student living with 6 people I was shocked by how little they knew how to do in the kitchen (and I'm not an amazing cook by any means)
Basic things like:
How to safely chop things like veg (without chopping fingers off),
How to cook eggs (boiled,scrambled, omelette etc)
How to tell if meat is cooked (chicken,sausages etc)
How to cook pasta (honestly I had to show two people that it goes in a saucepan with water in)
How to cook potatoes (Mashed, boiled, jacket potatoes, roasties etc)
And teaching them how to use kitchen equipment e.g. Using the grill, about different settings on the hob, how to put things in the oven (seriously) using a tin opener, defrosting meat, microwave settings, basic food hygiene etc

If they already know how to do these things they will be far ahead of a lot of other students (In my experience)

I'd recommend lots , but DS would still only cook pasta and pot noodles!

(And he has worked in a kitchen)

I did this last summer.

I enjoyed being cooked for and it was a lovely bonding time.

Make sure to include the shopping for ingredients as well as often things you know, they don't.

Spaghetti bolognaise
Lasagne
Chilli con carne
Chicken and noodles with broccoli
Stir fry
Omelette
Cauliflower/ macaroni cheese

Teach them food hygiene, portions and pricing.

Also important to teach cooking food down and chilling or freezing leftovers. Especially care with rice.

Buy a student cook book for them- it goes through all the very basic things (like even cooking pasta). If they want to learn they’ll do it themselves. They’re hardly going to starve.

Pasta was my favourite when I was at uni. There are a few difference sauces you can put with it, and it's cheap, so ideal. Spag bol, carbonara, spinach and pesto..

Also how to cook rice (I know that's not a recipe as such) as it's easy to put with so many things like a piece of chicken, or some sausages.

Make sure he knows how to properly operate an oven and tell how things are cooked. Try as you may to teach him to cook well, chances are freezer foods will still be the most popular choice!

@tararabumdeay

Teach skills

@ragged

learn to cook things he likes to eat.

These two posts sum up the approach that makes sense to me.

My mother taught me to cook by telling me what she was doing as she went along, in her own idiosyncratic style. Over the years I think I absorbed the knowledge, especially I remember the things where she explained why. I only really ever used the skills needed to make the things I like.

Start by frying an onion while you decide what to do. It tastes much better fried slowly so the onions caramelise.

Using cheaper cuts of meat like shin

Creaming butter and sugar, then adding eggs and sieved self-raising flour for a cake. Different flavourings, including dusting things like dried fruit or Glace cherries so they don't sink to the bottom.

Using chicken etc carcass to make stock. Using that stock to make soups taste so my better.

To be fair I not sure how many of these I actually used as a student. More when I then got a job, a bit more money and my own kitchen.

I think it would be better to teach them the basics. Once you can make a rage (lentil or meat) you have the basis of many dishes, spaghetti bolognese, lasagne, moussaka etc.

Same with a white sauce - add cheese or parsley - two sauces to add to pasta or make a fish pie.
A really simple curry sauce, olive oil, garlic, spices and chopped tomatoes (fresh preferably but tinned work as well) - again you can adapt this to a soup base.

By 18 though they should really know how to cook and do their laundry etc.

Definitely the chocolate mousse - they’ll want an alternative to the stodgy hot puddings in the buttery.

Vol au vents - so many options for fillings and they can serve them with potatoes and veg for dinner, or whip up a patch for house parties.

Scallops - on a budget you cannot afford to cook these badly.

Sweetbreads - a great alternative to pricey cuts of meat.

Twice baked soufflé - perfect comfort food during an essay crisis.

Or I second focusing on skills and confidence.

1. Chilli com carne- make sure knows all sides- rice, baked spud, tortilla wraps, sweet potato wedges.

My slow cooker has a rice cooker function which is brilliant.

1. Thai curry/Indian curry
2. Fried rice
3. Risotto (both can be made cheaply/vege/with leftovers.
4. Marcella’s tomato sauce-so easy
5. Some kind of traybake- e.g. sausages, potato and squash, or one wth chicken thighs- just one pot combos you can pop in the oven.

If doing a cake Mary Berry’s lemon drizzle traybake is easy, delicious and you get plenty of servings.

Dd's taught herself

Fajitas using chicken or beef
Bolognese
Chilli
Stir fry
Chicken stroganoff
Macaroni cheese
Curry

Buy them 'The First-Time Cook' by Sophie Grigson - about £2 on eBay. Perfect for students heading off.

DD is off to university in September. We are working on teaching her recipes for things she likes and items that are flexible.

Spicy mince - for fajitas, tacos, on toast etc
Fritter batter -for using up leftovers (a good way to deal with takeaway curries and Chinese leftovers)
Noodle soup - another good way of using up veg that are less than perky
Lentils - as a base for sausages, salads etc

In addition to all the advice above, I personally would add sardine pasta and kedgeree made with smoked mackerel, both of which are cheap, nutritious and can be made with long lasting ingredients.

The one cake recipe I’d teach a student (apart from 2 minute microwave chocolate mug cake) is Nigella’s chocolate orange store cupboard cake, which requires no skill and absolutely minimal equipment because it is made by melting chocolate and butter in a saucepan and then stirring in the eggs, sugar, flour and marmalade (or other jam). As long as you’ve got an oven, a cake tin, a saucepan and a wooden spoon then you’re sorted. And if you get the chocolate and jam from Lidl/Aldi it’s very cheap.

one pan rice meals - variations on risotto/jambalaya/kegeree/biryani.
a roast dinner
pasta and sauce
stir fry
Their favourite dinner....
Basic knife skills/food safety/hygiene
If they have these skills then they can pretty much follow a recipe to make anything.