Cooking escapades

Cooking is one of my hobbies – it helps me relax. During the many years of bachelorhood, I have had the chance to try out many things in the kitchen. After marriage though the interest has not waned, I have less time and lesser compulsion to enter the kitchen.

 One of my favourite food stories is from my Bombay days. I was abroad for an assignment and a friend joined me. This chap was an expert database administrator but was a rookie as far as cooking was concerned. His roomie back in Bombay packed his bags with spices, dal and one packet of rice. A week or so later when he rang up his roomie, he was asked if he had started cooking. It was then that he realised that he had not properly unpacked and was not even aware of the existence of the food items in his luggage.

 Feeling sorry that his roomie had taken so much trouble and he had not even attempted to cook, that weekend he decided to try out cooking. He did not consult with me or the others staying in the same hotel (we were staying in studio rooms with a kitchenette).

 After 30 minutes or so, the smoke detector in his room started screaming. We all went down to his room, pacified the hotel chaps who had gathered there by then and settled down to listen to his adventure.

 It so happened that there was an electric rice cooker in his room and he decided to start with the basic task of cooking rice. He put the rice in the cooker and plugged it in. But no one told him that he also had to pour water!!! After sometime the rice in the cooker got burnt, he opened it and the smoke had triggered off the alarm. 

 That was the last time he tried anything. For the rest of the duration of his (and our) stay, he performed the role of helper and excelled in cutting vegetables, cleaning dishes etc.

 Guru

 My first guru in cooking was my Delhi roommate’s father. This gentleman had two sons in Delhi – one was married and the other a bachelor staying with us. He used to come to Delhi with a sack full of jackfruit, coconut, nadan kaya, jaggery, ground spices etc. For the first few weeks he stayed with his married son, and then he would stay with us for a few weeks. During his stay he would not use ready made masalas or other purchased ingredients. The stuff he brought from Kerala would be his source.  He taught us the basics - how to make good sambhar, thoran etc.

 The day his stock of ingredients and magic powders from Kerala got over, he would return from Delhi only to return the next year with a new sack.

 Hero

 My hero in cooking has been my mother. Now, it sounds like a cliché - everyone says their mother’s cooking is the best. Well true, but in my mother’s case, when she was in Madras she had attended a cookery course and became an expert in many different types of cuisines. Of course she cooked Kerala vegetarian food well. But she also started trying out Tamil and North Indian dishes and western bakery items as well.

 This training came to fruit many years later in Delhi in the late eighties and early nineties when she had time on her hands as well (myself in college). She and a friend bought two OTGs (Oven Toaster Griller) and started preparing snacks and food items for their friends circle. This relationship was symbiotic. Aunty had been in Delhi for many decades and had a large circle of influence. She was also very marketing savvy and pushy. Mother was the one with the golden touch. She would prepare the food and aunty would ‘sell’ them. In due course they even participated in food shows held on occasions and the proceeds contributed to charity.