Foodelicious: THE A. B. C. D OF COOKING

Foodelicious: THE A. B. C. D OF COOKING: "My experience with cooking is a short one, but an interesting one. Coming from medical background..there was hardly any time to develop my c..."

THE A. B. C. D OF COOKING

My experience with cooking is a short one, but an interesting one. Coming from medical background..there was hardly any time to develop my culinary skills. But I guess, just like there are maternal instincts in a woman, there surely must be culinary instincts too.. this can be the only logical explanation of my sudden interest in cooking. Infact many of my dental girl friends realised that they too developed this sudden interest in cooking after they became mothers. So I guess it must be a natural phenomenon for an Indian woman to graduate from being married and then getting into kitchen ! ..well most of them ! 

This lead me to think, just like "the way to the mans heart is through his stomach" ..what is the "way to a woman's heart"?? Is  "Cooking " for her family the "way to a woman's heart and soul"? Is a woman incomplete without cooking for her family? ..Probably.

As I started developing interest in cooking, the first thing I wanted to achieve was the same taste in my recipes as MY MOTHERS. I think we all try to search our..Maa Ke hath ka Khanna..Its like a standard against which everything is measured. Anyways..I am still trying to replicate my mums cooking. I get it sometimes..I fail other times. ..all in the hope that one day my daughter will also remember my made food as Maa Ke haath ka Khanna.

So as I cooked... little and more, I formulated my own A B C D of Cooking. .

A - Amount. - the amount of ingredients added. Ill rate this as the most important requirement of good cooking. Imagine to have a well cooked recipe with too much chilly or no salt. But the difficulty lies in understanding this "amount". Its amazes me how my mother dint refer to any scale..just pure andaaza and it was always perfect.

B- Best time to add. - Timing is everything. The right time to add onions, garlic in  hot oil . Or right time to add water in rightly sauted semolina for pudding (sooji ka halwa). If one misses the timing the flavour is sure to change.

C- Contents- Its not just how much we add, when we add but also what we add. Small additions can make a whole lot of difference.Simple recipes can be made a great treat for the palate just by the addition of our magical ingredients - spices. Indians are blessed with the treasure of spices. ..used differently and extensively all over the country. One trick I learned was to stock up my kitchen with all types of  ready made spices. Add rajma masala in baingan and see the difference in flavour. Its amazing that how just by adding a differently made garam masala can change the whole flavour of the recipe.

and finally D - Desire to cook. I firmly agree that the feeling with which one cooks gets imbibed by the food that is being cooked. This is one of the key factors that make a mothers made food so incomparable to anything else. ..its just loaded with so much love and affection. A happily made meal will make you healthy and happy. .

When all ABCD is put together it makes that perfect meal which we all crave for. Recipes need not be exotic..a simply made dal chawal served with a dollop of melting ghee, spicy pickle and onion rings is all that it  may take to make a happy satisfying meal.

Foodelicious: An interesting quick mix of vegetables

Foodelicious: An interesting quick mix of vegetables: " There days when I feel I am fed up of eating the same things over and over again. Some of the days, I open the fridge to see what all veget..."

An interesting quick mix of vegetables

 There days when I feel I am fed up of eating the same things over and over again. Some of the days, I open the fridge to see what all vegetables are stacked in to choose one for the dinner. But I get extremely disheartened to see the same vegetables glaring at me giving me the look of monotony. Rajasthan like most north Indian states gets seasonal vegetables. Unlike Maharashtra (place where I was before marriage), its difficult   to find cauliflower whenever one  wants to eat, anytime of the year. So basically, in a given season one is stuck with the same vegetables. 

I found a very simple solution to this problem. I make use of the frozen section of my fridge and fill it up with frozen peas and corn. At any time you will find baby corn, sweet corn and paneer in my fridge. The number permutation and combination of recipes that can be made by these simple vegetables is large making life simple and interesting. 

I must confess I secretly felt proud of myself the other day when I made a quick mix vegetable recipe using these assorted vegetables (which otherwise  would have been the same..gourd family for dinner). 

So here a simple mantra. These veggies should always be in the fridge. So when nothing else occurs to you to cook..one can make mix vegetables easily. Interestingly these can be made in Indian style,  Chinese style and Continental style and each style is a treat to the palate. 

So when you are in a hurry or extremely bored in life..

1.  2 Chopped capsicums

2.  1 smallest size bowl of peas

3.  1 smallest size bowl of sweet corn

4.  1 large carrot chopped

5.  1 large onion chopped

6. 5-6 cloves of garlic- chopped

7.  1 ginger clove chopped

8.  1 green chilly chopped

9.  1 tablespoon of cornflour

10.1 tablespoon of oil

11. 1 teaspoon of vinegar

12. salt to taste

Boil all the veggies ( capsicum, peas, carrot, sweet corn) in pressure cooker. Take a small pan and add the corn flour. Stir it for 2- 3 minutes. Once it is done, remove it and take a cup of water and add the cornflour to the water. Stir it well till all the cornflour dissolves leaving no lump behind and keep this solution aside. Take a large pan, add vegetable oil to it. When hot , add the chopped onions, garlic, ginger and chilly. Stir till onions and garlic are light brown. Add the cornflour solution and vinegar. Stir well. Finally add all veggies and salt. 

leave it covered for around ten to fifteen minutes till all veggies absorb the aroma and flavor. Serve hot.

The cornflour acts as a binder thickening the gravy while the main flavour is contributed by garlic and ginger. The simplicity of this recipe makes it one of my favorites. In all it takes just about half an hour to cook. The blend of colours of yellows, oranges and green makes it one of the most pleasing visual delights. Needless to say all the veggies added are a power house of health food. 

Complimented best with stir fried rice and quick make of noodles. .. Or simply eaten..just one big bowl of these colorful veggies is a definite happy meal.