if you can't cook, learn. Home made food is cheaper and better than endless pasta and pizza. You can stick everything in a slowcooker (buy one!) and come home after lessons to kick ass chili or stew or casserole, or roast chicken (yes you can roast fucking chickens in a slow cooker!) or pulled pork.. anything. You can make fucking soup in a slow cooker. they are magic.
Then if you have freezer space you're set for instant meals if you portion the left overs into ziplocks. If you have flatmates you can cook enough for everyone and have them put towards the food (plus some for your effort then you have drinking money!) Everyone loves proper food.
If you eat shit you'll start to feel like shit and if you feel like shit you can't learn properly.
I'm a bit limited in my cooking skills right now, but my mum is going to show me some good, simple things to cook before I go. I'll make sure to look up other recipes as well. I've got a bunch of Tupperware containers ready so I can store any left other food for the next day.
Didn't think of a slow cooker, great idea! If I have the money, I'll definitely think about getting one. If I can't afford one, I can maybe coax some flatmates into chipping in for one.
In my flat there is going to be 12 people sharing a large kitchen, so I'm sure there will times where we can cook some big meals for everyone. Thank you for the tips, and I especially agree with your last statement!
I got a 4L one from Argos for like £40 and that was like 11 years ago when they were a bit pricier. You don't even need to know how to cook for them just shove it all in and go :)
I think if you need to prioritise some skills I would make sure you;
* have reasonable knife skills (ask for some decent knives - there's a really good ceramic knife set right now from sainsburys but ikea make them as well).
* Learn how to make a Roux. You basically throw a chunk of butter in a pan then a spoon of plain flour when it's melted and stir it all in and let it cook for a bit, it'll turn into a blob. Then you add your liquid a bit at a time making sure it's completely mixed in at each stage. at the start it'll be blobby and horrible and then about half way it'll go yucky looking and sludgy but at the end it'll should be the smoothest and glossy looking sauce. If you can get the roux to work then you can make any damn sauce you can think of ever. More butter and flour = more or thicker sauce, less = less or thinner sauce. If you use milk as your liquid you have white sauce for lasagne or add cheese for bitching cheese sauces. Swear to go this is my absolutely top recommended skill. you can salvage any old shit with a good sauce.
* Stir fry, again, you can make a lot of different meals with some good sense of stir frying, a little bit of decent oil, 3 to 4 fresh veg and chicken and bang, done. Plus noodles are so much tastier stir fried.
* Seasoning. Seasoning takes some practise and entirely up to your tastes but it's down to tsating everything all the time. get a pepper grinder as absolute minimum, never get to the end of your cooking then add it - the goal is not to taste the pepper particularly but to let it seep in and highlight the flavours you are aiming for. If you get brave then Indian food is the place to start going with those skills :) (Curries are also great slow cooker dishes for after the initial spice/frying part)
I lived in a mixed flat of 8. we had only 2 people who cooked (me and another girl) and the rest were constantly stoned or drunk or both but they were all thoughtless slobs - one wall was decorated with the pizza boxes from the 2ft square pizzas they were ordering every night, they made a trash catapault cause they were too lazy to take it down the stairs and we found a huge wad of mould under the couch. I had my cutlery/plates/slowcooker in my room cause it was the only way they'd be clean and available for use.
And one time i found a mouldy cheese duck in my fridge. Art students man... suck.
yeah stir fry is great, i taught my first BF that and if you can do that then you can do Fajitas and enchiladas and Wings (look up Coke wings on youtube, they are the SHIZZ) and all sorts :D
if you can't cook, learn. Home made food is cheaper and better than endless pasta and pizza. You can stick everything in a slowcooker (buy one!) and come home after lessons to kick ass chili or stew or casserole, or roast chicken (yes you can roast fucking chickens in a slow cooker!) or pulled pork.. anything. You can make fucking soup in a slow cooker. they are magic.
Then if you have freezer space you're set for instant meals if you portion the left overs into ziplocks. If you have flatmates you can cook enough for everyone and have them put towards the food (plus some for your effort then you have drinking money!) Everyone loves proper food.
If you eat shit you'll start to feel like shit and if you feel like shit you can't learn properly.
I'm a bit limited in my cooking skills right now, but my mum is going to show me some good, simple things to cook before I go. I'll make sure to look up other recipes as well. I've got a bunch of Tupperware containers ready so I can store any left other food for the next day.
Didn't think of a slow cooker, great idea! If I have the money, I'll definitely think about getting one. If I can't afford one, I can maybe coax some flatmates into chipping in for one.
In my flat there is going to be 12 people sharing a large kitchen, so I'm sure there will times where we can cook some big meals for everyone. Thank you for the tips, and I especially agree with your last statement!
I got a 4L one from Argos for like £40 and that was like 11 years ago when they were a bit pricier. You don't even need to know how to cook for them just shove it all in and go :)
I think if you need to prioritise some skills I would make sure you;
* have reasonable knife skills (ask for some decent knives - there's a really good ceramic knife set right now from sainsburys but ikea make them as well).
* Learn how to make a Roux. You basically throw a chunk of butter in a pan then a spoon of plain flour when it's melted and stir it all in and let it cook for a bit, it'll turn into a blob. Then you add your liquid a bit at a time making sure it's completely mixed in at each stage. at the start it'll be blobby and horrible and then about half way it'll go yucky looking and sludgy but at the end it'll should be the smoothest and glossy looking sauce. If you can get the roux to work then you can make any damn sauce you can think of ever. More butter and flour = more or thicker sauce, less = less or thinner sauce. If you use milk as your liquid you have white sauce for lasagne or add cheese for bitching cheese sauces. Swear to go this is my absolutely top recommended skill. you can salvage any old shit with a good sauce.
* Stir fry, again, you can make a lot of different meals with some good sense of stir frying, a little bit of decent oil, 3 to 4 fresh veg and chicken and bang, done. Plus noodles are so much tastier stir fried.
* Seasoning. Seasoning takes some practise and entirely up to your tastes but it's down to tsating everything all the time. get a pepper grinder as absolute minimum, never get to the end of your cooking then add it - the goal is not to taste the pepper particularly but to let it seep in and highlight the flavours you are aiming for. If you get brave then Indian food is the place to start going with those skills :) (Curries are also great slow cooker dishes for after the initial spice/frying part)
I lived in a mixed flat of 8. we had only 2 people who cooked (me and another girl) and the rest were constantly stoned or drunk or both but they were all thoughtless slobs - one wall was decorated with the pizza boxes from the 2ft square pizzas they were ordering every night, they made a trash catapault cause they were too lazy to take it down the stairs and we found a huge wad of mould under the couch. I had my cutlery/plates/slowcooker in my room cause it was the only way they'd be clean and available for use.
And one time i found a mouldy cheese duck in my fridge. Art students man... suck.
Thank you. This will definitely help me out a lot, especially stir frying. My mum always goes on about knowing how to do that.
Never heard of a roux before, but I'm glad I do now. I appreciate the rest of the info, and I'll do my best to put it to use.
yeah stir fry is great, i taught my first BF that and if you can do that then you can do Fajitas and enchiladas and Wings (look up Coke wings on youtube, they are the SHIZZ) and all sorts :D
I do love fajitas and enchiladas, and coke wings do sound nice. I'll give them a try! :)
plus it's easy to make friends when you can bribe them with real food and people dig people who can cook ;)
And your flatmates and friends' parents will freaking love you. you'll get asked after and given gifts for looking after their special babies :D