Basic Cooking Techniques
Rice
Rice can be cooked in a number of ways. The fastest is the "rapid boil" method in which you heat a large saucepan full of water until it boils, add the appropriate quantity of rice and boil, uncovered, until tender (about 15 minutes for white or quick-cook brown rice and about 30 minutes for brown rice), then drain in a sieve or colander. 1 cup of raw white rice makes about 3 cups of cooked, while with brown rice you get more like 2-1/2 cups cooked rice. Despite the title, the rice doesn't need to boil rapidly - turn the temperature down to about medium once it begins to boil.
A slower method which preserves more of the nutrients in the rice is called the "absorption method". With this one, you put an appropriate amount of water on to boil, add the rice, turn down to low, cover and cook until all the water is absorbed (about twice as long as the times for rapid boil). Proportions of water to rice vary considerably depending on the type of rice so check the packet for instructions. Electric rice cookers use the absorption method and will give you instructions for the correct proportions of rice to water. If you follow the directions and your rice is still a bit crunchy, add a little more water next time. If it's too softy and sticky, add less. I usually find I add less for brown rice and often need more for white rice.
Rice can also be cooked in a microwave, although it is not much faster than cooking it on a stove. Because microwaves vary so much, you should check the manual for your particular microwave. You can buy special microwave rice cookers which some people really like.
Cooked rice can be kept in the fridge for several days or frozen and reheated in the microwave or by placing in a sieve and pouring boiling water over it. If you eat a lot of rice, an electric rice cooker might be a good investment.
Pasta (includes spaghetti, macaroni, fettuccine etc)
Again, bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and add the pasta. Boil rapidly, uncovered until pasta is al dente (with no whitish core in the middle, but still firm) - this will take about 8-15 minutes, depending on the type of pasta. Fresh pasta takes even less time, but is very expensive to buy. Drain in a sieve or colander as soon as the pasta is cooked. You can also buy 3-minute pasta which cooks in about 3-5 minutes depending on the size of the pieces, but I don't think it tastes as good as the regular pasta.
To cook in a microwave, place the required amount of pasta in a deep bowl, add enough boiling water to cover by about 2 cm and cook on high for 3 minutes for 3 minute pasta, and about 10 minutes for ordinary pasta. You should stir ordinary pasta half way through or it tends to cling together in clumps. Check and cook longer if required. Note that in a microwave the more pasta you put in, the longer it takes to cook.
Vegetables
Vegetables can be boiled, steamed, baked (not green vegetables) or microwaved. If you are boiling or steaming them, they can all be cooked in the one saucepan, as long as you stagger the times you put them in according to the length of time they will take to cook.
For example, to cook potatoes, pumpkin and a green vegetable put about 3 cm water in the bottom of a saucepan, put in the steamer basket if using it, put the lid on and put on hotplate on high. While waiting for the water to boil, wash potatoes and cut into pieces a bit larger than a large egg. Add to the boiling water (or the steamer basket), replace the lid and turn the heat down low enough to keep the water boiling gently (medium heat or a little lower) and put the timer on for 10 minutes (or note the time). Cut pumpkin into similar sized pieces and add to the saucepan after the potatoes have been on for ten minutes, put the timer on for another 10 minutes, then prepare the green vegetables. Add these to the saucepan at the end of the second ten minutes, replace the lid again and cook for another ten minutes, then check - a fork should go through the vegetables fairly easily.
7-8 cm long pieces of carrot take about the same time to cook as potato but thin carrot slices only take as long as green vegetables.
For frozen vegetables, follow the instructions on the packet. Check from time to time that there is still water in the bottom of the saucepan. If you have to add extra, wait until it returns to the boil before beginning to time again.
To microwave a mixture of vegetables, put the hard ones (potato, pumpkin, carrot) on the outside of a large dish or the carousel, and green vegetables on the inside. Hard vegetables take 8-10 minutes for every 500 g (depending on the power of the microwave) and soft vegetables take 4-5 minutes for every 500 g. Add times together to get total time. For example to cook 500 g potato and 600 g broccoli in an 800 W microwave, you would need to cook for a total time of 16 minutes. In a 1000 W microwave, it would be about 12-1/2 minutes.
To bake vegetables without using huge amounts of fat, cut into even sized pieces and place in a plastic bag with about 1 teasp oil per person. Holding the top of the bag closed, shake until all pieces of vegetable are evenly coated. Place on a lightly greased baking tray in one layer and put in an oven at about 200 degrees C (450 degrees F) and cook until browned and a fork or knife inserted into them goes in easily. For potatoes about twice the size of an egg, allow about an hour. Most green vegetables don't bake well, but chokoes, zucchini (courgettes) and squash are exceptions. Squash and zucchini take about half the time of other vegetable pieces of the same size.
Potatoes can be baked in their jackets sitting on a metal oven tray or even straight on the rungs of the oven shelves. It's a good idea to prick the skins with a fork or sharp knife (only 2-3 holes needed) so that the skins don't burst.
Commonly used cooking terms
Sauté (pronounced SO-tay) - fry in a small amount of hot oil until it is soft and lightly browned, stirring fairly frequently
Simmer - cook over a low heat so that the liquid is just bubbling gently
Boil - cook over moderate to high heat so that the liquid is bubbling rapidly
Cream - beat butter or margarine and sugar together until they are light in colour and fluffy in texture (like whipped cream). Purists would say that all the sugar needs to be dissolved, but unless you're entering your cake in a competition, this isn't necessary.
Bake - cook in an oven
Roast - also cook in an oven, but normally applies to joints of meat or poultry and to vegetables that have been cooked in large amounts of fat.
Stir fry - to cook on the stove top in a small amount of oil, enough to just cover the surface of the pan - similar to sauté, really.
Shallow fry - to cook in the stove top in a bit more oil - perhaps 0.5 cm deep
Deep fry - to cook in enough oil to completely immerse a food. Unless you have a special deep fryer, never leave oil in which you are deep frying or heating to deep fry unattended. Unwatched oil can cause kitchen fires which are very scarey. Deep fried food is also bad for your health, and the amount of oil you need is quite expensive!
Marinate - to cover food in a liquid and allow to stand for some time before cooking. The longer you allow food to stand, the better the flavour, but if you intend to marinate for more than 10-15 minutes, it should be done in the refrigerator. Note also that marinades do not normally prevent normal spoiling of food - you cannot marinade a food for longer than its normal storage life in the fridge.
Blanch - to immerse raw food for a short time in boiling water and then plunge into iced water. This stops food from going brown and destroys any bacteria or mould spores that might be on it.
Standard Australian metric measurements
1 cup contains 250 ml
1 litre contains 4 cups
1 tablespoon contains 20 ml
1 teaspoon contains 5 ml
NB: Some metric spoon sets come from England or the US where 1 tablespoon = 15ml. If you are thickening sauces or if the recipe has 2 tablespoons or more of and ingredient, this can make a significant difference, so check your tablespoon size to avoid disappointment.