I have to start sometime

Just the thought of trying my mother's recipes by cooking each one gets me excited but also makes me very nervous. I am not sure where to start. I am most nervous about not being able to recreate the same taste. And this is the reason the dishes I like the best are the ones I never cook on my own.

Mummy loved to cook, she cooked a variety of things, she cooked lot of dishes that I consider unique to our family, the city/region she grew up in, dishes that I have not easily found outside our family. Some of these dishes even have names that dont sound normal names for dishes - ex. Dal Ki Dulhan (Lentil's bride), Nau ratan chutney (chutney made out of 9 gems). Then she also cooked lot of other dishes that were not so common the region we lived in. She had been cooking south indian dishes (sambhar, idli, puliyara, upma) much before it became popular in the north. She had an oven for as long as I remember. Eeven now, it is not common to find ovens in homes in India. She used the oven to bake the cake for our birthdays. She was always trying new things and she was always improvising. Every now and then she discovered a great new recipe that she passed to us and soon it became part of the stadard repertoire. I remember when she bought the solar cooker and soon it became the place to try something new every day. One day she was roasting peanuts in it and then next day it was used to make kheer (pudding). She made all sorts of recipes that needed the slow cooking, needed the smokey flavor like making baigun bharta, roasting potatoes.

My attempt here is to try to recreate her recipes, share my experience cooking each one. There are so many to choose from but I know I have to start with one.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Soup

Image
If ever I were to plan whole week's menu, I always add making soup to the list. But by the time I am done making the dinner, making soup feels too much work and there is no time left to execute the multiple steps required. Mummy had broken down the steps and simplified the process so in winter months, we could have soup every day. She prepared a big batch of concentrated concoction for the soup, boiled vegetables blended and strained, ready to be served by just adding water and spices. One batch lasted her couple of days and next batch was prepared when the previous one got over. The soup was almost always tomato based and was referred to as simply "Soup". Mummy added vegetables like Lauki, carrots, spinach, depending on what was available. She took delight in secretly feeding these vegetables in soup, especially to kids. Sometimes she served fried bread croutons along with the soup. In the evening, an hour or so before dinner, the soup was served in small tea cups or sma
Read more

Spring cleaning of my pantry & refrigerator

Image
My pantry is usually very well stocked with different types of grains, flours, beans, legumes, nuts, spices, noodles, pastas, sauces, oils etc. I keep a running shopping list on my phone for items that run out or running low as a reminder to buy it when I am at the store next time. I don't like to waste food so I am on the lookout for things that might go stale or bad. But periodically or sometimes a month or two before a long vacation, I go through a more formal cleaning approach where I stop buying ingredients for stocking and start planning meals with the intention of clearing out ingredients in my pantry and freezer. Since ingredients that linger longer in the pantry are typically the ones I don't use a lot of to start with, it takes some effort to plan meals around it. For this spring cleaning, I have moved all items that need to be consumed completely to an eye level shelf in the pantry. Having these items in front of me will serve as a reminder and my goal i
Read more

Mooli Tamatar Ka Salad (Radish/Tomato relish)

Image
In our house (as in most houses in India), it was common to serve raw 'salad type vegetables' with the meals. We called it 'salad' though we ate it more like a relish along with all other food. The choice of vegetable to serve as 'salad' depended on what was in the season. Cucumbers, tomatoes in summer and radishes, carrots in winter. I love the one mummy made with radish and tomatoes. It is visually very appealing and very falvorful and her special touch was to grate the radish instead of just cutting it. Grating the radish allows flavors to get mingled with tomato very nicely. The recipe is so simple that one can not go wrong with it. I use daikon, the type of radish available in India in winter months. You start with peeling and grating the radish, squeezing grated radish between your hands to take out the juice and mixing it with chopped tomatoes, chopped cilantro and green chillies if you can handle the heat. Then you add a litle bit of salt and lime juice
Read more