The basics of cooking

When we were first married I tried to make tortillas like my mom did when I was young. They came out with George Washington's profile and could be used for Frisbees. I have come a long way since then. "When at first you don't succeed, try, try again". A famous quotation, made by? Doesn't matter. All I know is I kept trying, not just with tortillas but with everything I made. Now I can cook. I know I am not the best cook out there, but I can make some delicious Mexican food and other stuff too. My lasagna is not to shabby. But to get there you have to know and have the basics. So that is where we start.

What kind of cookware do you own? I highly recommend stainless steel and cast iron. You need at least one good large stainless steel pot and a couple of smaller ones as well as at least one stainless steel sauce pan. Two cast iron frying pans are also very helpful as well as a tortilla griddle(cast iron), it is the same as a pancake griddle. You can often get used stuff at the Goodwill or garage sales. The nice thing about buying them used is that they already have been seasoned. I love my cast iron. It is a non-stick pan if seasoned properly. Do not use dish soap on your cast iron pans, it will ruin the finish. Walmart has these scrubby pads similar to stainless steel pads but they are made from plastic. They work awesome on your cast iron. Just scrub under water with the pad, rinse, and let dry on the stove at medium heat only until the water from rinsing has evaporated. Put about a teaspoon of olive oil or vegetable oil in the pan while it is still warm and wipe the inside thoroughly with a paper towel or coffee filter until it is coated lightly and looks shiny. (Do not burn yourself!) Then put it away for its next use, this is called seasoning your pan.

A few large bowls for mixing and some casserole dishes for baking would be great, some utensils, and a decent set of knives too are neccesary.

Where do you keep your food? Do you have a pantry? Can you reorganize your kitchen? You need a place to store your beans, grains, flours, canned food and so forth. If you keep it organized it makes cooking easier because you can find whatever you want. If you don't want to have to run to the store everytime you have a recipe to try then try to keep your pantry stocked with the basics of food. I have, almost always, potatoes, onions, flour, sugar, olive oil, canned tomatoes, a variety of canned foods, rice, beans, grains, and pasta in my pantry.

In the refrigerator you keep your perishables and leftovers. I try always to have milk, eggs, and butter, as well as some type of cheese, and vegetables such as celery, bell peppers, and carrots on hand. Then other stuff ends up in there too, like all of your condiments.

The freezer is great appliance to have so you can buy stuff on sale and store it till needed. You can freeze almost anything. Found a great deal on boxed cereal? Store it in the freezer. It will stay fresh for a long time. You can buy in bulk and repackage your meats and store in the freezer. Great price on frozen juice? Buy more and store it in the freezer. Buy a good used one or better yet check craigslist for a free one under the "free" section.

The basics for spices, for me, are definitely garlic powder, sea salt, onion powder, basil, cumin, red chile, my own home made seasoning mix and a few miscellaneous others. I also buy Rumfords aluminum free baking powder, and keep baking soda and vanilla in my spice cabinet.

Now you are ready to start cooking. You probably had most if not all of this stuff already and that is good. If not, start collecting it and we will do some recipes.

Topics: Cooking basics