Why can't I cook?

[PuffinNose]

I mean, how hard is it to roast a load of veg with pasata and add pasta in creme frash and cheese on top? I even followed a recipe to the letter which lots and lots of people said was delicious.
Mine was vile. More food wasted.
Yesterday I followed a recipe which was just as easy, added all the dried spices it said to add (most were brand new jars) and it was just so bland.
I'm just so fed up with it.
Don't even get me started on baking...

Have you been introduced to the " stockpot " ? Little flavour bombs. I add them to lots of recipes when I'm doubtful about the amount of flavour that I think I might get when reading the recipe. Boullion is a good standby too and is a powder so can be added in small quantities. I'm not sure what you're doing wrong but dried herbs are only really useful in dishes that you're cooking for a reasonable time ( like spag Bol). Dried spices pack a bit more punch but often need to be dry fried at the start to really get the flavours going. What is it you're trying to cook?

Yesterday it was koftas. Followed a recipe which again had lots of positive feedback. I mixed mince with loads of ground cumin, ground corindar, garam masala and some other things which I forget and left it to stand for about an hour before cooking. It smelt fab. Grilled it and it was just bland.
It's really disheartening and makes me feel like I may as well just buy a jar of pasta sauce every night.

Maybe you are following recipes too closely? I find that you generally need to add way more spices than the recipe calls for, and you have to be really careful not to burn them. It's also important to taste the food as you go along, then if it's not right you can remedy it.

I always put double the amount of whatever is in a recipe that's there to provide flavour. So, double the onion and garlic, double the herbs, double the tomato purée. And DS likes loads of sauce so I always put more passata in that it says. eg if a tom based sauce calls for a 400g of chopped toms and some tom purée, I'll put in s smsll carton of passata too. Plus double the stuff I already mentioned.

tiny bit of sugar, small dash of balsamic vinegar. Occasionally a squeeze of tom ketchup (). You can veer from the recipe slightly to make it even tastier.

SALT AND PEPPER!

it makes things taste nice, salt is goooood!

yep - seasoning... and plenty of it.

Whats the secret with salt and pepper though?
How do you get the balance between adding enough and not jyst makimg it taste of salt?
Pepper, I add loads of.

Just add a bit of salt at a time till it tastes nice. Add some salt and taste it, let it cook for a bit and add some more salt if you think it needs it.
You almost certainly need quite a bit more salt than you're putting in, especially if you're used to jar sauces.

Aaah bless you... don't be downhearted. I've been cooking a while and feel confident to freestyle some dishes but I still make dishes that I'm not very impressed with. There are some chefs that I like but I always have to adjust the flavours as I find them lacking.
Spuriouser is right you need to taste as you go along and sometimes consider the seasoning. I can't help with the Koftas I'm afraid as I've never made them ( but lean mince has less flavour than fattier mince). The top dish you describe with the roast veg does not sound like it would be very flavoury- roast veg is quite a subtle flavour, passata is only tomatoes and onions so I don't see where the flavour is supposed to come from. Perhaps you should re-wind and tackle something quite simple and classic ( like a tomato pasta sauce or Roast chicken). I would go to recipes by someone like Delia Smith or Mary Berry - I know theyre not trendy but they've been around a long time and tend to produce recipes that don't need a million ingredients.

DH has been cooking tonight and he keeps tasting it and saying " it needs something " we then try and work out what's missing. Often the salt needs to be ramped up and that makes everything " sing" and other times it's something sweet that's needed to round it out ( savoury dishes may need a little sweetness to bring out all the flavours so you might need a little chocolate in a beef chilli for example). But if you check your jars of sauces you will no doubt find flavourings that are used to provide from scratch.

Oops provide flavour that you are trying to achieve from scratch.

Roast veg I would add salt, paprika and garlic and a bit of dried oregano to before cooking and include some onion cut into wedges as it gives flavour. Add garlic too when mixing the vegetables into the passata and heat everything through. A little sugar can help with tomatoes as others have said. Add some fresh torn basil just before serving.

Delia's cookery course book is great - there's a website too - and Jamie Oliver's recipes are easy to follow and always tasty.

You're not a smoker are you? When I smoked I found lots of things didn't taste of much unless there was quite a bit of chilli!

Thanks everyone.
I don't smoke but I'm not great with flavours. You know those blindfold tests where people have to say what they've just eaten? I would fail miserably! Haha! I don't have a "delicate palette" and do struggle to identify flavours which is why I can't just taste something and know what it needs.
Husband and I have very different tastes anyway and although he disagrees, his cooking isn't great either.
I use garlic and onions librally! We eat a lot of roast veg so I'm OK with that.
It sounds like one thing I need to do is double the spices then.
We do tend to use fresh herbs.
Thanks everyone.

Stock cubes. I use Knorr. Add salt to taste.

Yes- a good stock makes a huge difference to lots of things, Dahl, chilli, bolognaise... I use lots of the knorr ones as they're really really good. But I make my own too, boiling up chicken carcasses or the bones left from a joint of lamb etc. A good chicken stock (chuck odds and sods of peeled veg in as well- the stalk of a broccoli, carrot peelings, whatever- I keep a bag in the freezer of 'waste' veg products for this) anyway a good chicken stock goes like a solid lump of jelly in the fridge- just like the texture of a knorr stock cube. I scoop bits out and freezeit in the empty knor packets I've saved.

Salt is an absolute must- but I use good quality rock salt in cooking, not just plain table salt.

If you're using onions cook them on their own before adding any of the other stuff- give them a good chance to sweat it out- really adds to the flavour.