I am a great cook! I mean, I think I am a great cook...my parents think I am a good cook, friends think I cook well, my grandmother (and GRAND she is) thinks I am ok-so-so-will-do cook....in this fashion, opinions on my culinary skills differ from person to person, mostly in descending order. :-)
I was never brought up in the normal Indian manner of bringing up a girl. I was a tomboy as a kid and would climb trees, cycle around and steal pickle from the kitchen. I used to do pretty decently at school...and was therefore marked for activities of more intellectual nature since my early days instead of learning how to cook...many of my friends, by the time they were 15 or 16, were experts at all household chores...not me...I was lost in the world of Shakespeare and Wordsworth, Tagore and Dickens, Austen and Bronte.College life in Pune did little to further my culinary training and once I was in B-school...fuhget it!!! Hardly had time to breathe...let alone indulge in the luxury of cooking. Fortunately my Mom has always been with me to take care of food...along other things like emotions, mood swings etc
The first food item, I ever learnt, flawlessly,from beginning to end, was Paneer Tikka Masala! And the credit must go to my sweet and dear friend Geeta who introduced me to the world of fine cooking. It is a complicated preparation if you want to make it the authentic way...and since it is my signature dish, I hand grind all my ingredients and don't go for readily available spice mixes. It was sheer magic the very first time onwards.....delicate, silky pieces of spiced cottage cheese melting juicily in your mouth. And that was my Eureka moment! It was the pinnacle of my feminine achievement...I COULD COOK!!! Like a married woman in our country, needs to mother a child in order to prove her fertility to the society, an unmarried one needs to know how to cook divine dishes without burning or cutting herself or leaving the kitchen in a rubble to prove her feminity.
After my grand success with my first attempt at cooking, at an age I am ashamed to disclose here, I kept learning one complicated dish after another. Next in line were Cheese Pasta with Mushroom and Broccoli (Italian style), dumplings, chicken curry, Biryani, Kofta, various rolls, salads, gulabjamun, many types of desserts......blah blah blah..and a happy cook was I.
My check with reality came when my Mom had to go to another city for a couple of days to attend a symposium.
Of course I was a great cook...and could manage on my own. I bade her farewell with a smile..I was the queen of the house for two days!!! La di dah!
I took out paneer from the fridge...and looked for curd...for thats an important part of the marinade....but there was no curd!!! HORROR! Couldn't make panner tikka masala. "Never mind...pasta may be", thought I...I had cheese, I had pasta, I had...wait a minute...I had no mushroom or oregano....OH NO! I can't make pasta without either.
Over those two days and endless plates of Maggi instant noodles....I understood I didn't know how to make Daal (lentil soup), how to make a delicious preparation of only paneer and potatoes and simple spices (which my mom can stir up in minutes), how to fry a piece of fish without rendering it charred and inedible....
I knew gourmet, I didn't know cooking! You cannot survive on Paneer Tikka Masala, cheese pasta, dark chocolate cakes with fondant, profitroles with chantilly creme..day in and day out.....you need your basic daal chawal!
Dreams with the theme of Chantilly Creme....are beautiful if they remain dreams....
Can't do without the soft, hot fulkas, daal and chawal..everyday!!
Love
I was never brought up in the normal Indian manner of bringing up a girl. I was a tomboy as a kid and would climb trees, cycle around and steal pickle from the kitchen. I used to do pretty decently at school...and was therefore marked for activities of more intellectual nature since my early days instead of learning how to cook...many of my friends, by the time they were 15 or 16, were experts at all household chores...not me...I was lost in the world of Shakespeare and Wordsworth, Tagore and Dickens, Austen and Bronte.College life in Pune did little to further my culinary training and once I was in B-school...fuhget it!!! Hardly had time to breathe...let alone indulge in the luxury of cooking. Fortunately my Mom has always been with me to take care of food...along other things like emotions, mood swings etc
The first food item, I ever learnt, flawlessly,from beginning to end, was Paneer Tikka Masala! And the credit must go to my sweet and dear friend Geeta who introduced me to the world of fine cooking. It is a complicated preparation if you want to make it the authentic way...and since it is my signature dish, I hand grind all my ingredients and don't go for readily available spice mixes. It was sheer magic the very first time onwards.....delicate, silky pieces of spiced cottage cheese melting juicily in your mouth. And that was my Eureka moment! It was the pinnacle of my feminine achievement...I COULD COOK!!! Like a married woman in our country, needs to mother a child in order to prove her fertility to the society, an unmarried one needs to know how to cook divine dishes without burning or cutting herself or leaving the kitchen in a rubble to prove her feminity.
After my grand success with my first attempt at cooking, at an age I am ashamed to disclose here, I kept learning one complicated dish after another. Next in line were Cheese Pasta with Mushroom and Broccoli (Italian style), dumplings, chicken curry, Biryani, Kofta, various rolls, salads, gulabjamun, many types of desserts......blah blah blah..and a happy cook was I.
My check with reality came when my Mom had to go to another city for a couple of days to attend a symposium.
Of course I was a great cook...and could manage on my own. I bade her farewell with a smile..I was the queen of the house for two days!!! La di dah!
I took out paneer from the fridge...and looked for curd...for thats an important part of the marinade....but there was no curd!!! HORROR! Couldn't make panner tikka masala. "Never mind...pasta may be", thought I...I had cheese, I had pasta, I had...wait a minute...I had no mushroom or oregano....OH NO! I can't make pasta without either.
Over those two days and endless plates of Maggi instant noodles....I understood I didn't know how to make Daal (lentil soup), how to make a delicious preparation of only paneer and potatoes and simple spices (which my mom can stir up in minutes), how to fry a piece of fish without rendering it charred and inedible....
I knew gourmet, I didn't know cooking! You cannot survive on Paneer Tikka Masala, cheese pasta, dark chocolate cakes with fondant, profitroles with chantilly creme..day in and day out.....you need your basic daal chawal!
Dreams with the theme of Chantilly Creme....are beautiful if they remain dreams....
Can't do without the soft, hot fulkas, daal and chawal..everyday!!
Love
ReplyDeleteI am surprised why this article doesn't have thumbsup's at the bottom !!
I found the write-up simply great,
starting with the awesome self deprecating humour from the very first paragraph itself.
I read somewhere that self deprecating humour proves that a person is balanced, happy, intelligent and mature, even though that somehow starts making me doubt the theory as I wonder when I have the core quality in abundance why do the other parameters fail to score in my personality test.
By the way, the photos in the articles are that of your creations or just copy-paste creativity?😊
Photos are copy paste, Arvind, write-up in 100% my own...and I do cook well (even though I am saying so myself....but you are welcome to try anytime) I did learn cooking at a very late age, but once I did, there was no looking back. But thankfully, now I can cook simple homely delights too...and I have learnt to enjoy them more!
DeleteAbout the self-deprecating humour......I believe it is one of the best and most inoffensive kind. I hope I never learn to take myself too seriously. That keeps me sane!
Don't bother much about personality tests...most of them are not flawlessly designed. :)