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Anyone can cook!
Had dinner w/June last night. There was a mix up about the time we were supposed to meet, which left me sitting in the middle of a restaurant alone for a half hour. The anxiety wasn't about eating alone, which I do all the time, even in public places. The anxiety ended up being about whether I should spend money earmarked as social money to eat alone.
Despite the awkward beginning, we had a nice time. She told me she'd seen Ratatuille and that she left the movie thinking she should learn how to cook. "Would you teach me?" she asked. "I'll pay for ingredients."
"Um, alright," I said. "What do you want to know how to cook?" I have no idea how to approach the request.
"Something for dinner, like meat, but it shouldn't look like the animal," she responded.
Oh dear.
But I'm thinking of making a weekly thing of it. And we're going to start with some basics. Like an omelette, which I'm obsessed with because I FINALLY learned how to make them. (Thank you Julia!)
I have a hard time thinking about teaching somebody something that feels so organic. Cooking is one of those things you pick up from being around cooks.
Where would you start if someone asked you to teach them to cook?
P.S. The new hot water heater was installed yesterday. Almost 24 hours later the water is cooler than with the old, leaking, one. I guess they'll be a return visit from the repairman today.
P.P.S. The only lover I've had who could cook was Ex, but he was a fussy 'use every dish in the house' kind of cook. It didn't feel erotic or organic; it was a production number. It was also snobbish and exclusive. Everyone else thinks I should be impressed with spaghetti, or claims they can cook, but never has the cajones to prove it. Of course, what constitutes cooking for one person is merely microwaving to another.
Despite the awkward beginning, we had a nice time. She told me she'd seen Ratatuille and that she left the movie thinking she should learn how to cook. "Would you teach me?" she asked. "I'll pay for ingredients."
"Um, alright," I said. "What do you want to know how to cook?" I have no idea how to approach the request.
"Something for dinner, like meat, but it shouldn't look like the animal," she responded.
Oh dear.
But I'm thinking of making a weekly thing of it. And we're going to start with some basics. Like an omelette, which I'm obsessed with because I FINALLY learned how to make them. (Thank you Julia!)
I have a hard time thinking about teaching somebody something that feels so organic. Cooking is one of those things you pick up from being around cooks.
Where would you start if someone asked you to teach them to cook?
P.S. The new hot water heater was installed yesterday. Almost 24 hours later the water is cooler than with the old, leaking, one. I guess they'll be a return visit from the repairman today.
P.P.S. The only lover I've had who could cook was Ex, but he was a fussy 'use every dish in the house' kind of cook. It didn't feel erotic or organic; it was a production number. It was also snobbish and exclusive. Everyone else thinks I should be impressed with spaghetti, or claims they can cook, but never has the cajones to prove it. Of course, what constitutes cooking for one person is merely microwaving to another.
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I might also start with some basic casserole type things: (tuna casserole, ghoulash). Potatoe dishes can also be pretty simple and fun- hash browns, baked potatoes, scallops. Burritos and Tacos, how to tell when meat is done, handling and preparing fish- all things a decent cook should know.
Eggs are kind of an ambitous start, because there's some learning about cooking oils and temps that you need to do it really well, but eggs are cheap and easy.
I used to cook spaghetti for dates all the time, and I heard lots of stories like the one about your Ex- those guys don't know how to cook, they're trying to show off, and cover up the fact that they have no real taste, skill or talent. ( of course, I used to think I was pretty good in the kitchen until I lived with C, who is a genuine gourmet chef). Spaghetti isn't necessarily impressive by itself- it can be very easy, but done right and presented correctly, it can be very good: any good sauce has layers and details that take time to learn and execute. Any idiot can put ragu and tomatoes and mushrooms in a pan with ground beef.
Don't forget about tools- keep them clean and organized- it makes all the difference to have a clean, sharp knife, and not have your area cluttered with used pans and tools.
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Also, if the student was analytically inclined, I would suggest one of Alton Brown's cookbooks, which approaches cooking in a very scientific and comprehensive manner. He is especially good at explaining how variations of a receipe can produce different dishes, which encourages experimentation.
I learned to cook by helping my mom, and I started with chopping vegetables. But I only leared how to cook with a stove. Oven-cooking was foreign to me until I got my own apartment in the US. I still don't use it all that much. I think I'm a decent cook, but I'm a horrid baker.
My husband thinks dumpling a jar of sauce in a pan and heating it with hunks of meat is cooking. I try to be thankful that he's willing to do that much.
He did impress me once with pan-fried steaks and velveeta mac. I'm just easily impressed, I guess. Or maybe I took one look at his apartment and decided it was a miracle he even knew how to turn on the stove.
Teaching someone to cook sound like fun.
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Yeah, omelettes sounds like a good idea.
A stir-fry of some kind would probably be good, too.
Oh! Sausage with peppers and onions. Easy, tastes really good, will make the first-timer feel accomplished. You can also show how little things (fancy mustard, a little bit of caraway seed) can make a big difference.
I think a lot of it is really just building confidence. Getting them to feel comfortable following a recipe, but knowing that they can experiment and at worst, it'll usually just be kinda meh.
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When I met Neal, I was eating cereal, yogurt and boiled eggs. He coaxed me away from my starches and fake cheese and introduced me to a world of fresh foods and gourmet cooking. I seriously thought that the only good cheese was velveeta and I wouldn't touch a vegetable for less than $50. Of course, I also altered his cooking style, too. He went from making bratwurst and sour-kraut to black beans and rice and grilled tilapia with mango and pineapple salsa.
Secretly, I've actually helped Neal start dinner several nights by lighting the charcoal grill or helping with sauces. I don't like to touch raw meat, but I'll stir something on the stove now and then or pull something out of the freezer to defrost. Every once in a while I'll get a wild hair up my ass and come up with some dish that I have to make and I do pretty well with giving Neal suggestions of improvement on his dishes. I think I would enjoy baking more than cooking, but I'm an exact measurement kind of person. I don't like guessing or doing "dabs" of this or that.
However, when things slow down, you should really come and have dinner with us. Neal is a very good cook and harvest stew season is almost upon us (yams, sausage, african spices, olives, dried apricots...it's really good). Let me know when you're feeling better and if you want to do something soon, too. I don't have to take it easy anymore, but I'm pretty bored and still can't bend down, so the house is a pit and it's depressing.
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I've still got a small cough, but am otherwise decompressing from the visit and feeling much better.
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eggs. and then pasta things, and vegetables. i'd also ask them what they wanted to eat.
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Then I agree with the spaghetti suggestion. And I'd think about BBqing stuff: you can get great results with, say, a deboned leg off lamb done on the grill with indirect heat, and it's zero hassle. Plus if you've got a grill lit, then asparagus is dead easy -- and only requires the above vinagrette and you're done.
I own something like sixty or seventy books on cooking (including but not exclusively cookbooks). There's something to be said for having a general purpose tell-you-everything book -- Bittman or Joy, say -- but the best I've seen that really teaches you how to cook and not just recipies is the Blue Strawberry cookbook, or its sequel. It's really about the algorithms of cooking, which make the difference between real cooks and people who can just follow recipes. You can still get it second hand. For example, that was the book that pointed out to me that pesto is:
a cheese
a nut
a green
some garlic
some evoo.
boom. That's it. That means you can do a garlic greens pesto in seasons, or mint-cheaddar pesto, or a cranberry (pretend it's green) goat-cheese pesto, or hell, parsley-velveeta-peanut pesto because you're cooking at some friend's place who just doesn't understand food. That's the kind of thing it excels at.
JOY
...i second the recemmendation for 'Joy of Cooking'. If you can get a look at one of the older editions, even better (before they decided to substitute real food for crappy low-fat options). I'll have to look at the Blue Strawberry...
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Yo quiero!
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Just helpin'.
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