How to learn to cook well from scratch: delicious and quick recipes for cooking at home for beginners. How to learn to cook and start enjoying it How to prepare food better

Young girls in the modern world are not chasing family happiness, but a career.

But as soon as the prince appears on the horizon, the woman instinctively wants to feed him. It's time to get the pots out! Read how to learn to cook well from scratch.

It is better for a novice housewife to seek help from professional gurus - grandmothers and mothers. To keep your husband well-fed and happy, you should know the basics of culinary techniques. But how can you learn to cook quickly and tasty?

Read tips for beginners from the chef:

Important! Peep behind experienced housewives: When visiting a married friend, you can ask for several master classes.

Simple tips that seem obvious at first glance are not followed by every novice housewife.

Therefore, becoming a culinary specialist can be delayed even for years. Start cooking with simple dishes that are suitable for daily nutrition.

After gaining experience after some time, you will be able to pamper your loved ones with amazing delicacies.

Quick and delicious recipes from the chef

To prepare huge three-tiered cakes and multi-tiered casseroles, it’s worth having a few quick and tasty recipes in your notebook.

Take the young fighter course, find out where to start to please your husband and child.

Check out the table for simple recipes:

The twenty-first century brought a culture of fast food and convenience foods instant cooking, however home cooking nothing will replace it. Learn from scratch or improve in culinary arts, the Internet can always help you and mobile applications. However, finding among the variety of options can be difficult and time-consuming.

Do you dream of cooking? delicious dish on one's own?We have compiled a list of the most interesting, educational and inspiring resources to helpyou become an excellent cook, a jack of all trades.

Online courses and websites where you can learn to cook

Salads 100 recipes

Inexpensive to prepare, tasty, and most importantly, healthy recipes salads are collected in the application: “One Hundred Recipes”. Beautiful photographs add interest to the use of this kitchen assistant. The only downside of the app is that recipes cannot be shared with friends. However, this is not a significant drawback if you want to cook tasty and light dish. Download the application for

In order to surprise your loved ones with new gourmet dishes, you won't need much time. No special skills are required. Here I want to talk about some of my techniques that help me create new dishes for our table every day. How to learn to cook tasty and varied?

There was a time when I considered cooking to be a boring chore. When I only knew how to cook 7-10 different dishes, and these dishes were quite primitive. Side dish (just rice, buckwheat, potatoes or pasta) plus meat. Well, on special occasions I added mushrooms or tomatoes to the meat, and this was already considered a delicacy... Fortunately, those days are long gone. Of course, I don’t invent fundamentally new dishes every day. But my husband is constantly surprised: “What a delicious dish you prepared today!” To which I usually modestly declare that I have once prepared something similar... And the answer is: “Yes? I don’t remember... But is it possible to remember all your dishes?”

All these secrets require almost no extra time. After all, my daughter does not give me the opportunity to cook for hours. I once wrote about how I prepare dinner with a six-month-old baby (“”), but now my daughter is over a year old, and the old strategy doesn’t work... Therefore, in the cooking process, every minute counts.

How to learn to cook in a variety of ways without wasting time?

The first secret. Use spices.

If you think that spices are ground pepper that you need to sprinkle on your dish at the end of cooking... You are wrong. Dry spices must first be fried in oil, only then will they reveal their taste. Don't worry, it's very simple. Before throwing vegetables into the frying pan (or saucepan), melt the butter or olive oil(preferably creamy). Then throw in about half a teaspoon of each spice... Stir and fry the spices until you can smell their strong aroma (about 1-3 minutes). That's it, then throw in the other ingredients, stir and cook as usual. Determine the amount of spices yourself, I usually use more spices than I wrote above. What spices? Experiment. Basic set: asafoetida (you can order it online or buy it in specialized stores), cumin (I prefer ground, I use an electric pepper grinder), coriander (also ground), curry and black pepper. Too difficult? Don't be alarmed, just a curry mixture will do to start. It's easy to buy, you don't need to grind it, just fry it in oil.

The second secret. Use simple sauces.

Sauce is a very strong word. In our understanding, sauce is something that is difficult to prepare and served in a separate bowl... No, that’s not what we’re talking about here. This is about how to add a special flavor to your dish using simple ingredients.

Brine. Pickled cucumber or tomato brine goes well with many fried and stewed dishes. It’s almost impossible to “overdo” it. During cooking, add a little brine to the frying pan - the dish will not be so dry and will acquire a slight taste of pickles. Therefore, anything that goes with pickles can be safely topped with brine. Especially good pickle is coming to fried or stewed potatoes.

Tomato paste. I prefer fresh tomato puree, which I will write about below. But tomato paste Can be easily added to many fried and stews, as well as in soups.

Soy sauce. You need to be careful here. But if you love rolls and the aroma of soy sauce brings back pleasant memories to you, try lightly pouring the sauce over pasta or potato dishes.

Milk. You can add just a little milk to fried foods. You need to be very careful here, there should be a few tablespoons of milk in a large frying pan... Or better yet, less. Milk (in the right doses) makes the dish more tender.

I only have two universal ones simple sauce, which I sometimes add to my dishes.

Sour cream sauce . Ideally, it should be cooked separately. Fry in butter spices (basic set described above) and add sour cream (300-400 grams per large frying pan). Turn off the heat, stir, the sour cream will melt on its own. The resulting sauce is very tasty to pour over any stew, any fried dish. Be sure to try this sauce, we all love it. But cooking separately... It doesn’t always work. So I just add sour cream to the dish at the very end of cooking.

Tomato sauce . For this sauce you will need a blender. Be sure to remove the skins from the tomatoes! Dip the tomatoes in boiling water for a minute, after which it can be easily removed! We turn the peeled tomatoes into puree using a blender... And add them to the dish at the very end of cooking.

The third secret. Add new ingredients to your dishes.

If you are wondering how to learn how to cook deliciously and variedly, think about what products you do not use in your menu... I will help you with this.

What place do vegetables play in your diet? Zucchini, eggplant, peppers and more? But this is not only healthy, but also delicious... You just need to add a little of them to your main dishes.

Vegetables can complement absolutely any side dish... And they can also become an independent dish. You will cut the eggplant in one to two minutes. You don't even need to clean it! And how your fried potatoes will be transformed if you add small pieces of eggplant to them! Buckwheat will become much more interesting if you find a little stewed vegetables- for example, zucchini and bell pepper. The same can be said about rice or pasta. How often do you use cauliflower? Or broccoli? Or just green peas?

Cauliflower And broccoli is not difficult to cook. But if you don’t have time at all, you can buy them frozen! I only buy frozen vegetables if I can't find them fresh. However, you can use frozen broccoli or cauliflower pieces year-round! In all large (and not so large) supermarkets you will find a variety of frozen vegetables. Use them in your menu! This way you will make your dishes healthy and delicious. Please note frozen spinach, frozen green beans... You can also buy mixtures of vegetables. This will make your table richer without wasting time!

Simpler products will also come to your aid - canned green peas and beans... Nuts, dried fruits... Cheese (especially Adyghe cheese)... All this can be successfully used in cooking.

The fourth secret. Do not use regular products.

No, you don't need to get dried frogs or any tropical plants. Many supermarkets have products for Japanese or Chinese cuisine... You don't have to learn to cook like a Japanese, you can just use rice noodles instead plain pasta. Yes, it will cost more. But this is not red caviar, and you won’t go broke paying 60 or 80 rubles for a package of noodles. But this simple product will add new notes to your menu... Try rice, buckwheat and egg noodles... This assortment will allow you to learn how to cook tasty and varied. Try different types of rice... And pay attention to unusual legumes. Instead of green peas and beans, you can add mung beans, quinoa or chickpeas to the dish. One serious disadvantage is that these products need to be cooked for a long time (about an hour), and sometimes even pre-soaked (chickpeas). However, it's worth it!

Secret five. Don't be afraid to experiment!

A spoiled dish is not a tragedy, and not the end of the world! Those who don’t take risks... Always cook only simple, boring dishes!

If you are interested in specific recipes,... But keep in mind, there are no spices in this book; at that time I did not yet understand how to use them. Here I tried to help you come up with a variety of variety of recipes. After all, cooking is creativity. That’s why I love doing it myself (“”). Tell us your secrets! How do you manage to cook tasty and varied meals?

Until recently, the ability to cook one’s own food was a completely natural characteristic of any independent adult, regardless of gender. However, now the culture self-cooking does not survive food better times. The abundance of ready-made semi-finished products, establishments, and delivery services completely kills the desire and ability to cook at home. We are increasingly faced with people who not only do not know how to do this, but also have no desire to learn. And it’s completely in vain, because it’s not at all difficult to do.

Remove the excuses

Any new habit initially requires some effort from us and overcoming obstacles. They most often come from two circumstances: it seems to us that we don’t have time or that we don’t know how to cook.

Both are misconceptions with which we justify our laziness. In any, even the busiest routine, you can allocate 15-30 minutes for cooking (and this is exactly how much it takes to prepare). As for inability, there’s nothing to even talk about. Everyone without exception will be able to find a recipe on the Internet and follow all five or six steps step by step.

Prepare in advance

So, you are determined to cook something. Sami. You open the refrigerator, see its empty shelves and, sighing in defeat, go back to the fed-up cafe. The usual story.

To prevent this from ever happening to you, you need to pre-purchase products. At the same time, some first think through their menu to all the details, and then make a list of products for it, while others, on the contrary, simply buy what they like, and then prepare suitable food from this set. In any case, it is worth remembering one simple rule: you can only cook nothing from nothing. Therefore, the more food you have in your refrigerator, the more chances you have to start cooking.

Start small

No matter how tempted you are by delicious pictures from the pages of culinary sites and books, try to put them aside for later. Any new business must start with small and simple steps. Otherwise, there is a chance to fail instantly and forever discourage yourself from cooking. Start with simple recipes, which will not give you the slightest chance to do anything wrong. Master them and only then move on to the next level.

Cook what you really like

The most powerful incentive in switching to “homemade” food is that now you can eat exactly what you really like, and not what the tired chef of the establishment nearby included on the menu. Reward yourself with the best branded, fried potatoes or chicken, which you love so much. It will be much tastier and, importantly, healthier than the products of the vomit bottles in which you were poisoned before.

Treat your friends

One of the most pleasant things that you can afford after learning to cook is the opportunity to feed your friends, relatives, and loved ones with your cooking. But you should move on to this stage only after you have experimented enough with yourself and your cat. Otherwise, failure is possible. If successful, the praise of your guests will sound no less pleasant to you than a standing ovation for an artist or artist. Recognizing your culinary success will help you fall in love with this hobby forever.

Enjoy the process

The biggest trap that awaits us near the kitchen stove is the idea that cooking is a boring, tedious, difficult task. I even know who came up with this myth and tirelessly supports it, but this is a topic for another article. But the truth is this: how you feel about something is how it will become for you. If you think that the kitchen is hard labor, which the gods punished you with, then that’s exactly what will happen. If you treat cooking as an exciting creative process, complex chemical experience or a scientific experiment with unknown (and often dangerous) consequences, then no force will drag you away from the stove.

Cook a lot

Many people gradually lose interest in cooking only because they have to do it too often. Even the biggest cooking enthusiasts can get bored with daily cooking. Therefore, if you have already started, try to prepare an amount of food that will be enough for at least two meals. This way, you can alternate days of working in the kitchen with days of complete idleness.

Save money and health

Cooking at home can be not only fun, but also quite profitable. Although there are countries where it costs almost less to dine in a cafe than at home, there are not so many such places. In most cases, you can save a significant amount each month by simply avoiding all those pizzerias, McDonald's and other sausage-snack joints. Don’t be embarrassed to take the lunch you brought from home out of your backpack at work. It is many times cheaper and certainly healthier.

Cooking can easily turn from a boring part of everyday life into a vibrant hobby that will allow you to fully express your creative abilities, craving for improvisation and unusual things. You can improve in this area all your life, without ceasing to discover new and unusual recipes, dishes and . And most importantly, not only you yourself, but also all your friends and relatives will be immensely happy with the fruits of your labors.

To learn how to cook, you need to master a few basic food preparation techniques. Almost everyone knows how to fry, boil and stew. Now try cooking something using these methods:

• Stir-fry. Very fast roasting. You need to pour just a little oil, distribute it over the frying pan, wait until it gets hot, and throw the prepared foods into it. Stir-fry involves constant stirring. Sometimes you can add special sauces (it’s easy to find such a sauce - the package will indicate that it is a stir-fry sauce).
• Baking. The perfect way to cook vegetables. It doesn’t require any skills at all: you just need to put the vegetables in a frying pan or on a baking sheet, add salt, sprinkle with your favorite herbs and spices, pour over some oil and put in a preheated oven. The only difficulty is to remove the baking sheet in time.

• Caramelization. Something between roasting and simmering. A long process that helps draw sugar out of foods (such as onions or carrots) and turn it into caramel. The finished product has a sweetish taste, dark color and strong aroma. What is this technique for? It helps make ordinary products tastier or use them to create unusual dishes. For example, caramelized onions can be used as an ingredient in a steak sauce, a pie filling, or the base for a famous French soup.

Study the ingredients

Why is cooking so cool? Because it's very fun and interesting. Entertain yourself - try to find five different ways cook chicken with vegetables. It turns out that you can make pasta, cook soup, bake everything together, cook a stew or fry it in thin slices in the Asian style.

Also learn a few win-win combinations. It will be quite difficult to make a tasteless dish out of them.

• Fish and lemon. A combination that can be used for frying, baking, and any other method of preparing fish.
• Tomatoes, garlic, paprika, cheese. The first three ingredients combine perfectly in soups, sauces, stews and baking. Obviously, pasta or pizza comes first three ingredients goes perfectly with cheese.

• Eggs and bacon, vegetables and bacon. The fact is that bacon itself is an uninteresting product. But it has a characteristic bright taste. Pair it with scrambled eggs and you get the perfect balance. The same goes for vegetables. Bacon gives them a smoky touch, making them tastier and richer.
• Melon and ham. A salad containing pieces of sweet and fragrant melon and slices delicious ham, can't be bad. You can also add ripe figs. There is a way to make this food combination even better: wash it down with a glass of good wine.
• Poultry and fruits (chicken and orange, duck and apples). It is not necessary to cover the meat with fruit on all sides, imitating a cornucopia. Get creative: add orange zest to the marinade; make applesauce for the bird. Don't be afraid. It will definitely turn out delicious.

Learn to use spices

It is not enough to understand only the ingredients. You also need to learn about spices. We have selected several classic, time-tested combinations that will definitely make your dish brighter. But you definitely need to not stop there and try to combine new spices.

For vegetables

• Black pepper, garlic, rosemary.
• Black pepper, garlic, dill, horseradish, celery.
• Black pepper, red pepper, garlic, dill, parsley, horseradish.

For meat dishes

• Anise, coriander, dill, nutmeg, white pepper, paprika.
• Fennel, celery, cardamom, onion, white pepper.
• Allspice, black pepper, cloves, ginger, onion.

For soups

• Marjoram, mint, rosemary, sage, savory, thyme.
• Celery, marjoram, parsley, savory, basil.
• All kinds of bouquets garni: French, German, English.

And one more tip: study the composition of ready-made spice sets and find combinations that interest you. And then put together this combination yourself to be sure of the quality of the herbal mixture.

Learn to use lemon

If you're worried about making a dish too sour, start with dishes that can't be ruined by lemon. First cook the fish. Then add lemon juice into vegetables (for example, broccoli before baking). Lemon is also added to the solyanka. It brings out the flavor of this rich soup perfectly. This fruit can be used almost anywhere, but you need to do it carefully. When you zest a lemon, be careful not to catch the white part under the skin - it will be bitter.

Use cheese

Not liking cheese is practically a crime. There are so many different flavors that you just have to find yours. Brynza, soft cheese, hard cheese, blue cheese... It can be used as a main ingredient or as a spice. In general, it is difficult to do without cheese.

Salt with soy sauce

Be sure to try cooking with soy sauce. If you like Asian flavors in your dishes, that will be great.

Firstly, soy sauce perfectly emphasizes the taste of vegetables, meat and fish.

Secondly, if you love soy sauce, you can prepare the ingredients ahead of time, and then in a matter of minutes make wonderful rice with vegetables and seafood, ramen, udon with broth, and so on. The soy sauce brings the ingredients together into one delicious dish.

If you love and know how to cook with soy sauce, also try making something with miso paste.

Make friends with similar interests

Which knife should you use to cut meat and which knife should you use to cut bread? Is it normal for the broth to become thickly foamy? What to do about it? What should normal cream be like? These and other questions that inevitably arise during cooking need to be asked to someone. You can search for answers on the Internet. But it’s better if you have like-minded people - friends who want to learn how to cook. You can also learn to cook from books, instructions and videos. But it’s better to have a “comrade in misfortune” and study the secrets of cooking together.