Basic Rules for Cooking

Mmmmmm Tacos!  Chorizo base with lots of vegetables and greens straight from the garden mixed in!

I should probably blatantly point out that I have no business teaching anyone how to cook, I have zero credentials and no official training.  Everything I know has been hodgepodged together over the course of my life and is likely very much against the grain of what is seen as "normal".  Cooking is an art form though, everyone has their own way of doing it and the dishes I put together turn out pretty damn good if I do say so myself.  So having said that, we need to lay down some general ground rules for cooking!  You obviously don't have to follow these rules but you'll want to so you get the best results and avoid lots of frustration.  Much like a kid sneakily climbing onto the kitchen counter and putting a hand in the cookie jar, you know the consequences can be dire but is it worth it just for some quick gratification?  Probably not...  But you're probably going to anyways...

How to Cook Food

“Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.” - Anthony Bourdain

Thanksgiving feast - 2021.  Simple, exquisite and delicious.  What more could you want?

Cooking is obviously an integral part of growing and using your own food.  If you can't cook it, what are you going to do with it?  Lucky for you, cooking with fresh food really isn't that hard once you know the basics of what you can do with each type of vegetable.  It also isn't hard to make fresh food taste good, it already tastes good and isn't like the cardboard crap you're used to getting from the grocery store.

Keepin' it Easy: Steam the Veggies

"So, if I'm cooking, I'll be steaming vegetables, making some nice salad, that kind of stuff." - Paul McCartney

Freshly picked and steamed edamame, lightly salted, ready to be devoured.

You get home from work, you're tired, you don't really want to cook but you're hungry and you have a lot of fresh vegetables.  What's the easiest and quickest way to prepare your vegetables?  Steaming is the way to go...

Anatomy of a Dish

“Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as there are only so many notes or colors, there are only so many flavors - it’s how you combine them that sets you apart.” - Wolfgang Puck

Prepped vegetables, ready to be cooked!

In order to be able to properly prepare a dish you need to understand what makes up a dish so you can successfully make the complete and final meal.  We already know that we need fresh vegetables, good olive oil, and fresh spices.  Good food at it's core, can and should be simple.  Think of cooking as you're just bringing out the inner taste of the food, what it was meant to be.  You're helping the main ingredient realize all it can be in this world.  So what makes up a dish?