Food
It is easy to be annoyed by the need to eat, which generally
takes more effort than other human physiological needs. But it
can also be a source of joy, and as with many other areas,
trying to avoid learning about it leads to poor and/or
overpriced results. I consume food regularly, so decided to
write down some notes on it.
Dietary guidelines
There are healthy diet guidelines issued by WHO and some
governments, which seem sensible: they recommend to consume a
lot of fruits and vegetables (at least 400 grams per day), some
cereal, meat/fish/eggs (apparently mostly as protein sources,
though there are other sources as well; usually it's recommended
to consume at least 0.8 g of protein per kg of body weight
daily, but for certain exercise types some recommend to increase
it, up to around 2 or 3 grams per kg), and dairy. They also
recommend to reduce sugar, salt, and butter consumption. If you
mix together and heat up sugar, salt, and butter, you get toffee
or similar confections (depending on temperature and other minor
parameters). Saturated fat and alcohol are also recommended to
avoid, and physical activity is recommended by some of those
(despite not being directly related to food).
Humans evolved to survive on available food in bad conditions, so it's not
a big deal if proportions are imperfect: eating edible foods you're not
sick of should keep you alive. Trying to balance them and not completely
ignoring some of the food groups should be pretty healthy.
Apparently it's still unclear how useful dietary supplements
(multivitamins and others) are, assuming a relatively healthy
and diverse diet. Speaking of things with little evidence and a
lot of marketing or followers, there also are "organic
food", GMO conspiracy theories, fad diets. So beware of dubious
marketing, if you try to stick to evidence/science/studies
(though there is plenty more of controversy around topics like
that, even around the studies: the ones people are commonly
interested in, but which are tricky to study precisely).
For calculations of food nutrition, there are Recipe Nutrition
Calculator and Food Calculator; for estimation of the needed
calories, there are Calorie Calculator and another Calorie
Calculator (which includes estimates of macronutrient
needs). And a similar Macro Calculator (with more calculators on
that website). Plenty more information at ExRx.net - Diet and
Nutrition.
Motivation and time
Cooking (and even eating) may be seen as a chore and
inconvenience, but to many even computing does look that way,
and in both cases it's possible to enjoy the process, making it
a hobby. There are a bunch of hacks one may attempt to reduce
bothering with food (meal replacements, eating out, relying on
others to cook in general), but the results seem similar to
people avoiding bothering with computers: reluctance to put a
bit of time and effort into learning leads to poor results and
continuous frustration, while after learning the basics it's
rather fun to tinker. Also as with computers, maths, and likely
most of the other activities, it can be intimidating at first,
but experience builds confidence and makes it easier. For
increased inspiration and motivation, there are plenty of
cooking videos available online. It does take some time though.
As an additional benefit, the breaks taken to make a coffee or
cook something may count for the breaks commonly suggested to
heavy computer users, to avoid just sitting all day long (with
potential adverse effects on one's health).
To speed up both cooking and dishwashing, one can cut some
corners, especially after learning which ones are okay to cut:
perhaps cut vegetables into less consistently-sized and larger
chunks, roll out the dough less carefully, cook faster at a
higher heat, don't wash dishes too thoroughly. But one should
still be careful around the dangerous stuff found in the
kitchen: contamination (from meat, eggs, etc), flame, hot oil,
knives.
Kitchen setup
A nice kitchen setup and handy utensils are important for happy cooking.
One of the important aspects (as with most of other manual labour) is
lighting: see my notes on lighting for that.
The situation with cookware is similar to that with hand tools:
odd brands hiding the companies/manufacturers behind them,
sometimes pretending to be German, or local to a place they are
sold at, while being Chinese or Indian. With established brands
there is at least a hope for quality control, even if they are
manufactured in China too. There are occasional stores that pick
nice cookware/brands before selling it. And it wouldn't harm to
investigate which utensils you need, which kinds of those exist,
the properties of materials they are made of.
Common advices in articles and videos on kitchen setup are
straightforward: keep the items you need often easily accessible
and easy to fetch: pots and pans hanging (or otherwise fixed in
a rack) instead of being stacked and stashed somewhere, knives
on a magnetic bar, oils and spices visible and at hand, not
hidden in a closed cabinet. While the unused stuff shouldn't
occupy valuable space.
Knives
Much of food preparation is about slicing and chopping
vegetables, which can be time-consuming. To speed it up, it's a
good idea to learn how to hold and guide a knife properly, as
well as to keep it sharp. Here is a couple of videos
demonstrating the usage basics: "Basic Knife Skills", "The Only
Knife Skills Guide You Need". For basic sharpening and
re-aligning, see "How To Sharpen Dull Knives".
European-style knives are made of softer steel, making them
easier to sharpen. while Japanese ones are harder (and harder to
sharpen too). It's generally suggested to avoid buying knife
sets/blocks, since they have some knives you will not use, while
taking space.
Other interesting bits of information and references on the
topic are available from the Hacker News thread on "Forming an
Edge".
Cookware
There is a Wikipedia article on cookware and bakeware. The most
common materials:
- Ceramic and other non-stick surfaces
-
Non-stick and easy to clean. They require non-metal tools,
lower temperatures (that is, not quite suitable for searing),
and they wear down over time anyway. With teflon, PTFE can be
unsafe at higher temperatures, PFOA is toxic, and apparently
the environmental impact of their production is pretty bad
too. Additionally, there are dubious "granite" or "marble"
non-stick surfaces, which don't contain granite or marble, or
"diamond", which apparently contain diamond dust, so care
should be taken with unusual ones.
- Cast iron, carbon steel, cast aluminium
-
Those are non-stick with seasoning, durable, cast iron ones
have high heat retention and are suitable for searing
(see Maillard reaction). Shouldn't be used with acidic food
too much (tomatoes, wine, vinegar, lemon juice, blueberries,
and see more in the Master List of Typical pH and Acid Content
of Fruits and Vegetables for Home Canning and Preserving;
might be hard to look pH values up online, since apparently
many people who write about food started using "alkaline" and
"acidic" to mean "good" and "bad" respectively) or cleaned
with soap, since it can ruin the seasoning. The overall
maintenance (seasoning, cleaning, not ruining the seasoning)
is relatively tricky, though apparently becomes easier with
experience.
- Stainless steel
-
Durable and easy to maintain, but sticky (some employ
deglazing and make pan sauces to deal with it, though even
occasional scrubbing may be easier than dealing with cast
iron). Clad aluminium ones are commonly used to improve heat
distribution (either a sandwich/disk on the base, or
clad/entire pan, which is supposedly better), though not clear
how well it works. A supposedly suitable temperature to reduce
sticking can be tested using Leidenfrost effect, with "water
drop test". Suitable for pretty much any task, just not the
best for searing.
- Copper
-
Apparently most uniform heat and good conductivity. Commonly
lined with stainless steel or other corrosion-resistant
surfaces.
I am mostly using stainless steel ones (without non-stick
surfaces), with cast iron only for searing. But searing is
possible with stainless steel, too, and one can use a single
stainless steel saute pan (or saucier; a relatively deep or tall
pan) for pretty much any cooking needs.
As with most other items, picking established manufacturers
seems to be a good strategy.
Discovery
Dishes
There are various ways to discover new dishes, including
Wikipedia's articles on regional cuisines (e.g., Italian
cuisine, Spanish cuisine,
American cuisine), websites with recipes, cooking shows, and
just mentions during conversations, in books, and in movies. I
found it useful to not dismiss dishes and food items based on
distaste for local, cheap, and/or poorly cooked versions of
those, since they can be very different. That applies to
store-bought dishes as well, including confections: apparently
many of the odd and unpleasant ones are just unsuccessful
attempts to reproduce good ones.
Along with dishes themselves, meal structures are interesting to learn and
experiment with: see outline of meals and Italian meal structure, for
instance. And there's usually plenty to learn about each ingredient
individually (which helps to pick more suitable for a given dish or
otherwise better ones); as with many other things, Wikipedia is a good
starting point, and then one can proceed to reading past online
discussions and/or trying and discussing them online.
Discovering that odd local foods and beverages you have never liked are
not consumed anywhere else, and one can live without them, is another nice
possibility.
Some websites and databases with recipes: Wikimedia Cookbook,
Supercook (handy recipe search based on available
ingredients), SimplyRecipes, Allrecipes, Foods Guy.
Ingredients
It's useful to look closely into every ingredient: learn about their
types, find reputable brands, try and find out which ones one prefers, and
possibly even order them from specialized stores.
Rather often authentic ingredients will not be available
(particularly in Russia, due to the import substitution), but
then it is still better to substitute them and improvise than
just to give up without trying.
Cooking
There are books on cooking, including Wikimedia Cookbook for
recipes, and On Food and Cooking, with nice and useful
explanations of the common cooking processes (as well as some
history and other bits), but plenty of useful knowledge can be
absorbed from just cooking videos with explanations (though in a
less systematic way). The Sourdough Framework is a seemingly
nice book focusing on sourdough bread baking, though not so much
on yeast-based bread baking. Here are some YouTube channels with
nice recipes and occasional explanations:
- Pro Home Cooks
- Nice and practical everyday recipes with focus on home
cooking, also explaining how things work.
- Ethan Chlebowski
- More of everyday cooking, also with explanations and
tips.
- Alex
- Goes pretty deep into details and techniques, good for
learning about cooking in general (and not just particular
recipes).
- Adam Ragusea
- More of general tips and comprehensive explanations, as well
as specific recipes.
- Claire Saffitz x Dessert Person
- Desserts. Plenty of those, with comments/explanations. But
US-based, so the sugar from those recipes can be cut in
half.
- Gennaro Contaldo
- Italian cuisine, though the videos may be strangely
emotional, making a show of it. Not that much of explanations,
mostly quick cooking.
- Vincenzo's Plate
- Features Italian cuisine too, and similarly a bit strange/showy.
- Jamie Oliver
- Shares many recipes.
- Tasty
- Many assorted recipes, apparently a part of BuzzFeed,
occasional explanations. The measurements are inappropriate
sometimes (e.g., flour is given by volume).
- Gordon Ramsay
- Known for abusing people in cooking shows, and being abused
by another cook in the past, but shares many recipes, as well
as occasional cooking guides.
- Joshua Weissman
-
A weird channel: dirty jokes, weird visual and audio effects,
the host sings, slaps food and himself, but shares many nice
recipes and advices. I heard that this strange behavior can be
explained by Austin's unofficial motto "Keep Austin
Weird". Textual recipes are available at joshuaweissman.com,
and they are nicer than random ones on the Internet, with
ingredients for baking given by weight.
- MOMables - Laura Fuentes
-
Recipes focusing on practicality, but still nice: one-pot
dishes, freezing advices, meal preparation.
- TheMealPrepManual by Josh Cortis
-
Meal preparation recipes and guidelines.
- Epicurious
-
A mix of regular recipes and slightly chaotic comparisons of
different methods of cooking the same dishes. The
corresponding website, with articles on the subject,
is epicurious.com.
- NOT ANOTHER COOKING SHOW
- Yet another cooking show. Mostly recipes, some guides.
- Food Wishes
- Relatively short videos with recipes.
- Preppy Kitchen
- Many nice recipes; accompanied by preppykitchen.com, which
has the recipes written down (once you pass the captcha, the
version for printing is more to the point).
- James Hoffmann
- Videos on coffee brewing and related equipment.
- (Martha Stewart Living) Everyday Food
- Another channel with many video recipes.
There also are shows not strictly related to learning how to
cook, but food-related and interesting and/or
entertaining: Townsends often covers 18th century cooking
practices, Tasting History with Max Miller presents recipes from
more places and periods, Weird History and other history-related
channels cover topics such as historical diets and history of
various food products, Food Factory and standalone documentaries
demonstrate (though usually only cursorily, not getting into
industrial and manufacturing engineering) food mass
manufacturing processes.
There are occasional nice websites dedicated to cooking around,
such as National Center for Home Food Preservation, Serious
Eats.
The Sad Bastard Cookbook: Food you can make so you don't die
looks amusing, though as the title implies, the recipes are not
particularly exciting.
Meals by complexity
I find it useful to compose a menu of the dishes you like and know how to
cook. Below is mine, with meals grouped by complexity and cooking time.
Virtually no cooking
The following dishes don't require any heating, or even much of cutting,
and are mostly about putting things together (or just eating them whole):
- Muesli (granola) with milk or yoghurt, overnight oats.
- Standalone fruits, vegetables, and beans; fresh, dried, or
canned. Also nuts, cheese, yoghurts, bread, ham.
- Sandwiches: depending on ingredients, they can cover pretty
much all the food groups; see the list of sandwiches for
inspiration. The "Why are Deli Subs better than homemade
ones?" video contains nice submarine sandwich building
tips. Around the time of writing, avocado toasts seem to be a
bit of a fad, but they are actually nice and easy to
make. Bruschetta shares those qualities, too.
- Pre-made/store-bought meals (including take-out and food
deliveries).
- Desserts: oatmeal balls.
- Beverages: water, juices, milk, maybe lemonades.
Minimal cooking
The following dishes are comparable in complexity to brewing
tea/coffee/cocoa, requiring just a few ingredients (hence little
planning), little skill or action, and not much of attention:
- Homemade muesli/granola (e.g., mixing and baking it once in
a while, then just adding milk or yoghurt to make a
breakfast).
- Porridge (oatmeal and others).
- Eggs: boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, omelettes, poached
eggs. Can be combined with vegetables (e.g., scrambled eggs
with tomato, Stir-fried tomato and scrambled eggs,
shakshouka), staple foods (rice -- omurice, potatoes
-- Spanish omelette) or other leftovers (frittata). A nice
protein source. See also: a list of egg dishes in
Wikipedia. Similarly to meat and fish, eggs are important to
not overcook: not only overcooking harms the texture, but it
also leads to the release of unpleasantly smelling hydrogen
sulfide.
- Meatballs. Soaked bread crumbs can be used as a binder,
while with eggs there is a danger of unpleasant smell,
especially if one is not careful with temperature
control. Possibly cooking those in a sauce would help with
temperature control though, similarly to poaching eggs or
cooking them in shakshouka: water helps to limit the
temperature. Store-bought ground meat simplifies the process,
though one should look for a decent one in case of using it,
since they tend to throw in too much of connective tissue and
stuff like that in cheaper ones (which is unpleasant to
eat). It is nice to add cooked onion and garlic into the
meatball mixture, for better flavor and texture.
- Baked potatoes (whole, potato wedges, or "oven fries"),
which are supposedly healthier than fried or even boiled ones
(though those are easy too, and even quicker). Other fruits
and vegetables can be baked as well. The "Why are a
restaurant's vegetables so much better than homemade ones?"
video features a few tips (use of salt and oil, possibly
pre-heating the tray and/or pre-boiling the vegetables, higher
heat, spacing).
- Baked meat or fish, too. Though fish tends to produce fishy
smell, as with pan-frying (except for tuna); something like
steaming may be a nicer strategy for that. But baking is
well-suited for thicker beef steaks, larger chicken or turkey
breasts.
- Pan-fried turkey or chicken (or other meat) pieces. Possibly
approaching stews or paprikash, or simply as a way to cook
those quickly.
- Steamed salmon (or perhaps other fish): potentially faster
than baking, doesn't smell fishy, can be done using a single
pan (e.g., as in Citrus Salmon with New Potatoes).
- Pancakes (plenty of nice recipes around; a particularly nice
and easy batter consists of mashed bananas, one egg per banana,
flour with baking powder added to achieve suitable
consistency).
- Quesadillas.
- Salads: a salad dressing, vegetables (e.g., some combination
of cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, avocado, olives, salad
onions, etc), possibly feta/mozzarella/parmesan cheese,
croutons/bread, chicken/tuna. Preparation is a bit
time-consuming (takes me about 20 minutes, including
dishwashing), but one can peel and chop everything for 2-3
portions at once, and just store it in a refrigerator without
dressing (salt in particular, since it pulls the water
out). Or even refrigerate a complete salad for a few
days. Some also prepare and store dressings
separately. Apparently tomatoes from sunny places tend to have
a much nicer flavor; in Russia those usually come from
Azerbaijan or Uzbekistan. Kumato tomatoes are fine, too. Less
common is (Viennese) potato salad, and pasta salads.
- Smoothies.
- Gazpacho (basically a vegetable smoothie).
- Soups based on dry soup mixtures (including legumes, pasta, spices).
Some make such mixtures instead of buying pre-made ones.
- Soups based on frozen vegetable bags, possibly along with
dry or canned beans, pasta or rice.
- Pasta (ranges from plain boiling of whatever is at hand to
picking good ingredients and following proper recipes, such as
pasta al pomodoro, cacio e pepe, pasta alla gricia,
amatriciana, carbonara, and more complex ones, and possibly
even making pasta yourself). 80 (± 20) grams of dried pasta
per person may be used as a reference value for a meal, though
some use 150 grams.
- Store-bought frozen pizzas and other store-bought
meals.
- Burgers.
- Hot dogs (caramelized onions fit well in those; related:
"Layers of Deceit: Why do recipe writers lie and lie and lie
about how long it takes to caramelize onions?").
- Steaks. Searing and careful inner temperature control are
important, nice meat and meat cuts are desirable, such as rib
eye steak or strip steak, the Aberdeen/Black Angus breed,
properly aged (aging makes them darker); butter, thyme, and
garlic are optional, but the butter should only be added in
the very end: it contains water, so the temperature will go
down to about 100 degrees Celsius, while Maillard reaction
needs 140 to 165. And it is unclear whether basting is any
useful. Quick and simple, though side dishes (or turning those
into steak sandwiches) may take more time and effort. Some eat
fat and sinew, but apparently the steaks are sold with fat to
cook with/on it, and for those who like it, while it's fine to
not like and trim it off: either throwing away, along with
sinew, or using for cooking (probably it's a common knowledge,
but apparently many also view it as an important part of meat
and something that shouldn't be thrown away, so I used to be
uncertain and to feel uneasy about it). Thicker steaks are
awkward to cook on a stove alone (burning, leading to fumes
and messing up cast iron pans, as well as possible
over-searing), so they are better to either slice beforehand
or finish in an oven. Beef, lamb, and pork steaks take a while
to digest, so it's best to avoid eating them late (before
sleep, for dinner).
- Pan-fried potatoes, also working as an easy side dish for a
steak. It's commonly suggested to simmer them for 5 minutes,
then fry for about 10 (can be done while a steak is resting,
reusing the same pan), adding enough oil to make them crispy,
and stirring occasionally to make them uniformly crispy (some
call it sauteing, though it may be closer to shallow
frying).
- Chicken or turkey breasts: poached (it is important to not
overcook, preferably use a thermometer, and to add some salt
and spices into the water, or even to use a stock; a useful
trick is to take the water to a boil, and then turn the heat
off, waiting for the chicken to warm up slowly), or optionally
butterflied, then tenderized, marinated (commonly some oil,
vinegar or lemon juice for acidity, salt, and spices to taste)
or just seasoned, and pan-fried. Can be eaten by itself, used
in a salad, in a sandwich, combined with fresh or cooked
vegetables, and so on.
- Pumpkin soup.
- Burritos. Ground beef (or any other ground meat, or meat
pieces) can be used as an ingredient for the filling/sauces
(similar to a ragu or stews in general), producing
protein-rich food easily, and can be stored for multiple meals
(either the filling separately from tortillas, or the burritos
can be refrigerated or frozen).
- Cooked cheese, such as fried halloumi (which should be
cooked on a low heat, with occasional flipping, to avoid
burning it).
- Dips and sauces: guacamole, pesto, allioli, mayonnaise
(though raw eggs may be risky).
- Beverages: tea, coffee, cocoa. They can be enjoyable, and
there is plenty of variation. Also more varied ones, with
added ginger, honey, and so on; beverages akin
to Ginger-Turmeric Herbal Tea can be nice, too. For coffee
brewing, I like to use AeroPress, though different methods may
be better for a variety, even when you have a generally
preferred method.
- Desserts: cookies (including oatmeal, chocolate chip,
Vanillekipferl, gingersnap), banana bread, key lime pie,
cobblers and crumbles (aka crisps), cheesecake (crustless
ones, including Basque cheesecakes, can be nice and
nutritious: e.g., 600 g ricotta, 200 g Greek yogurt, 3 eggs, 2
tbsp flour, 1 tbsp honey, vanilla powder; pour into a
springform pan lined with parchment paper, bake for an hour at
200 degrees Celsius), panna cotta (common proportions are
about 1 g of gelatin per 100 ml of liquids and less than 10 g
of sugar). Cookie recipes, especially US ones, tend to include
a lot of sugar (and sometimes salt); depending on one's taste,
it may be a good idea to reduce those -- sometimes by a half
or more. To my taste, sugar content (measured as a portion of
total mass) of 1/8 or 1/7 is fine, 1/4+ or 1/6+ is too
much.
Many of these can be used as bases to build upon: leftovers and
fruits/vegetables can be added into soups (including pre-mixed
ones), on top of frozen pizzas and lasagnas, into scrambled
eggs, and into other dishes. Relishes are easy to add to some of
those. Stocks/broths (either store-bought or homemade) are
useful for soups, needed for risotto, and one can make sauces
with them.
Medium complexity
The following dishes require some planning to get and use the ingredients,
some timings and attention, but still nothing fancy and not too easy to
mess up:
- Risotto: just a bit more complex and time-consuming than
some of the pasta dishes, and quite similar generally, but
those pasta dishes are pushing the limits of "minimal
cooking", so perhaps here a line can be drawn. Also as other
"medium complexity" dishes, risotto is fine to reheat. A
similar dish is Spanish rice (with tomatoes).
- Minestrone (with fresh vegetables): easy, but takes plenty
of vegetable slicing and a bunch of ingredients for a nice
one. See, for instance, a "classic minestrone" with canned
beans recipe.
- Chicken soup. Takes up to an hour of active cooking (or less
with experience). Can be combined with cooking poached
chicken.
- Stews, ragout, chili con carne (not very different from
soups though). Common beef stew advices: "How To Make the Best
Beef Stew No Matter How You Cook It". Additionally, apparently
fat can be rendered out by simmering longer (or simply
trimming it and rendering out beforehand), and for thickening
one can rely on starch from potatoes or similar vegetables. An
approximate ingredient list: olive oil, mirepoix (onion,
carrot, celery), garlic, red bell pepper, button mushrooms,
ground beef, eggplant, zucchini, potato, tomatoes, spices
(salt, paprika, black pepper, cumin, etc); takes me 2.5 hours
to prepare. A chili may be considerably easier and faster:
e.g., chopped onion, peppers, garlic, then ground meat,
spices, canned kidney beans, diced tomatoes, salt and flour to
thicken in the end.
- Casseroles. There are easier ones (e.g., Shepherd's pie),
but something like lasagna (e.g., "The Best Lasagna") takes a
while, since the sauces are made separately, and then it is
assembled with multiple layers.
- Pizza. The ingredients are generally simple and widely
available, but the dough takes time to rise, and it's tricky
to transfer an assembled pizza onto the cooking surface
without deforming the pizza (though there are various
strategies for that; dusting the surface with the widely
suggested semolina flour is indeed helpful). Another potential
issue is the dough rising too much while being cooked: I
noticed that happening while having possibly a bit too much of
yeast, and while letting it to rise just for an hour instead
of overnight. Here's the Tasty pizza recipe; the Gennaro
Contaldo pizza dough recipe is 500 g strong flour, 1 tsp salt,
7 g dry yeast, 325 ml warm water; the Joshua Weissman pizza
dough recipe -- 800 g 00-Tip flour, 512 g water (64%
hydration, or 39%, using the definition of hydration comparing
liquid content to total weight, rather than to dry
ingredients), 3-5 g active dry yeast, 16 g fine sea salt; the
Johnny Di Francesco pizza dough recipe -- 600 ml water, 1 kg
flour, 30 g salt, 1-2 g yeast. Actually a pizza may be even
pretty hard to cook smoothly and correctly, but it uses few
ingredients and there are not many steps in the process.
- Pies. Sweet or savory: pumpkin pies, meat pies, small or
large ones. Tarts and other similar pastry, too. I hear key
lime pies with Graham cracker crust are nice, but haven't
tried those.
- Small pies, hand pies, turnovers, pasties, samosas,
embanadas (or empanadillas).
- Chocolate cake (e.g., a chocolate cake recipe using simple
ingredients, with the sugar halved, or a chocolate Bundt
cake, which is even easier).
- Cheesesteak sandwiches are nice, but unlike most of the
other sandwiches, they take a rather long time to make
carefully and nicely (more than an hour, if you slowly render
the fat out, caramelize onions on it, cut everything thinly
beforehand). Though it might be possible to do quickly, with
experience, and maybe some compromises: see "The 22 minute
Philly Cheesesteak".
- Paratha, a flatbread: the ingredients are very basic, and
the procedure is simple, but can be tiring and take quite a
bit of time to roll them out. Apparently requires practice and
skill to improve on that.
- Yeast-leavened bread. Can be fairly easy, but it is even
easier to get it from a store, so probably making it yourself
does not qualify for "minimal cooking" -- even while it can be
quite minimal, as in a ciabatta recipe (+ text
version). French baguettes are made quite similarly (see
also: Sandwich Baguettes, The 5 minute baguette, The Easiest
No Knead Baguette Recipe; the latter uses a highly hydrated
dough, more flour should be added for it to keep its shape:
464 grams worked better than 426). Focaccia seems to be among
easier options.
- Eggs Benedict: not particularly hard or slow to cook, but
not for regular consumption or cooking: most of other egg
dishes are healthier, often easier and quicker to make.
- Chicken tikka masala. A nice dish, but may take a while to
make (at least if you're not experienced in making it, fry
multiple batches of chicken, and/or use fresh tomatoes for the
sauce). Apparently an easier and structurally similar dish is
Hungarian chicken paprikash.
- Homemade deli (lunch) meats (e.g., as in The 2 Dollar
Sandwich, which is a nice sandwich): not hard to make, but
harder than buying them in a store, and the result is about
the same (perhaps closer to simply baked meats though).
- Fried rice. Actually pretty easy and versatile, but may take
a longer time if many ingredients are used, and the rice
should be cooked a day or so in advance. Chili peppers are
commonly used; it is important to deseed those with a spoon
(and maybe in gloves), since they do burn the skin for a few
hours otherwise.
- Yogurt: adding existing yogurt into milk and keeping it warm
(around 38 degrees Celsius) for hours (some recipes mention 4
to 12, some mention 7 or more). Many ways to do that,
including specialized yogurt makers. So far I tried it with
Activia yogurt and pasteurized whole milk, keeping it warm by
placing the bottle into a pot of warm water, under a tap, and
occasionally opening that tap to mix in more of warm
water. The resulting yogurt tastes very similar to the
starter, and it is a little thicker.
- Strudels (e.g., Österreichischer Apfelstrudel, Apple
Strudel). The ingredients are simple, but it takes some
time, and the dough stretching and rolling up should be done
carefully. I liked dough consistency with 170 ml water, 400
g flour, 1 egg, 3 tbsp olive oil, a pinch of salt.
While these take longer to cook, many of them can be stored in a
refrigerator and re-heated for a few days, so the cooking time
per meal is not long.
Complex recipes
Planning
In addition to reducing the number of grocery store trips,
planning (or sufficiently good improvisation) may help to spend
less time cooking by preparing multiple meals at once, as well
as to get nicer meals (with stocks, possibly sauces, and other
homemade ingredients one may prepare separately and/or for
multiple dishes at once). Materials on the topic can be found
using the "meal prep" keywords.
When planning goes a bit wrong and mold appears, generally soft,
liquid/moist, or porous foods should be discarded, while
hard/firm ones may be kept after cutting out the moldy bits. See
"Molds on Food: Are They Dangerous?", "Moldy Foods: When to
Toss, When to Keep".
Meal preparation
Some of the dish groups suitable (and commonly used) for meal
prep are soups, containers with rice, some protein, vegetables,
and sauces (refrigerated or frozen), and things like burritos,
possibly frozen.
Refrigeration and freezing
For cut or chopped vegetables, USDA's "How should I store cut
fruit and vegetables?" suggests to refrigerate cut fruits and
vegetables in covered containers; "So Fresh and So Clean: How to
Store Cut Vegetables" and "Meal Prep Guide: How to Store Prepped
Vegetables" are more detailed guides to refrigerating and
freezing various vegetables.
For whole vegetables, I think generally one can see how they are
stored in a grocery store, and store them similarly.
FoodSafety.gov's Cold Food Storage Chart is a handy general
table.
Peeling
While a lot of fruits and vegetables should be consumed, and
many of the fresh ones have a rather short shelf life, an
additional difficulty for me is that I have rather unpleasant
reaction to biting some of their skins (goosebumps and brief
toothache), so peeling is needed. Some also peel them simply
because they don't like the skins, and in some cases those are
not quite edible.
Blanching (putting food into boiling water, and optionally into cold water
afterwards) sometimes makes skins easy to peel; works with tomatoes and
peaches.
A process for pepper peeling is somewhat similar to blanching:
it's easier to peel after a few minutes in an oven (or a grill,
or rotating on an open fire) and 5 to 60 minutes in an airtight
container (which is supposed to produce moisture under its
skin). Apparently some people (those cooking chiles en nogada),
using certain varieties of peppers, manage to carefully stuff
them after skinning, but at least with bell peppers I found it
to be very difficult, tiring, and time-consuming to peel a
pepper without it falling apart, whether with a vegetable peeler
and knife, or open fire or an oven, steaming, and knife. A much
better idea is to go slightly less fancy and just make a
casserole, with pepper (if you want it) simply chopped into the
mix: then you don't care if it falls apart.
A vegetable peeler is handy for carrots and cucumbers. A bit less handy
(but quite suitable) for potatoes. One can use it for pepper too, but for
bell pepper it works better to cut it before peeling, so that there's no
concave bits inaccessible to the peeler.
Pretty much everything can be peeled (skinned) with a knife,
possibly leaving a bit more waste and/or taking a bit longer
than with the alternatives.
For standalone snacks, apples (with a tough skin) can be
replaced with pears. Also some apples are much softer than
others: ripe (yellow) Golden Delicious is among nice ones.
Safe cooking temperatures
Overcooking meat, poultry, or fish makes it tough and dry, yet
it's pretty common, while undercooking is unsafe. So it's a good
idea to use a thermometer, possibly to employ techniques that
make it easier to reach and sustain desirable temperatures (that
is, cooking longer, but at lower temperatures: poaching, sous
vide). See Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart, "Keep food
safe with time and temperature control". It should also be
cooled quickly, and sometimes time can be traded for
temperature. Here's a copy of the USDA chart, since I'm checking
it often, and it'll save a click:
Beef, Pork, Veal and Lamb Steaks, chops, roasts |
145 °F (62.8 °C) and allow to rest for at least 3 minutes |
Ground Meats |
160 °F (71.1 °C) |
Ground Poultry |
165 °F (73.9 °C) |
Ham, fresh or smoked (uncooked) |
145 °F (62.8 °C) and allow to rest for at least 3 minutes |
Fully Cooked Ham (to reheat) |
Reheat cooked hams packaged in USDA-inspected plants to 140 °F (60 °C) and all others to 165 °F (73.9 °C). |
All Poultry (breasts, whole bird, legs, thighs, wings, ground poultry, giblets, and stuffing) |
165 °F (73.9 °C) |
Eggs |
160 °F (71.1 °C) |
Fish and Shellfish |
145 °F (62.8 °C) |
Leftovers |
165 °F (73.9 °C) |
Casseroles |
165 °F (73.9 °C) |
Somewhat related are tips on thawing (e.g., How to Defrost
Fish): it's suggested to defrost in either a refrigerator or
in cold water (if it has to be done quickly), but not at a room
temperature.
Units of measurement
Generally 1 cup approximately equals to 284 ml (though it can be
236 or 240 ml for an US cup), 1 tablespoon to 18 ml (15 ml for
US ones), 1 teaspoon to 6 (5 for US) ml. Baker percentage is
both handy and important for precision (along with usage of
weights for flour), but often it is not used, and then
an ingredient weight chart may be useful: 1 cup of all-purpose
flour may be about 120 grams, for
instance. Additionally, Imperial units are often used in
recipes.