Tonight I made poached chicken breast with gravy served with sauteed mushrooms with salt and pepper.

Pretty proud of myself! I moved out of my comfort zone of purely comfort foods like pasta and sausage and peppers. Now I’m eating more rice and beans, lean cuts of chicken and pork, and incorporating more veggies into my meals.

I’m nowhere near the level as some of the chefs here on hb, but for being a bachelor looking after myself I’m doing well!

  • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    2 hours ago

    Hell yeah, i wish I could do in person cooking lessons with everyone here cause it’s so hard to teach through text. I can give some advice for sauteed mushrooms to get en really really good. Get the pan really hot first, add whatever oil and let that get hot and then add mushrooms, toss em around a lot and keep the heat high, when they look tasty take em off the heat source but leave em in the hot pan, residual heat handles the rest. That’ll give you a nice snappy texture. Hot and fast is a good general rule for veggies, getting the outside cooked while keeping the inside still crisp and flavorful. Add garlic about 2/3 through so it doesnt burn.

    The biggest thing to upping your game is knife skills/a good knife. If cutting stuff up takes you next to no time then suddenly a lot of meals seem easier to tackle. A good sharp chef’s knife and some YouTube videos on different cutting techniques will get you far. I can dice 50lbs of onioms in like 15 minutes, enough to cook a meal feels like nothing. Ill sometimes pre cut my veggies for the next couple days while waiting for things to cook or water to boil etc. I guess thats another good tip, walk away from the kitchen while cooking. If youre hovering over the pan youre gonna over stir, you gain an internal clock for this stuff, im used to doing several dishes at once. I dont watch my food cook, I just know when to come back to it cause ive developed a sense for it, you will too

    There is a rhyming platitude in professional kitchens, which i generally hate but this one is true: if you’re looking, youre not cooking. Dont baby each step, you gotta let the food and heat do its thing