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Valla Sadhya at Aranmula Temple |
I love cooking (and eating too :))– though I am not all that great cook (my mother and mother in law both of them are great cooks ) but I enjoy cooking .. for the simple reason when I cook I try to think good, and most of the times when I want to change my focus or chain of thoughts from something which is disturbing me, I cook …. and I believe that after a ight/argument/crying session I cook the best :D I think when i was in class 5 i started making tea, morning tea (early morning tea at 5- 5:30 ) was usually prepared by me o my brother – we used to get up early in the morning during school days .. then during weekends/holidays we (friends) used to make evening snacks (Bread/aalu pakodas, veg rolls) – my brother was great in making egg and veg rolls (something he learnt from Thele wallas in Assam).. I could cook daal chawal roti and potato (basic khana) by the time I was in class 12 ..
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Typical Fish Fry with Green Salad |
Soon after graduation even before i could get my results I got into wipro .. initial few months I was in staying as a PG , there also weekends I used to help our Hostess in cooking , and after 6 months I wanted to have my own kitchen , but it was little too early for me , so had cousins house where I started experimenting – she too was working and hardly used to get time at home , so taking that opportunity started cooking at her place – well there was no kitchen as such but we had all that is required for cooking .. started off with Aalu Mutter, puttu, kozhi kotta, chicken curry , fish curry, and end of 1 yr in Bangalore I took up a single bedroom house with a proper kitchen :) -- And then it was Aalu Paratha, Mooli Parathas, Methi, palak, mutton curry, beef , prawns , vegetables and greens name it all .. used to cook all days ,and weekends after playing badminton from 10am -1pm (courts @ cabbon park/chinnaswamy stadium/padukone) used to get mutton/beef/chicken/fish from Johnson market or vivek nagar (depending on which route I took to come back home) and cook . sometime friends were be there for lunch, if not lunch, then dinner ..There will always be something at home to eat - and my friends were aware of this - so when Rajkumar kidnap episode happened and city was shut down 2 of my pure vegetarian friends (collegues from wipro) came home for dinner and we hot hot rice, quick sambar and a beans .. those were days with friends ...
After marriage it was easy for me to manage house (especially cooking) and work and then Esther happened -- Being a working mother has not been very easy .. .. and then i had to go for oniste trip --- at Prague i continued cooking - first at our hotel we stayed Ian and Ramona - and then when i moved to my apartment in Brno - had lovely kitchen -in between had a dinner at my team mebers house - David, jew from israel - vegetarian - onderj and his partner , kuric, his wife and baby magdalena, and me .. david prepared tahini and pitaah bread, pickled cheese and Olive i prepared daal, and potato and rice - and we had a lavish vegetarian dinner in prague with lot of wine which guests had brought :) -- loved the local food there .. when i came back to India , didnt see much change in Esther -- the reason again was - I,her mother was not around thats why she didnt eat well :) anyway got used to the fact the Esther is fine the way she is ... So sometime i had to rename things like "Ragi Puttu - renamed as Chocolate Puttu" - Crispy Dosa became Paper dosa - round Parathas - became snake parathas -- and the trick did work :)
Then again another onsite trip to UK - did cooking at the hotel we stayed --cooking in the evening - and after 3 months moved as a PG in a Mallu's house - there 2 kids Jerlin and Joel -- fussy about eating -- so started my experiments - paper Dosas, egg rolls , noodles - i told them that I used to cook in a "Thatta Kadda" and somehow kids believed also -- infact the Lady of the house asked me once "Did you actually cook for thatta kada ?" for i used to help her in all her vegetable cutting exercise and she was little surprised that i could helpher in cutting and cooking :) Thanks to my love for food and cooking got some good friends ….
So today’s special - Breakfast - Upama (poddi upma) and Kadla curry , Lunch - Naddan pair and kaya ollithiyedu, moore kaachiyedu and sambar - Dinner Paav Bhaaji !! :)
Enjoy cooking, eating and making new friends ...
Hawkins ki seeti baji, khushboo hi khushboo udi. Mazedaar, lazzedaar khaana hai tayyar, aji khaana hai tayyar! Murg Musallam, Tomayyto Soup, Matar Pulao, ... :)
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