Nimona - She never cooked Nimona for me (Part 1)

When mummy spent couple of months with us 10 years ago, it was a big opportunity for me to watch and learn from her. I would ask her to cook my favorite things as kids, things that I did not eat as kid but had grown to like, and even things that you hardly ever make at home in India (like jalebi, boondi, dal ka samosa) since they are easily available in the market. She prepared everything I sked for. But every time I asked her for Nimona, a childhood favorite of mine, she asked for fresh peas. I pointed to the big frozen bag of peas in my fridge and she simply said you cant make nimona unless you have fresh peas.

One time we did find shelling peas in the market and we ended up buying 1-2 lbs but the peas that came out were little and we hardly filled a cup. So she just gave me the recipe and asked me to make it with fresh peas.

Nimona, a spicy green pea curry, was prepared at our house in winter months when peas are in abundance. After you buy the peas in their pods, there was a big arduous task of shelling them. This task was usually performed by anybody who had the time, patience and was trustworthy. I say trustworthy because it was impossible to not eat the peas as you shelled them. It is hard to explain since frozen peas don't look appetizing but the fresh shelled peas were gobbled up raw by everybody - kids and adults alike. One of mummy's favorite childhood story about me was how patiently I would shell the peas for hours at a very young age (like 5 or 6!).

I have made this post long describing all the memories associated with this favorite dish and will post the Part 2 (how I ended up making Nimona with those dreaded frozen peas) in the next post.

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