Quarantine mode is the perfect time to learn to cook from scratch. This will help you save money at home, but it will also become a kind of entertainment.
However, if you’ve never had cooking experience before, you may have a few doubts when starting.
Here are some simple tips for learning to cook from scratch at home. We will tell you that you need a beginner in the kitchen, fry, cook healthy and even know how to make simple and easy homemade pizza.
How to learn to cook from scratch?
To learn to cook from scratch, you must first make sure you have all the tools. In addition to a quality skillet, you will need a small saucepan with a lid, a sharp knife, and two boards.
These are basic things not only to prepare your main dishes but to cook cereals: oatmeal, rice, quinoa, or other foods without sticking against the background.
In addition, adapting the kitchen for each gender is usually helpful to enjoy the activity. Men generally find it easier to imagine the kitchen as a gastronomic designer. Women can cook in a more practical, organized, and clean way.
Now let’s go to the grain and see five tips for learning to cook from scratch:
- Choose simple dishes
If you are a beginner at cooking, you should start with simple dishes. Rice with vegetables and meats or whole grains with sauces; is one of the best choices to learn to cook from scratch. If you want more gastronomic options, you can choose its analogs such as buckwheat, bulgur, or quinoa.
- Look at the cooking times.
The second step to cooking from scratch is to analyze the cooking time of each food. Cooking pasta or cereals takes between 10 and 15 minutes, so you should start cooking with them. While they are boiling, you can mince the vegetables or meat.
- Choose a protein source.
To cook from scratch and be healthy, you should always choose a source of food rich in protein (beef, pork, chicken, fish, eggs, or soy for vegetarians). In turn, the cooking time of proteins is usually fast, so you should save them for the end.
- Don’t overheat the oil.
Overheating oil is one of the most common mistakes when learning to cook from scratch. While it mustn’t be cold, overheating it will cause small black residues with a bitter taste to form.
- Spices at the end
The main element to flavor your dishes should be spices. Usually, a pinch per plate is enough. However, you should add them last. Otherwise, they can take on an unwanted flavor.
Also, not all of them combine well. You are learning to know which spices to choose when cooking is something that you will remember little by little. You can start with pepper and salt and then try curry, paprika, turmeric, etc.
What does a beginner need in the kitchen?
The first thing those who want to learn to cook from scratch need is not just a recipe book, but a good frying pan, a knife, and a suitable cutting board.
Learning to cook becomes more difficult without an excellent thick-walled skillet with a non-stick coating. The recommended diameter is at least 30 cm.
No matter how fresh and high-quality the ingredients are, frying them in a thin aluminum skillet will increase the chances of your meals burning.
Also, a high-quality skillet allows you to cook with less oil. This reduces excess calories and will enable you to keep the original taste of food.
If the pan also has a lid, you can fry and cook the food. If you plan to count the number of calories or macros, you will also need an electronic kitchen scale.
Here’s what a kitchen beginner needs:
In a non-stick frying pan, one of the secrets for beginners in the kitchen is to have a pan capable of maintaining the temperature evenly over its entire surface; lightweight aluminum pans do not allow it.
- Spacious pot
If you plan to cook for multiple people, you should have a pot with a good volume capacity. In addition, you can use the pool to heat water for potatoes or pasta.
- A small vegetable knife
Although professional chefs use large knives to cut vegetables and meats, a small but sharp knife will be beneficial in learning to cook from scratch. If possible, the blade’s handle should be made of rubber so that it does not escape from wet hands.
- Cutting boards
One of the essential tips for beginners in the kitchen is that you will need at least two cutting boards: one for meat and one for vegetables and fruits. Also, chop the garlic and onion on the meat table; otherwise, its flavor will remain on the surface and carry over to the vegetables and fruits.
- Countdown timer
Another secret to learning how to cook from scratch without failing is strict adherence to cooking time. This is important both when cooking hard-boiled eggs and when cooking complex dishes. Only a professional in the kitchen can do without a timer.
How to cook homemade pizza?
Learning how to make homemade pizza from scratch is much easier. You will only need a baking sheet, oven, flour, vegetable oil, tomato sauce, cheese, and the tastes you want. By adding a little bit of bran to the flour, you will lower the glycemic index of the pizza.
To prepare whole wheat pizza in two portions, you will need 400 g of white flour, 50 g of wheat bran, one chicken egg, one teaspoon of baking powder, 10 ml of oil, and 50-80 ml of water. Mix the ingredients in a large bowl, then roll out the dough and place it on a pre-oiled baking sheet.
While the oven is heating to 200 degrees, heat the tomato sauce in a saucepan; you can add finely chopped aromatic herbs (basil, cumin, rosemary) to it. Then lightly coat the dough with the sauce and bake it for 10 minutes.
Carefully remove the pan from the oven and add the rest of the ingredients. The cheese is the first layer, then add the ham, mushrooms, or whatever you like and bake the pizza for another 25-30 minutes at 180 degrees.
// Learn to cook pizza from scratch:
- Prepare tomato sauce
- Mix the ingredients of the dough
- Spread the dough into a thin layer and place on a baking sheet
- Oil a roasting pan, place the dough with a layer of sauce and bake for 5 minutes.
- Add the tastes (cheese, ham, herbs)
- Bake at 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes
Learn to cook from scratch – SUMMARY
- To learn to cook from scratch, you first need the right tools. It will be tough to fry meat or cook vegetables without them.
- A skillet, boards, and knives are staples for kitchen beginners.
- It is best to learn to cook from scratch to start with simple dishes before going up in difficulty.
- Make sure you start with the ingredients that take the longest to cook: cereals, pasta, vegetables, and save protein for last.
- Overheating the oil and adding the spices at the beginning is one of the beginners’ most common mistakes in the kitchen.
