I was not born this way..
My first foray into cooking was by necessity!
It was the early nineties. There was curfew and shoot at sight orders in Varanasi, thanks to Student Agitations followed by religious riots in what was (and is) otherwise the greatest city in India..
With only a ceramic room heater, a single stainless steel vessel, a tong(idukki) and spoon, made Maggi noodles!
It seemed more like a chore than an enjoyable activity. Even years of watching my grandmother and her aunt cook with so much delight did not prepare me for the rude shock of making a simple noodles on a room heater.
A few years later, armed with a 15 day crash course given by my mother, grandmother and four aunts with my sister chipping in a liberal dose of advice considering she was only in high school at that time, boarded a plane to the USA to face a full kitchen with a housemate who had as much experience and a similar crash course!
Cooking suddenly took on a new meaning! Reading recipes, reproducing recipes, failures, experimentation, a materials science phase diagram approach to South Indian delicacies, figuring out that cooking was a sure way to impress the girls next only to ballroom dancing, portait photography and possibly an excellent taste in lingerie (ok, that last part was not from direct experience...)
By the time the Ph.D. in Materials Engineering was done, had also mastered the art of going into the kitchen with a lot of self confidence and making dishes that would be challenging to most folks.
This page will be devoted to continued experimentation in the kitchen, quick tips for beginners, preserving recipes from grandma that would otherwise be lost for the family (and the world) and dining experiences that are worth sharing!
First with something that puts the suzhi in Pillayar suzhi . . .
;)
Fried Maggi Noodles (My brother calls it Thiru Puzhu amudhu)
(other Maggi related tid bits here , here and here)
Will be updating this one set of links at a time from old Blogger posts as well as anything new that gets recorded..