From Maggi to Methi Aloo

October2009 to Present... Working. Living away from family. Learning.

Life has been pretty interesting and challenging in more than a million ways. Learning curve for me(if drawn) would look like that of (x-to-the-power-of-x). 

Of the many stuff I have tried out in last two years, Cooking is the only activity I have excelled at, I guess.  It has become more of a passion now than a necessity. 

I still remember, the day I entered Bangalore and decided to land at my friends' rented accommodation(Souvik and Vishal), my eyes simply stopped rolling-over the house the moment I saw their fully functional kitchen. Frankly, I had expected a messed-up, dirty and stinky kitchen with cockroaches(that's just 'cause of Souvik's image in everyone's mind), but then, seeing something completely opposite and esp. after being told that those two cook their own dinner almost 5-6times a week, popped just one single question in my mind: "Will I ever be able to cook and contribute to the whole buying-cutting-cooking process?". I mean, I only knew how to boil milk and prepare Maggi. True! that's all I knew back then. 

From that day, started this journey of cooking and experimenting... With my test subjects being none other than Souvik, Vishal and Jahanvi. 

Learnt how to boil rice, chop onions and tomatoes, prepare scrambled eggs and for that matter, even learnt the proper way of storing food-items in an organised manner, from veggies to groceries, from eggs to dals, from masalas to milk. Everything used to kept at it's designated place. Thanks to Souvik and Vishal for the initial training. It's worth mentioning here, that there were detailed discussions about designating a particular place for a specific commodity in the house. Funny moments!!

After the initial foundation-programme in cooking, I finally prepared my first subzi - Aloo-Mutter(Peas-Potatoes in tomato gravy). Till this day, I have no clue what fascination me and mom have with tomatoes, but I added about 600-700gms of fresh tomatoes to that dish which was meant for just 4 people. You think that's too much.. Right??! But I went ahead to add almost 150gms more of tomato puree to that! Beat that. No doubt the subzi  was tasty and a bit sour, but Souvik's first comment was simply legen-dary!! " ...this is like the stuff they serve in Indian Railway's meal". :)

So from Aloo-ExcessTomato-Mutter, I have mastered Chicken Curry, Veg Biryani, Masala Omelette, Mutton RoganJosh, Keema Khushali(an invention), Aloo-Nutrela, Pasta, Cold Choco coffee, Filtered Coffee, Paranthas, Nuggets, Cutlets(Suji-clad), Rajma, Poha, Vegetable Porridge, all sorts of Dals(Pulses), Aloo-Baigan(my mum's favourite dish), Vegetable Sandwiches.. and so on. 

But what made me write this blog today... that is the biggest question to ask! I generally "hate"  writing stuff-about-me, and today was just as normal a day like always, and No! I wasn't hit by truck or struck by lightning, but what did move me today was the taste of Aloo-Methi subzi(Potato-Fenugreek Leaves) that I prepared today for the first time. 

Sitting alone in the house on a lazy Sunday afternoon, having a slight hangover (from Fresh Beer the night before), I thought of searching for some nice recipes online and 're-pursue' my cooking interests. But first, I had to check what all was available in the house. Infosys has made me work for almost 12hours a day for the last 3months and little time have I had to do subzi-shopping and refilling the masala-boxes of my kitchen. 

So after I zero'd-in on AlooMethi, I studied the recipe. After the very first read, I found it to be a bit boring. So went ahead with some modifications to that and improvising as I moved along. ``Entered the Kitchen``. Collected all the raw-material. Washed the veggies. And started I was. 

It took hardly 20-25mins to prepare the thing today, but the final product.. Oh Boy Oh Boy... It was so Tasty!! So Yumm!! and even so Good{read: sexy} to look at..!! Every ingredient was in perfect proportions. Teamed it up with some boiled rice and chilled yogurt. Sat on my comfi-huge bean bag and enjoyed every nibble today!

Aloo Methi

The question that had popped in my head almost two years back when I entered Souvik's house.. well I have the perfect answer for that today... "I have made it large!". Lol.

To sum it up, everything{read: Cooking} is easy in this life... You've just got to be passionate about it.