[chronicles] It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me

[redroanchronicles]

Friends, I come to you today as a neophyte, a humble student, a seeker of knowledge, a person who only recently learned to distinguish between a parsnip and a rutabaga.

There is much work to be done, as you can see.

Part of my Epic Quest for Awesomely Healthy Living (patent pending) is a re-tooling of my diet. To this end, I have tried repeatedly to whittle away at my definitions of "allowed" and "not allowed" sweets, and have finally been forced to conclude that, in order to control my sweet tooth -- which left to its own devices, would eventually destroy Tokyo -- I really need to have a hard and fast rule: no processed sugars. At all. Not even in my tea.

Since my tea was my less-delicious substitute for the delicious sugar-filled soy chai beverages that I decided weren't worth their price (my waistline and $5 a pop), it pains me to limit myself to no sugar in my tea. I am of the opinion that without sugar, tea tastes like warm water. But I am steadfast in my resolve! I am going to kick this thing! I am not going to eat those freaking sugars!

Anyway, I have only come here seeking knowledge (because they would not teach me aaaaall in colllllege). I hoped that you, the people of the Internet, might have recommendations for me of tea flavors or specific brands that, when brewed and consumed with no additional sugar-y deliciousness, actually taste like something. (Teas that taste good sweetened with honey are also allowable. Honey is good, I've just found that it tastes kind of awful in most of the teas I like.) I prefer the spicier teas like chai, ginger, cinnamon, peppermint and whatnot, over the fruity ones, but I'm willing to experiment. (malnpudl, you need not apply. Your favored tea could strip paint, and/or my esophagus. You are clearly made of sterner stuff than I.)

Also, I've been cooking. It would be fair to say that I have been cooking up a storm, in fact. Over the weekend I made chicken curry, parsnip soup and pannekaken with tasty improvised fillings. I felt like a for-real chef. Occasionally. (Except when I was sort of scorching the ginger honey carrots.) They were all delicious and pretty easy, but I have to say that the parsnip soup was my favorite; I think the chicken curry would've been more interesting if I'd been braver with the spices (and not afraid of killing Mal with the spiciness of said spices), but the parsnip soup was just really simple and wholesome and filling. It tasted like autumn.

I'm just curious, for those of you who do cook and who may find my attempts to do so perhaps simultaneously charming and horrifying, what advice would you give to someone who is just beginning to cook and is struggling with all the technique, planning, budgeting and organization that apparently goes into cooking one's own meals? What trick do you wish you'd known when you started? (For me, it is the peel-garlic-by-crushing-it-with-a-knife thing. Time-saver!) What gadget can you not live without? What ingredients do you consider both versatile and indispensable?

Comments

[bellakara]

Chocolate is indispensable, but I'm not sure that's what you had in mind. ;)

Ooooh, tea.

[rydra_wong]

Really strong ginger-and-lemongrass tea is good. Though I tend to like my tea with caffeine -- green tea with jasmine is nice, and I'm getting into matcha lately.

There's a company called Teapigs who have an amazingly fragrant oolong that smells of apricots, but they're UK-based so may not be much use to you.

[sara]

Good Earth makes a couple of "Sweet and Spicy" teas that I find need much less sugar than others. Although I do still do 1 tbsp/pot -- I have given up sugar in my coffee and use knockoff Splenda instead, but I just cannot stand tea with Splendalike Substance.

[princess]

I like peppermint tea at double strength with no sweetener. Also, teas with Rooibos (I don't know if I spelled that right, but they're also sometimes called "Red Tea") tend to be very delicious unsweetened (the Rooibos is a naturally sweeter herb).

Also, have you considered Stevia? It's not an artificial sweetener in the mode of Equal/Sweet 'n' low, it's actually extracted from a plant and has little to no impact on blood glucose (which means it might not trigger your sugar cravings). I've been using it off and on since long before it became "the new thing." Probably since the mid nineties.

[stultiloquentia]

teas with Rooibos tend to be very delicious unsweetened

Seconded. Yogi brand makes a Chai Rooibos and a Peach Rooibos that are both excellent. Their Mayan Cocoa Spice is also interesting.

[cofax7]

Me, I'm a black tea drinker, so I get one or two cups of strong black tea (currently TJ's Irish Breakfast) every day, with milk. When I was in college, I trained myself out of needing sugar in my tea, for reasons I've forgotten, and now I don't like it in my tea at all. Honey, yes, but not sugar.

As for cooking, I have found that a jar of crushed garlic in the refridgerator has saved me hours of chopping time (and irritated eyes). Also TJ's frozen chopped spinach, which can be decanted in small portions from the bag, quickly microwaved, and added to eggs, pasta, quesadillas, and all sorts of dishes.

I wish I'd know before this last year how great chard was. The other night I threw some in boiling water for five minutes, then took it out with a slotted spoon and sauteed it with garlic and mushrooms, while boiling pasta in the other pot. Toss everything together with shredded parmesan, olive oil, and black pepper, and it's awesome.

[ranunculus]

I wouldn't bother with the boiling water on chard first, though it might increase the saute time significantly.
Also would work with: spinich, kale, beet greens, mustard greens.... Though mustard greens are often very peppery.

[cofax7]

The boiling was as directed by Cooks Illustrated, although I forget the rationale. Seems to work okay, and if I'm already making pasta, I don't actually end up with an extra pot to clean. Sauteeing without blanching really does take a lot longer.

[(Anonymous)]

I forget that chard has that heavy central stem, I usually saute spinach which takes forever to get clean and then cooks in seconds.

[ranunculus]

Oops, this last Anonymous was me, wrong browser...

Ingredients!

[rydra_wong]

What ingredients do you consider both versatile and indispensable?

Stuff I always, always have around:

Extra virgin olive oil (lots). Also smaller bottles of olive oil infused with chili or garlic, for when I'm lazy/tired. Garlic. Ginger. Onions. A little bottle of balsamic vinegar. Harissa paste, piri-piri spice mix, berbere spice mix -- basically an assortment of interesting spice mixes (yes, okay, I like spicy food). Coarse sea salt.

Tinned sardines in olive oil, tinned tuna, tinned beans, wholegrain pasta.

Frozen edamame (okay, it's not versatile, but a large bowl of edamame with sea salt is one of my comfort foods).

[kerlin]

I am also a black tea drinker, and prefer an Irish Breakfast in the morning, but I've made a few excursions into the herbal tea world. Starbucks (or rather, Tazo) does a few that are pretty good - my father loves the Orange Spice, and I like the Passion blend, especially as iced tea.

Most green teas actually taste better with honey than with processed sugar; I usually like green tea + fruit in some way, usually a lemon or pomegranate.

You might try maple syrup (the real stuff!) as a sugar-substitute as well. M. drinks it in his coffee some mornings.

For summer drinking, I usually drink half-and-half: strong black iced tea and lemonade. You can easily get a no-sugar-added lemonade.

I wish I'd caught on faster to the process of rotating through food in storage in my cupboards, ie taught myself to look there first instead of going out to buy more food. Really concentrating on cooking with what you have instead of always falling in love with recipes that require exotic ingredients you need to buy is tough, but ultimately cheaper and more creative.

[foxfirefey]

I am actually somebody who drinks herbal teas without sugar! So I might be able to give some advice on this:

* Licorice teas
* Camomile I like
* Minty teas, like peppermint tea
* Strawberry Sunset from http://montanatea.com/, possibly Evening in Missoula (which I like for the smell more than the taste, though)
* Tension Tamer: http://www.celestialseasonings.com/products/detail.html/herbal-teas/tension-tamer

And you might want to try Celestial Seasoning's samplers:

http://www.celestialseasonings.com/products/detail.html/herbal-teas/fruit-tea-sampler
http://www.celestialseasonings.com/products/detail.html/herbal-teas/herbal-tea-sampler

[rydra_wong]

What trick do you wish you'd known when you started?

If you have some basic combinations in your head and you get a sense of what flavours tend to mesh well (and what veg works in a stir-fry, what works in an omelette, etc.), you can put together quick fresh meals with very little planning.

By basic combinations I mean: pasta with stuff on it. Meat, diced and stir-fried with vegetables. Fish, poached or grilled or pan-fried, with some vegetables as well. Omelette with vegetables in it. Rice-and-beans-and-stuff. Big salad with some kind of protein thrown on top.

It took me ages to get confident with this, but it means I don't have to plan every meal just because I'm cooking from scratch.

[seryn]

Tea
1) steeping duration dramatically affects the paint-stripper tendency, so stronger tea for less time
2) brand matters

I like earl grey tea. But preferably Tazo or Numi. The Stash stuff doesn't float my boat. And the wholesome organic Taylor Maid Tea people make wimpy E.G. The Bigelow EG stuff is nasty (IMO. The rest of all'ya'll who like it can help yourselves, I'm leaving it for you especially.) The bergamot gives it a minty kick without tasting like toothpaste.

If you're looking cheap, Constant Comment actually makes a "tastes like something" tea and can be successfully steeped in about 20 seconds. The teabag can be reused about 4 times too if you don't wring it out (just set it dripping on a saucer and the teabag will suck that liquid back in).

If you do have overbrewed tea, the splash of milk is helpful to keep it from eating your guts from the inside.

If you like chai, there have been several recipes floating around on how to make it yourself. Whole spices simmered in water for 10-20 minutes, then loose tea added and simmered for 3 minutes, then strain. (You'd have to experiment to find which spices suit you, but you could probably make up several quarts of the stuff and refrigerate.) I like the Tazo chai pretty well, but the Numi one is tastier, IMO.

I don't really like honey in most teas. But my honey is locally made and dark like molasses. I do like it in chai though.

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Cooking. (all jumbled together) You get better at it by doing. That's the one thing I wish I'd known earlier. Two, have a box of instant oatmeal on hand for backup if there's a complete failure. Just knowing it's there means you can experiment. Three, all that stuff they say you need, you don't need all of it. You need a cutting board and a knife--- and the stamped ones are fine you don't need a hundred dollar forged blade. Buy a decent $20 one and get a new one next year. You need a giant mixing bowl because mixing is a lot easier when there's enough space... you can use it for a popcorn bowl too. I like wooden spoons. The fancy 3-way dicing of onions isn't actually necessary, you can take advantage of the layering of onions to save one of those. Use a big pot when you're boiling potatoes for mashing so you have room to stir them around and there aren't half cooked ones on the top and so there's plenty of room when you're smashing the potatoes later. Keep your real butter in the freezer except for the current stick you're using. If you don't use cheese that fast, you can freeze it. When a block of cheddar is mostly thawed, it will crumble and you don't need to grate it. Shredded carrots are invisible in spaghetti sauce and chili but add extra vitamins. You can add a scoop of canned pumpkin or microwaved banana (the heat makes fresh bananas melt) to pancake batter. Then they don't need syrup because they have flavor. You can use chai tea to thin out pumpkin pancake batter to great effect. Quiche doesn't actually need crust. Beaten eggs, sauted onions, washed baby spinach, cheese (optional cooked meats: ham, sausage, bacon, or smoked turkey all very tasty)... bake in greased casserole on 275F until done. When you're making a salad with chopped tomatoes and homemade dressing, put the tomatoes in the dressing bowl.. they pick up flavor from the dressing and the dressing gets the juices from the tomatoes making it tastier without making the salad watery. Salad with pre-cooked pasta and/or chicken in it is really good and feels like a meal, so when you're making chicken, make an extra piece, chop it into salad bits and freeze. That way when it's hot in the summer, you don't have to cook but you still have real food. (I like that salad American style with crumbled cheddar, tomatoes& dressing, shredded carrots and chopped celery. It's also good with hard boiled egg and bacon, but I never have those left over.) Hard boiled eggs are good warm. Toast and boiled egg makes for an excellent breakfast that doesn't take any longer than cereal.

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and sugar warning... look at your bread label. I was astonished how much sugar was in even my artisan bakery breads. It's more than is in blueberry-bran muffins!

[abbylee]

I am a loose leaf tea drinker, as of two years ago, and it is awesome because I get more control about amounts and mixing. I also primarily drink iced tea - I have a glass teapot that works really well to make tea in and then put in the fridge.

Black Teas:

Earl Grey is a black tea with oil of bergamot, which is a kind of citrus fruit. It's got a light refreshing flavour. My favourite ways to drink it are hot with milk, or iced with a little bit of sugar.

Market Spice is a black tea with cinnamon and orange flavouring. It's definitely not all-natural, or at least it reminds me of cinnamon hearts, but it is SO GOOD. I drink this hot (with or without milk) or ice cold.

Masala chai is one of those things that will never be as good as if you learn to make your own. Not that I have, yet; I just keep on trying more and more store bought mixes and not quite finding one that's as good as ones friends have made. So, read some recipes and try it yourself!

Green Tea:

Genmaicha is by far my favourite of all the green teas, probably because it's very nutty tasting from the rice. Since I try to keep my caffeine consumption low, I actually mix my own, by roasting my own short brown rice and mixing it with decaf green tea. I keep them in separate containers in my tea cupboard, so that I can put them in their own teaballs, too. Which means the green tea gets pulled out early, and the rice steeps for longer. Anyway, this is the tea that's served in many Japanese/Sushi restaurants, and it's not only good hot but makes a good iced tea.

Rooibos:

Rooibos Cinnamon is so good. I mostly drink this as an iced tea, I find it too thin as a hot tea. But it's yummy and spicy.

Herbal:

Cranberry Orange Chili is so good. It's fruity and spicy. I make iced tea out of this and mmmmmmmm.

Goji Berry that I can't find online - it's sort of similar looking to the above, with the lemongrass and such. It almosts tastes like kool-aid. I make iced tea out of it when I want something super sweet.

Peppermint is so much one of my favourites. It's good hot or cold, and is surprisingly sweet.

Other:

I also just like mushing things up into water. Strawberries. Lemon. Lime. Mint. Orange. Lime and Mint leaves are one of my *favourites* - I will often make a pitcher and then drink it asap.

I also find that while I normally think that coffee needs milk and sugar and preferably flavoured sugar, I do find that a really good strong hot coffee, over ice or mixed with water, is somehow good. I've started making my old cold brewed coffee and it's yummy. (Cold brewed is not as bitter. I am using expensive beans too, though.)

[j00j]

Tea: I drink black tea with milk, usually. I do like ginger tea with honey and lemon-- maybe try adding lemon and see if the honey tastes different to you then? Also, this may not be true for everyone, but eating less sugar eventually meant I wanted far less.

Cooking: Have you seen http://cookcheap.org/ ? That's got some good basic info. Ingredients... produce-wise, I go for things that last longer since I'm cooking for one, though I'll buy some of the more tricky stuff for variety (and I try to go for some things in season). My only other advice is to do simple things often, and more complicated things once in awhile (it can be fun to cook with a more experienced friend if you can). Complicated is good for variety and expanding your horizons when you have the time and ingredients to spare; simple is good for making sure you eat well and for getting more practice with technique and planning and timing and such. Also, planning-wise, it's good to figure out things that are good for leftovers or that can be incorporated into another, slightly different meal (so you don't get bored), and/or freeze well. These are all things that help assure that you have lunch the next day or a frozen healthy dinner on a night when you are tired or sick.

[holyschist]

Kitchen gadgets I can't live without: wok, rice cooker, mini food processor (I'd like a full-sized one, but have neither the space or money--if I did, I'd still keep this one for small quantities). My rice cooker is a mini, too, and pretty good for two people (I think it's a 3.5-cup one?). Rice cooker brand matters: we never used the rice cooker my parents had when I was a kid because it sucked (I recommend Zojirushi). Rice cookers don't work equally well for all types of rice, though, and if I'm adding flavorings, I use a saucepan. Also, a KNIFE SHARPENER. You don't need super-expensive knives (although it is important to have a knife that will hold an edge for a reasonable amount of time, or you'll go nuts), but regular sharpening will save you much frustrating. Cooking with a dull knife--which most people do--is a pain.

Ingredients: garlic and spices are key. Which spices and how many depends a lot on your cooking habits (I, for example, hardly ever use black pepper, which most people consider a staple, but I use cardamom all the time); I'd accumulate them as you need them for specific recipes. I like to have some frozen protein that thaws quickly--shrimp and small salmon or other fish filets are good (if you eat seafood). Coconut milk is good to have around, since it can be used for both Indian and Thai curries as well as soups. Plain yogurt is also very versatile if you eat dairy--by itself or with dried/fresh fruit, nuts, honey for breakfast; as a base for Indian curries; as a base for seafood- or chicken-y pasta sauce. Olive oil and a nut oil or neutral-tasting oil with a high smoke point for stirfry (I like peanut oil, but obvs. that's an allergy problem for many people)--olive oil smokes at too low a heat and has the wrong flavor for stirfry. Ghee if you make Indian food--it really makes a difference (especially for carmelizing onions into crispy brown deliciousness), and can be stored at room temperature indefinitely. Rice (several kinds) and pasta are my main carb staples, but I'm trying to eat quinoa more, because it has more nutrients, more protein, and a different flavor. Eggs are cheap and full of protein.

When I make sauces, if they freeze well (e.g. spaghetti sauce, peanut sauce), I try to make extra and freeze it. I also keep a few jars of good spaghetti sauce to enhance with hamburger, olives, garlic, more herbs, etc. for those times when I don't have time to mess with a zillion cans of different tomato products. Having frozen sauces that can be thawed or even microwaved and dumped on something quick is really helpful!

I put a little vanilla extract in my buttermilk pancakes, and while I usually eat them with jam or honey-based syrup, they are very delicious without.

[ajnabieh]

Seconding (or whatevering) all the votes for peppermint and rooibus teas. I actually make rooibus chai with whole cardamom, cinnamon, and ginger; it's different than black tea, but still pretty good. If you want caffeine, black tea with milk is tasty.

I'm not a gadgety cook, though I do really, really like having a rice cooker--it saves a lot of hassle. Apart from that, nice sharp knives and whatever counts as staples for your diet--for us, that's brown rice, an assortment of beans and lentils, my most-used spices (cumin, oregano, dried chiles, chili powder, chaat masala, black mustard seed), and olive oil--that's probably half the ingredients of half our meals right there.

[ilanarama]

I also drink herbal teas (and real teas, and coffee) without sugar. I second the suggestion for Celestial Seasonings. I particularly like Bengal Spice (which is like chai without the tea) and Mint Magic (a blend of spearmint and peppermint). I also like their vanilla rooibos and their honey chamomile. And Lemon Zinger! Stash makes a really nice lemon ginger tea, and if you like black teas with flavor I admit to loving Bigelow's Constant Comment. I am also a fan of lapsang souchong but I admit it's not for everybody.

My quick go-to meal is sauteed stuff (meat, veggies, or meat and veggies, optionally with sliced monterey jack or cheddar cheese) with (jarred) salsa wrapped in a warmed tortilla. If it's just meat, I put a salad alongside. If it's just veggies, I put beans alongside.

[ranunculus]

Perhaps the primary thought I have about cooking is that there are very, very few recipes that need exact amounts of ingredients to be good. Don't be afraid to substitute, sure you will crash and burn once in a while, but I'll bet it isn't often! Also, simple is usually really good.

Sweet-tooth. All sugar is addictive according to researchers who have been doing experiments that involve brain scans and brain chemistry. Sugar + fat is just as addictive to humans as substances like cocaine. So replacing white sugar with honey doesn't work - the same addiction is there, releasing endorphins into our brains.
The good news? Things that taste like cardboard at first will reveal themselves as being lovely and flavorful as your brain adjusts. I remember when I quit eating butter on my baked potato. I -could not- taste anything. A few months later I could taste all kinds of things in potatoes, in fact they were really -good- without butter. So be patient with yourself as you detox your taste buds.

I'm going to second the "you don't need gadgets" theme. A good chefs knife, I got a nice stainless one that I've used now for at least 20 years, a paring knife (I love the extra cheap one I got for $3 at the local hardware store) AND a sharpener. If you don't want to learn to sharpen on a knife "steel" then get something like the AccuSharp sharpener (+-$8). Dull knifes are both annoying and dangerous.

I keep a cabinet full of spices, perhaps 25 different bottles (bottles keep bugs out of things) of which I regularly use about 15. If you can, buy spices in bulk from a good health food store. Bottles of stuff on grocery store shelves are often quite old, and they usually cost 3 to 10 times as much as bulk. Throw out unused spices once a year and start over, spices loose flavor as they age. In dishes that use basil, oregano and the like, I also like to use dried nettle, which imparts a lovely subtle flavor and adds great vitamins and calcium.

I roast a couple of chickens at a time, have roast chicken, bone the rest of the chicken and freeze in approximately one or two cup servings, which is perfect for the quick meal ingredient. Bones get made into chicken soup which I also freeze for later use. Having soup frozen in 1/2 cup to quart sizes allows you to use whatever amount you need for a recipe. I like to cook rice, barley, lentils and or beans separately to throw into the soup stock along with handy vegetables (not broccoli). Cooked grains freeze well too. By the way, go look at canned chicken soup labels (or for that matter the cubes) and note the amounts of salt and monosodium glutamate in them. Euuuwww.

Basic vinagrette: vinegar (red wine, white wine, apple cider) or lemon (use fresh lemons, the bottled stuff is too bitter for this) ~ 1/3 cup, big pinch of dill, dash of water if you like (cuts acid a little), pinch of brown sugar (unless some other ingredient contains sugar), salt to taste, pepper if you want. Olive oil, not too much, should be less than 1/4 of dressing unless you need the fat. To this basic recipe I like to add plain yellow mustard, 1+ tablespoons full, depending on how you like mustard. Balsamic vinegar can be added for variety, but I wouldn't make it the primary vinegar.

Salad + protein (tuna, shrimp, chicken) + vinagrette = good quick meal.

Someplace I have a good recipe for curry. Yep, curry is just a bunch of spices cooked together, and if you have a good basic recipe you can then adjust to your taste. It is really easy.

Link to post where I recommend a cookbook:
http://ranunculus.dreamwidth.org/295566.html

[multimediafunhouse.blogspot.com]

I have tons of friends who swear by bagged chai as a steamed chai sub. Most add milk and honey to it. I like it plain. I drink the Stash brand fairly often. Especially in the fall. FAVE sweet "tea" isn't real tea but a bagged Northwest Blackberry infusion from Choice. It's freaking amazing. If you have a lot of tea drinking friends, get them to do a swap. Everyone sends a bag of their top three favorite teas to everyone else. You get to try a bunch of stuff without buying them yourself and without signing up for a swap site where Crazy McCrazyson might send you bagged, dried gravy.

I love that garlic with a knife trick. Man. What was I doing all my life? How did I get by without it? I felt the same way about a leek trick I learned last month. I eat a LOT of leeks. I leak leek. It's unbeleekable. Anyway, I they are massive dirt traps. I always used to peel away the outer layers, dump them in the compost, shed silent tears and eat my remaining 50% non-filthy leek. Then last month a friend to me to cut the ends off, slice the whole thing in half then slice it up into little leek rainbows as usual. Next, dump all the rainbows into a bowl of water and swish. The dirt goes to the bottom, the leek goes to the top. ALL THE LEEK. ALL CLEAN. Taste the rainbow. I think I stood there for a good 30 seconds processing this. My mind was blown.

Trick two. Watch a lot of cooking shows. ALL THE TIME. I watch martha everyday in the corner of my computer. And if I'm doing something mindless, I turn on Food Network. I don't even eat 75% of the crap they show on there but I have learned so much about combinations, food sourcing, technique... it's invaluable. Also if I screw something up, I internet and bug friends until I figure out what went wrong. I've learned so much this way like how to unsalt a too-salty soup or god-shel-you're-dumb-that's-cumin-not-chili-powder. Stuff like that. I could go on all day. I love food. If you know of any cooking or food groups try them out! I've learned so much there too. And they don't mind when I go on and on and on blabbing on about my love of asparagus.