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I am very good at cooking and baking. 35 years of this hobby, one had to get good after so much time. I am decent at painting, shit at drawing, better than average at singing. I know how to crochet and knit. I am decent at gardening. I know how to do some woodworking. I am an intermediate at bouldering. I used to play a lot of handball, I was decent. So many hobbies, so little time for it.
Any tips for cooking? I just don't have the gift
I have a YouTube channel, but I think it‘s ugly to promote it here 😁 And I post videos very rarely lately. But let’s see, what advice I can give you in a few words. I don’t know what is the level of your cooking, but always start with something simple that you enjoy eating. Find some recipes that you can trust and stick to them, watch some videos on how to do them so that you first understand them well, so that when you are in the fire of things, you don’t panic. Prepare all the ingredients in advance. I don’t, because I know where everything is and I am fast. But as a beginner it is ok to be slow. Once you mastered the recipe, you can start changing it if you like and see where it leads you. Never be disappointed that something did not turn out right, at least you learn something from that experience.
If you have friends that cook well, organise a cooking evening and let them use your kitchen. Look at how they do things and ask questions. I learned a lot from the women in my family when I was little. Always keep being curious and be willing to try things out.
When you taste something, even if you did not cook it, try to immerse yourself in the experience. Analyse if something tastes salty, sweet, sour, umami. Can you identify some of the ingredients? Give yourself the opportunity to diversify your palate, trying new things. From knowledge comes a sense of confidence in cooking, trusting your senses. When you cook for yourself, add salt little by little, until it tastes good. Ask yourself, is it lacking salt, or it needs some acidity to balance the sweetness or the other way around.
I play a lot with the balance of sweetness and acidity. And I don’t mean adding sugar, veggies are already sweet(onions, carrots, leeks, potatoes etc), slow cooked meat can also be a bit sweet. So many times I balance these things with something acidic: lemon juice, tomato, vinegar, tamarind paste, etc. If i have a tomato sauce that is too acidic I might add a tiny bit of sugar, or sautéed onions, etc.
If you are used to eating a lot of processed foods, you might need a break from all that. They usually add a lot of flavour enhancers, and eating natural foods might seem bland at first. But after that you will discover a world of variety.
This is great! How can you tell if something needs acid?
Well by tasting it and feeling that it is too sweet for a savoury dish. And you have the feeling that it misses something, but it is salty enough. You have to train your senses about the sweet stuff. If you are used to adding sugar to your savoury dishes, then it might be difficult to spot the sweetness from a vegetable. Now, not everything needs acidity. I would not make a chicken soup with noodles an acidic one. But I do add a spoon of apple cider vinegar at the beginning of cooking the chicken, since they say this will extract more minerals from it. But it is not mandatory. But if I make a curry for example, the sweetness of the coconut milk is too much, so I add either some lemon juice, or some tamarind paste. Little by little, until it tastes balanced.
Sometimes it happens with salt, I taste the dish and I feel like it misses something, but not acidity or sweetness l, so I add a bit of salt and see if it improved. With time, you kind of know how much to add. Another trick regarding salt, you can salt all the ingredients separately. Since the quantity is smaller, you can visually tell how much you need, as if when you salt something on your plate, or the salad you just made.
Thanks for taking the time to type that out its really easy to follow. I've saved it for future use
You are welcome and have fun cooking!