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I've been teaching myself cooking

El Rubio said:
First, you make a roux.
Half the recipes in Louisiana begin with that instruction. It’s basically flour and oil cooked until it browns into a napalm-like paste. It adds some nutty flavor and thickens liquids. It’s almost an art form here and can take 30 minutes on the stove. The trick is to bring it up to varying degrees of darkness without burning it. Recently, I have been making it in the microwave. I have burned one this way though and had to start over. What would have taken 20-30minutes on the stove was ready in 3-4 minutes.
Learn to make a roux and it opens the door for many dishes.
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My least favorite part of cooking Cajun is roux. I normally get impatient and crank the heat, still kind of works but cleaning the pot afterwards is a nightmare. I make a good collard green gumbo.
 
djwhy60 said:
Oh I am sorry Brother....
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Thanks...LOL. I'd use that jar everytime otherwise, actually gets rave reviews also. Best gumbo I've ever had, which is something special considering I still think about it 30 yrs later, was from a place in Bossier City, LA called the Tiger Bar. Found it while on TDY, went for a bowl everyday I was there.
 
My mother browns the roux in the oven and it is excellent.

Personally, I started out making some roux pancakes that went in the garbage. Watched an old Paul Prudhomme video and everything has came out perfect since. Not sure if this is the exact video or batch, but all of his stuff worth watching.

 
OP: Congrats on the potatoes and for starting this journey, it will pay off in the end. I started in the 60's in self defense. My mom was the only one who could cook and that was when she started to take weekends away from the home to destress. (long story for another time). No one else could cook so I started to. I picked stews to start with, beef, tomato sauce base, onions, carrots, celery as part of the dish cause that's what I had seen my mom doing and the rest is history. Later I started watching cooking shows on PBS Saturday mornings and started learning a lot. My go to became the cook book my mom had in the house: The Settlement Cook book. Out of print now but sometimes available on the auction site.

Here is a tip, build your skills slowly over time and add new equipment to your kitchen slowly, over time, only as your skills grow into the tool (pots, pans, dutch oven, knives food processor, etc). Hold off on the purchase until you feel the real need and then spend the money for the tool you need with the idea of buy once, cry once. (We needed a new food processor about or 10 years ago, our "cheap" one craped out and we took the plunge for a good one at about $175 back then. It is a tank and has taken everything I throw at it without complaint. Not everything needs to be expensive though. Year after year America's test kitchen tests 8" chief's knives and the Victorinox Fibrox consistently wins. It costs far less then both Wusthof and Henckels and wins against them regularly.

Good luck with the journey and to quote Julia "Bon Appetit".

Shelly_D
 
I used a recipe from Prudhomme’s cookbook for my first dinner I cooked for my wife. Now he is notorious for over spicing anything he gets near….but I was going to impress this woman.
I made Shepard’s Pie from his cookbook, and I cut the spices by half…..didn’t help, it came out so %^%%$#hot even I didn’t like it. Enough wine and I still made out ok……
But we’re still together, and as she’s Italian, and I’ma wanna-be-Italian, so I can do a lot of what we like but I still don’t use that cookbook to this day. I have plenty of other author signed books, like Vincent Price’s Cookbook from 1980?
 
CT Jim said:
I used a recipe from Prudhomme’s cookbook for my first dinner I cooked for my wife. Now he is notorious for over spicing anything he gets near….but I was going to impress this woman.
I made Shepard’s Pie from his cookbook, and I cut the spices by half…..didn’t help, it came out so %^%%$#hot even I didn’t like it. Enough wine and I still made out ok……
But we’re still together, and as she’s Italian, and I’ma wanna-be-Italian, so I can do a lot of what we like but I still don’t use that cookbook to this day. I have plenty of other author signed books, like Vincent Price’s Cookbook from 1980?
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That sucks. Sometimes I forget that I have a high tolerance for heat. One of my neighbors originated from not local and I will occasionally make a special batch of whatever for them before I add the heat.

Try this out for Shephard's pie. Classic Shepherds Pie Recipe
If you can find a frozen Mezcla Campesina Blend, that is a good shortcut on the vegetables.
 
Yeah, that's true. The recipe name is bastardized over here like so many other things. If you mention cottage pie, you would likely end up with a blank look from everyone.

What makes my eyes roll is when someone uses "authentic" in several cases. The important thing is that it ranges from edible to delicious for the end result.
 
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