I have been cooking for about a year, and I continually fall short in knowing how to properly flavor dishes. Tonight for instance I was making a brown rice dish. I used 3 cups, rinsed well, and placed it in the rice cooker with 3 1/2 cups water, two chopped tomatoes, a chopped onion, three tablespoons of indian curry, two tablespoons of a yellow curry sauce, salt, pepper, herbs de france, soy sauce. When it finished, there wasn't any flavor; not even the tomatoes or the onions were evident. What am I doing wrong? Do I have to pour in half a jar of these herbs and spices?

I'd like advice on ways to bring out flavor, in general.

It sounds like you could really benefit from a cooking class/beginner's cooking class. If you have cook books, try some of the recipes that you think you can handle at this point.

As for your interesting rice dish, I don't know what you were going for, but herbes de provence have nothing to do with curry flavors. Yuck. Neither does soy sauce. You boiled that onion in there. A boiled onion disappears. How much rice did you use? I don't think I would want to eat that dish. That may not sound very nice, but I'm being honest. Eep. :P

If you want flavor, you're going to have to start with different cooking methods. Grilling, roasting, sauteing, blanching, steaming... they will all get you amazing results, but you have to go into them slowly. Do not attempt to cover your food with mixtures of who-knows-what. Start with the basics. In time, you can work your way up.

Let's do the easiest thing in the world: roasting or grilling. Go pick a vegetable. What do you like? (we're only talking fresh here!) asparagus, artichokes, brussles sprouts, carrots, potatoes, onions... now, prep them accordingly. Do you own The Joy of Cooking or a similar tome? It will tell you how to prep them. Let's just start with one. Do you have a grill? If so, turn it on. If not, go turn on your oven to a fairly high temp. toss your prepped veggie with some very high quality olive oil. Add a touch of good salt/kosher salt. Toss again. Now stick your veg directly onto the grill or on a metal sheet pan and into the oven. Watch it. You want them to color. The color is where the flavor really comes out. Once they look good, turn them. Now wait. Are they getting more color? Are they tender? Good, they're ready. Now put them on a plate and drizzle with an extra touch of that super high quality extra virgin olive oil. Add salt to taste. Now try it. WOW, isn't that flavorful? And the only things you added were salt and olive oil.

The best approach to cooking is to use high quality ingredients and cook them simply. You can apply roasting and grilling to meats, poultry, fish, veggies, fruits... everything. You'll be amazed at how good things are this way, and how simple it is to prepare them. It's also really, really good for you.

Now, I love herbs, but unless we're talking about oregano, you should only be going with fresh. For now, just stick with one at a time. If you're using basil and softer herbs, they need to go in at the very end; otherwise they'll disappear. If you're talking about woody herbs like rosemary, thyme, whole bay leaves, etc. they need to be treated in a completely different way.

Your next step is to try sauteing. Sauté an onion and you will never, ever wonder where the flavor is. Build on that. Put in one ingredient at a time, and taste the whole way through.

Try getting some authentic Tuscan cooking books. Get only top quality ingredients. You'll be completely amazed at how easy it can be, too. By the way, you can find thousands of great little recipes (and reviews) at Epicurious.com: Recipes, Menus, Cooking Articles & Food Guides for free.

Fat is flavor. Color/turning golden brown is flavor. Freshness is flavor...

I more or less taught myself to cook, and now I would rather eat at home than go out to eat. And now I can cook anything I want. Anything! Just stick with it, and go for authentic flavors and cooking methods. You'll learn, I promise.

Lets see, remember you always flavor in layers. I would brown the onions in butter and season with salt and pepper. Take the herb de province out entirely I would take out tomatoes also unless they were really fresh. If I were you I would turn it into a fried rice dish. With that you can take the most boring long grain white rice and add depth of flavor. Make your rice and get the rest of the stuff ready. Take a wock or a large sauté pan and heat some oil in it. Then sweat some onions in it. Once slightly brown remove onions and increace heat to around medium or medium low heat. Then break one or two eggs into it depending on how much rice you use. Scramble the eggs and then add the rice. Add some slightly steemed carrots and snow peas soy sauce terriakee sauce some freshly ground ginger, pepper, your onions, maybe som pre cooked teriake chicken, 2 tablespoons of either pineapple juice or orange juice I suggest pineapple, and then very last add frozrn peas. Once the peas are done the dish is done. That recipe was put together horribly but it shows how you have to layer the flavor.

Well, we can keep this thread going for as long as it serves you.

I'd be happy to continue to lend a hand on any dishes that you're working on. Just post your questions, and I'll see how much I can tell you from here.

If you want to, you might want to post some recipes you've been wanting to make, or recipes that you have made that haven't come out as you expected them to. Maybe I'll be able to pick up on some things that would solve your problem.

I absolutely love to cook, so this is fun for me too. We might also get lucky and find some of the other experienced cooks here on AMHD jumping in! Think of it as free virtual cooking lessons, lol.

Is there a particular reason you started cooking fairly recently? Are you a new graduate beginning an independent, adult life? Are you recently divorced and starting on your own? Do you have a family to feed and kids with picky palates? Are there foods you can't or won't eat?

If you're interested in what we might be able to come up with, I'm here, okay? :)

(p.s. there's no reason to be shy or embarrassed. All of us have to learn through trial and error. I know I did.) :P