Two left hands by cooking

B'Syata D'Shmya

Wed, Dec 20 2023, 1:32 pm

amother OP wrote:

So forget the meatballs. My husband claims that my food is very blah not much taste. Or like the other night I took a good rice recipe from someone I know. I made the exact recipe and somehow the taste was so strong. I don't know just my cooking is not good I am so not good at it and I don't enjoy it. But a mother needs to cook so please I need help.

Dh can alway add ketchup /mustard etc. His Mother may have been too busy cooking meatballs to teach him middos.
Lets face it, some of us are better at cleaning or organizing or laundry or bargain shoppers or being amazing class mothers, or teaching our children x,y,z.....We all have our strengths.
You are doing just fine, it might be your food is too good for his pedestrian taste buds...(just trying to make light). He will learn to adjust.
Regarding your rice, next time a little less pepper? In Israel, when the food comes out peppery they claim the cook is in love (and kept pouring the pepper due to her distraction). You must be in love!!

amother

Wed, Dec 20 2023, 1:36 pm

B'Syata D'Shmya wrote:

Its true everyone has their strengths but a mother needs to be able to cook decent meals for dinner and shabbos. I posted to find out how I can get tips to start being more interested in cooking and learn to cook better. Now I use the excuse that I work so dinner needs to be easy to make but I cant always use that excuse. Shabbos I make just basics. I never even tried to make potato kugel its sounds way to overwhelming for me.

amother

Bellflower

Wed, Dec 20 2023, 1:59 pm

I stick to basic recipes. I like recipes that are quick, easy and don't have many steps or complicated ingredients.
If you're happy to use a lot of bought spices, sauces and jars, it's much easier to get a good result as they have the flavorings for you. Dinner done is a useful cookbook that utilizes shortcuts in cooking.
I agree with the other posters about the quick and easy jamie geller cookbook. You want to understand cooking and have recipes that break down cooking for you.
One of my friends kindly gifted me a cookbook and it has gorgeous recipes that I dream of making, but they involve 20 different stages, 20 different unusual ingredients that I have no real idea what they are, and have complicated steps in instructions like make a roux, slowly do this, separate the eggs slowly and discard the yolks. Or just other stuff that I can't be bothered doing.
Over the years, I have gotten more confident in my cooking. I have a repertoire of basic but yummy recipes that my family enjoy. Certain foods I won't cook or bake as it's too complicated or will just take too long. I would rather have more basic foods and improve on those than have these fancy recipes.
And something else I feel strongly about is the time and effort it would take me to make something vs buying it. Such as making my own gefilte fish may taste slightly better than buying it, but it's not an effective use of my time when I can buy it for the same price or cheaper (plus I wouldn't have a clue how to make it).

B'Syata D'Shmya

Wed, Dec 20 2023, 2:11 pm

amother OP wrote:

Do you have a food processor?

YounginBP

Wed, Dec 20 2023, 2:19 pm

My mother in law's recipes always used to flop by me. Specifically baked goods, it took a while and I realized why, she just uses very different size pans than me. So I used the pan she recommended for a brownie cake, but it was half empty. I went and poured the full batter in, but it didn't bake well. She likes a 2 mini loaves, I like 2 full loaves. It took time but I got the hang, hey, that doesn't make sense.

Some things do take time to learn the technique. My stir fry and rice came out horrible in the beginning. I learned to let the food steam and it is better now.

Food being bland usually means more salt. Are you using kosher salt?

I find I do well when I make recipes from betweencarpools.com. Do you have their dinner done cookbook?

amother

Wed, Dec 20 2023, 2:58 pm

YounginBP wrote:

Yes I do have that cookbook. I have tried recipes from betweencarpools.com. When a recipe says to cook for certain amount of minutes do I need it to boil before start to calculate the minutes?

amother

DarkKhaki

Wed, Dec 20 2023, 3:08 pm

OP I think you have a point when assuming if you enjoy cooking, food will taste better.
there are many little factors that come with a love and understanding of flavors, that will enhance your cooking. like for example sauteing onions needs to be slow, so the flavor can come out, putting the heat on high so it browns fast is missing the point. or using fresh ground black pepper, using wine you would actually drink when a recipe calls for whine... all little details that go a long way.
I definitely enjoy cooking and I think that helps with the taste ultimately. I would suggest finding interesting ways to learn. you can watch masterchef show, I really enjoy it and it gets me hyped about cooking. you can follow foodies on instagram. /peaslovencarrots (although shes not posting much now) Kissthekoshercook, naomi nachman... there's many I'm missing. many people I know started out hating cooking and managed to get into it and now enjoy it as a hobby and are great at it.

Bnei Berak 10

Wed, Dec 20 2023, 3:22 pm

amother Stonewash wrote:

I find that if someone asks me for a recipe and then tells me it didnt quite taste the same- its a seasoning problem. If I can only tell you, what a difference adequate salting does. Season well and make sure your spices arent expired.

Good you mentioned spices! This is an issue where I'm a bit picky, mostly but from a spice shops as the quality is much better.

YounginBP

Wed, Dec 20 2023, 3:27 pm

amother OP wrote:

Yes I do have that cookbook. I have tried recipes from betweencarpools.com. When a recipe says to cook for certain amount of minutes do I need it to boil before start to calculate the minutes?

Yes. Usually bring to a boil, lower flame and then set a timer.

amother

Linen

Wed, Dec 20 2023, 3:28 pm

amother OP wrote:

Thanks all for the ideas. So I will give an example. I got my mil recipe for meatballs and my husband claims it just doesn't taste the same as hers. Or I can make a recipe from kosher.com and it doesnt taste so good. I also really don't enjoy cooking how can I get myself to enjoy it more so my family can start having fancier dinner and shabbos meals and not just basic plain food.

Maybe dh can help with cooking. Some men are better cooks than their wives.