Cooking is a lot like love!

Dinner time and kids cry out, “No more the same ‘boring’ food.”
So out comes the Master Chef cap to try out new recipes. Part taste buds, part TV channel ‘Food Food’ and part healthy innovation gives rise to Chole Burger and Lip-smacking Cheese Macaroni.

Cooking is a lot like love. Deciding what to make, choosing ingredients is like falling in love. Regular pakoda or healthier chole burger vis-à-vis dinner date or movie night.
Well, for the chole burger, it’s very simple. Soak some (chickpea) chole over-night. Take these chole, one small onion, salt and chilli powder and grind in a mixie. Then shape the batter as medium sized patties, dip in cornflour paste and deep fry.

Now this is the exciting, ‘being in love’ part as the anticipation is just brimming. The mouth watering wait like the dreamy smile evoked by the lovely memories and the skip of the heart as the clock ticks towards the next date.

As the cutlets cool off on a tissue, I call to my daughter to assemble the burger. My daughter is only eager to do her bit in the kitchen J. Add the cheese slice for extra love and you can choose healthy green chutney for the tomato ketchup. Much like the dark brown eye liner instead of the killer pitch black one. Don’t forget the dash of lip gloss for a simmering date!

Daughter settles happily with a burger she assembled. I cut the tomatoes smaller as they are easier to bite.
Then comes the third part of the love relationship. The cleaning up, phew! This is where the beauty fades off and stains are hard to remove. Habits are seen clearer than the mole of the soft silky cheek. The complaints simmering like the hot oil in the pan and batter sticking everywhere like the incomplete words after a bad fight! Well, a cleaning up it does take and a good scrubbing too!
So you clean the kitchen, family helps with the table. Healthy meal for the kids, sweaty brows and a tiring smile.
A love affair like nothing else!

Another mouth-watering love affair!


With cheese, broccoli, pasta, olive oil, red peppers, salt, pepper, atta (for good health), butter, milk and lot of cheese again. A simple white sauce with atta frying on warm butter dissolving into milk and cheese. Sauté broccoli and the peppers add the boiled macaroni and veggies before you let more cheese melt in.
The plain macroni with cheese with for my cheese loving son!   
 

Curious relationship

I am drawn to him, day or night; I can always make time for him. An unassuming part of my life, but a very important one. Like a pet or a sampling, he asks for my attention and only unconditional love pulls me to him.
Uncertainty filled me as we started our relationship. “How far will it go?’ my friend asked concerned. But looking at each other with each passing day, we knew our bond would only grow. Everyday, I keep a watchful eye on what he is nourished with. That being an important part of our relationship, it’s an important part of my mornings. I leave him alone giving him the much needed space and time and he only rewards me bountifully, when we meet again.
We have raised curious eyebrows and people only want to know more about relationship. It’s more than 6 months now and my compost pot has yielded enough manure to nourish a small garden.
Simple concern on the growing rubbish on the streets made me turn to a simple earthen pot, in which I store all my biodegradable kitchen waste. Doubt and uncertainty saw me open the lid the first couple of times but the debris of my last night’s dinner only attracted me more. I mixed the compost affectionately and looked for any plastic remains that may obstruct the decomposing. Sprinkling lime to wade away the smell, dry grass and newspaper pieces to dry up the pile – I was turning around good! Soon I graduated to 2 pots; one for collection and the other for storage. Finally, the black residue at the bottom of my first pot signalled the passage of time and fresh manure made me proud. I anxiously set about straining my manure and the touch of the fine earth, made it worth the wait.
The smell, the process of decomposing, the rodents, mixing up a wet pile and finally straining the fine black soil – fruits of labour. I gifted my small work of art to a couple of like minded people, with a pride that one feels presenting a tempting dish or a kanjivaram saree.
Couldn’t have asked for a better relationship with my compost pot. And for the process of composting, I never knew one can find happiness, cutting a rotten water melon skin, only to put in my pot part by part.
In this simple process of nature, I have learnt that beauty lies inconspicuous everyday things that we sometime called ‘ugly’; only inspection doesn’t lead to accomplishments but hands on service does, what’s inside counts and it’s the humble manure, which makes the flowers bloom bright.