Poll: Cooking

[Azure23]

I love cooking, I do it professionally (in a rather nice restaurant, not a fast food joint) and it's a constant source of pleasure and pride in my life.

One time I was visiting my fiancé's family and we wanted to do something really nice so we made a multi course game of thrones style meal (using recipes from A Feast of Ice and Fire, a very wonderful cookbook). I bought and butchered a rabbit for rabbit stew, we made a sweet meat pie with dates, buttered beets, shallow fried apple dumplings, and honeyed chicken. It was about three hours of cooking but ended up delicious and colorful. One of my proudest cooking moments was when I saw everything plated, it had a very nice balance on plate, and I'd layered gold and red beets in the roasting pan so the colors blended together and ended up looking like a sunset.

I polled my cooking at fantastic, I have many, many virtues, but modesty is not one of them.

 

[Seishisha]

I neglected to vote for lack of a mixed option, for me some things i can cook or bake exeptionaly well, other things i suck at horrendously.

I can make a perfect cake everytime but i can't make pastery without it sticking and tearing. Want me to mix you some pizza or bread dough you got it, want me to make you some toast i hope you like it burnt as fuck.

My skill level is all over the place. Guess i should have put more points into cooking.

 

[FPLOON]

I can cook breakfast, dessert, and do some grilling... Really should learn how to cook pizza so that I can honestly tell people that I can cook more than just breakfast and dessert since "grilling" doesn't count as cooking to those I regularly talk to that can cook...

Other than that, I can cook a mean salad... Oh wait...

 

[Ultress]

I can cook fairly okay,have a few recipes I learned from either the internet of my mom. I mostly just find something I want to try and get a recipe from the internet. I'm a pretty terrible improviser and tend to use to much cayenne pepper. I'm a bit better at baking sweets, I can make some good cakes,cookies and pies. I do really enjoy making devil's food cake and I feel I have a better handle on these kinds of things,mostly just from doing it so much.

 

[The Eupho Guy_v1legacy]

I'm not that great at cakes and biscuits and such, but otherwise I'd class myself as a good cook. I mainly stick to casseroles and curries, but I can also make my own bread. The most recent thing I've cooked was a butter chicken rice bake, which turned out pretty well, all things considered. One thing that concerned me was cooking rice uncovered in an oven, but cooking the rice a little short (so that there was still a small amount of liquid in the rice) and a bit of olive oil spray kept the rice from baking hard.

 

[Fijiman]

I don't cook. If I can't stick it in the toaster oven or the microwave it ain't happening.

 

[Prime_Hunter_H01]

I said Awful only because Fresh from arse to plate wasn't an option.

Then again I hate cooking so much so i don't really have an incentive to get better.

 

[Guffe]

I'd like to say my cooking is good, it isn't mindblowing in anyway, and I usually just make homemade food, nothing facy, so I don't even think it can be excellent
My brother has a degree in cooking/chef whatever its name is so some of the stuff he likes to make is actually good, but as I said, that's restaurant level food, my homecooking is better than his

 

[revjor]

I cook for a living. I do alright. I'd try soaking the potatoes in water after you slice them for an hour or two. It'll pull a lot of the starch out of the potato, make them less sticky and have a crispier finish. It sounds to me though that you need to grease the pan. Cooking spray or spreading cooking oil on the baking surface with a paper towel should do the trick. You can trust me because:

I be fantastic cook.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/390097_10100715919069348_1042000292_n.jpg?oh=8534ebb147a2a3f21e3e8dda6789216e&oe=559898CB&__gda__=1437080384_4a42d78f8ca04fcd72447ee7be22dcd1

I be breakfast.
https://scontent-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/304138_10100648127623948_1554735123_n.jpg?oh=2cf72adc5d0fcddc9aa4d006fe795dde&oe=55973572

I be lunch.
https://scontent-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/549730_10101087071387128_1713334825_n.jpg?oh=dc65813ec6fd9206a0b35e3a633c8cf8&oe=55B05B93

I be dinner.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/p180x540/430311_10101975896130218_2006149227_n.jpg?oh=7ffeeea09fc53664f76ce373f463972b&oe=55A603FC&__gda__=1436016973_2bee5da12cd402fa89cf948723ef837a

I be dessert.
https://scontent-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/428299_10100916300483388_2011923343_n.jpg?oh=c7e1b82f170f5105e195f1fc07cf383f&oe=55E0CC23

and I even be zombie meatloaf.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/t31.0-8/10580652_10103535302182988_9213477787057503497_o.jpg

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

 

[Summerstorm]

Hm... well i CAN cook a bit. I just don't do it often, WAY too much frozen pizza/somethingsomething in a can in my diet.

IF i am on a vacation or every few weekends i do cook or bake myself something. Usually way to fatty and unhealthy, but pretty good i would say. Like to experiment or fuse similar recipes. It's fun. I would hate to cook for more people though... too much pressure

So i am between "I don't cook" and "good"

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

I can cook "stew". Chop vegetables, throw in pan, boil until mushy. Add meat. Boil some more. Eat delicious mush.

I'm cooking some right now. I can post an incredibly appetising picture when it's finished.

 

[Colour Scientist]

I can cook a few things pretty well.

Most commonly, I make stir-fries, curries (I make a mean Thai Red Curry) and chilli for myself.

I can make a good roast but most of the time I'm only cooking for one, so I rarely get the opportunity.

My roster also includes lasagne, bolognese, carbonara (the proper way, no cream) and some other bits and pieces.

I don't necessarily enjoy cooking (or cleaning up) but I try to stay away from convenience frozen food or heavily processed food.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

I cook steak. When the steak starts to burn its ready.

I do have fun makeing spaghetti Bolognase, buying Passata sauces and dolling it up with garlic and chilli, lots of chilli.

 

[EvilRoy]

I tend to struggle on presentation, but typically I can be a fairly fantastic cook. I marked good because the presentation side drags my grade down. The other day I made a delightful broth which I used to cook some bone marrow to have over rice. Just horrible for you, really awful amounts of oil in that, but it is just fantastic over bread and rice with a dish of the broth on the side. Did not have good luck making bullion gelatin (sp?) cubes out of that stuff, but I think it was because a little oil escaped and interfered with the gelatin solidifying.

I've managed to impress reasonably well with some crossbreed foods, where I take americanized mexican and alter them to have a more traditional mexican ingredient base, but keep the cooking methods introduced in the americanization. The reverse is also quite nice. A simple tamale burrito based on the taco bell style recipe can be made excellent by using a slower water based cook style for the meat to draw out grease, and substituting real hot sauce for the ketchup they use.

I do struggle with pastry though. Cannot produce a pastry to save my life most of the time, and when I do it usually goes stale before anyone has it.

Stuff looks great.

Like, really good, but you have to be one of the first cooks I've met that actually cook for themselves on downtime. My buddies that used to work as chefs absolutely never cooked after work - its only now that they don't work in a restaurant that they spend ridiculous amounts of time trying to perfect recipes or reproduce the effects of fancy cookware that they no longer have access to.

I've been getting tips from my buddy to improve my efforts, but I think the fact that I will happily spend two hours making a single meal for myself drives him nuts.

 

[Bizzaro Stormy]

Do I have time, the recipe, and the ingredients? My wife is without question a better cook, but she also has more practice. I'm quite pleased with my baking, and am improving my grilling. So far the closest I came to a disaster was when part of a plum pudding I'd been working on for months hit my kitchen floor. It could be salvaged but the house did smell like I'd murdered a wino for a while.

 

[You Can't Take the Sky From Me]

(And if anyone has any idea how I can stop these freaking potatoes from sticking every damn time I would appreciate it).

Preheat the pan by leaving it in the oven as it comes up to temp and then oil it. Heating the pan causes it to expand, allowing the oil into any micro-cracks or scratches and will help prevent sticking. You can also use parchment paper or a silicon cooking sheet if you have it.

On Topic: My cooking is generally considered quite good. I've been working on it for nearly twenty years and have had several opportunities to learn from, and work with, classically trained chefs in my region.

 

[FalloutJack]

I can follow any recipe and experiment a little. I'm good.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

I'm not bad, made Jambalaya for the first time a coule of days ago and it came out okay. Wanna try and make Gumbo next.

 

[jademunky]

I'm pretty good. I started cooking for my wife and I two years back and do it nearly every day now. I cook some fantastic meatball soups and casseroles, have started getting creative with marinades and even tried some vegan recipes (which are both surprisingly tasty and hella cheap).

Honestly, if I were 18 again, I'd consider a culinary school rather than going into banking.

Oh and to the OP, just buy some parchment paper and lay it onto the baking pan first.
Edit: I see someone already suggested that.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

I chose good
I did have some trouble with my new ceramic frying pan however, it developed brown lines along the edge and i have no idea why, also it burns most things i put in it
Practically stopped using it, today i made some good burgers in my small teflon pan with pickles and mustard, had no dressing

Before i moved to my own apartment i barely ever used the oven to cook, now i barely not use the oven to cook