I did not understand how to even boil and egg just because I never learned how to cook, not from lack of being able to learn how. This book went through cooking a meal step by step and provided a great visual to me about preparing it in the right way which I liked. This book was much easier for me to read than any other cook book I tried Available for download now. Great book, very practical and easy to read. You start with some thing very basic and then build upon that skill, until you start cooking different dishes.
I would recommended to any one who's cooking skills are not that great, like myself. See All Buying Options. How to Boil Water. In stock on December 23, There are instructions in this book that cover cooking basics and really fit the "How to Boil Water" title. However, the recipes themselves often require multiple sets and can be a bit complex for the "beginner" cook.
In terms of the actual recipes - we have tried many, many and have yet to be disappointed.
This is my son's 'go to', and he really enjoys 5 or 6 recipes that have become staples in our house. Cooking Basics For Dummies. The book begins with this comment Page 1: As such, I think, it does its job nicely. I have sometimes seen rather lame entries into the ". This is not one of those. The volume begins with the basics--what goes into your kitchen?
This includes the basics of your own kitchen such as when you can best use a microwave--and when you should probably not use one ; What tools one needs I the kitchen Pots and pans, small appliances, mixing and baking tools, "gizmos and gadgets"--such a meat thermometers, which can be very useful; Stocking the pantry Betty Crocker Cooking Basics: Recipes and Tips toCook with Confidence. I bought this cookbook for my son when he got his first apartment. It has been very helpful to him. This cookbook is good for first timers. It shows you all the basics and is a great stepping stone for our first time chefs.
I have a copy in my collection also. This one is a must have! Super Easy Cookbook for Beginners: This cookbook is amazing! My 16 year old daughter made dinner, including dessert, for the family last night. She so enjoyed reading through ALL the recipes, and even went to the store to select ingredients for future meals.
This cook book is a terrific gift, and I highly recommend it!
Sara Moulton's Home Cooking How to Make Everything Taste Better. Only 3 left in stock - order soon.
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You rock Sara" - by james s benson. Every recipe tried so far has been a winner. I have been cooking for over forty years and Sara always teaches me something new and useful. IMHO food often has a very enjoyable taste after being slow cooked in today fast past living one can make the meal up the night before and the last one to head out the door can put it on low to cook all day. First one in door can check how it is progressing if it needs turning to a higher setting. The book adds so many delicious choices for ones palate that we get 3 times the use of ours since getting this book.
Minimalist Baker's Everyday Cooking: I have been doing Minimalist Baker's recipes before her book came out and there has not been ONE single recipe I do not obsess with. I probably visit her blog at least once a day - always my go-to blog for when deciding what to make for dinner. Dana knows how to cook or come up with recipes for me to cook I should say as I have never actually tried her cooking. Once I did this, I felt much more comfortable cutting and felt like I had more control.
Sometimes it is the little things that make the biggest difference. This really helped me to understand what I needed to do. I also had no idea how to properly cut veggies and I am a little nervous around knives. Before we get into the actually cooking, lets cover some of the basic tips I learned about cutting and fun tricks I learned with some of the ingredients. Quicker movements and tiny cuts create a finely minced product. You can also runn the knife through it again for a finer mince.
This is still accomplished by holding the handle with one end and moving the object being cut with the other without picking up the knife all the way if possible. You make slightly bigger cuts than when mincing something. If you hold the veggie and curl your fingers in while you hold the produce, instead of laying your figures flat, this helps keep your fingers out of the way, especially while slicing. Push your fingers toward the knife and glide the produce at the same time.
Cut in half lengthwise and peel away the top part of the onion before cutting. Cut the hard end off not the top where you can peel back the outer layer. Place the garlic under the flat side of the knife blade and press down on the blade until the garlic clove is crushed. The peel comes right off and then roughly chop while holding the front of the blade to the table and dice into small pieces.
Campus Cooking A Beginner's Guide | Allrecipes
Once things were cut as instructed in the ingredients, we got to business. One thing that I found to be really helpful is that when we boiled the water for the potatoes we added a generous amount of salt for flavoring. This was a great trick and I noticed it really did add a lot of flavor to the potatoes. Right from the beginning, I learned how to know when the onions are done. I often overcook my onion and burn the garlic.
While cooking, I learned that the onions are done when they are translucent and that this is true whenever cooking onions. At this point, you add the garlic which is than cooked for a few minutes. While adding the ingredients, I found that I wanted to stir it all the time, even after everything was mixed together properly and was waiting for it to boil. What I like most about this recipe is that the base of this makes a great sauce for pasta. The sauce for pasta is delicious and with a little added cheese is perfect.
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Next we made a pasta salad. This is a delicious salad that in the end I found to be fairly easy and could be made in a variety of different ways to either fit what you have in the refrigerator or fit something for a particular meal. I found that when there is probably three to five minutes left, you should add your veggies like asparagus or broccoli.
I love asparagus, but have never really known how to tell which part of the asparagus to use or how to cook it. This turns out to be really easy. To find out, you bend the asparagus in half and where it breaks is the most tender spot. Cut the bottom two inches off and cook for 3 to 4 minutes.
The recipe called for a cucumber. When you are putting cucumbers in a salad, you need to peel the cucumber, cut the cucumber in half length-wise, and then spoon out the seeds. Put the flat side of the slice on the table and cut into long strips and then cut the strips in half. This produces very nice, thin slices of cucumber. The recipe also called for hard boiled eggs, something I thought I knew how to cook, but turns out I was doing it wrong. Put eggs in the pot and pour in cold water until it covers the eggs add salt to the water and bring the water to a boil on medium heat. Once the water is boiling, turn off the heat and cover for 17 minutes.
Run cold water over them and peel. Now this might seem like a straight forward recipe and it is. Something I never knew before was that when you cut your egg in half and it has a grey ring around the yoke, that means they were over cooked. I never knew this and for years I have been eating over cooked eggs. This recipe had a great dressing.
One thing I really liked about this particular dressing is that it can be the base of other dressings simply by adding or substituting one or two ingredients. If you are a beginner, this makes a huge difference as it allows for change but you also have something your most comfortable with that you know you can make and is good, instead of making a different dressing for everything.
When adding lemon juice for the salad dressing, I would have normally just squeezed the lemon and then had to look back through to find all the seeds. However, I learned that when you are using lemon or lime juice in a recipe after you cut it in half hold it upside down and squeeze, so that you get the juice but not the seeds.
White rice, Spanish Rice , and Fried Rice were next on our menu. Rice is a basic that you can add to many different types of meals and in variety of different ways. Although this is another basic thing that is often considered easy I feel like I never had my rice turn out well unless I used minute rice and then I felt like there lacked a taste. This salt adds flavor to the rice. Once the water is boiling, add the rice and leave it on medium-high heat. When the rice is tender like the pasta strain the water and serve. This is for simple boiled rice.
You can then turn this plain white boiled rice into a fried rice. Spanish rice was as just as easy too. The cooking method was slightly different though. One tip that I did find to be helpful in this recipe is that after boiling the rice, when it is tender and ready to serve, if the rice is still a little wet it helps to take the lid off to let the water evaporate quicker and dry out a little.
Fried Rice has always been a favorite of mine and I was very excited to learn how to do this recipe. I found it to be easy to combine garlic, green onion, sesame oil, peppers, salt, and soy sauce and plain boiled rice. Cooking it was easy, once I learned how cut everything, but the hard part of this was keeping it all in the pan and not spilling it all onto the stove. It would be easier if you had a wok I suppose.
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I can now say that I am an egg master. Eggs were something that never quite turned out as I had hoped. Now I feel like every time I cook eggs they turn out well and are delicious. There are a couple of tips that I the most helpful when cooking eggs. First is to heat the pan before adding in the egg. This has really helped to ensure that my eggs cook more consistently. Adding milk to make the eggs fluffy has also been a valuable tip.