Cooking – A Mess Up!
I was on the last year of college and my Friend’s friend invited us over lunch. The inviter’s Mother had put in so much effort for a three course meal on a traditional ceramic dinner set. The first to arrive was the bowl of soup. It was a novel experiences and all of us jumped for joy. I really loved the soup and was shy to ask for the recipe of the soup.
I kept second guessing and it had a nice mild yet sharp taste of lemon in it. So, that day evening, I promised my entire an excellent and yummy soup. My mother was surprised and my younger sister was wondering how I am going to eat my own words. Of course, father didn’t get involved as he was busy.
So all is set, I assume the ingredients and I pressure cooked the dhals which I assumed must have been used. Then, once when the dhals were done. I waited for the cooker to be released and then I started to get them all in a wide handi to cook the soup. I started at add ingredients to the soup. I began somewhere around 5 pm and even at 7 pm the soup was not ready or taste the way my friend’s friend’s mom had done.
At 7:45 pm, everyone said that the soup did look any where near soup more of dhal or sambar. From that day on my sister and mother would tease me, “oh! your soup soup, dinner, dinner.” Of course, this is one of my many goof-ups in the kitchen. I felt sheepish for failing in the soup making but learnt to be shameless in asking for recipes from others.
Experimental Dishes
I found that I loved watching cooking shows, but for the life of me, I couldn’t get the sequence right at all. So, this was a few years after college and I was experimenting with some new ingredients. The problem was one of my friends had called and I forgot about the dish on the stove. When my father entered he smelt the burning food and asked me to go check. That is when I hurriedly ended the call and rushed to the kitchen to the colossal error of burning food.
Thankfully that day, I had two dishes made for lunch. Even though one was a disaster, the other one saved the day! From that day onwards I would never mix phone call with cooking. Of course, all my first attempts were vainglorious failures. The skill or art of cooking is being able to know the basics and go beyond it.
It is a least favourite activity for me but I have mastered a few dishes and they are simple fairs without any fancy technique to follow. The passion for cooking that I admire in so many people who innovate and experiment. I dare not experiment for fear of failing miserably.
Itinerant Storyteller 