Help a 19 year old guy learn to cook

Cafe Society
1

I was talking to a 19 year old guy who just got his first apartment. We were talking about manly things…as I relived my bachelor days from a couple decades ago, and he was curious enough to listen to me.
And the subject turned to cooking-- i.e. cooking real food, respectably served. (Yes, he is actually mature enough to ask serious questions)

He asked what to serve when his girlfriend’s parents come to the campus for a football game, and he wants to act, well, like a grown-up…

I suggested a couple answers.Stuff that tastes good and looks good, but zero cooking skills are needed.

  1. Salmon with pineapple .

Buy salmon steaks. Remember to thaw them before you start. Soak 'em in soy/teriaki sauce. Open a can of pineapple slices. Put a slice of pineapple on top of each piece of salmon. Wrap in foil, bake.

Start the meal with an appetizer of mushrooms. Buy portobello mushrooms, cut off stems so you have nice big caps. Take some salty cheese (Feta, rockford), crumble it into a bowl. Add walnuts, breaking them into smaller bits with your hands. . Put the cheese/nut combo onto the mushroom caps. Wrap in foil, bake along with the salmon

For a side dish–mix rice with wild rice. Boil up water in two pots. Cook the white rice in one, the wild rice in the other. Mix 'em together in a serving bowl.

Result–a respectable meal.
2) Chicken with potatoes and apple

Slice potatoes.
Slice Apples.
Put them in baking dish.
Put chicken breasts on the bed of potatoes and apples.
Pour cola and sweet red wine on top of it all.
Bake in oven.
Result: a main course ,with only one dish to wash.

Side dish: green beans with nuts.
Boil water, add green beans. When you put the beans in a serving dish, add a package of almond slivers. Looks nicer that way.

Result: a respectable meal.

So, dear Dopers,… what else can we suggest for a 19 year old man’s first kitchen experiences?

A few basic suggestions for replies:
No recipes that use tools (food processors, etc. Such things do not exist in his apartment.) And please, type a chatty, easy-to-read description first, and only then post an actual recipe with the list of ingedients, oven temperature, etc in the usual recipe format)

2

Chicken crescents: extremely easy to make, but looks like it took you all day. And delicious to boot!

[ol]
[li]Buy pre-cooked chicken breasts, like this, and cut into small pieces. (Alternatively, buy some fried chicken at KFC or wherever, remove the skin and bones, and cut that up.)[/li][li]Mix with a can of cream of [whatever] soup (I use chicken & mushroom, but any flavor will work). [/li][li]Roll mixture into Pillsbury crescent rolls (singly or use several together in a triangle if you want them to be big).[/li][li]Top rolls with slivered almonds (optional, but recommended).[/li][li]Bake at 350 for 20 mintues.[/li][/ol]

For a side vegetable, simplest thing to do would be dump a bag of frozen corn and/or peas into a bowl, plop a pat of butter on top, and microwave 3-4 minutes or until it’s hot.

3

Cut up the chicken I mean, not the skin and bones. :wink:

4

I think I’d teach him how to read a recipe and use his kitchen before I’d really worry about learning how to cook. Stuff like how to use measuring cups and spoons, and how to use his stove, etc…

Explain that it takes a lot of practice, and most importantly, be his guinea pig. That was the single best thing that I ever had in learning how to cook. My younger brother would come over to my apartment when he was in high school and I was just out of college, and I’d cook, and he’d give me honest, no-punches pulled evaluations and commentary.

Also, get him some good cookbooks. I’m very partial to “I’m just here for the food” by Alton brown as a beginner’s cookbook, because it explains not only the how of cooking, but the why. Once you know the “why”, you learn to recognize similar preparations and know why they work, and where you can diverge from the recipe with success, and where divergence will spell failure.

5

In the learning process, I’d like to mention that practically anything that you’d want to cook has a youtube video on how it’s done.

6

Regardless of recipe, what he should be doing is cooking with his girlfriend. It’s a good bonding activity. As is doing the washing up afterwards.

Things that are dead easy to make would include mayo (why buy it when you can make it?), gravelax (pickled salmon), and tzatziki. Even I can make all three.

As regards joints, I suggest starting him off on leg of lamb: it’s less obvious when it’s been overcooked.

7

Not something he’ll learn on his first try but I would suggest he practice roasting a chicken. A whole chicken is fairly cheap and even if he screws it up the first few times he can still pull the meat off discarding and burnt parts and mix it with BBQ sauce for sandwiches. Learning this will teach him a good deal about temp and time control as well as preparation.

8

Publix has some very simple meal recipes, with shopping lists, that have always been successful for me. Each recipe has a sequence that tells you when to start each part of each dish so the meal comes out ready on time. The directions are step by step and easy to follow.

http://www.publix.com/aprons/meals/SimpleMeals.do

9

It’s time for some foil parcels; en papillote or cartuccio if you’re feeling like impressing… Once you’ve got the hang of making the parcels, it’s a seriously impressive yet simple way of cooking. The only special materials needed is a roll of kitchen foil.

You will need:
1 fillet of fish per person. Mackerel, salmon and bream work particularly well.
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
Filling (see later)
Liquid (optional) - a dash of white wine or a bit of fish or chicken stock
Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/gas7
Lay out pieces of foil, about 30cm/12" square, shiny side down
Season the foil - a bit of olive oil, salt & pepper.
Lay fish in centre of foil, skin side down.
Season the fish. Bit of salt & pepper.
Put filling on fish.
Fold the bottom edge of the foil over the fish to meet the top.
Fold the sides in one at a time to meet the side of the fillet. Press down after each fold to secure it. Fold in again to meet the side again, and again.
You’ve now got an envelope of foil sealed on three sides. You can now add the liquid if using.
Now seal the top side in the same fashion to the sides.
Repeat for the other portions.
Stick on a baking tray and cook for 15 minutes or so.

Serve on plates, still in the parcels.

Fillings (There’s 3 here, putting them all in might get “interesting”)
Sautéed onions, ginger, garlic & chilli with some soy sauce.
A bit of chilli & thinly sliced leek with some orange juice.
Sautéed mushrooms with garlic & herbs.

You can also use this technique for doing spaghetti in a sauce - just precook the pasta for about 7 minutes rather than 10. Make the parcels with a basic tomato sauce pumped up with a few chillies and some white wine & lemon. Seal it up and cook for 8 minutes.

Practice making the parcels without anything in, or around a couple of carrots before trying it in a live fire situation :slight_smile:

10

You can cheat with a jar of spaghetti sauce (just the plain no-meat type), add some nice cooked sausage and whatever fresh veggies you desire, and simmer for an hour or so. Top with some good parmesan and you’re suddenly a really decent cook.
Roasted vegetables are always impressive and tasty. Carrots, broccoli, onion, potatoes (sweet potatoes are great), whatever–hack them up, drizzle with olive oil and a little garlic (or one of those garlic-herb blends you can get in little jars) and roast the whole pan on about 400 until the vegetables are a bit browned and cooked through. Good side dish to any simple meat.
I know it’s not exactly cooking, but my family seems to enjoy the sandwich layout–I put out platters with meat, all kinds of toppings (lettuce, olives, cheeses, mayo, etc) and let everyone build their own sub. It’s a bonding/family sort of experience and perfect for the right event–game night or movie night or such.

11

I’d suggest buying a $25 crock pot. Slo cooker recipes are designed to be easy and no fuss. Throw a few ingredients in the pot, turn on and forget it. Nearly all take 4 to 6 hours cooking. So you can leave for work or class. Come home to delicious food.

Here’s 15 top rated slow cooker receipes. I’ve made the chicken ones and also the pork barbecue. Good stuff and super easy. Everyone loves the cheesy chicken when I make it.

12

And make sure he understands the difference between a LIQUID cup of something and a DRY cup of something. They are not interchangeable.

Just remind him that most chefs are male…appeal to his ego.

That is true!

Liz

13

Personally, I think the less you do to salmon, the better. If you have good salmon. Teriyaki is good when you have farm-raised salmon. I haven’t tried the pineapple, but it seems a bit strong even with the strong fish.

Two of my favourite salmon recipes are Cajun salmon and dill salmon with lemon-dill Béchamel sauce.

Dill salmon:
Place wild-caught salmon fillets on aluminum foil, skin-side down. Sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly chopped dil. Close the foil and bake for half an hour or so in a 325ºF oven.

For the sauce, make your basic Béchamel sauce. Add freshly chopped dill, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and perhaps a splash of white wine (drinking wine, not cooking wine) to taste. Serve with steamed asparagus.

Cajun salmon:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Cut wild-caught salmon fillets into 2-inch chunks. (Or not. Your choice.) Press the meat side into Cajun rub (use the recipe in the link, or another), then the skin side. Heat olive oil in a cast-iron skillet to just under the smoking point. Put the salmon meat-side down in the skillet and fry for two to four minutes. Don’t overcook. Flip them over and fry for two more minutes to get the skin a little crispy. Transfer to the hot oven for seven minutes. Do not overcook. Serve with mac’n’cheese and steamed broccoli.

Both of these are very easy and very tasty.

Another option is chipotle salmon. Put salmon fillets skin-side down on a sheet of foil. Season with a bit of kosher salt, and top with chopped onions and sliced mushrooms. Mix a couple canned chipotle chiles (vary the number to suite whatever heat level you like) with juice with sour cream. Pour over the salmon and close the foil. Bake in a preheated 350ºF oven for half an hour or so. Roast some squash, red bell peppers, green bell peppers, whatever (but especially the squash) as a side. Also good with Spanish rice and refried beans.

14

If he’s willing to spend some money, I’d suggest a copy of The New Best Recipe from the people at America’s Test Kitchen. The recipes work, there’s a lot of discussion of what makes the recipes work, and there’s a lot of good explanation of even simple techniques. Just the kind of thing you want when cooking a lot of one-offs.

15

I’ve used a couple of recipes from Cooking for Engineers (dot com).

16

I’ve heard about the above book, A Man, A Can, A Plan but I’ve never read it. It may be a place to start, to get a guy comfortable in the kitchen. Then he can start doing more original cooking.

17

If he’s got a smart phone, there’s tons of free recipe apps out there that are great and completely free. Betty Crocker and Better Homes. Plus, the Food Network ranks theirs by skill level. Adding to what’s already been said, asparagus is wonderful in many different capacities. I like to make a simple stir fry with it, rice, mushrooms and bell peppers.

My easiest go-to side is a squash casserole. Get a frozen bag of PictSweet squash and boil them for 3 minutes, then drain. Mix together 1/2 cup of sour cream, 1 teaspoon pimentos and 1 teaspoon herbs and garlic (you can buy the combo). Stir in the squash and layout in a square baking dish. Cook for 15 minutes on 350. Wonderful!

18

Absolutely. One of the best IMHO contributions to this thread. Know your territory, get some good recipes, follow them as good as you can, and practice.

Not a lot to say other than that – you practice and that’s really all it takes. No need for a solution manual as in a math textbook – because you can tell if you did it right or you did it wrong.

An earlier edition of The Joy of Cooking – any of the ones with the drawings of how to skin a squirrel – has a bunch of great stuff and would be an awesome gift. You never outgrow that one, and for a young kid, the squirrel skinning alone should give him some ideas.

19

An older (think 70s or 80s) copy of the Betty Crocker Cookbook would be a nice gift for him. The older editions have a lot of beginner to mid-level recipes and instructional material without using a ton of tools and appliances (my late seventies edition doesn’t even get into microwaves). I’ve picked these up at used book shops for gifts over the years.

20

Julia Child, Curtis Stone, Alton Brown, take your pick. I find cooking easy and fear no recipe, but can always learn and refine from watching them. For him, he may take a shine to three different chefs, and that’s probably the key. Like the instructor, and you’ll be interested enough to learn. Plus, if you pick three, you’ve got three different attitudes going on to influence you and you can take what suits you the best from each, rather than being forced to rely upon one opinion. That, and cook what you like. If you don’t like pork, don’t cook it just because the in-laws do. How will you ever know if it’s really any good?