My experiments with cooking

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well if one has not dined well~Virginia Wolf

Home-made semolina cake

For the survival of human life on earth; food, shelter and clothing   are the utmost important requirements. Food is 'fuel' for the 'machinery' of our body.

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food"~ G. Bernard Shah

People eat to live but I think I am among-st one of the people who live to eat and is always crazy for food. My mom told me that I got hungry as soon as I was born. I have tried many delicious dishes as my mom is a good cook. What I did in childhood was making chapatis, cakes and sweets of mud and decorating with flowers. I tried to make small real chapatis to serve in my toy plates but most of them were burnt. When it was time to make full fledged chapatis, I did not even want to make tea or go close to kitchen except to eat something.

ulta-pulta halwa burfi

Up to my intermediate, I was busy in my studies and did not even care to know how a simple vegetable is cooked. I did not even know the exact name of all the pulses and spices. But since it is said that passion is in the blood of family; my passion for cooking also developed like my mom during my holidays of graduation. I was free at home and mom often kept my saying that i should learn cooking now as I am old enough know to learn it and self-made food is essential for everyone even if one is working. No one can eat food from restaurants daily and the food made by servants is not a healthy practice. 

chocolate cake

One day my mom tried to make me learn making rice but I got so confused. I just forgot the recipe; got irritated and said it would be easy for me to solve engineering mathematics problems than cooking. Some other day, I again tried to make tempering for vegetables but every-time I got failed and either burnt onions or the onions were left partially cooked. Then mom asked me to try snacks and deserts if I can't learn making meals. 

She told me recipe for cake and I tried it the next day. I was so dumb in cooking at that time that I put butter directly in mold placed in pressure cooker than putting butter in container first before placing it on mold. I became laughing stock at home for this incident. I also started laughing for my act and this incident makes me laugh whenever I remember it. 

shahi tukra

I totally lost hope but my mom did not and she asked me to go for cooking classes with her where I could have demonstration from another person and then again mom would repeat it in the kitchen helping me to prepare dishes. Those cooking classes proved like a boon for me. I got inspired from other cooking learners who encouraged me to keep on trying dishes again and again and never lose hope. 

bread pudding

After my cooking classes were over, I started practicing for just tempering first and always kept on calling mom for help after few steps of cooking. After learning some basics of cooking, I tried making vegetable of lady finger first, then of potatoes and cauliflower. But all I did was under mom's guidance.Then, mom started asking me to prepare dishes myself without her guidance and help;but I often failed in her absence. 

magic cake with out bake

One day mom had to go out of town urgently and she could no get time to make breakfast for us. She asked me to prepare Upma(Indian salty dish of semolina) for breakfast. I was so copycat at that time that I copied the recipe from my dairy of cooking classes. I did not even care to check the quantity of the recipe written in my diary and the quantity I was going to prepare. I put two bowls of vegetable oil in tempering of upma instead of one and what I made was liquid soup with semolina floating in oil. I felt discouraged and though everyone would laugh at me but everyone appreciated my attempt to cook food in mom's absence. My dad removed extra oil form upma and everyone did breakfast with that little fatty upma. I think it was the best breakfast of my life. Everyone told mom about the incident when she came home. Mom got so happy, appreciated my attempt and asked me to keep trying dishes in her absence. 

dhokla

Now, whenever mom went out of town, I prepared dishes; sometimes potatoes were bit burnt; pulses were bit salty; cookies got over burnt; Dhokla was not spongy;  pasta and noodles were sticky; got splashing of hot oil over my skin; got my finger cut. I also faced difficulty in finding utensils and containers of pulses and made kitchen messy with peels and splattered spices. Then, I asked for tips from mom and even searched for tips from websites. After continuous practice, i started cooking food fine. Our guests 

also appreciated my dishes. I got inspired,  improved my skill of garnishing and often shared photos of my dishes on social sites. I even learned innovative food items from websites like 'Magic cake ' without bake', 'Ulta-Pulta halwa' and 'Bread Pizza'.

besan burfi

Today when I remember my cooking experience and my previous funny incidents; I could not even imagine I would make snacks and desserts other than meals. All this happens only if we have motivating family members, some faith in ourselves and determination to learn something. If we try, then only we can achieve something. May be I am not a chef but at least I am not dependent on anyone for my meals and express love for my family by cooking food myself.

"Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle."~Abraham Lincoln