What's Cooking?

One lazy morning,I was reading an article on how a blog is the live plant which can supplement the cut and dried stump of a resume.Mum had been telling me off for spending time blog-hopping when I should be learning the secrets of meen-curry.I march triumphantly into the kitchen where she is engaged in the "Battle of Breakfast" to read out relevant lines from the article to vindicate my habit.

"...that's fine,but how do you expect to eat without learning to cook?"

Normally, I would have given a tongue in cheek reply and dived for cover.
That morning,the question didn't have any barbs (of the 'managing-your-
own-home-someday' kind),for once I realize the sorry state of my culinary skills.

The first thing I ever learned to make was of course,tea.Since I was not a culinary enthusiast this feat came around the age of 11 or 12.The first tea I served,to demonstrate my skill,took half an hour and was declared "excellent"by the tasters,who had given up the prospect of tea that evening.Well,if one has perfected the art then why try any more.So that was the end of brewing tea for a long long time.It was only after the shift to Ernakulam that I made enough tea to compensate that long gap.The place is thick with relations who keep dropping in and volunteering to make tea is the best way to escape the company of relations who keep asking the same questions everytime.

Back in Trivandrum,Mum and Dad used to leave us to ourselves occasionally on short visits to the native places like weddings,functions or emergencies.Those days we lived on Maggi noodles and "bull's eyes",and the best part was that Neil always joined in.Parents out of station also meant parotta and chilly beef from the fast food shop.So who cares about cooking!

Things however took a turn (for good,obviously) two years back,when Mum took occasional breaks to visit her parents,leaving me to manage the household.She did try frightening me into learning to cook with dire warnings like leaving an empty fridge.But she knew better and wouldn't have dreamed of letting Ammamma or Dad starve.I took over with a fully stocked fridge and my sole duty was warming up things and fixing all the meals,going by the instructions jotted on the yellow scrap pasted on the fridge.
Not surprisingly,I put up an impressive work by doing things ahead of time;the lunch boxes packed and breakfast laid out by 7:30am.The only things I would have to make would be puttu ,dosa or appam and tea.The thermal cooker is one of the miracles in kitchendom,atleast the rice gets cooked without any fuss.
After a few easy "duty days" like those,Mum began to reduce the number of things to be warmed and served.Now the instructions read "Soak green peas
at night,boil in the morning,after a whistle turn down the fire....".
Piece of cake,I tell myself.
I opened the cooker at the first whistle(I swear it sounded like one) only to find the peas still green,grinning back at me.My reputation was at stake that day,with my NRI uncle included in the mouths-to-feed list.I was determined to get that peas curry and paalappam done for breakfast.The stove was lit again and this time the cooker whistled as many as three times.I opened the cooker to find "ghosts" of pea-skins floating around in the excess water.The residue(discovered under the water) now looked like badly made dal.It must have been my exasperated cry that brought uncle to the scene of the 'tragedy'.Sweet as he is, uncle took over and tried his best to salvage the curry.My folks were courteous enough to taste the 'disaster' before asking for the sugar bowl.The garbage bin that day,had a considerable amount of yellowish green gooey stuff,among its contents.Thankfully Mum returned just in time to save the lunch from a similar fate.

The only thing I really volunteered to make was chocolate.There were several irresistible pictures of chocolates in Mum's collection.(She has an entire row of glossy cook books and several scrapbooks with hundreds of recipes carefully chosen and cut out from magazines and newspapers.).I had brought cocoa pods from Mum's home and went through the entire process of drying the seeds,pounding and processing them to make the chocolate powder.The first time it turned out in liquid form and the second time it remained a semisolid.But chocolate is chocolate afterall;the smacking of lips was appreciation enough.
The chicken and meen curry still remain secrets.So do that unending list of sadhya side dishes.Never had a palate for the fancy or exotic dishes so no regrets about the ignorance there.
Though I manage to conjure up four square meals,the best thing I make still continues to be tea.My Mum continues to lament the lack of the hereditary skill in me.As for me,I always say "The best is yet to be!"