You should have a few signature dishes. Having a full grasp of cuisine is less relevant than having some optimized recipes. Your friends want to eat well and want to do it now.
Mine are:
- 2 breakfasts: sweet french toast, scrambled eggs
- 3 Starters: vegetable soup, homemade ramen, homemade pizza
- 3 Fishes: roasted salmon with black beans, bacalhau à brás, tuna pasta
- 3 Meats: fried chicken, spaghetti carbonara, hamburguer
- 3 Desserts: cream tart, cookie cake, chocolate mousse
- Pasta is one of easiest plates you can cook. Most mistakes will not make a big change on results. Most likely it will be eatable or even tasty.
- Mistakes are less forgiving in baking.
- 250ml of flour (a weighing scale is not an essential tool for amateurs). Prefer type 65 flour without self raising, you'll use live ferment.
- 100ml of water. Prefer tepid water (~35C) to contribute to a good environment for live ferment.
- full coffee spoon of salt.
- 5 grams of live ferment.
Dough: dissolve the ferment and salt in the water. Only then pour the flour preferably using a sieve (you don't want to make cement). Mix. Reserve it in a hot (~30C) place and wait 4 hours or more.
Baking: wait until home oven gets maximum temperature. Bake in the oven's bottom until half cooked. Take it out and put toppings. Finish baking it in the oven's middle.
Results: better than frozen pizza. Guaranteed.
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- The freezer (+ ice tray) is your friend. Most food "waste" that we usually discard can be freezed: any drink (wine, champagne, juice, coffee, etc), buttermilk, herbs (or herbs + olive oil), fruits, etc.