Starting to cook in your own kitchen

I remember the days when I started managing the kitchen. I used to cook from early days since I had a working mother. But it used to be shared work with my sister. After marriage I became the queen of my kitchen. But it was a gradual process because we were living in a hostel as a couple (doing post graduation) and I had to cook breakfast and Saturday dinners when the cook took time off.

It was a challenging period for me. Being a Malayali, I couldn’t think of gravy without ground coconut in it. Added to that, my North Indian husband is a vegetarian and he had extracted a promise from me before marriage that I wouldn't cook non veg at home. I got panicky thinking what I would serve him day after day with only vegetables to rely on!

Before moving into the hostel we had stayed for six months at his mamiji’s house and she taught me the basic North Indian cooking. Ok, that was a revelation to me. Only vegetables and without coconut- there are hundreds of lip smacking dishes!

The problems in the early days of cooking are many. One common thing that I have found is under-cooked dal. It helps to soak the dal for a few hours and pressure cook it for the specified time.. and don’t open the cooker immediately. Let the pressure cooker cool down and then only open.

For a working wife who is hard pressed for time, it is a common occurrence that the sabzi is kept on the stove and she thinks in five minutes she will check it, and starts some other work like sitting on the computer. Then it is the burnt smell that distracts her from the work she is attending. So, the first and foremost requirement in a kitchen is a timer. When you are leaving anything on the stove and going to do another chore, just wind your timer and take it with you.