Cookstrut

I dont do jars but i grew up in the 70s w/ that shit. And when I first started cooking as a teen I would cop a jar and add my own veggies and meat. From there I grew my confidence and learned to make shit from scratch. In 2015 u dont have to cop some supermarket Ragu shit. There are plenty or "organic" & artisinal jarred shit on the shelves these days if you dont have the time or skill to make a sauce.





If your makin' from scratch look for canned San Marzano tomatoes. Im sure you can find some grandma shit in your area. Be careful of the domestically canned shit. Its a different animal.
 
Other easy shit.





Pasta Penne. Preheat an oven (about 350/400). Cook some penne pasta according to instructions on packet. Chuck the cooked pasta, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, mozzarella, a little garlic and some olive oil in a roasting dish. Top with parmesan. Bake in oven until golden brown.





Preheat an oven (about 350/400). Boil some new potatoes until cooked (stick'em with a knife if they feel soft going in and slide off from their own weight, they're cooked). Brown some chicken thighs in a frying pan (a few mins each side). Put potatoes & chicken thighs in a roasting dish with some cherry tomatoes, whole garlic cloves & fresh oregano. Squash the potatoes a little and pour a little red wine vinegar over the lot. Put in oven for 40 mins. Serve with rocket (arugula) salad.





Fry seasoned chicken breasts and a few unpeeled cloves of garlic in olive oil until the chicken seals and browns a little. Pour in a cup of white wine and a few bay leaves, shake the pan when you add the wine to emulsify with the oil, simmer for 2 minutes until the alcohol has evaporated. Add half a cup of water, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for a further 20 minutes or until the chicken pieces are cooked through. Season and add more water if required (you want there to still be liquid at the end to serve it with). Serve with rice and a salad, or couscous.
 
Other general advice.





Always make sure chicken is completely cooked. The meat should be entirely white (breast) or light brown (dark meat) with no pink, but not dry. If you have a meat thermometer it's cooked when it reads 165°. Always wash your hands after handling raw chicken.


Beef is easy and can be eaten raw.


Lamb is similar and can be eaten pink, or even raw if that's your thing.


Pork needs to be cooked thoroughly. And again be careful to practice good hygiene when handling.





It's best to chop raw meat on a separate board to everything else. Maybe buy a RED board and use it only for raw meat, not cooked or anything else.





Frozen vegetables like peas, beans, corn, are very handy to always have on hand. They are as healthy as fresh as well.





You can also buy frozen herbs as an alternative to dried. Fresh is best, but if you want something like cilantro occasionally for salsa or whatever, it's often helpful to have some frozen stuff at hand.


You'll probably build up a collection of small packets & jars of herbs and spices as you go. If you're cooking regularly, most of that shit keeps forever or as long as you'll it need anyway.
 
Hey Raj





BBQ is your friend with good meat, gettr done in the summer while you can. Just remember to take the chicken skin off...





Also, a staple in our house is wraps, the kids love it because they have control (to an extent) over what goes into there wrap.





1. Get some soft corn tortilla's


2. couple of cans of black beans. These will be drained then washed in strainer, put on low heat with some water, garlic, maybe some cumin. Though it can be straight up beans if the troops are mutinous.


3. Rice, remember 2 to 1 H20/Rice...


4. Grate some cheese or let them do their own


5. Then whatever else you want in there...





-Salsa verde


- fried onions (mmm), and or fried peppers


- pickled red pepper


- hot sauce


- sour cream or yogourt


- avocado


- lettuce





we do this up once a week probably. It's cheap, healthy and filling. Oh yeah, if you want to up your game fry up some chicken breast and turn them into Fajitas.
 
LoopDreams said:BBQ is your friend with good meat, gettr done in the summer while you can. Just remember to take the chicken skin off...







I'm going to argue with you there for a sec:





- Take a pile of chicken thighs and chop them in half, skin-on (I get the butcher to do it when I buy the meat).


- Trim off hunks of really fatty skin, if you see them. Coat chicken in any tasty dry rub (try berbere & salt sometime) and let marinate overnight (preferably).


- Heat up the BBQ to high and sear on high heat with the lid down for a few minutes each side to get a touch of burn on the skin.


- Shut off half the BBQ, turn down the other half to medium-high. Move all the chicken to the "off" side and leave it there with the lid on for about 45 minutes. Come check on it every 10-15 minutes and turn it. It's basically baking like in the oven now.


- Turn on both sides of the BBQ again and start cooking the pieces on high (turning them frequently) to really crisp up the skin. While it's crisping up, baste with something like a garlic/herb salad dressing (as healthy as you can). This'll make it crispy and a bit sticky.





Mmmmm.



 
batmon said:I dont do jars but i grew up in the 70s w/ that shit. And when I first started cooking as a teen I would cop a jar and add my own veggies and meat. From there I grew my confidence and learned to make shit from scratch. In 2015 u dont have to cop some supermarket Ragu shit. There are plenty or "organic" & artisinal jarred shit on the shelves these days if you dont have the time or skill to make a sauce.





If your makin' from scratch look for canned San Marzano tomatoes. Im sure you can find some grandma shit in your area. Be careful of the domestically canned shit. Its a different animal.




Everybody assumes gourmet right from jump nowadays. It's hard for me to comprehend not coming up from Spaghetti-O's to Ragu in the microwave to Prego with ground beef to canned tomatoes and olive oil to everything picked fresh from my yard. School of Hard Knocks.
 
bgm722 said:Get "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman. Looks a little silly on the bookshelf, but its fantastic.




Don't be afraid of cookbooks. Most good cooks get ideas from them. Bittman is a very good general resource, but it doesn't necessarily differentiate between easy and hard recipes. If you really just branching out from Box Mac 'n Cheese, I recommend The America's Test Kitchen Quick Family Cookbook. The recipes are kid friendly and don't have ingredient lists a mile long.





:endorse:
 
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