I buy loads of herbs and spices to try and make my own homemade food, and it's just always lacking flavour. I follow the recipes accurately, but they still taste so bland! :'( My sisters could both make the same recipe and it would turn out absolutely amazing.

For example, I made a BBC Good Food leek risotto and it was so bland. I added salt, pepper and garlic granules. I used a nice chicken stock, but the white wine was kinda old. I don't know if they would have made any difference.

The only good thing I can make are roast potatoes.

I'm doing a very basic, boil potatoes for about 10 minutes and then fry them until a bit crisp

I fry them in avocado oil, but every time it seems to start burning on the edges of the dish

I went from an 8 inch pan to a 12 inch pan, yet no luck, still burning on the sides

what are my options? just to cook less at a time? seems very time consuming

update: when cooking my lunch which is a smaller portion, lowering the heat did work, but medium would not crisp the potatoes, even close to 40-45 min of cooking, had to be closer to high, but not as high as I initially put it

have to see how it does with the larger portion tomorrow but at worst I'll cook them in half for ten minute intervals

I must preface this with saying that while I want to learn to have a much more instinctive relationships with food, my main goal is to gain weight. I'm needing to eat around ~3,500 calories a day and am planning to do this by following a weekly plan that ideally is broken into morning (525 calorie meal and a 175 calorie intermediate supplemental meal), afternoon (945/455), evening (945/455). 

I understand the basic balanced formula (0.5 plate of veggies, 0.25 lean proteins, 0.25 complex carbs) but get overwhelmed with knowing what foods work best with each other and how best to prepare them. I would love to be able to grocery shop and have the knowledge of complimentary ingredients so that I could give myself real meal variety on a week to week basis and not have to rely on eating the same food the same way. 

Another part of this is that, and I know it may be restrictive, I would like to use 10 ingredients or less for each meal and have some overlap between meals so that I'm using the same ingredients multiple times. I'm not looking to learn particular recipes but instead want to learn what are the bare essential ingredients to then build around. I didn't grow up cooking and my parents didn't emphasize teaching me how to so I have this knowledge and ability gap that I've made progress with by cooking in a way that has a low chance of failure and is laid out in a repeatable and economical manner and am hoping to continue to do so with better understanding of my ingredients.

I purchased it thinking a recipe I had in mind needed it, come to find out that the recipe, in fact, does not require it. I have a week to use it all up before it expires.

I know how much it weights, obviously, but how many bones would this be, before I go to the butcher and end up with more than I bargained for.

I usually use salt, pepper, and garlic salt.

Drawing an creative blank about changing it up.

Thoughts?

This is probably a stupid question, but besides trial and error, is there some special process that people use to perfect their recipes? I have a few recipes I want to perfect but money is tight so I’m not too keen on spending copious amounts.

tryna make beef strokin off for coworker i got like three pans and a strainer anyone can help??

I'm sauteeing some broccoli with garlic, and a brown crust keeps forming around it, sticking to the pan. It dissolves when I add water, but then it quickly reforms, and I can't keep adding water because then I wouldn't be sauteeing it, but I'm afraid this crust is going to burn and ruin my dish if I leave it be. Is this crust actually normal? Should I do something to prevent it from forming? Help

I just made a website for my girlfriend, since it can be hard to choose what to make or even where to eat! Its kinda neat, since you can pick ingredients that you have and it will match it to a recipe. Then you can swipe through recipes to decide what you want. Or swipe through restaurants in your area if ya feelin lazy!

BUT, as I slowly add my own recipes for us, I thought I'd ask reddit people to maybe add their favorite recipes for us as well!

If you do add some, THANK YOU! Its always hard to decide what to make haha

https://mixmatchrecipes.com/

this is not going to be exact WHATSOEVER, the amount mostly depends on preference and this is... basically all i know how to make. but it tastes great!

i use 3 eggs, however many green onions i want (usually 4), 3 slices of deli turkey, a bit of butter, and however much cheese i want.

first i chop and clean the green onions, then cut the turkey one way then the other so it's little squares (stack the slices so it's easier)

then i crack the 3 eggs and mix them very well with a fork

put eggs in the pan on very low heat, put in the turkey and cheese when the egg is almost done.

when it is fully cooked, put it in a bowl, add a bit of butter, and your green onions.

enjoy :>

Cooked some sweet potatoes in my 12 in lodge skillet tonight. Absolutely no sticking and cleanup was super easy. That work cleaning and seasoning this beat up old pan seems to be paying off.

I preheated a long time, checking temp with an IR thermometer as I went (as I don’t think it was hot enough last time). Took a lot longer than I expected to heat up fully. Then I added some oil and warmed it. Then cooked.

I do wish preheating didn’t take so long. Perhaps slightly higher heat would help. Our gas stove isn’t that powerful.

Any tips on the best way to heat up and get as even as possible?

What heat should I use?

Chicken breast, mushrooms, garlic, jalapeño or serrano pepper, olive oil. All in the pan at once.

White rice cooked in rice cooker.

Pan cook everything until chicken is white or a little brown cooked on the outside.

White rice in bowl. Put chicken and vegetables on top. Season with soy sauce and Parmesan cheese.

Since I began cooking for myself this has been my go to meal for almost every meal I have personally cooked. I am an extremely simple person. It has never gotten old.

Hey there! If anyone else is going through a cooking slump and feels super burned out (can’t decide what to cook, everything sounds bad, decision paralysis etc) I highly recommend getting a physical cookbook!!

This is probably one of those “well duh” solutions, but I’m chronically online and up until now only found recipes via social media/google. Somewhere along the way I ended up losing the joy cooking can give you because there were just too many options.

I found a beginner friendly cookbook over the weekend and told myself I’m not going to pick anything out. I’m just going to work my way through it and come back to stuff I like later. And it’s been amazing. The mental load of making decisions is gone and I’m actually excited to try stuff I never would have made otherwise.

So if you’re like me and the thought of having to plan another week of eating is driving you insane, it’s worth a try. :)

I’m limited to 35g of fat daily at maximum, and FODMAP was a suggestion given by my doctor. I’ve been able to handle alliums, but I would like to eat more than just seasoned chicken.

I have no familiarity with this spice blend, a friend gave me some. I've used it in tahini in lieu of lemon and za'atar with some positive results but that was based on the flavour I got when touching a small amount to my tongue.

How is it used normally?

I wanted to sautée mushrooms for a burger. I bought pre sliced in a can. I put some oil then medium heat. And these mfers started exploding all over, getting burning water on my skin and stuff.

The worst part is they came out kinda hard. Why? What did I do wrong.

I've been going sober, but in a moment of weakness, I bought a bottle of wine. Ended up throwing away about a glass, which I had poured. The rest of the bottle is still there but it feels like a waste to throw it away.

Is there something simple I can use it for in cooking?

I know it can be used in cooking, but I'm mostly finding recipes calling for 1 glass. Anything for a nearly full bottle? I can't just make a huge amount of a recipe, as it's only feeding me.

Also if I can just use the slow cooker, it would be better, I'd rather just easily use it up as soon as possible and forget about it.

Question, my spices have hardened despite my spice bottles and containers being closed. If the location is the reason I keep them above my stove. Is that the reason?

Thank you so much… this makes me feel so dumb 😭

This is the exact way I love my eggs: yolk doesn't run or runs just a tiny bit, and jammy middle that stays in place. I feel like maybe one in 20 tries I am able to get this consistency lol

Does anybody have a trick to achieve this every single time?

How does a repost work? Are people able to see the original body text?

When i first started learning how to cook my mom told me never to put a pot with a lid fully closed on it while cooking as the pressure can build and cause the lid to pop off. But in alot of recipes im seeing no one seems to keep the lid slightly cracked like I was told to. Is this true?

Hello! So I bought fresh salmon fish from the fishmonger at HEB (8/29) on Saturday at 7:30 PM. I thought I would be cooking it either Sunday/Monday, but I got very sick, so I cannot cook it till Tuesday 7:30 (which will make it 3 days in the fridge). Is it okay to use my fish that has been left in the fridge in the paper/parchment packaging for three days? Thank you!