What should I do to finally follow a cooking recipe?
I keep accumulating cooking recipes that I end up not doing. I go to a grocery and give up easily when I don’t find some of the ingredients. I should just throw away the recipes maybe.
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Maybe you could try starting off simple. Find something with basic ingredients and make that. Like a cake or something. Then move on to something that is a little more challenging. I’m not a professional cook, but I do cook.
There are web sites and cookbooks that give recipes for dishes with only five ingredients. Maybe look for one of those to try first.
I really don’t need a cookbook anymore and almost exclusively use the Food Network to get all my recipes, reviews and cooking tips. Best part is I can pull it up on my droid while shopping at the grocery.
Do a google search for “recipes with found ingredients” ... to come up with sites such as this one where you can simply list the various items that you do have and the database can suggest dishes that you can make with little or nothing else.
As you start to accumulate some of the spices and items that you don’t already have, and get more familiar with fresh vegetables and other items that you aren’t yet familiar with, then it gets easier and easier to decide for yourself whether lack of a particular ingredient is going to be a show-stopper or not.
Or you could just ask Kardamom…
Do any of your “maybe” recipes include unusual, exotic ingredients that you’ll buy at a gourmet store, use once, and never use again? If yes, I’d discard those recipes.
It’s not that I’m reluctant to go shopping, and spend too much money, on a wonderful item. But, if it’s something that’s very unfamiliar – I’ve never encountered it before, and I likely never will again – I pass on the recipe. It’s just not worth it to buy a bottle of [fill in the blank], only to use a few spoonfuls and then watch it sit in my pantry forever.
@mazingerz88: What recipes have you actually made? What can and do you cook? Do you get any pleasure out of preparing food? If so far it is a fruitless hobby, you need to find another one.
Most of us who cook or have cooked (I prepared meals for a large family for decades) have clipped mountains of recipes that yellowed and crumbled in the file box or notebook.
I have been to websites that you plugged in the ingredients you have to use, and they gave you a recipe. You could pick 5 things in the cabinet, and make a dish.
Personally, I think your problem might be that you’re reading ‘trendy’ recipes. I remember when pine nuts hit the stage, and IF you could find them they were $10 for ¼ cup. No more.
Just keep in mind that humans have been cooking for thousands of years, and there are few palatable permutations of existing recipes. If you can’t find the ingredients, you need to back up a step and see what last years “Black Bean Soup with fresh figs and wild morel mushrooms” looked like. Search the base, add your personal favs!
Speaking generally, I wouldn’t usually be thinking of Food Network for simple recipes since they have a lot of sophisticated chefs there. And they can come up with se pretty esoteric stuff.
However, there is Claire Robinson and you may find her helpful. Its a five ingredient deal and a lot of her recipes are there.
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http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/5-ingredient-fix.html
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Wow, thanks jellies. Great answers-! :)
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