Quote:
Originally Posted by zipfel  I was wondering if any of you experts here could help me get started? I am interested in cooking healthy items, preferrably in large quantitys, as I am a student and dont always have time to cook every night for an hour or two. I work out quite often so protien would be important as well.
I am also curious as to what kind of supplies I would need: pots, pans, spices, chopping boards, ?
I really want to up my cooking skill and use herbs and spices to bring out the flavour in my food rather than relying on pre-made packages of random powder.
Thanks very much for any help you can give me. |
To begin, i'd have a frying pan, (try to find one that's pretty heavy, don;t get a lightweight cheapo one, if you have no experience you'll burn everything - even if you do have experience!) or two, one bigger than the other. One or two saucepans (again, unless you use it just to boil water, you'd want a slightly thicker base) and a pasta pot that can be used to cook pasta and soups. Cutting board (about as big as a double sheet of writing paper), a reasonably good chef's knife (thin blade, nice sharp edge), paring knife, a couple of wooden spoons, spatula for lifting eggs and stuff, a colander that will sit in the sink (with feet) - not a small flimsy thing. I;ve bought most of these things in secondhand shops, and got much better quality than i could have afforded.
Herbs and spices are often overused by beginners. You don;t need to do much enhancing of good raw ingredients. They're tasty in themselves. One herb is enough in most dishes, then fiddle from that. Most dishes i make have no particular herb, but are tasty (and no one ever refuses my invitations to eat!). Meat lends itself to herbs - try what appeals to you - one at a time - like thyme, or marjoram, or rosemary, or origano. Parsley and chives are very mild and go pretty much anywhere. Vegetables are enhanced by garlic sauteed in olive oil or butter.
One trick that gives flavor to some dishes, like sauces, etc, is to slowly fry finely chopped onion and/or garlic in a little olive oil. If you want to cook healthy, you need to buy lots of fresh vegetables. Maybe frozen are as healthy, but they are definitely no way as tasty.
Boil leafy vegetables in plenty of boiling water (make the water boil first), drain, spread out on a dish or leave in the colander to cool, and then heat some olive oil in a frying pan, slice some garlic into it, if you like either black pepper or hot red pepper flakes, (sparingly at first) and slowly heat the garlic till it begins to get soft - add the amount of veg you want to eat at one sitting, stir till it gets the flavor into it, and then eat - the rest can go in the fridge for the rest of the week. Spinach, swiss chard, broccoli rabe, turnip greens, etc, all do well like this.
A good and healthy and easy soup for the week: take a head of escarole, a carrot, a celery stalk, an onion, and then any other stuff you may like that's not too strong (cabbage dominates everything, and all in that family, like broccoli, cauliflower, etc, doesn;t really go) - swiss chard, zucchini, spinach. Wash well, cut up in bite-size chunks roughly, and put in your big pot with water, salt and pepper (add salt as it cooks, to taste) and cook about an hour.
Separately boil rice (make enough for the week) - drain. When it;s time to eat heat the amount of soup you want to eat. The rice will be right from the fridge and in a separate bowl (this keeps it from getting waterlogged in the soup when you store it) and if you don;t like your soup boiling hot, pour the hot soup onto some rice in your bowl. Add plenty of grated parmigiano.
Cheap, healthy high-protein food is made with beans or lentils and grains - leave out the escarole, add cabbage-family vegetables if you like them, or not, and you can slowly fry the onions in olive oil before you begin. Put in as many vegetables as you like, water, and beans. (If you use dry beans, soak overnight first and then boil with the soup - if canned, add towards the end) - cook till all are soft and the flavor is melded (at least an hour)
You can vary with either rice or pasta cooked separately (or together but then you can;t vary it and it will get soggy if you make it for the week) or you can toast some really good artisan-type bread and rub a piece of garlic on it, a bit of olive oil on top, put in the bottom of your bowl, and ladle the soup on top. High protein, high fiber (if you use whole wheat and beans) and high vitamin and mineral. And you have it for the week.
Then get yourself a cookbook!
Newbie Help :) 
