It was the day of all-cousins get together, when I decided to put my culinary skills to good use. I decided to leave out my uncles and aunts because just the cousins added up to little above 20..the entire family would mean just about 50 or so. That would be too much of an effort just to prove my culinary prowess.
I was starved of some well deserved compliments for my culinary talent from my better half (by the way he can't make tea, he can't tell one Dal from another, can't differenciate between salt and sugar, can't cook rice...Phew!! the list is never ending). He believed that criticism makes a woman's culinary skills perfect. So there was always some fine inputs like ` I think this should have had little more salt, sugar or pepper or may be some tamarind'. Having to hear this from somebody who knew nothing about cooking used to make me go..... GRRRRRRR!!!!
I decided I would make something really exotic. According to my nephew I cook the same gisa-peeta `Dahi Aloo' and `Maa ki Dal'. He said Usha chitti `Make something different.' I took the challenge and went in search of some on-line recipes. Gosh...I never realised there were some million recipes online. We `phattars' (other name of Tamilian Iyers) being pure vegetarians, the search narrowed down to half a million recipes.
Finally I zeroed down to Malai Kofta Curry, Rajma Curry, Saffron Rice, Roti, some boiled Groundnuts in Chat style for starters. I decided i would save myself the effort of making desserts. I promptly asked my hubby to purchase `Kulfi' for dessert.
I was all set for Sunday, June 5th. I told myself I will wake up, have a cup of filter coffee and start on my culinary journey. The morning started off on an explosive note!!! The worst that could happen to somebody in this world where you could do away with your hubby for a while but A MAID......NAH! NO WAY...IMPOSSIBLE!!. My maid wasn't coming that day. I was like `HOLY SHIT!. I am done for.' I still decided to have my filter coffee as planned and my senses calmed down a bit. That morning cuppa gave me my inspiration. A maid is not going to decide whether to go ahead or cancel my little party. Feeling every bit like `Rani Laxmi Bhai' charging at her enemies I was all charged up and started churning out my exotic recipes......
Finally after about 3 hrs of toiling I finished preparing everything except rice and few other knick-knacks. I didn't dare to taste any of them. Decided to quitely lie down for a while and then start off with the last minute finishing touches. I was finally finished well before the scheduled time and had a lot of time to groom myself. Having achieved all of this without any help from this all-encompassing-force in the life of a home maker.....A MAID... I was super thrilled and it made my effort even more worthy of appreciation.
The jing-bang arrived. Everybody including me binged on the Murukku, chakli, groundnuts, sev, chana etc for starters. It was finally time for the main course. I reheated the food and proudly displayed them on the table. I waited with bated breath. Then it slowly started pouring in. Usha ...this is good...this is damn nice...so on and so forth. Of course my nephew too chipped in with his fair share of compliments. After a while I thought may be it was their love for me. But when the utensils were wiped clean of every morsel of food I was starting to get convinced...May be....it was good.
Then came the final verdict...`Usha, the food was lovely'. A compliment from the horses mouth was music to my ears. I slept peacefully commending myself for all my efforts....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!
I was starved of some well deserved compliments for my culinary talent from my better half (by the way he can't make tea, he can't tell one Dal from another, can't differenciate between salt and sugar, can't cook rice...Phew!! the list is never ending). He believed that criticism makes a woman's culinary skills perfect. So there was always some fine inputs like ` I think this should have had little more salt, sugar or pepper or may be some tamarind'. Having to hear this from somebody who knew nothing about cooking used to make me go..... GRRRRRRR!!!!
I decided I would make something really exotic. According to my nephew I cook the same gisa-peeta `Dahi Aloo' and `Maa ki Dal'. He said Usha chitti `Make something different.' I took the challenge and went in search of some on-line recipes. Gosh...I never realised there were some million recipes online. We `phattars' (other name of Tamilian Iyers) being pure vegetarians, the search narrowed down to half a million recipes.
Finally I zeroed down to Malai Kofta Curry, Rajma Curry, Saffron Rice, Roti, some boiled Groundnuts in Chat style for starters. I decided i would save myself the effort of making desserts. I promptly asked my hubby to purchase `Kulfi' for dessert.
I was all set for Sunday, June 5th. I told myself I will wake up, have a cup of filter coffee and start on my culinary journey. The morning started off on an explosive note!!! The worst that could happen to somebody in this world where you could do away with your hubby for a while but A MAID......NAH! NO WAY...IMPOSSIBLE!!. My maid wasn't coming that day. I was like `HOLY SHIT!. I am done for.' I still decided to have my filter coffee as planned and my senses calmed down a bit. That morning cuppa gave me my inspiration. A maid is not going to decide whether to go ahead or cancel my little party. Feeling every bit like `Rani Laxmi Bhai' charging at her enemies I was all charged up and started churning out my exotic recipes......
Finally after about 3 hrs of toiling I finished preparing everything except rice and few other knick-knacks. I didn't dare to taste any of them. Decided to quitely lie down for a while and then start off with the last minute finishing touches. I was finally finished well before the scheduled time and had a lot of time to groom myself. Having achieved all of this without any help from this all-encompassing-force in the life of a home maker.....A MAID... I was super thrilled and it made my effort even more worthy of appreciation.
The jing-bang arrived. Everybody including me binged on the Murukku, chakli, groundnuts, sev, chana etc for starters. It was finally time for the main course. I reheated the food and proudly displayed them on the table. I waited with bated breath. Then it slowly started pouring in. Usha ...this is good...this is damn nice...so on and so forth. Of course my nephew too chipped in with his fair share of compliments. After a while I thought may be it was their love for me. But when the utensils were wiped clean of every morsel of food I was starting to get convinced...May be....it was good.
Then came the final verdict...`Usha, the food was lovely'. A compliment from the horses mouth was music to my ears. I slept peacefully commending myself for all my efforts....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!
