How do I take cooking to the next level?

How do I take cooking to the next level?

At the moment, everything is just "fry every in a pan, serve with rice/pasta"

I want to be able to create food that gets people go "Wow, you made this?"

tl;dr impressive but simple meals

next time you cook, don't fry everything in a pan and serve it with rice or pasta.

seriously what the fuck is this 'so far i have only done one specific thing. how do i progress?'

DO ANOTHER THING

>DO ANOTHER THING

that is quite literally, not even in the memey sense of the word, LITERALLY WHAT I JUST ASKED. WHAT DO I DO?

Huh?

LITERALLY ANYTHING THAT IS NOT THE THING YOU HAVE BEEN DOING

FUCK. I DON'T KNOW. ROAST A FUCKING CHICKEN.

>looking for ideas

find the 'home cooked meals' thread and go from there. look at the pics. do what they do..

>WHAT DO I DO?

You do it. Obviously.

>WHAT DO I DO?
There are too many options to list, user. Start grilling. Or braising. Or learn to make a pot roast. Try fermenting vegetables. Or experiment with making your own cheese. Get into pickling. Or smoking. Dry-age some meat. Go hunting and get some wild game.

Anyway, my advice for the two things that really upped my cooking game:
1) Ingredient quality. Not all produce, meats, spices, etc. are created equal. Pay attention to detail and get the good stuff (which isn't necessarily the most expensive), the payoff is huge.

2) Stock. I cannot stress how important good stock is so learn to make it. It improves everything: soups, sauces, and stews are obvious. But it's even more useful than that: cook your rice or veggies in stock instead of water. Add to the roasting pan when cooking meats in the oven. There are countless uses for it in the kitchen, and proper homemade stuff kicks the crap out of bullion cubes and canned.

Use a pressure cooker
Use your oven

I have neither of those things. I have 3 gas rings and that is it. No microwave, no kettle, no toaster, no blender, just uite literally 3 gas rings and 3 different sized pota and pans

Have you considered the possibility of getting useful kitchen tools that you don't currently have?

I have very little space, what would be the single most inportant tool I could get

Try making other shit, like a curry or something.

a brain

huh?

Easy.

What was the last memorable meal you had at a restaurant? Or at someone's house? Or what did your parents used to cook that you really liked but don't know how to make? What image on here or reddit or whatever floats your boat makes your mouth water?

Start there.

'go 'za

Answer to all those questions

but no oven

moving from frying to grilling is a pretty good next step.

The secret to that is learning complimentary seasonings and what foods combine well.
I make a roasted salmon over rice pilaf with red asian slaw and peanut sauce that is one of my go-to dishes for dinner parties because it's actually very simple and ALWAYS wows people. Every time I serve it, people are like "You should open a restaurant!!" (even though I know they're just be overly-enthusiastic), but they genuinely are impressed.
That's just one example.

My point is that you need to learn flavor combining and good cooking technique and seasonings. And plating. How a dish is plated is actually pretty important. It helps create layers of your flavors.

The George Foreman grill is pretty handy.

It's also redundant. Anything he could use the Foreman for he could do in a plain 'ol frying pan on the stove. Buying the foreman wouldn't add any cooking capability that he doesn't already have.

OP doesn't have an oven? There's a big fucking red flag. Get one. Don't have room for a full-size oven? Get a toaster oven.

I don't have room for a toaster oven, I live in a literal box room

Have you considered moving? I have no idea if that's possible or not, but I can't possibly see how someone who is interested in cooking well can get by with 3 hobs and nothing else.

Do you have access to anything outdoors? A grill, perhaps? Maybe one in a park or communal area?

>implying you can't wow people with pan fried dishes

fresh herbs on top
dry fry nuts/ sesame seeds until golden on top
If you fry meat, make a pan sauce
Chilli, garlic, ginger
Add potatoes and flatbread to your 'serve with' repertoire

my advice would be to never underestimate the value of marinades for your meat. Nothing special, just cut your meat (if it's fish don't forget to debone it if necessary), toss it in a ziplock bag with your marinade and let it sit in the fridge for like 30 minutes.

Then just season it and fry it up in a pan with a bit of oil or butter.

Who's the pug in the pic' ?

marinades are a meme, much better to build a sauce at the end of cooking otherwise shit just burns/ it's a waste of time.

dry brining aka salt is the only good meat prep

You could google "Mastering the Art of French Cooking pdf".
Learn what's written there and you will have a good understanding of the basics. Then you can move on to more sophisticated and better dishes.

Who is this Mayonnaise Maiden?

Pressure cook a roast. Throw some baby carrots, quartered red potatoes and mushrooms in with it. Foolproof

>FUCK. I DON'T KNOW.
Maybe now you see OPs problem you stupid shit. Determining what you ant to do is exactly the most important step to getting out of a rut. OP, try some nice hearty soups. We're getting into winter so it'll be nice to have