Its been more than 4 month since I have taken break from proffessional life and time which I have spent in kitchen in these 4 months must be more than total time spent in kitchen in last 35 years.In age of nuclear familities I am fortunate enough to stay in along with my in laws and I have sweet mother in law who being working mother in her time understands challenges of busy proffessional life and helps me in every possible way in household stuff.We have maid to make roti so just need to take care of veggies,salads ,pack our tiffins and am sorted out.Special dishes on weekends like pavbhaji idali sambar vada sambar sandwitch are fun to make but cooking morning.. evening.. breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner oooff tiring ..
Once when i was discussing this with a friend of mine who started cooking in very young age not as a choice but sort of compulsion. She said look dont look at cooking as some mundane activity it actually stimulates 5 senses.Consiously try to figure it out and you would surely start enjoying it and indeed it worked for me.
Rainbow in kitchen is fun to observe. Yellow termeric, shades of yellow of different pulses, red chillies red tomatoes, green chillie,spinach, fresh corriander,white sugar salt spring onion,milk.you cant find cooking dull when so many colors are around.
I remember in school we use to go for coaching classes.It was home based tution and there guys in our class used to guess which vegetable teacher has made by its aroma and our teacher used to participate in this fun activity too!jokes apart but aroma that you get while roasting ground nuts or coriander seeds is something u can never forget.during diwali time u can makeout some one is making besan laddus or bhajani from the entrance itself.
Cracking of cummin seeds ,noice you hear when mustard seeds sputters or popping sound of popcorns,peculiar sound that you get when to put something for deep frying cant get unheard.
Taste is synonymn for food we can say else how would we describe something sweet salty tangy bitter spicy.
Softness of flour or stickiness of potato when u mash it,soft shiny skin of brinjol,crunchyness of fresh lady finger,rough jackfruit,thorns of bitterguard,tender leaves of corriander you have to touch and feel the texture.
You feel good about cooking when you get appreciated for it.i a friend of mine who is north indian now married to maharashtrian kokanastha brahmin wonders how her husband relish waran bhat something which is part of menu on every festive occassion. And same time complains that her in laws find lot of oil in her vegetable preparation and doesnt like paneer.
I can only smile as its better if we accept some facts of life as it is and not try changing it.
At 35 if you know cooking its really not a big deal.if you know how to make delicacies then you may get some points for it.in this fast pacebusy life when u get everything ready to it from upama dhokala to gulabjamun mix.We have 24 hours food channel so many sites on internet created by proffesionals chefs as well as housewives.we have n number of cookery shows on all channels where we can learn cusines from different parts of world and enhance culnary skills
When i look back journey through kitchen started fairly late.dont think i ever had liking For cooking initially.
In a family where more importance was given to education ,cooking never got enforced.my mother always said you will do it when it comes:)so making maggie some bread recipes cakes dissolving rasana fancy stuff like haka noodles fried rice is what i remembered doing till i finish my engineering
I used to wonder how ladies easily distinguish between chanadal and turdal and how they remember when to use jad pohe/patal pohe,jad rawa/barik rawa.
How u know how much salt is enough by using finger pinch and how much water to put to get that perfect rice:)
I still have those papers with recipes written on it for pohe/upama/coconut chatani:)
Now we just dont have Maharashtrian panjabi south indian recipes ..there is italian and thai stuff By the time my son grows of age of demanding his favourate stuff am sure few more things would land on platter.so still lot to learn,innovate,cook,bake and offcourse eat and feel:)
Once when i was discussing this with a friend of mine who started cooking in very young age not as a choice but sort of compulsion. She said look dont look at cooking as some mundane activity it actually stimulates 5 senses.Consiously try to figure it out and you would surely start enjoying it and indeed it worked for me.
Rainbow in kitchen is fun to observe. Yellow termeric, shades of yellow of different pulses, red chillies red tomatoes, green chillie,spinach, fresh corriander,white sugar salt spring onion,milk.you cant find cooking dull when so many colors are around.
I remember in school we use to go for coaching classes.It was home based tution and there guys in our class used to guess which vegetable teacher has made by its aroma and our teacher used to participate in this fun activity too!jokes apart but aroma that you get while roasting ground nuts or coriander seeds is something u can never forget.during diwali time u can makeout some one is making besan laddus or bhajani from the entrance itself.
Cracking of cummin seeds ,noice you hear when mustard seeds sputters or popping sound of popcorns,peculiar sound that you get when to put something for deep frying cant get unheard.
Taste is synonymn for food we can say else how would we describe something sweet salty tangy bitter spicy.
Softness of flour or stickiness of potato when u mash it,soft shiny skin of brinjol,crunchyness of fresh lady finger,rough jackfruit,thorns of bitterguard,tender leaves of corriander you have to touch and feel the texture.
You feel good about cooking when you get appreciated for it.i a friend of mine who is north indian now married to maharashtrian kokanastha brahmin wonders how her husband relish waran bhat something which is part of menu on every festive occassion. And same time complains that her in laws find lot of oil in her vegetable preparation and doesnt like paneer.
I can only smile as its better if we accept some facts of life as it is and not try changing it.
At 35 if you know cooking its really not a big deal.if you know how to make delicacies then you may get some points for it.in this fast pacebusy life when u get everything ready to it from upama dhokala to gulabjamun mix.We have 24 hours food channel so many sites on internet created by proffesionals chefs as well as housewives.we have n number of cookery shows on all channels where we can learn cusines from different parts of world and enhance culnary skills
When i look back journey through kitchen started fairly late.dont think i ever had liking For cooking initially.
In a family where more importance was given to education ,cooking never got enforced.my mother always said you will do it when it comes:)so making maggie some bread recipes cakes dissolving rasana fancy stuff like haka noodles fried rice is what i remembered doing till i finish my engineering
I used to wonder how ladies easily distinguish between chanadal and turdal and how they remember when to use jad pohe/patal pohe,jad rawa/barik rawa.
How u know how much salt is enough by using finger pinch and how much water to put to get that perfect rice:)
I still have those papers with recipes written on it for pohe/upama/coconut chatani:)
And then there was food blogging in air and whim of creating one by self which soon vanished after realising its not atall easy stuff and you really have to be cook by heart for that.i had actually collected english names of all food items then kind of grocery list.i had actually leant a lot then but dropped idea of food blogging and happy following food blogs on net but photos captured for that still scattered in random computer folders and i continue to take photos of my experiments afterall u dont make those ukadiche modak that often or something that you try out for first time is always special.Cant resist temptation to put some snaps here.
Now we just dont have Maharashtrian panjabi south indian recipes ..there is italian and thai stuff By the time my son grows of age of demanding his favourate stuff am sure few more things would land on platter.so still lot to learn,innovate,cook,bake and offcourse eat and feel:)
