>>21913645
Obviously i seasoned the salmon but that alone doesnt mean I "cooked" the dish right
If the tabouli was home made then could I say I "cooked" the entire dish myself? Even though I still airfried the salmon

It's absolutely retarded to get hung up on whether this counts as "cooking".
Is it complex cooking or does it require a lot of skill? No, obviously not, but you did cook it.
Just keep making food, trying new recipes and techniques, and thinking of ways to improve in your techniques and your overall food production process and you'll keep cooking better and better things that require more skill. After a certain point you'll get out of the insecurity phase and realise you're just making good food and enjoying it.

Start out with chicken leg quarters, cheap, delicious and most importantly, hard to mess up

>>21913645
This counts as cooking because no part of it was done for you. You had to season it, you figured out how long and what temp you wanted to try air frying it, you boiled the spinach.
It’s a step above putting tenders in the oven, and even that counts as cooking.
How did you like it though?
What do you want to eat?
It’s most based to cook for yourself, to your preferences (within a healthy range).
So, what was this dish lacking for you and maybe i can suggest what should’ve been different?

>>21913645
Yeah you "cooked" that imo w/o going into details. Better than half this board can do and most regular people probably.

>>21913645
Steaming veg, airfrying salmon, and pairing items to make a suitable meal is definitely cooking.

I see where you’re coming from though, like if you combined the salmon and vegetables with a sauce and then baked it in a pie crust you’d probably feel that was “cooking”

>>21913645
>Can someone tell me how I actually get into cooking?
Think of your favorite things to order when eating outside and start looking up guided recipes.

>>21913645
focus on learning general principles of cooking vs. specific recipes or dishes

e.g., if you know how to roast a chicken leg, then you know how to make any dish that uses a chicken leg. if you know how to make a beef stew, you pretty much know how to cook any stew. similarly, learn how different ingredients cook the best and how they taste together.

you pretty much can't go wrong if you put tasty things together that aren't too gastronomically distant.

thanks niggas