Today’s the first day I ever cooked with absolutely no supervision, with none to ask the ways, the measurements or whatsoever silly doubts I had. There have been times when I have cooked with my friend(s), but we had each other to back on and it was always the maggi-scrambled eggs-tadkawaali curd rice-mash potato version which can hardly be called cooking. Today’s the first solo. For the first time in my life, I got what my mom meant by “You can’t learn cooking by writing down recipes and having theoretical knowledge, only practice will teach you.” I used to shrug it off saying that I will cook when it’s necessary and that I will write all her recipes down and follow it to the word. What can go wrong when I follow everything as she says? How naïve was I!
I opted for the simplest of dishes for the first day – rava upma for breakfast and rice, sambar and a beans curry for lunch. I started out at 6.30 and when the clock struck 7.30, I was staring at 3 dishes with a pout on my face. The upma was glaring at me dryly for not adding enough oil, while the beans curry was having a sour look for adding a bit too much salt and the sambar was laughing at me since I didn’t know if it was spicier than I intended or not. I wouldn’t say they were inedible but for a foodie like me, they seemed like the end of the world.
Well, hubby dearest was the only tester available and I called him to check if it was at least agreeable to his stomach if not for his taste buds. Being a very accommodating person when it comes to food, he granted a pass to everything (he gives a pass to any home-made food as long as they are not spicy) while my taste buds gave everything a fail. Cooking is no joke without practice, fellas! Not at all! I can’t express how much I miss mom and her expert cooking. What she does in the kitchen is pure magic and here I am, like a muggle.
