Roxana is an adventurer, a frequent traveller, and an animal loving person from Sydney, Australia. She is very passionate about the environment and she loves to write about topics that interest her. Roxana’s life goal is to travel the whole world and meet a lot of different people on the way. She currently works as a part time tourist guide in her hometown.  Here’s her Guest Post on annasusanne.com sharing her tips on learning how to cook!  Follow Roxana on Twitter and Facebook – Anna Susanne x

Guest Post by Roxana Oliver for Anna Susanne * The Travelling Pixie

 

There are the entire channels dedicated only to cooking. The cooking shows seem to be growing in popularity. However, according to History.com, the first dish to ever be cooked on TV was lobster-vol-au-vents. It was made by the British cook Philip Harben and this is considered to be the first cooking show. Today, it is easy to get inspired to try to prepare some of the delicious dishes, just by watching TV. If this inspiration happened to you, as well, here are some basic things that you need to know about.

 

Basic Utensils

You need a good knife. It needs to feel well in your hand and it needs to be around 9 inches long. In addition to that knife, you need a 4 inch one for peeling and cutting smaller fruits and vegetables. Besides the knives, you also need different kinds of ladles and spoons. This includes a ladle for soups and chowders. Also, at least one spatula for stirring, frying and general picking up foods. Ideally, get a metal one and a rubber one. Buy a grater that has several sizes, potato masher and a garlic press. With some measuring cups and spoons, you are ready to start. From my experience, vegetable peeler is not a must, but it makes life much easier. So, before you begin planning anything major you need to get quality and practical kitchenware.

Basic Rules of Flavor Combinations

The first thing that you need to realize is that there is a difference between the taste and the flavor. Tastes are sweet, bitter, salty, umami and fat. Flavors consider those aromas that are associated with the ingredients from the nature. These are the things like orange or vanilla. This takes practice. The basis is to identify the component of a flavor and find them in different ingredients, as well. You can use Food Pairings to help you out at first, but you will soon develop your own taste.

Basic Everyday Dishes

Regardless of what I’d like the most, not every day can be a posh meal day. When you want to have a cooked meal, every day, you just need to learn a couple of basic things to make. When it comes to home cooking, I swear one big name: Jamie Oliver. Jamie has all the reasonable recipes with reasonable and simple instructions and they always work. Jamie is a kind of kitchen hero of mine. His recipes proved time and time again to be totally foolproof. Therefore, you need to check out online recipe sites and find out how to make some simple dishes. First, you need to know how to make the perfect pancakes. The combinations are endless. Explore them and find yours. A nice tomato soup is also what you need. These can be in the form of gazpacho, salmorejo or even some hot versions. It’s easy and it’s perfect. Learn how to make chicken, either in the form of breaded file, chicken from the oven or fried chicken. I love Italian, so I will always recommend making pasta primavera, lasagna, pizza or Caesar salad.

Basic Posh Meals

He might be slightly insane in the kitchen but there is something thrilling and exotic about the way Gordon Ramsey makes his dishes. When I need to make something special, I roast a chicken with mango and apple salad. It is not hard to make and mango and apple salad make it interesting and a good choice for a dinner party. You can never go wrong with making salmon with different dressings. Those dressings are easy to make and salmon is easily prepared. The combination with some good wine, turn the entire thing into a classy dinner. Also, his signature dishes include some of the most advanced recipes such as beef Wellington and eggs Benedict, which I didn’t dare to make yet, and I advise you not to try until you’ve had some serious practice.

Cooking is a real art. Learning the basics will open up the doors to new way of life for you. Once you start enjoying food preparation, you will soon find yourself wanting to learn more and more about it. When your creativity kicks in, the combinations are endless. Cooking can really enrich your life, so start today.

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Being a study-abroad student, I’ve always struggled with deciding on what to make myself for breakfast, lunch and dinner!  Without any proper training in cooking – not even from home!  All I could make is pasta, and the occasional pan-fried steak lol!  Now I’ll have at least some ideas on what I could prepare for my meals! :D

If you would like to be a Guest Blogger for annasusanne.com or simply write the occasional guest post, email annasusanne.c@gmail.com to pitch your ideas! – Anna Susanne x