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Archive for the ‘Learning How to Cook’ Category

What’s an often overlooked ingredient that really helps to sweeten up a main dish? Carrots! Don’t believe me? Then try this:

Next time you make lasagna peel and grate 3 regular sized carrots. Mix the grated carrot into the cheese filling before you put it in the pan. Your lasagna will taste sweeter and have a pleasant crunch!

Tomorrow’s post will be a week worth of dinners with a cabin cooking theme. But it will also include one delicacy-type side course - artichokes! I realized that to prep for that post I’d need to explain just how to cook a choke since it isn’t something that is in every cooks repertoire. If it isn’t in yours, you need to try this because it is such an easy delicacy to prepare! Not only that but their peak season is just ending so get them now before their prices go way up.

Don’t Be Afraid!!!

Washing

Rinse the chokes with water really well. Shake upside down to get most of the water out.

Trimming

Some people don’t trim their chokes but I do. Using a cutting board and a serrated knife, cut the top 1 inch off of the leaves. It’ll leave the top of the choke flat. Cut off the bottom inch of the stem so that the stem is flat and allows the choke to stand up.

Steaming

You will need a very large pot, especially if you have big chokes. Sometimes only two chokes will fit into my lobster pot. If I have to make more than 2 I will use 2 pots and 2 burners. Fill the pot or pots with 1 or 2 inches of water, place the chokes in it on their stems so they stand up, and bring the water to a boil. Let them simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.

Checking for Doneness

With a fork in one hand and a pair of kitchen tongs in the other, stabalize one of the chokes with the fork while you attempt to pull out a leaf with the tongs. If the leaf comes out easily then the chokes are done. Keep checking back every 10 minutes. Sometimes it will only take 30 minutes, sometimes it’ll take 50 minutes.

Eating Artichokes

If you need a primer on how to eat an artichoke check out this wonderful pictorial on SimplyRecipes.com. As far as the choke dip is concerned, there can be only one natural accompaniment: melted butter! Make sure the butter you use is salted. If you buy unsalted butter as a rule, then add a sprinkle of your own salt to it. If you really feel like you need to add lemon to the butter, which a whole heck of a lot of cookbooks say to do, then please at least try them without the lemon first.

A few days ago we had nothing planned for dinner. In days past, I would have a) gotten take-out or b) ran to the grocery with a recipe in-hand. Since I am now in the save-money mode, these two options aren’t the best. Take-out is too expensive (and not usually healthy) and running to the grocery for just one meal wastes time and gas money.

So instead I dug through the cabinets and found half a box of whole wheat noodles and a large can of tomatoes. Ah ha! Not only that, but I also had some fresh asparagus that I hadn’t cooked yet. Since I am not totally well-versed on making pasta sauce I looked up some recipes on Epicurious and looked at the major ingredients. Thankfully I also have an AeroGarden with basil, I always keep a few heads of garlic around, and I had some left-over wine. Here’s what I came up with: A beautiful-looking pasta sauce with canned tomatoes, crushed basil, garlic, and wine. Topped with some cheese and a few small basil leaves. Add to that a side of asparagus and it looked as if I had planned this meal out! Take a look:

This is the great reward for those of us who know a little bit about cooking: we can save money by putting together ingredients that we have lying around. It is also really helpful to keep in-stock some of the basic cooking ingredients in your well-stocked pantry (see my post on that subject!). 

What Steps Do You Take To Learn To Cook?

The way I learned to cook was in steps:

1) Use recipes for everything (from age 10-19)

2) Watch someone else cook who knows how to whip things up without recipes/from memory (age 20)

3) Use a combination of recipes (80% of the time) and trying to create things on my own (20%) - age 21-29

4) Use a combination of recipes (50% of the time) and trying to create things on my own (50%) - age 30-31

Do I think everyone learns to cook this way? No! I am sure there are plenty of people who taught themselves from books or just from trial and error. I assume they had a lot of errors along the way, though. I am a bit more risk-averse so I was probably slower than most to start trying things out on my own.

Pasta Recipe

In case you were wondering what that pasta recipe is that I came up with, I will try to record the gist of it here:

Boil the whole-wheat pasta according to the box directions. In a pot, put a tbsp. olive oil, heat it up at medium heat, then add two cloves of crushed garlic and saute for about 20-30 seconds. Throw in a can of plum tomatoes (if whole, use a potato masher or something to crush them up in the pot). Simmer for 10 minutes. Add 3/4 cup of white or red wine and a tbsp. of sugar (to sweeten the tomatoes if they are too acidic). Simmer for another 10-20 minutes. Add 2 tbsp or up to 1/4 cup of crushed or chopped basil depending on how much you like basil. Add other herbs if you like those better. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Top the pasta with the sauce and some cheese. Serve with fresh, steamed, or broiled vegetables.

If you are trying to be healthy I would aim to make the veggies the same proportion as the pasta - like 50% veggies and 50% pasta on your plate. Before you take seconds of the pasta eat more veggies. We Americans do not eat enough vegetables!

Knowing how to cook is so important when it comes to saving money on food.  It is all too common for people to not know how to prepare a simple meal from scratch, even something as simple as spaghetti.  Add to that most people’s pathetic knowledge of how to put together a nutritious meal and we have ourselves a problem. 

I was thinking about this the other day when my daughter had a little friend over to play.  They are six years old and I was blown away by the difference between my daughter and her friend when it came to cooking skills.  I have involved my kids in cooking since they were old enough to hold a spoon.  They have been cracking eggs for me since they turned two!  This other little girl, mind you, is no dummy.  She reads at a 4th grade level, writes extremely well, and plays the piano with a natural grace.  However, her parents have not taken the time to teach their kids how to do the simplest of household tasks!  I thought that the pre-school years were supposed to be all about learning how to do things around the house like sweeping, mixing, washing, feeding the dog, etc.  Turns out my peers have been focusing on teaching their kids reading and writing and neglecting these other very important skills.

So what was the difference between their cooking skills?  When I handed a bottle of oil to the friend to open, she actually tried to open the thing the wrong way!  She was turning it to the right instead of to the left.  When I told her to mix some ingredients in a bowl she held the wooden spoon as if it were a dagger and didn’t really get to mixing the food at all.  I was frankly quite taken aback by this.  Even though her mom had told me that she hasn’t taught her how to cook because “they are too busy,” I was still shocked at the fact that a six year old couldn’t hold a spoon and mix.  Her parents are simply too busy to wait a few extra moments to have their daughter help mix things or open things.  But aren’t we doing our children a disservice by not teaching them these things?  What is our role as parents if not to teach them these basic skills?

(Before you start worrying that I was forcing my daughter and her friend to do chores during a play-date, let me explain that they were making popcorn and ice cream - both items were for them to chow down on, not me!)

So this is a first post in a series on learning how to cook (no matter what your skills!).  This is a life skill that everyone needs to know.  If all you can do is order a taco from the local fast food restaurant then you will be hurting in any kind of emergency if you don’t have these skills to fall back on.  Not to mention the fact that you could save a lot of money and eat a whole lot better if you can make your own tacos at home!