Cooking It Up

Know what? I am in the mood to cook and experiment and am enjoying the results, Mi.

Who knew you passed on the talent via osmosis to me? Ha ha!. I was telling T that on the phone yesterday and she laughed her head off. But seriously, being a helper in the kitchen paid off such great dividends. I seem to know so much.

Oh by the way guess what I made yesterday! Apple halwa.Yes, really!

Okay, now don’t give me that look! What’s wrong with eating the apple as it is, you’re thinking. Healthier, blah blah blah. I agree. But we had an abundance of apples. Sometimes you know how it is – all of us end up shopping the same thing and before we know it, we have all the usual suspects in an overdose. Can’t afford to waste.

So – here’s the bounty – I had coriander, curry leaves, pudina (mint), tomatoes, cabbage, apples – lots more than I needed.I am giggling at all the times I teased you for quickly grinding the coriander into a chutney. What a pain it is to throw out some leaves each time we take it out to use!

I made a plan. First, I made the “base” for the chutneys – I wanted to do a “Devi”. I fried the necessary dals in the requisite quantities with slight variations. Then while it cooled, I set about cleaning the coriander, pudina and curry leaves. Oh boy, that is so time-consuming. But I kept myself motivated thinking of the outcome, which was guaranteed to be great. What? I am your daughter, remember?

Vidur was busy studying, but generously came running each time I called him to taste a finished chutney. So that took care of the green leaves.

Gosh, remember that time back when I was in the 10th std, when I had to clean five bunches of mint leaves and I ate so many I fell sick? He he!

Next, the tomatoes. Although I eat tomatoes every day with my salad, two kilos was too much even for me to finish in series at the rate of two a day. So out came the chopping board and the pan. I washed the tomatoes and chopped them up. An hour later, I had that slim tall steel container full of delicious tomato mix. We envisage tomato rice. I secretly look forward to tomato sandwiches and using it as a side-dish with phulkas. Oh. the joy!

And now, cabbage. I used a chunk of it in stir-fried veg rice along with capsicum and carrots. The rest of it can comfortably feed my salad every day. So no probs with that. If it gets too much, I’ll just mix it up with onions and make it into a stir-fried curry.

Finally, the apples. Even at the rate of 3 apples a day, there was too much. I remembered how we once made pumpkin halwa. I used the same method. I may or may not have skipped some steps – but I did grate and cook the apple, sweeten it and add some cinnamon and vanilla and voila – apple halwa. Sury and Vidur enjoyed it. It was a tad sweeter than I meant it to be, but that can be easily remedies by adding some – ahem – sliced apple to it!

So anyway, my digital fatigue led to lots of time – very enjoyable time – in the kitchen. At least, instant gratification is guaranteed!

I went to sleep a peaceful sleep.

And now, it is time to….just brew it!

Oh heavens. I still have to deal with the coconuts, you know!

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