Worst cook in the world

[Jujujudo]

I’m a grown up. 51 years old, two boys. I own a fresh produce business (mainly seasonal locally grown fruit and veg). I also have access to the best quality food you can buy: olive oil, raw tachini, etc through the business.
I have been cooking from scratch since we got married, mainly because it was cheaper and easier than the other options. My husband is from the Middle East and is very used to well seasoned and delicious food.
But no matter what I make, it tastes like crap. My kids call my cooking “grey”. I follow recipes and use fresh ingredients. I’m creative, a fast learner, I put love into it. But nothing comes out good.
I’ve now got a 16 year old who is always hungry and would rather go without than eat my food (I suggested he learn how to cook - still waiting), and a 9 year old Coeliac which makes everything more complicated.
It’s not inedible, it’s just not good.
Any advice?

Wow yes! Amazing! Hoping some of these recipes will help. Thank you!

Firstly who thinks the cooking is bland and grey (and I took grey to mean bland or do you mean grey in colour?)

Does anyone in the family think the cooking is ok?

Do you have problems with your taste and smell at all?

Do you cook down each stage of the cooking time enough, ignore any recipes that tell you to 'saute onions for 3-5 mins', its no where near enough, most things need cooking down for a LONG time before adding in the next stage. Unless the aim is for crunchy or to retain colour right at the end

Are you adding enough salt and fats, a pinch of salt is not enough, its why home cooking is invariably not quite as nice as restaurant.

Crispy roast potatoes..the secret is to parboil for 10 mins, leave to drain and dry for 2 minutes or longer. Then have your oven tin on a high heat in the oven with salt and goosefat or butter bubbling away (use lots) Pour the potatoes in, make.sure they are coated in fat and then straight back in the hot oven until golden. You can sprinkle semolina on them before they go in the oven if you want them crunchy. I don't bother.

Chewy roast...make sure you get the right joint with the right amount of fat and check the weight. A lean joint of beef for example probably wouldn't be great to roast for too long.I always cook beef or lamb to be really rare so not for long at all.

Do they say its dry? Or chewy because it's rare? You could try slow cook shoulder of lamb and that would mean it falls off the bone. Or if lamb you could marinade it first which might help.

Do you think you might all have fallen into the habit of being very critical about your cooking? I think in our house we try to start with a baseline attitude of being grateful to the person who cooked. I looove good food with interesting flavours, but our lives are busy so it doesn't always come out the best. I managed to make a terrible stir-fry the other day, which is odd because I'm usually fairly competent with them, but it was fine because my 5 year old doesn't really care (apart from the usual complains about vegetables!) and DH and I just bunged some hot sauce over it. No need for the angst, it's just one meal in a busy day. It's homecooked food with fresh ingredients. The basic nutrients etc are there. I think you should take a step back from cooking and leave it to the people who are complaining. If they know how it should taste, im sure they'll know how to cook it

Two things to try
Cook in a slow cooker. It really allows the flavours to develop.
Also a lot of dishes cooked in sauces taste better when reheated the next day.

Nigella Express is a good cook book
Same for Bill Grainger's Easy

I don’t know what you’re doing to end up with grey tasteless food, but for online recipes I highly recommend Recipe Tin Eats. I’ve not had a bad recipe from that website and she breaks every recipe down so it’s easy to follow and understand. She also has a cookbook called Dinner which is great too - very hard to mess her recipes up! Some online recipes haven’t been tested over and over and it shows, whereas websites like RTE and others (Smitten Kitchen, Good Food etc) go through a much more vigorous testing process to make sure they taste good. Maybe that will help you with tips and techniques to inject flavour into your food.

Ive realised I'm quite cross on your behalf OP. You're trying really hard and all you're getting is criticism. I'm willing to bet your food is basically very good. I'd like to try it anyway xx

Great solid advice, thank you so much

Slow cookers result in grey tasteless food I find. It all just tastes of slow cooker.

You may be right, especially as I’ve been making food for my family for years, and it’s only been recently that apparently I’ve not been doing a good job! I’ve just bought a wok for my older son to use and he’s into trying things out for himself. I’ve started saying to him that if my food isn’t doing it for him then I suggest he learns to make his own. My H will eat whatever I cook, he’s just glad to eat at the end of the day. And the Coeliac child is pretty restrictive in his preferences and eats a lot of raw fruit and veg with tahini or humous which actually I can make!

Id suggest try cooking the recipe for rice I posted above your post, its not bland or plain. The idea that rice accompaniment to something is a western idea and that is why its probably so boring and dull

Perhaps you need some new recipes? What about a red thai curry?

semolina is a great trick to getting crispy roast potato and also when making home made pizza - the dough coated lightly in semolina gives a crispy finish

sorry semolina isn't gluten free

I dont use slow cookers any more. I can make a red thai curry in a wok, I wouldnt put something like that in a slow cooker anyway, wrong sort of cooking for that.

You’re right, they mean bland. I probably am not using enough oil, and I tend to overcook rather than undercook - I can smell and taste, probably too well I think. I’m actually bothered by smells and I wonder if that affects my cooking? I’m also a vegetarian but cooking meat, chicken and fish for everyone (they can make their own choices regarding that) so I probably don’t taste as much as I should, or really understand how it should taste.

I can’t use semolina because my younger son has Coeliac, would gf flour work?

I’m going to try that rice recipe posted above and get back to you all!!!

You dont need to cover roasties in anything to get them crispy apart from nuclear temperature oil and ideally meat fat but I see you're veggie. Good old sunflower oil, you need the right potatoes, you need to let them sit after shaking, which is after the parboiling, then pour into roasting roasting roasting oil, the tin needs to be the right shape and depth otherwise you risk steaming them to some degree but not so shallow that you can baste then properly. Then baste baste baste, longer than you would think.

Thank you!

Bless you for being kind. It’s rare these days.. and I needed it.
You’re probably right, I really make an effort and I really want to provide tasty and healthy food for them, but the gluten free part is a challenge and having a 16 year old athlete who needs to bulk up isn’t helping.
I mean, it gets eaten, mostly. But they don’t really enjoy it, like I want them to xx

Could you ask your son to cook for you to show you what he means by flavour...

@Jujujudo cornmeal would work if you wanted to try a dusting on your cooked pots before roasting .
Is gluten free AFAIK ,but no expert.

totally agree

a slow cooker is not for breast of chicken but for things like shin beef which has done lots of work over its life time on the legs and needs long slow cooking or even better beef checks cooked on a pile of vegetables and red wine - then discard the vegetables and serve with mash potato - its an all day cook though and something for the winter.

I second Recipe Tin Eats. I follow her on Facebook and have never made anything that didn't work.

Another range of cookery books that I highly recommend are The Roasting Tin series of books by Rukmini Iyer. I have four of them and love how easy and inventive and delicious the recipes are.