On Cooking and Getting Better at It

I’ve never taught anybody how to cook But I’ve been cooking for 20 years at this point. Sometimes more seriously than others. But especially for the last 12 years I’ve been the sole source of home cooking for myself or my family. I am a decent cook, however I am not a Chef, Chef is a title a little bit like Jedi Master. You are not a Chef until a Chef calls you a Chef… That statement didn’t really turn out the way I wanted it. I wish I was a good enough writer to make it read more declarative rather than prescriptive. But it is my honest opinion and also words mean things and I think specificity is good.

ANYWAYS, cooking…

Cooking is something that you can get better at easily because the very nature of needing to eat means that you have the opportunity to practice it several times a day. And I do think its something that takes practice. If you are reading this then there’s probably a good chance you’ve eaten food that I have made and most people have told me that what I make them is good. That said, I know for a fact that I have screwed up, and not a little bit. Once when I was a teenager tasked with making the family dinner I ruined it with too much cinnamon. I knew I screwed it up and my family was not really shy about telling me that it wasn’t good. I have also cooked dinners for my wife that were “not my favorite”. This is ok, its part of the process, its part of life. As long as its not literally inedible or going to make someone sick they can, and will, get over it. They (you) get to eat again in like 8-12 hours. This too shall pass. This also doubles as advice for eating something you might not like, be it trying new stuff or eating something that someone has made you that you might not care for. Eat it anyways and move on with your life. You get to eat again. This is not your last meal. And ESSPECIALLY don’t make the other person feel bad that you didn’t like it. That can be CRUSHING for someone trying to get better at cooking.

My first bit of advice is stop trying to cook recipes and start cooking food. You don’t need to cook; Jamie Oliver’s Tuscan chicken with Venetian cannellini bean and Tuscan arugula salad. You need to cook beans and chicken

Learning to food ingredients rather than recipes will lift your skills faster than anything else. How do you do this? Easy pick foods and cook them. I’m not trying to be obstinate here, I’m trying to make you see that food (specifically dinner) doesn’t have to be A Thing™ every night. It doesn’t have to be something specific. It can just be food. I’ll include an example towards the end.

This leads well into my next point, one I was sort of making earlier. Food, by its nature is ephemeral. If you don’t absolutely CRUSH dinner tonight, guess what. You’ll have another chance tomorrow. If you don’t love what you made, learn from it. Think about why, was it the flavor? Was it the the texture? Was it the combination of ingredients? Whatever it was, next time, do it different. Bam. You learned, you got better. Well done. You’re well on your way.

Now, I’m not an idiot. I hear you yelling at the screen. “But Corey! How do I know what to change!?!?” Easy. Was it just kind of bland? Add salt. Was the texture wrong? You either cooked too hot or too cold resulting in it cooking too long or not long enough (It was probably too hot). Was it just kind of ::gestures vaguely:: missing something? Acid, it was missing acid, squeeze some citrus on it or add a splash of vinegar. Trust me. Was it overly dry and not pleasant in the mouth? It didn’t have enough fat.

Salt, fat, acid, heat. 4 simple words. UNLIMITED possibilities for deliciousness.

I debated heavily on whether or not to include the following as it strays much to closely to a …recipe (Dragnet sting). Now that I have decided to include it, I don’t know exactly how. Should I just give some examples of what I cook on a weeknight? Or should I instead I’m going to phrase it as a series of tips and advice? Por que no los dos? Idk. I assume that if you’ve made it this far you’re pretty comfortable with my disjointed and rambling style. So I’d like to give an example (or maybe 2) of what I might serve on a random weeknight. One of which is what I like to call Ground Beef du Jour, or sometimes just “brown food”, it goes something like this. Ground beef in a pan, till its brown, not grey, brown, add some spices that I like from the pantry, maybe 3 tablespoons total, add a tomato paste and some hoisin/oyster sauce, stir till its glossy and bubbly. Separate pan, throw down a bit of oil and some broccoli florets, cook till done. How do I know its done? I taste it. Serve with rice. Congratulations now you’re cooking like Corey. We eat this at least once a week. Its delicious. Does it have a name? No….Ok ok yes you’re technically correct, it does because I named it to be funny. But the point is its not like A Thing its just food. And the best part, none of it is rigid. You could do it with chicken or pork, you could swap out the veg, you could serve it over spaghetti if you wanted. Want to make it “better” cook some diced onions and mushrooms into your beef. There are no rules.

Now here are some rules(of thumb):¹

• Brown your meat don’t grey it.
  • Cooking gringo tacos with a kit from the grocery store? Box says brown the ground beef doesn’t it? Cook it till it turns BROWN. I know this sounds so dumb but I swear to glob it will make your food so much better.²
• You (probably) need less heat than you think
  • I do about 95% of my cooking at, or just above, medium heat.
  • The exceptions are deep frying, boiling, and when you need a HEAVY sear on a hunk of beast. Which are all up near 9-10/10.
• …But let your pan PREHEAT
  • Any kind of pan, let it sit there for a min or 3
• USE MORE SALT
• The fewer ingredients a you are using the more they matter³
• I’m probably forgetting one
• Have Fun
  • this is just like any other hobby. Meant to be enjoyed. Even though it has a large amount of utility.

Ok I think I’m done. I don’t have some grand conclusion. I don’t even really know what the whole point of this was other than sharing my thoughts. I just want people to eat and be happy. Thanks for reading

~Corey