hiiiiii communists who live in my pc, do any of you know how to cook?

i don’t. at all. a few days ago my roommate taught me how to scramble an egg, and i had never had broccoli or cauliflower or (most other vegetables 🙃) until he let me try some of his, so that’s approximately where i’m at with food knowledge. given that i’m clueless and live with several people in a completely open plan house, i try to avoid cooking anyway because i’m constantly being watched in the kitchen and people are making their little comments. BUT work is sending me traveling so i have a kitchen all to myself for 2 weeks and an affordable supermarket about 10 minutes walk away. i plan to use this time to try to learn a bit <3

the only problem is that i have absolutely no clue where to start. i can make rice and boil pasta and that’s about it. do any of you have recipes that are accessible for a noob and will help me grind my skill up? gamer-gulag or any idea of places online for my situation?

i have no dietary restrictions and i’m open to trying pretty much anything once. i’m just confused and every recipe i click on online seems to be some artisan shit that needs 2 hours and tools and ingredients i’ve never heard of

  • Budwig_v_1337hoven [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    10·
    8 days ago

    As a general tip I’d just recommend you to use all your senses in the kitchen, especially hearing and smell of course. We are so used to doing so much with our eyes, and of course the look of a dish is important, but to get the taste right you need to use your sense of smell while cooking. As for hearing, the difference between a light sizzling and a crackling hot pan will eventually be second nature, but you’ll have to consciously listen for it in the beginning. Pan getting silent all of a sudden, even though there’s lots of heat? Maybe add some oil, or a liquid before it smells burned.

    Contrary to most, I’d stay mostly away from cooking one recipe after the other and instead experiment a bit more, try out general food prep basics (how does ingredient x taste when I salt it before frying vs after, or what difference does temperature make when I roast ingredient y, what’s the difference in steaming something vs frying it), try out as many spices and their combinations as you can afford, and just generally go full mad scientist (or eccentric artiste) with it. You can also try and reverse engineer some beloved dish you really like but never really get anywhere, that’s also fun. Recipes will always be there, but in my experience developing a critical eye towards them and figuring out some ‘universal kitchen truths’ or just generally applicable ways of preparation can get you so much further and you’ll be improvising recipes from random ingredients in no time.

    And here’s a little content dump of my favorite Ethan Chlebowski videos. I learned a lot from the dude and I really think it’s some of the best cooking content out there, but I gotta blanket CW for meat etc, it’s not a vegan channel. Still, it’s all perfectly transferable to cooking vegan or vegetarian or however you want.
    Spices 101
    Spices 102
    All about garlic
    All about salt
    Stir Fry framework - for learning a whole family of straightforward, beginner-friendly dishes that are endlessly adaptable for whatever ingredients you like