I never learnt to cook - I always had my Grandmom and of course Mom and Raje to take care of the kitchen - the best i could cook was roti, Dal and once in a while try out one of those recipes cut out from Hindu, Mangayar Malar and Femina.
After marriage ....there was a cook for almost for two years and then one day i found myself standing in front of the gas stove- maidless, aidless. THe cook had taught me the basics of south indian cooking . but i had no clue about measurements and the quantities to use.. i had to necessarily learn from Tarla Dalal - would somewhere lose track of it while cooking and had to cover up adding something else - there would be more salt, or the dish would be sour, or too spicy - I think even before i learnt to cook well, I learnt to adjust the tastes!!!!!
I have turned out to be a decent cook - but my cooking is never consistent, i take a recipe, never follow what it says. MY mom absolutely gets flustered when i take her recipes and make my own variation to it. Not only have i managed to cook tasty food but i have also generated some laughs in the process and once in a while sadly wasted some food - (the one time i added vinegar to Biryani instead of rosewater!!!! - why do they have be packed in similar bottles).
And it goes on....
I attended Baking classes a couple of weeks back (i was critically challenged in the art of baking)and the cakes and biscuits turn out to be perfect at class and the samples i brought home were delicious.
Confident and excited - i take out the recipes and decided to impress Anish who was coming home and he like me has a sweet tooth - so sinful..
Day 1- I make chocolate pudding and it was the best thing i had ever created - Anish. Asha and my nephew Buman devoured it..They requested another one
and now i take out the recipe again and the ugly devil shows his nasty horns - "youve done it once - you know the trick well...change the recipe" and i did exactly that - increased the amount of butter and milk and never put a thought to the flour - so now i have a superlicious pudding except that we had scoop it out with a spoon.
Lesson well learnt - you can not adjust the cake while its baking...coconut milk and salt are not going to help you here!!!!!!!!!!!
Day 2 - Now i try eggless sponge cake - was extra cautious to get the measurements and ingredients right - wrote it down in a separate sheet of paper - the recipe said Bake for 140 deg for 1 hour..My oven had 170 deg and 155 deg only and so i set it at 155 deg for 1 hour ..Grrrrrrr again the taste was excellent but the cake not a sponge cake at all:
So Lesson 2 Learnt - Get myself an oven with different temperature settings..
I have totally understood that Baking is a different cup of tea altogether and the experiences of curry and pulao is not going to help me here = and now a days am training myself to read and listen to the recipes and give it the respect it deserves and hopefully i will have a good cake to share on my facebook wall..
After marriage ....there was a cook for almost for two years and then one day i found myself standing in front of the gas stove- maidless, aidless. THe cook had taught me the basics of south indian cooking . but i had no clue about measurements and the quantities to use.. i had to necessarily learn from Tarla Dalal - would somewhere lose track of it while cooking and had to cover up adding something else - there would be more salt, or the dish would be sour, or too spicy - I think even before i learnt to cook well, I learnt to adjust the tastes!!!!!
I have turned out to be a decent cook - but my cooking is never consistent, i take a recipe, never follow what it says. MY mom absolutely gets flustered when i take her recipes and make my own variation to it. Not only have i managed to cook tasty food but i have also generated some laughs in the process and once in a while sadly wasted some food - (the one time i added vinegar to Biryani instead of rosewater!!!! - why do they have be packed in similar bottles).
And it goes on....
I attended Baking classes a couple of weeks back (i was critically challenged in the art of baking)and the cakes and biscuits turn out to be perfect at class and the samples i brought home were delicious.
Confident and excited - i take out the recipes and decided to impress Anish who was coming home and he like me has a sweet tooth - so sinful..
Day 1- I make chocolate pudding and it was the best thing i had ever created - Anish. Asha and my nephew Buman devoured it..They requested another one
and now i take out the recipe again and the ugly devil shows his nasty horns - "youve done it once - you know the trick well...change the recipe" and i did exactly that - increased the amount of butter and milk and never put a thought to the flour - so now i have a superlicious pudding except that we had scoop it out with a spoon.
Lesson well learnt - you can not adjust the cake while its baking...coconut milk and salt are not going to help you here!!!!!!!!!!!
Day 2 - Now i try eggless sponge cake - was extra cautious to get the measurements and ingredients right - wrote it down in a separate sheet of paper - the recipe said Bake for 140 deg for 1 hour..My oven had 170 deg and 155 deg only and so i set it at 155 deg for 1 hour ..Grrrrrrr again the taste was excellent but the cake not a sponge cake at all:
So Lesson 2 Learnt - Get myself an oven with different temperature settings..
I have totally understood that Baking is a different cup of tea altogether and the experiences of curry and pulao is not going to help me here = and now a days am training myself to read and listen to the recipes and give it the respect it deserves and hopefully i will have a good cake to share on my facebook wall..
No comments:
Post a Comment