How i actually began cooking

When i was much much younger, and by that i don't mean i'm old, just that it was probably 8 - 10 years back now, that i started baking.

The whole deal started when i was old enough to use half my brain and figure out that i loved the smells that emanated from the kitchen when my mom was baking. i still remember her marble cakes and chocolate brownies and one day i just asked my mom if i could help out somehow. Until then, my cousin and i were simply nuisances who would sneak a lick from the mixture and get swatted by my mom or grandmom. 

Their threats were "You'll get a stomach ache!" or "There won't be any cake to bake!"

Looking back on it now, i felt kind of silly, but it was something i enjoyed. the nonsense we did when we were kids was always excused because, well, we were kids. Also, i don't think i would've regretted eating the batter even if i did get a stomach ache . . .

So the first time i asked, i must have been around 12 years old and i think my mom was kind of shocked and surprised, but in a good way and she was totally cool with having me around in the kitchen. Most of what i could do at that age was limited however, i mean, mostly i was just cracking eggs into the bowl and if she thought i wasn't too tired, she'd let me mix the mixture.

Soon, i learnt about things like 'folding' and 'sieving' and so many strange things like that, but all the while i had fun. now interestingly enough, i didn't realize that this wasn't a normal practise. most kids my age were not allowed to even set foot in the kitchen, whereas, i, as i would soon learn, was going to be given free reign in the kitchen.

the first time i was allowed to do whatever in the kitchen is not something i really remember, it wasn't a significant moment, it was just me, and the kitchen . . . and well, the ingredients. So, this happened when i was at home once and i kind of picked up the things i needed and baked a batch of brownies. now mind you, this was a surprise and thankfully, my mom received a pleasant yet delicious surprise.

The very first batch of brownies i had made on my own, were soft, moist, chocolaty and it even had a nice beautiful crunch on the top. The powder was dusted by my mom, who figured that i couldn't do it the way she did, by making sugary powder snow down from a spoon. mine was just, well, a big mass that would careen off the edge of the spoon. I wasn't very happy about that and to date, i can say with absolute certainty that that, was the best batch of brownies i ever made.

Following brownies, i began to bake cakes and cookies, all chocolate, till i brought my friends into the picture, then we had a vanilla cake, a vanilla and chocolate marble cake, a vanilla and strawberry marble cake, chocolate cookies, chocolate chip cookies, strawberry and chocolate chip cookies (these were absolutely yum!), even strawberry cookies with broken pieces of candy. The last ones taste best when just pulled out of the oven - they're warm, soft and gooey and absolutely delectable.

After this, when i was a little older (i must have been around 15 - 16 maybe?) i made a banana chocolate cake and even an apple upside down cake. And this sort of marked the end of my illustrious (not really) carreer of baking.

Well, it's not like I quit, but what ended up happening was that whenever i chose to bake, i would go on a spree, like a marathon . . . like, well like i was absolutely crazy about it. At a time it was normal for me to bake maybe 4 batches of brownies and 7 - 8 batches of cookies and so on and my parents i can tell you, were not very pleased because i used to spread myself out all over the place and well. Ahem. They weren't too happy.

So, i kinda just stopped. but i still liked going into the kitchen, it was like a space for me now. After a lot of complaints and lots of nudging from my parents, i began cooking. Now mind you, i wasn't going to cook dal chaval or chappatis or things like that, i was going to make something absolutely exotic!

So, the first 'thing' that i cooked was, spaghetti. it wasn't revolutionary, it wasn't something mind blowing, it was well, plain old spaghetti. now, to make it, we had no sauces like none of that pizza pasta sauce or anything and well, it was just an experiment to feed myself and my cousin that day.

So i did what the recipe told me, got the skin off the tomatoes, pureed them, stuck it in a pot, seasoned it best as i could and dumped in some meat-balls that weren't very tasty and cooked the spaghetti and brought it all together.

Now honestly speaking, my first try wasn't the absolute greatest. I mean, yes, it was somewhat tasty, but that was about it. If i were to make spaghetti today, the spaghetti i made that day couldn't even hold a candle to it. Today's spaghetti borrows help from pizza pasta sauce, has a nice solid tomato puree base and generally ticks off all the right boxes on my list. Today's pasta is delicious.

Now of course, my mom insisted i couldn't make spaghetti all the time, i agreed and so i made my very first horrible, shepherd's pie. i mean, there was just so much wrong with it. So what is shepherd's pie?

It's basically ground meat that is cooked and seasoned and everything, stuck into a bowl and topped with delicious creamy potatoes. Simple right? No.

Not simple. Very very not simple. the potatoes need to be crispy for the texture, because predominantly you just have meat at the bottom, so your potato quantity should be more than the meat, secondly, if you make the potatoes overly creamy, it makes the whole dish just sort of fall apart. That was i think the most disappointing experience for me. 

We never made it again.

Sometime after this, my mom began making sandwiches and we discovered that the most perfect cucumber sandwich was one that was lightly buttered on both sides, with really thin slices of cucumber and a side of chips, specifically Lays American style cream and onion.

The combo was just delightful! There was texture, the butteriness would come out every once in a while and the cucumber would just sort of bring it all together, cool and crunchy. it was the best sandwich to beat the heat during the thick of summer.

Now, i liked the sandwich and obsessed over it and so, it was like a repeat of the whole baking spree. So, once more i was side tracked from discovering anything new. And the summer passed with an overload of cucumber sandwiches.

And i believe the next year or sometime much much later, my mother discovered 'grilled' tomatoes. Which was what i wrote about recently, so i won't go into much detail about that, but i tried a whole lot of things with the tomatoes after.

Following the discovery of this sandwich, my mom and i began to bake breads, make home made pizzas, even paella wasn't out of the question along with things like mulled wine or ice tea and things that she never really made with me - this was my experimentation phase.

except it was a guided experimentation phase . . .? i mean, i followed the recipe to the dot, because not following it meant that it would fail, which happens most times when you make desserts. Recipes are unforgiving. Especially dessert recipes. Do not underestimate their wrath. If they tell you to put a pinch, you put a pinch. not more and most certainly not less!

We watched masterchef around this time and began taking it seriously, so we made fries and burgers and all sorts of crazy things and then i just kind of lost interest i guess. i mean don't get me wrong, every once in a while i step into the kitchen and i think 'what if i added this to that' or did something this way and so on and then one day i discovered slow cooking.

Now what i've realized today, is that after the sandwiches fiasco, i stopped making food like there would be none tomorrow. i was now able to make food in the right proportion - just enough for the family or a party or something of the sort and i felt kind of amazed that i stopped making more food than necessary.

It was like i finally gained control over my berserk excitement. But, more importantly, i began opening up more avenues for myself - like slow cooked meat, slow cooked rice, slow cooked anything.

One of the first things i slow cooked in fact, was mutton kurma. i slow cooked it for 4 hours. it was absolutely delicious. I didn't follow the recipe to the dot, instead i added pureed carrots, leeks, turnip and tomatoes. The combination once roasted off with the basic spices and onions was lovely and with the flavor of the mutton, it was heaven.

See, there was this exciting moment where you simply pressed down on the meat and it would collapse beautifully, dripping wet with it's marinade and curry, and when you take a bite, it simply melts into your mouth, the taste of mutton with an undertone of carrots and something mildly sweet but also spicy at the same time, and then you get a hint of citrus from the lime you squeezed and everything becomes right with the world.

After this initial breakaway from the recipe, i began to try different things - slow cooked rice with herbs like mint or basil with a side of meat, perhaps honey basted and so on. This breakaway helped me discover recipes that i remember reading in manga and exploring in a different way or simply entering the kitchen and going 'what should i eat today?'

Eventually, i realized that i loved just putting toppings on bread with a bit of cheese. Every bread no matter how much you hated it, just became really really tasty. it was healthy too, but not something i really thought about, i mean, healthy does not always mean tasty and one i realized that healthy could be tasty too, it just kind of sat in the back of my mind.

I've begun to regularly use spinach, things like corn or turnips or leek, things i've never used before, seen only once or twice in my life. Yet, i feel open to experimentation, just picking up a few ingredients and going all, what shall i make with you?

And i mean, at any point that these veggies intimidate me, there is always the safe place to go back to - vegetables and dals and rice you've always known all your life.