Cooking

I have a side project called Shane Learns to Cook in which I, Shane, learn to cook.

You can see some of my favourite posts below, or you can follow my project on Instagram for all the latest.

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HELLO SORRY IT'S BEEN A WHILE. It's been a busy few weeks and the time that I've had to cook has mostly been spent redoing the dishes I've already posted on this account. Which would be boring to talk about again. BUT I'M BACK, BABY. This concoction is a sausage pasta bake with mozzarella and WAAAAAYY too much tomato. The recipe called for three tins of tomatoes and that is simply too many. It was overpowering. Then again, I didn't put as much garlic in as the recipe called for. Because I, uh, forgot to add it. Maybe it would have helped but to be honest I doubt it – there was just SO much sauce. Anyway other than that it was tasty. Quite spicy too, more than I was expecting, but that was probably my fault because I put a few too many chilli flakes in. Actually, now that I think about it I changed pretty much every part of the recipe…I used different cheese, more sausage, different pasta, less garlic, more chilli…does this make me a chef now?! 👨‍🍳 I'll be back, sometime. Cheers for following, I love you 😘 INGREDIENTS: Pasta Sausage Tinned tomatoes Mozzarella Oregano Chilli flakes Bread crumbs An oven #shanelearnstocook #dinner #cooking #learningtocook #pasta #pastabake #sausage #mozzarella #jamieoliver

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I MADE CHICAGO-STYLE STUFFED DEEP DISH PIZZA! OK, some background. Giordano's is a chain of pizza restaurants in Chicago and the surrounding area, and those who know me will know it is my favourite food in the world. I can't describe adequately how much I adore it. This was my attempt at a recreation. This type of pizza is kind of built backwards: toppings at the bottom, then topped with a tomato sauce. It also has a layer of extra crust between the cheese and the sauce. It took a lonnnnnnng time to make it. By my standards, anyway. Four hours from start to finish. I made everything by hand except for the tomato sauce (which is passata). And, no, it isn't as good as Giordano's. The negatives: the base was too thick making it very tricky to cut. It also wasn't quite a deep as I would have liked but I could only use the cake tin I had available. The passata, also, wasn't really 'authentic' enough. I think I'd make a sauce myself if I ever do this again. I probably WILL make it again, as it was still very good and I hope I've done one of my favourite cities in the world proud. The selfie, by the way, shows my Hamilton Chicago flag t-shirt. Felt appropriate to wear it. (Hamilton has nothing to do with pizza but WHATEVER. It's still a Chicago flag.) So, not perfect, but I gave it a good go and I'm very happy with the result. It's by far the most adventurous thing I've ever cooked and I'm rather proud of myself right now. PAT ON THE BACK, GOOD JOB SHANE. Ingredients: Normal pizza dough stuff (flour, yeast, sore arms from kneading, mild anxiety etc.) Mozzarella with garlic and oregano Pepperoni Passata Hopes and dreams Lin Manuel Miranda #food #cooking #chicago #pizza #chicagopizza #giordanos #learningtocook #dough #hamilton

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Next up in "Shane's adventures in making delicious food but absolutely messing up the photography of said food" is this…thing. I don't actually know what to call it succinctly. But it's sweet potatoes stuffed with a chickpea, spinach and onion mash and topped with mozzarella. Reader, it is very tasty. I've actually made this before, a few months before this account existed, thus making the entire concept of this account TECHNICALLY a lie. However, I don't care because this is Good Food. Not sure what else to say, really. You bake a sweet potato, scoop it out, mix it with some veg and chickpeas, top it with mozzarella, then bake it again. What's not to like?? This is the end of the post, thank you. Ingredients: I literally listed all of the ingredients above and I am too lazy to do it again. #food #dinner #cooking #learningtocook #sweetpotato #chickpeas #spinach #stuffed #goodfood #badphotography #tasty #delicious #hashtag

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Something a little different for tonight: a British delicacy in the form of toad in the hole. No toads were harmed in the making of this dinner. For those who don't know, it's essentially twice-baked sausages covered with pancake/Yorkshire pudding batter. I used high quality sausages and overall it turned out really well! I think it looked great and it tasted delicious. To go alongside the toad, I made my own mashed potato. I have a long history with mashed potato – I have fond memories of helping my grandmother to make it when I was a kid. The two of us would squash them in a ricer, and I loved being the 'official taster' to make sure there was enough butter and salt inside. When I was old enough, I was given the power of the potato peeler and, well, peeled the potatoes. Doing the same process tonight (albeit with a masher rather than a ricer) really brought back some memories! The mash was a touch lumpy but tasted good. (The toad would have burned if I hadn't hurried to start mashing.) You can see peas in the picture but, like, they're Bird's Eye frozen ones so not really anything to explain there. Wow I've been typing for a while. Anyway: GOOD MEAL. EASY. WILL MAKE AGAIN. Ingredients: Sausages Flour Eggs Milk Butter Potatoes Peas #shanelearnstocook #cooking #dinner #food #yum #learningtocook #britishfood #toadinthehole #mash #kitchen

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I made another curry! This time, I used a completely different recipe, by some bloke called Jamie Oliver or something. Never heard of him. The end result is that it was excellent! Way better than the curry I made previously. Very flavoursome and just enough heat for a bit of a kick without being overpowering. The recipe called for a couple of spoons of mango chutney at the end and, if I'm honest, I think that was maybe a bit too much as it was rather sweet. I chucked some yellow pepper in which wasn't actually in the recipe but I think it was a good move. Maybe also contributed to the sweetness, though. In conclusion: GOOD. TASTY. NICE. Ingredients: Chicken Lentils Chopped tomatoes Coconut milk Yellow pepper Curry paste Tomato puree Mango chutney Onion Garlic Ginger #cooking #learningtocook #curry #chickencurry #indianfood #homemade #tasty #jamieoliver #recipe #food

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Carrot fritters. These were the first thing I made that made me think, "Hey, I'm actually getting better at this cooking thing!" They were super delicious and very simple. The white stuff on top is tzatziki which is literally my least favourite word to spell. The red stuff on top of *that* is something called bul Piper which is…a red spice? I dunno man it was tasty though. There are also some very plain looking new potatoes. I DIDN'T OVERCOOK THEM. I actually UNDERCOOKED them. Take THAT, ongoing theme!! (Seriously though they were half-raw. So I'm not exactly a master chef just yet.) Ingredients: Carrot (no shit, Sherlock) Chickpeas New potatoes Tzatziki Bul Piper or whatever it's called I think there were egg yolks as a binding agent but 🤷‍♂️ Photos taken 9/3/19

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So this was the first thing I attempted to cook as part of this journey, a #chicken #curry. It was genuinely the first time I'd ever cooked meat (yes, seriously). Luckily, salmonella was avoided, so I chalked that up as a success! The actual curry was a little flavourless and the sauce was much too thin. And I overcooked the rice. But it was edible, for sure. I've attempted it a couple of times since (you can see those photos elsewhere on this profile) to a bit more success and I'll experiment more in future. Ingredients: Chicken breast Red peppers Fine green beans Onion Garlic Tinned tomatoes Chicken stock Coconut oil Coconut milk Curry paste Lime juice Photos taken 9/2/19 #cooking #learningtocook #shanelearnstocook #kitchen #food #dinner #lunch #recipe #curry #chicken #chickencurry #recipe

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First post on this account, so I suppose I'd best explain the point of this whole thing. I don't like food. I've always been a fussy eater. Since I was a kid, I've baked from time to time, but my cookery was limited to heating up frozen processed foods or microwave meals. I decided to change that. So a few weeks ago, I decided that every Saturday – or most of them, at least – I'd try to cook something completely from scratch. I'll begin by posting my first few dishes in one go, then make a post every time I cook something. Or attempt to. If you're looking for healthy, original recipes, this ain't the place. If you're looking for stunning pictures of stumptuous food, this ain't the place. If you want to have a laugh at a full-grown man finally trying to gain a life skill he probably should have done over a decade ago, well, it'll be nice to have you along for the ride 😉 #cooking #learningtocook #shanelearnstocook #kitchen #food #dinner #lunch #recipe

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