Cooking tips for absolute beginners
Thinking back to my own memories as a first time cook, these are some tips on getting started.
- Always have a backup plan for your fire alarms!
Especially when you have moved into a new place (like I have), you will notice certain nuances to working with your kitchen. Fire alarms WILL sound if you grill a piece of meat, cook certain cuisines like Indian food or even bake. It’s just a reality which shouldn’t scare you. Speaking from personal experience, there’s two types of people. One who frantically jumps around the place using a wooden stick to press the button on the fire alarm in the ceiling. Or perhaps a partner who calmly opens all the windows and at a normal pace, closes the alarm. Sometimes I take a towel and wave it below the alarm as if I’m crying out for help.
2. Don’t experiment (just yet) and be prepared.
Learn the basics. There’s usually a couple of standard ingredients for certain things. For baking, we usually use some kind of flour, eggs, sugar, vanilla extract. The second you start trying to think creatively like adding rum or orange juice (any kind of liquid) to muffins/cakes, it will explode on you (literally. Again speaking from experience). I’m not trying to discourage being creative (look at me here starting a blog) but it’s always better to start simple.
For indian cooking, again, there’s certain ingredients commonly used like turmeric, chili powder, green chillies, onions. As if it’s not scary enough, when onions are not allowed for certain strict vegeterian recipes, things will splatter pretty quickly. Don’t try to add everything to a hot pan on the go. Plan it ahead of time! Once you get good at that, then start experimenting a little at a time. I added cinnamon and nutmeg to a basic blueberry muffin recipe and my friends went crazy over them. When you’re first starting, Less is more!!
3. Cross reference multiple recipes before trying a new recipe out!
There are many talented chefs on Youtube and the internet in general. This doesn’t mean that they necessarily have the best recipe. Many of them miss steps they may think are obvious (like washing your vegetables before use. This is very important to do regardless) I was looking at a spinach dip recipe which called for the use of flour and I watched the video several times naturally assuming I knew what to do. All of a sudden it becomes doughlike and very likely inedible. Watch out for those “Best recipe ever” type or trendy short tiktok/Tasty video recipes. I love those videos (no hate here) for concepts but not for relying on how to cook. Once I confer with a couple of recipes and ask people as well, that’s when I learn to make the best version of what I want.
4. Use tools such as the Air fryer!
When I was in college, the toaster oven was the best thing ever! I could easily get tortillas (now my husband and I make our own) with some cheese and frozen chicken (now we also grill our own) and it’s an easy simple meal. The Air fryer is not only life changing and healthy due to the oil that gets released into another pan, it’s just simply easy to use. We like to season some cut broccoli with some salt and light olive oil and it comes out great in less than 10 minutes. The one we use is called PowerXL Air Fryer but many of them in the market currently are all good. My favorite thing we’ve made on there is any kind of cornish hen/chicken recipe. It comes out perfect just like a traditional rotisserie chicken. Wings are awesome on there as well!
5. Start small and learn what helps balance taste.
Add a little bit of salt for taste for savory dishes. Remember when it gets too salty, it can be hard to fix. When things get too spicy, adding sugar can be a good replacement to balance things out. Nuts are a good to toughen things up if things get too liquidy. In baking, similarly you can use more flour when your dough becomes too wet. Again, make sure to look it up if you are not sure about something. I tried to make fried rice once many years ago and put turmeric on the rice AFTER cooking. Bad mistake. Spices need to be cooked as well!
Here are some of my favorite cooks on Youtube:
BabishCulinaryUniverse
Joshua Weissman
Marion’s Kitchen
Chef Ranveer Brar (Hindi speaking cook. My husband and I followed this easy sweet recipe recently!)
Our version:
MilkandCardamom
The Chutney Life (See what tips she has to give!!)
What I like about them is that they take recipes we all like and make it more relatable to non-cooks, or cooks everywhere! My husband studies them daily to perfect our own techniques. Joshua has a series called #ButBetter which turns fast food favorites into more refined recipes. I had a gyro today we created that honestly was so much better and more fresh than the ones we get at the food carts outside.
These are just some of the tips I would like to share. I’m not claiming to be a professional chef by any means but these can go a long way! What are yours? Is there anything specific that comes to mind? Follow me on Instagram at @path_to_amreats where I share my daily cooking adventures as well as my Youtube channel! I’m a visual learner and I love documenting everything I’m doing on the account so if that also helps you go for it!
