My sister is a super chef. She always amazed me with her patience ,perseverance and the details to perfection while she prepared something. I remember how well she managed to cook for my friends or relatives when they visited. For one of my college excursion, she made me this amazing lemon rice , she learnt from our tamil tenants. She carefully packed the rice , a little extra even for my friends wrapped in slightly toasted banana leaf. I opened the wrappers , the aroma of lemon rice in toasted plantain leaf spread in the air,letting it vanish in few minutes. All my friends and relatives have always praised her culinary skills.
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| My sisters stir fried vegetables with grilled chicken in cheese |
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| Sisters signature dish- Chicken biriyani(delight for non vegetarians) |
Cooking was completely philistine to me until I got married. I never bothered to learn cooking even when my marriage was fixed. Back then I was a hardcore non vegetarian although i loath fish and my to-be -husband a vegetarian. And I believed vegetarian dishes were boring. I had no idea of the sumptuous vegetarian dishes, I thought there would not be much options for vegetarians. And every time I told my fiancee that I couldn't cook and I don't intend to learn, he would comfort me telling we could work around some other plans to eat out or try some easy-peasy dishes.
Then in September 2010 I got married and moved to Mumbai. I was completely naive. Kitchen still is my mother-in-laws realm. I started by helping her in the kitchen, cutting vegetables and doing the dishes. Chopping so much vegetables for a four member family is boring and difficult, and there were countless times i cut my finger. I was slow, the sizes were uneven, some times too big to get cooked. With Practice I improved, still I wasn't cooking it was just assisting the chef.
In Feb 2011 my parents-in-law went kerala for 3 months and I had the kitchen all for myself and started my experiments on my beloved guinea pig, my husband. I would go vegetable shopping sometimes alone, sometimes with my neighbor malayalee auntie . She helped me get the needed vegetables by translating the names in Hindi to the vendors. I called my sis-in-law each time I wanted to try a new dish to get the ingredient names in Hindi.There were disaster dishes, but most of the times I scored above average. Hubby's favorite stir fried okra and khichdi reached to a level of perfection. He admired it and remarked it tastes as good as Amma's. When I visited Kerala and prepared some dishes, my mother or sister were shocked and couldn't believe it at all I could cook. .
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| Refreshing mango milk shake |
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| Ila appam with hot coffee for a summery evening |
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| My Stir fried babycorn and brocolli in Indian white sauce |
With Google and Youtube, it evolved from a conundrum to an emotional catharsis. Each time I tried something new and when it is really appreciated by the family I feel overwhelmed with happiness. I am now proud and content with my culinary skills .I have cooked for our entire family of 14 for R's 1st birthday a decent Veg biriyani and raita. I have feasted the family with Gulab-Jamuns, Dhoklas,Pasta, Falafals and Parathas and they loved it. I dont get to cook much on weekdays ,but on weekends I try for something new. You should be happy and delighted when you cook for your dear ones and should infuse that love into the food you make. I realized over the years the inner emotions while cooking reflects on the taste of the recipe and try not to be fussy or cranky while I cook. My sister and cousins excel in non veg preparations, now I am the one who cooks something veg on the get-together. Though my family in Kerala doesn't like much veg , I had them hooked to some dishes much to my surprise :P . Dedicating this to my lovely sisters and cousins who love cooking and fed me so many wonderful dishes :) ..
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