for me to learn how to cook!!!
It will be a rocky road with many casualties…but I have prolonged this for too long…so now its do or die!
So can anyone advise me on what dishes I should start off with… and any tips for this newbie would be greatly appreciated.
Any other newbie’s here…could you share your experiences as well?
Thanks!
Re: the time has come....
easy ... start with karahi's , daals ... they are easy ... pasta lasagne ... are all pretty easy actually ...
Rice is a tricky one , where you will have some casualties for sure ... but you will know after a few times how to get them right ...
What kind of food do you want to learn to cook? I know desi cooking more then any other thing .. can help you with it ... let me know ...
Re: the time has come....
Start with making omelettes, then rice, then dal, or, just pick out 2-3 of your favorite dishes.
Cooking is not a big deal.
Re: the time has come…
yeah , infact, I think if you choose the slightly harder ones to begin from , you will learn quicker … I did .. I started with karahi’s and vegetable dishes and kababs … and slowly got into rice dishes … and finally the toughest ones : haleem and nihari etc etc …
and I still fear baking and grills 
Re: the time has come....
I want to learn desi food!! And you know i tried cooking daal like a few days back...and i BURNED it!!! :(
What i can "cook" is chai lol, and i have tried making qeema, and I can make roti...but that's about it...oh and I sorta know how to make lasagna and I can bake french fries :P
CB what exactly is Karahi's?
Re: the time has come....
Its Karachi with out a sea
Re: the time has come....
Malika,
Work on making a good masala and any dish you make will turn out well. It's the base of any good dish, if that is lacking then you won't get far.
Try the step by step recipes which guppies have shared. Sometimes having a guide makes things easy.
It's weird. I can cook but I could not boil eggs. I have just managed to master that.
Practise, patience and a decent recipe and you will be well on your way to becoming a good cook.
confuse the bichari bachi further
Malika , meat ( chicken /lamb/ beef ) can be made in different ways … using different methods , for example :
1- Chicken karahi ( the masala is usually thick )
2- Balti chicken ..
3- Korma ( cooked in yoghurt and tomato )
4- khara masala ( masala that is coarse and not very finely blended )
and many more variations …
I suggested Karahi , because its an easier option , plus if you can make keema , then surely you wont find it as difficult …
Secondly more then learning the dishes itself , focus on learning the process of cooking , the tips of handling emergencies , like when food is burning what to do , or when is the right time to add spices to avoid them burning ..etc etc. .
If you want , i can give you a very simple karahi recipe … along with the cooking tips … you can do that and then we can move on to a few other things … ?
Re: the time has come…
Infact Malika I am going to open a new thread for new cooks … and start writing a few nice and easy recipes with cooking tips .. we can together try a new dish every week and ultimately … 
CB..your my hero!!! lol
I would LOVE that!!! (especially the tip part…like how to salvage burnt food…aka daal etc…or yea when to add certain ingredients and when not to…because its all sooo overwhelming!!!
Re: the time has come....
May your journey be successful young one.
Re: the time has come....
firstly, congratulations on taking a solid step towards family life. its not all wedding planning and color choices.
learn a few staple dishes from your mom/grandmom/dad etc. usually moms, after years of having had to prepare food, know all the tricks of the trade, without compromising on taste (something a lot of frustrated newbie cooks do by cutting the wrong corners.)
lastly, stay away from desi recipes on online blogs. 99% of these are worthless experiments of some fobs who suddenly find they are in a land where no one'll cook for them - not worth imitating.
Re: the time has come....
One of my old posts:
As long as you have some basic concepts of desi cooking and use Shan Masala you will be in good shape. I never boiled an egg before Hijrat to USA. But I had learned the basic concepts of cooking just by overhearing the conversation of my mother , sister, bhabies etc. So for a man I can cook anything now and my wife and my kids love it when I make something over the weekends.
The basic rules of Desi cooking are:
1. You have to watch whatever you are cooking till it is ready to serve. For example if you are cooking Biryani and making masala for it you have to constantly stir and watch till it is fried and you can see the oil on top and around the masala.
2. How to fry the onion till they are brown same thing keep watching them till they are almost brown and take them down a couple of minutes before they are brown otherwise they will go black.
3. If you are making something which will have thick curry or thick masala e.g karahi gosht do not put water in it the meat will dehydrate and will provide enough water for thick curry or masala for it.
4. If you are cooking rice do not put too much water in it the rule of thumb is to put the rice in pot you want to cook it in then put your finger in the layer of rice and pour water in the pot make sure the water is one finger joint higher than the layer of rice.
5. While cooking vegetable never put water . The vegetables have enough water already in them to cook themselves in.
6. If something goes bad or does not taste good just put some chaat masala and cook for few minutes the taste of the chat masala will takeover the bad taste of whatever you cooked. I have salvaged my or my wife's prepared dishes this way.
7. IF everything else fails pickup the phone and call someone to get the instructions before you start to prepare a desi dish and keep calling them after every step till you have that perfect dish ready to serve.
8. Don't serve anything new you cook before you taste it yourself and like it.