So, I've never really ever cooked anything before. I've made kraft dinner, or sandwiches or something. But I've never actually cooked a meal (without help).

Today I cooked a meal. It's not great, not terrible...something in between.

I grilled up a steak on a George Foreman grill, and boiled some prepackaged veggies (I wouldn't know how to prepare them individually bought), these included beans, broccoli, celery, carrots, snow peas. I then put some canola oil in a frying pan, and mixed the veggies and steak (i cut it into smaller pieces), and added some hoisin sauce and stirfry sauce, couple pinches of salt and pepper, and voila!

i'm doing all the cooking in vegas.

*shudders at frozen vegetables*

Will you be enjoying this on the slightly used couch?

Nice start.

I'll give you a simple way to do carrots as a veggie.

Buy fresh, peel, and then quarter them. (Cut in half the long way, then cut down the middle the other way, leaving the pieces about the size of your pinky).

Then just place them in a little boiling water, not enough to cover them completely, a little less than halfway, and add a little butter (maybe a tea-tablespoon or so to your liking).

Turn the heat down so its not on full boil but just below a boil, and cover em for about ten minutes, depending on your burner. Stir em a few times so the ones on bottom get the top and vice versa. Leave a little crunch to them in the center, the edges should be on the softer side, and toward the end touch em with salt and pepper. Voila!

Happy cooking in the future! And everyone throw in a recipe for him!

Where's the freaking white rice?

Maybe I'll do rice or noodles next time... I put too much sauce in this mix, and didn't really enjoy the taste. I think with less sauce and/or rice or noodles, it might make the overall taste a bit better.

For the most part though I'm trying to avoid carbs.

get some Onion in there!

I did a tenderloin steak on the Webber the other night and it was meat perfection. I turn it 1/4 on each side so you get grill marks like the Keg. I actually thought of taking a picture and posting it in a place where people would care. This is that place !!

You'll make someone a great wife one day

*puts up hand* i'll be the personal chef in vegas if someone brings me out...cause ya'll know I'm a chef right?

looks really good btw Ray!!

HOORAY!

but you won't have to cook for me if they have del taco in vegas.

good job on the cooking, how long did you marinate for? i find that marinating and a good cut is the most important part of steak. but i drink pabst blue ribbon so what the **** do i know.

get a real grill...makes just about anything better than a George Foreman can

BTW, what you made does look tasty

I didn't marinate the steak. Hahaha reminds me of Sunday, when I was going to cook my first meal but got too scared and called my buddy over (he's a cook). Before he came over though I tried to marinate the chicken with thyme and a lemon, but I just took the plastic off the chicken and did it in the package, not realizing that I needed to take it out, then have it fully covered in the marinate. Anyway, I suck at anything to do with cooking, even the simplest of things, hopefully I start to learn a thing or 2 through experimentation.


Looks can be decieving! My roomate tried a piece though and said it was tasty...he could have just been being nice.

mmm, looks good man...i got a sweet recipe if you ever wanna cook up some crack

A few random comments...

-Yes, rice is a must with this. Give it a shot next time.
-Frozen veggies are fine in a stir fry (contrary to what someone else in this thread said).
-The foreman grill is also fine for a stir fry (see above).
-An easy marinade if you ever decide to go that route is soy sauce, honey, and garlic. Quick, easy, tasty. Of course a real steak lover doesn't need anything beyond salt and pepper, but that's a whole other issue.

Well done on the meal, it's a good start.

huuuu wannnn whhhiiii riiiiiiii?




dude your colombian you should be looking for the black beans and platinos

marinade only for your lower quality steaks like skirt steaks, the grilling steaks should go solo its all about the meat.

Can grilling on a George Foreman really be considered cooking? I mean, cmon, if youre going to gril something, then get GRILL it!

Get a mans grill, not one of those sissy, indoor Foreman doohickies.

being a student that thing saves lives.

Nice! The next time you're at Target, you might want to buy yourself a pre-filled 20-jar spice rack. They're pretty cheap, and give you lots of spices to experiment with the next time you do vegetables. (Or anything, really.)

I'm a big fan of using steel-cut oats in the place of rice: nutritionally speaking, it really blows it away. I eat savory oatmeal almost every day...stir in a spoonful of pesto and Parmesan and you'll be pleasantly surprised!

yum.

Troyomac, grilling is the easiest. thing. ever.

A few years ago, my friends and I got tired of consistently eating takeout and microwaveable pizzas, so five of us just rotated every weeknight, cooking a meal. Pretty much 100% of the meals were made on our grill. Steaks, chicken, pork, lamb- do each one a few times to get the hang of the timing of your particular grill, then start going nuts. You can buy prebought marinades, but making your own is better. It's absurd to marinate a good steak, but random crappy ones are okay. Always marinate your chicken, stuff like that. Always prepare a basic side dish (like Speedz said, rice is good, but Coos-coos is underrated).

Chicken stirfries are good, too, and chicken is easy to cook, and goes well with pretty much anything. You can marinate it in barbecue sauce, mango sauce, hot sauce, honey garlic- anything. But get creative. Start adding spices into your marinades, find something you really enjoy.

The next step is to start using dry rubs. For most meats, I like a rub more than a regular marinate, but whatever. It's all about just goofing around and having a good time. You can always find little easy recipes online, and then just modify them to taste. It's a riot if you get into it.

Wang

also, raymond, it seems as though you've used a sirloin for this. a hugely overrated cut, imho. filets do much better in sauces as they don't have a lot of taste to them on their own (which is why they usually come wrapped in bacon). if you want the steak flavor to stick around, a skirt steak marinated is usually going to do the same thing as a sirloin and save you a couple bucks.

i also h8 george foreman grills. i can never get them hot enough to really sear in any flavors/juices, but i suppose you could pan-sear a steak and then throw it in the grill, meh.

Here's the best cooking advise you'll ever get...

Go out, as soon as you can, and buy "The Joy of Cooking' This book changed my life... literally. It took me from someone who had problems boiling water into someone who cooks for himself almost all the time.. this book teaches you how to cook.. while it has alot of great recipes, it's NOT just a recipe book.. it talks about different cooking techniques, in detail.. it talks about ingredents and spices in DETAIL, and how to cook them, what they go best with.. it tells you how to cook all kinds of dishes, from baking cakes, to stuffed cabbage, to langsania to czimmis with potato knadle, to making hard candy. I mean, it runs the entire gambit of how to cook. It's absolutely the best book I own, no question.

Here is a menu for Mr. Ray

I made this saturday for a date at her appartment.

Organic Prochutto (well worth the price), wrapped around a nice piece of honey dew served with Kalamata olives.

Main Course

Package of ground veal....mix the veal with bread crumbs, fresh rosemarry, salt, pepper, onion, wine, and an egg. roll big balls (hehe i said balls)

In a deep sauce pan saute, garlic onions and put in balls till browned on one side...then deglaze with wine...add in crushed tomatoes, and a tin of tomatoe paste. bring to boil, reduce heat to medium, then allow cooking (while covered) for a good 45 minutes.

our desert, Asti and strawberries

I'd happily make a guest appearance in the kitchen at the checkymcfold house.

Looks like a good first attempt at cooking Troyo...just keep experimenting and you'll be cooking meals all the time soon.

Edit: Skirt steak is an excellent suggestion, try using flank steak as well. Both are excellent marinated.

Try this for a marinade:

(I don't do measuring, so I'm gonna guess on the quantity)

1/4-1/2 cup Mr. Yoshida's original Sweet & Savory Marinade

1/4 cup Soy Sauce (Kikkoman pls)

Tablespoon of Worchestershire sauce

Dash of gravy master

2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

fresh ground pepper

optional: some grated fresh ginger

Put all this in a gallon size ziplock bag with the meat for minimum of 3 hours, preferably overnight. Tasty.

A little brown sugar with freshly cooked carrots is very good.

You cannot even go wrong with putting some hamburgers, hot dogs, and italian sausages on the grill for an easy night of cooking.

If you are cooking some steaks, especially some thicker ones I recommend using lower heat and lots of seasoning. I've been raised on spices my whole life and just about everything has some garlic salt and hotshots pepper in it. Flava flave up in the hizzouse.

Also, when cooking on the grill, I highly recommend cutting up onion and some mushrooms and put into some tinfoil. Douse with butter, garlic salt, and hotshots pepper...maybe some wine or beer along with it. Throw that sucker on the grill and enjoy it with your steak.

Last bit of advice....

Always have a beer in your hand while cooking on the grill. It's basically a man law.

God no. High heat and not too much seasoning for good thick cuts of meat.

garlic you have minced yourself >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>garlic salt



True.

2 (1-pound) flat iron steaks or tri-tip steaks
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for garnish
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 1/2 cups dry red wine

Prepare the grill or barbecue (medium-high heat). Sprinkle the steaks with salt and pepper and drizzle with the 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Grill to desired doneness, about 5 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer the steaks to a cutting board. Tent with foil and let stand 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onions and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt. Add the garlic and oregano and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Whisk in the wine. Simmer until the sauce reduces by half, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat. Strain the sauce into a small bowl, pressing on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the solids in the strainer and return the sauce to the saucepan and bring back to a slow simmer. Cut the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter into small 1/2-inch chunks and whisk in the sauce a little at a time. Season the sauce, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Thinly slice the steaks across the grain. Divide the steak slices among 6 plates. Drizzle the sauce over the steak, drizzle a little more extra-virgin olive oil and serve.

Nice.



So key for most sauces, but a lot of people are pussies about it. I would replace the onion with shallots just to be smug about it.

Everything BigD said is true.

For those too lazy to read, the Food Network is a good passive way to pick up cooking techniques and things to try as well.

E-V-O-O!

For the high heat -- you don't want a nice thick filet burned on the outside and raw in the middle. I like mine medium.

With the seasoning, its all on the outside so its not like it will ruin the inside of the flavorful steak. I just like spices but to each their own.

Agreed with the garlic -- howevA, we are making this easy...for men.

You know what really grinds my gears? Every time she says EVOO she follows it up with the explanation. If you're going to say the full term, why bother with the initial acronym?



Oh...I guess I didn't realize you were talking about a filet. Since we're talking about cooking for men I assumed you were talking about a cut of meat meant for a man.

To each their own. Obviously if you like filets you don't love the taste of meat, so it makes sense to spice it up.

I'll give you that one...though I really think it's worth the extra effort.

She needs a dick in her mouth so we don't have to hear her voice.

SFO.

So fuckin' obvious.


























See what I did there?

Oh.. I may have a new signature!





Are we talking about that Everyday Italian chick, because she definitely needs my **** in her mouth. Rachael Ray is the type of woman I'd like to marry, and the every day italian woman is the type of woman I'd like to cheat on Rachael Ray with.... Everyday italian is the worst cooking show I've ever seen.... if it wasn't so awesome due it's smokin' hot host..

Nope, I was talking about Rachel Ray. Her voice annoys the piss out of me.

Obviously you've never seen Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller.

No exaggeration, I can cook better than that woman. I could rant about it for a while, but she's not worth my time and effort.

Well, I wouldn't say annoy, but it does inspire sadistic impulses in me, that's for sure.

Two more veggies:

Portobello mushrooms gill side up on the top rack of the grill for 15-20 minutes are excellent.

Any type of pepper roasted in the oven for 40 minutes at 375-400. Let cool in a closed paper bag and the skins will mostly come right off on their own. Peel the rest off. Slice in half and put a dollop of goat cheese in the middle. Or go nuts and make a madeira cream sauce, which works for the mushrooms too.

Dude - Troy's talking about grilling on a Foreman grill and you think he's ready for madeira sauce?

This aggression will not stand, man.

or put in a glass bowl and cover with saran. either works....this works well for garlic too...a nice roasted garlic paste is teh nutz

see you give such great advice! how can you dislike me so when we're on the same wavelength! plus we're both Jewish!

What is a good way to make a paste out of garlic, hidden?

I fucking heart garlic.

OMG goat cheese.

Let's not make things too complicated....but he could buy some goat cheese...and some figs and prosciutto.

Slice the figs in half, and sprinkle some brown sugar over the top.

Grill (or broil) for about 5-7 minutes, put a dollop on goat cheese on top, and wrap in a slice of prosciutto.

My mouth is happy just thinking about it.

Farking double post.

Enjoy my sig again.

I'm sure hidden has a better way, but if you want to made an easy garlic 'paste', just take a few heads of garlic and slice across the top so the heads are exposed. Lay them in a cookie tray and drizzle some olive oil on top and season with a little salt and pepper. Put 'em in the oven (375*) for 30-40 minutes or until soft. Let them cool for 20 minutes and take the heads and squeeze the cloves into a ziplock bag. Clip the corner of the bag and squeeze the desired amount into the dish of your choice. The bag o' garlic will keep in your fridge for a month.