Starting Over.... in the kitchen

A fresh brand new year.... a new start... a time to give thanks, make plans and be a little sincere about sticking to them. Atleast for a while.

I made no lofty resolutions this year. Much as I waited to usher in the new year, K and I had a couple of drinks, ate very oily Indian Chinese and got into bed by 11 pm. Sage was very restless due to the continuous stream of people in the building, noise of the lift and loud music. Like a nice middle aged couple, we slept, only to be woken up at 12 by Appa!

I started the New year with a brand new development at home. I fired my cook. To cut a long story short, too many excuses, inability to manage her other jobs and a complete disrespect for the many requests I have made to manage time better. At the end of a stalemate, what emerged was I was expected to (and as a result my household) adjust with her shoddiness. I was having none of this, I do not like being taken for granted and the last thing I will do in exchange for my fair treatment and goodness is being taken for a ride. Despite many requests and warnings, when for the nth time she chose to come late despite knowing her cut off time, I asked her to collect her dues and leave.

Those of you who read my blog will know that I miss my earlier cook Renuka terribly. While she wasn't the best cook, she was always smiling and very sincere. The current one, was my househelp and was a better cook. Only thing is after a while, it got too much for her to manage.

Anyways. I have now decided to take over the cooking in our large household of 2 people and a dog (that now eats commercial dog food instead of home made, due to his health condition). I will confess that I am nervous. I haven't cooked full time in over 5 years now. Initially, both K and I had 'regular' jobs and would take our lunches to work. Then I began to mostly stay home, although we did feed Sage home made roti. At the last count, we were using 3 times the amount of groceries, I was still eating 2-3 day old leftovers (what is it with maids never being able to cook smaller quantities of food?), K still eating his lunch from outside and I was anyway cooking dinner all these years. There was also a considerable wastage of cooked food and unused vegetables which would languish in the fridge. Not to mention the monotony of the dishes being churned out.

I am excitedly making a monthly menu to ensure both K and I do not get bored and that I am equipped to efficiently use the morning time. I hate spending unending time in the kitchen. I also cannot fathom spending more than an hour at best to cook a reasonably healthy and tasty meal for two people. I am hoping the planning will help me manage groceries, vegetables and time better. The fridge already looks super clean because there are no leftovers! So wish me luck!

a cure for everything....well, almost

i couldnt sleep last night till about 2.30 a.m. i was hiding under my razai and reading about the kardashian family on my ipad... i know... i should have been shot! i finally forced myself to sleep because i knew that i would be woken up in a couple of hours by the pooch wanting to go for his morning walk....

i was determined today to make myself feel better... no matter what...

oh! on a side note, i got my iphone screen fixed yesterday... 3 weeks ago, Sage knocked it out of my hands and the screen cracked into 30 odd pieces... it still worked tho it was an eyesore...

so with the phone fixed i was feeling infinitely better than yesterday....

renuka was on leave today... some death in the family... and so i got into the kitchen....

i made an omelet for our breakfasts..... on a spur, i bought 30 eggs yesterday! so i had to start using some of them up....

i cooked tomato dal, made raw banana cutlets with mint which turned out amazing...i cooked rice for sage and my lunch and boiled some pumpkin for pumpkin cinnamon rolls (all in the pressure cooker)... i was on fire....

i mixed up some batter for chocolate cupcakes... i have to make 5 dozen and i wanted to start early...

there's something that being in the kitchen does to me... it makes me forget...even myself

i forget my anxiety, my anger, my failures, my successes, my ego, my state of dishevelment or that my nails are beautifully painted.... i just forget everything... and peel, slice, chop, cook...i frequently wave my hands over the pan and inhale deeply... even if i am frying onions....

cooking and baking has given me more pleasure than anything else....why even rearranging my pantry cupboard makes me feel more in control of my life...

i have been known to make gulab jamuns at 2 a.m....what can i say

vodafone sucks.....not happy to help

it breaks my heart to say this to a place that gave me much in life.... a place i worked in with heart and soul.... today i called up the vodafone call centre with a sim card registration failed problem....and far from being able to help me (they just told me to visit the store) the fucking assholes.... 3 of them, sri lakshmi, ramesh and some other woman calling herself the floor supervisor, had the attitude of the king of persia.... so rude and unhelpful that it wasn't funny.....and when i said i do not appreciate being spoken to rudely...the SOB ramesh actually tells me, he is speaking that way because i said what he had just spoken (it was so garbled, i only made out he'd stopped speaking) wasnt clear. the moron obviously didnt know the difference between screeching and speaking clearly.... the call was then escalated on my request to the equally arrogant, incompetent beyond words..... after not listening to me, interrupting my every sentence because i asked her to give me some indication of listening to me, neither my technical complaint or the dissatisfaction of the way the earlier two executives spoke to me Swapna Priya (the supervisor) repeated the same story that they had already tried the basic trouble shooting and that this wasnt a problem that could be solved from their end and that i would have to visit the vodafone store to have my sim card replaced. this is after i told her it would be inconvenient for me to visit a store as the nearest one was 40 kms away from where i was currently located. She reiterated that they could not help me so with no choice, i hung up.

the point is this, every provider of telephone services, will have to have executives who are trained in the basics of the most popular handset models. they need to be familiar with the menu options and how to guide a customer to get there. the phone i use is a very popular nokia n 70 whose menu details are easily available all over the internet and everyone knows that nokia is a handset which has the easiest and most user friendly menu trees. yet these three people, only read from the steps in their standard operating procedure and went no further. the moment i said that i cant see the options they mentioned (cos they were directing me from a sub menu and not the main menu) they asked me to go to the vodafone store, not caring for the inconvenience that would be caused, even after mentioning that it would be too far, and could they try some other options.... no.... i drew a complete blank.....so i hung up in despair.....

i then did some exploring on my own, and managed to fix the problem.

i called to speak to the same floor supervisor.... to tell her what i'd done, so the pig head could help another customer facing the same issues....  she very conveniently had "gone for breakfast and would return after 1 hr" pray i want to be reemployed by vodafone which gives its employees a one hour breakfast break... so that meant that lunch would be 2 hrs? i was then put onto another floor supervisor/ team leader called charan lal, who after much hemming and hawing said that the call centre manager would be available only after 2 pm. (i cant understand how a business works this way). so i requested for a call back which has been promised before 3 pm.

and oh!! how did i resolve my own issue?? i did what we do most of the times.... switch off the phone, remove the battery and sim card.... put them both back in and switched it back on.... it worked.....

Learning to let go...

control freak monster and psycho hypochondraic woman that i am.... it has taken me an almost invalid arm to do something i was resisting for a while now.... i hired a cook!! yeah!! i know, having a food blog made it all the more difficult.... but i had no choice...and much as i wanted to say that i am adjusting to passably made food etc..... i would be lying if i didnt say "I LOVE IT"

yes!!

now with that out of the way, i can help make you green eyed and jealous about how i now go for a walk every morning(well most mornings of course), watch tv!!, call my mother everyday and dont rush her to speak fast cos something on the stove is burning, read the papers, attempt the crossword, and get served breakfast wherever i am sitting!

after months and months of debate, i decided, i wouldnt be any less the enthusiastic cook or diminish my skills as the keeper of my home..... infact K actively pushed me towards it cos god knows the poor man had an instant noodle overdose when i was laid up in bed. its not so much that i didnt want to hire someone... it was just that i couldnt make up my mind about wanting to slave drive my poor arm into numbness or have someone help me...

for almost a month, my regular maid, had pity on me and would roll out rotis (which was forbidden by the doc) and chop veggies, but on the days when i had an early day at work, or something else cropped up, we'd go back to ordering take away.... spending far more money than i wish to acknowledge....

a few things apart from having someone else feed my beloved k haunted me... like how would i manage two maids? will they get at each other? and in a one up womanship will they make life miserable first thing in the morning for me? will i like what she makes? will k like what she makes?

after all this nonsensical debate, i finally just called a few, interviewed them and hired one.

its been 4 weeks. so far, no one is dead!! she makes us breakfast and lunch. i rustle up an easy dinner once i am back from work. it has been so much better not just for my arm and neck, it freed up enough time from the morning for me to take up yoga!

while on account of the food.... this is where i learn to let go. tell myself that its ok for the food to not be perfect or for me to be less fastidious. that she can make what she knows to make and we will be grateful for the food she packs for us. plus that i am making far too much of a fuss over this!!

i enjoy cooking yes. and i can indulge when i want to, or have to. so then there.... i've said it....

role reversal??

amma's left me!! gone back to bangalore....by the time i could say jack robinson and hyperventilate, she landed back in the arms of the adoring granddaughter she so sorely missed....that is one point i can never score!! yeah there were times when i contemplated putting fevikwik in her lip balm....but i reckon i will be walking down that road someday...so i resisted!!

we cooked together, lunches weren't solitary gulping of food events, but actual set the table and sit down to a meal type of things (my weighing scale shows me how much i have "gained" from this exercise), talked and talked some more, shopped, laughed and more importantly drove each other round the bend and back!! i got more driving practice than i ever thought i would...even gaining infamy of "never being at home" from jealous relatives!!

i try and do as many things that i can with her, because i know time is at a premium, that soon she will be packing her bags to zoom off!!.....and with this visit of hers being the shortest, i had too many things to get done....

anyways....when her return tickets were booked, i realised there were many things that didnt happen....i made a list and tried to cook up a storm at every meal....sometimes celebrating success.....and lapping up the praise....sometimes eating leftovers for the next two meals....only a mother can make you feel like queen victoria and cleopatra rolled into one!! my mother is no less or more...she's appreciative and encouraging of all that i do...celebrates successes and comforts at failures.....and is a very willing guinea pig for all my experiments!!

i wanted to send her with stuff that would remind her of me with every bite....so cheese crackers, brownies, cookies, chocolates....all were whipped up to be packed into her cases.....and the greatest compliment a mother can give...she told me all teary eyed and all (oh we are all quite a melodramatic family!!) that "usually daughters are sent from the mother's house with goodies...and look at me" ............. take a bow ma!! i enjoyed this role reversal....love you too!! happy mother's day

burnt a hole in my mouth

quite literally....a midnight craving for an aloo samosa, led me to the kitchen the next afternoon when i was trying to figure out what to do with my 'down' time..... i followed the recipe from a food blog....and made up two batches...one the healthier baked option and the other the fried one....no sooner did the baked version come out of the oven, i pounced on it....tore off a bit, blew it rapidly to cool...was satisfied and popped it into my mouth....

what i felt for the next10 seconds is inexplicable....the molten aloo (potato) stuffing stuck to the roof of my mouth and burnt it through and through......i will not describe the gross details for fear of losing the few random readers who see this space...lets just say that i have been walking around for the past two days feeling like i drank some acid, like there is a hole on the roof of my mouth that has rendered me incapable of eating anything.....i've just been drinking stuff which is easy to swallow and non acidic and cooled to room temp or lesser.....the next time i will know better....than to act like a starved person when accosted with samosas however yummy they look.....

Last Friday I decided to attend a cookery class that was being advertised for a while now….of the bouquet I chose Lebanese food and looked forward to the class with a great degree of excitement…not just because Lebanese is one of my favourite kinds of food, but it would be nice to attend a class rather than conduct one…..

I was so wrong….the unpreparedness to the point where halfway during class the cook was dispatched to buy ingredients, most ingredients were being substituted for what was actually on hand anyways….the cook actually demonstrated a few of the items, and all I could think of was if he'd washed his hands……the instructor kept scratching her head throughout (albeit with failed discretion)…..

I politely refused to eat the food…but tasted all of it to confirm if I my gut feeling right or just taking my imagination too far and giving her less credit than she deserved….paid up and bolted….i regretted that I dragged along S….though we had a good laugh afterwards and couldn't stop thinking how all this happened with no remorse….

Let me put it down to spending all that money on a valuable life lesson……the next time I will trust my instinct and run as fast as I can….

Culinary Escapades on TV!!

I get a lot of calls to enquire about the chocolate making classes that I conduct…averaging about 12 per weekday and double on the weekend, I have difficulty in placing people when they begin a conversation with “hi I am mallika, remember I called you 5 days ago about the chocolate making class??” so in this state of mind and a perfectly rehearsed script like fashion, I spoke to someone who claimed to be a TV journalist and asked if she can come to my class….i said yes….turned around and told K that I think some crank caller called….so imagine my surprise and slight panic attack, when I get a call at 10.15 a.m on Saturday from a person who began the conversation as mentioned above and simply added “we want directions from so and so point, I and my team are coming to cover your event for our entertainment and local events section …..” my session was to begin at 10.30 a.m

TV is’nt new to me…as part of my “jill of all trades” resume, I have had my share of time under the arc lights as an anchor for film based programs on local TV….. I spent some forgettable months mugging my Telugu lines written in English at a time when I couldn’t speak my mother tongue in the “acceptable” accent…..i also like every other person imagine I am the heroine each time I see chiffon, flower fields, beautiful hair and make up and the whole nine yards….I’ve harbored celluloid fantasies as much as I dare to admit and think and I am not ashamed to admit that I luuurve hindi films!! Okay now that I have admitted as much….. as much as it began, TV ended for me with an entrance into a prestigious college for a much more bankable degree in business administration……yeah I have digressed, but I know that already…..

So having said all that I have, the panic attack was because I wondered what the reactions from those who’d registered for the class would be like….i mean I myself have shied away and requested not to be photographed at public places when the press has been around….for the simple fact that I am shy….. and being told something like this at such short notice …… I wondered if they’d be angry….or worse…. I need not have worried…despite one person telling me quite dramatically “oh I am not at all camera friendly” I must say they put up quite a show!!

The 3 member team from the Telugu Channel TV 9 arrived and set up shop….filming most of the class and all the while I was worried that the chocolate would melt under the hot lights….long shot, close up shots, funny twisting shots of the class at work, me talking and explaining and the stuff we were doing…..it was funny to see people huddling to a spot where they’d get good coverage and chirpily asking ‘intelligent’ questions!! My family, mom, adoptive mother in law, K, adoptive brother in law and his wife……stood around….watching from behind the camera…smiling, rolling eyes and giving me a thumbs up or a wink once in a while….this drama went on for the full duration of the class…….when I entered the kitchen at some point during the session, K accosted me and said I was doing a good job….i asked why they hadn’t left yet….he said that they wanted to do an exclusive with me!! My first thought was…oh gosh….i am really tired….(3 hours of non stop chocolate making can sap you of your life’s blood) and my mouth is dry and I haven’t had breakfast and was really looking forward to lunch at Nanking’s……he glared at me and asked me to shut up…..so we finished the session on time….and I must say this batch as all the others…wasn’t ready to leave!! By the time they did, I had to get to work again…….

Face washed and powdered, some lipstick and a brush through my hair….i did a demonstration of two kinds of chocolate for the camera….i must say I was trying my best not to grin cos I was living a childhood fantasy….of cooking for the camera a la sanjeev kapoor …. I’d do the “adha kata hua pyaz, thodi si haldi aur namak swad anusar” when I began helping in the kitchen as a young adult……. After the demonstration, they did a 10 minute interview with me…how I got into this and when I started etc….. I wrapped up and gift packed the chocolates I made for the camera and gave it to the team…thanked them and they left telling me they’d let me know when it would be telecast….. not before they asked me to inform them if I was starting any other kinds of classes….though I was tired, I was happy….amma said I was very natural an spoke well in telugu…. (natural!! Yeah didn’t I tell you I wanted to be an actress??) and all my years as a trainer has made me overcome the fear of standing in front of people you don’t know, and talking, training and expressing an opinion…..

We then went to Nanking and had a late but sumptuous lunch…..later while K and D got back home to watch the cricket match, the four of us women went to General bazaar to do some essential shopping…with the chocolate making classes, I need to make a trip once a month to stock up on my supplies…..i needed all four of us to carry my bags as a result!! By the time we got back home, I was sufficiently drained out and rather happy at the day’s outcome….

weekend discoveries

The rains have come and seem to have abated for a while…..it poured unbelievably for a couple of days…I love the rains…I think it is my most favourite time of the year….and I like nothing better than to watch the sheets of rain fall…..to me everything seems better suddenly with the rain…the earth…it smells awesome when it first gets wet….looks greener (never mind the puddles and bad roads) ….from my fourth floor apartment, I can see a traffic signal about a kilometer away and the lights from there plus the vehicles rushing past always seem awesome… snug under a razai, reading a book or watching a movie, hot ginger tea as I watch the rains….. I am a true blue water baby…a crab….but much as I love the rains…I realize that to most people it is the most inconvenient almost difficult time of the year…..the slush, the puddles, the vehicles splashing water as you walk on water logged roads, daily wage earners not getting employed cos of the rains….the newspaper boy who does rounds when I am still snug in my bed….

Of late in hyderabad due to the bad drainage of water on the roads, manholes have been kept open and as many as three kids have gotten washed away….its sickening…and scary…and ever so often I feel guilty about all that I indulge in….i am truly grateful to my maker for all that I enjoy…the peace and security of a family, or a home, food and comforts that I don’t believe I deserve any less or more than the next person….i try therefore to be thankful …of course there are days when I crib, but they pass quickly…..if there’s some thing that I don’t seriously like about the rains, it is my exotic doormat made of water hyacinth that has gotten suddenly wet and refuses to dry completely……….

Its been a day since I began this post… I have been busy with my writing….for the articles and also Escapades…..it has become like a part time job, I spend so much time on it and on the various other links that I frequent that I’m thinking random thoughts must be feeling like a step child……am not going to succumb to posting just about anything for the sake of it! That’s not the point of this blog anyways…….

If you also read Escapades, then you’ll know that I have been cooking almost into overdrive since feeling better last week…..all weekend it has poured and comfort food was in order, so i made quite a spread and have been trying out different stuff, from pav bhaji, cutlets to subway style sandwiches, i even baked a cake!! that for those who are privy to my earlier baking disasters was a feat!!

We had guests on Sunday…actually cousins of mine….relatives are so different from friends….i mean I seldom “hung around” with my cousins….i’d have loved to but we almost always tend to meet at social and familial gatherings and that’s that….you don’t get to know them as the individuals that they are…since this drop in was devoid of any other agenda, we got talking and the fact that we were related became just a technicality…………….it was such a refreshing change and we discovered so many things that we had in common.....we had a whale of a time….i did, I don’t know if they were just bored to death!! It was like time spent with friends and that in my book is a huge compliment!!

K has been writing too…he began on the weekend…a chance meeting on a flight with one of the country’s best cinematographer, now turned director has resulted in a casual exchange of ideas for movies and a future collaboration maybe….…I was very excited…star struck as I am, this might be my only shot at actually seeing abhishek bachchan…….so he’s been on the phone and computer for the better part of the last four days…endlessly discussing story ideas and concepts…..what this did to him, was restarted work on his unfinished book………he is currently in what I call the “ZONE” ……..he’s just obsessively focused on his writing ….he has been up all night working on his book and hit the bed around 10 ish this morning so I guess he’ll be out till the evening…he’d begun writing the book a few months ago….and then hit a road block….i’d goad him to finish….(nothing more exotic than being the wife of a writer) and in true blue writer style he’d refuse until it all came flooding thru………last night he’d gotten back into the ZONE and will not want anything of the outside world till it passes….the best I can do is stay out of his hair…..and just hope and pray as hard as I can…for abhishek bachchan if not anything else!!

In the meanwhile, I have to finish what I am being paid to do…its so amusing that while you enjoy something immensely, the minute it becomes ‘work’ it begins to drag!!

Of Palakkad Iyer cooking and more!!

my parents in law were here 2 weeks ago for a week....in between the trip to srisailam, hyd bomb blast abd bandh for 2 days and a very important MRI scan for appa, i mnaged to apprentice with amma for a few days........she was busy trying to kick me out of the kitchen and i was busy trying to get her out.....both because we think the other deserves rest!! and so we struck this apprentice deal......what struck me was how simple their cooking really is!! i have reproduced everything with much satisfaction and obvious pride!!

I've been at it!!

yesterday was like a pilgrimage....you want to do it, look forward to it and something holds you back....yet when you finally embark on it, it seems perfect......it was like that with my chocolate making class....i have hounded the lady that conducts these classes for the better part of 2 months and finally made it yesterday....it was fun and all the imaginations of rocket science went where they belonged....out the window!!

today in a frenzy i accompanied K on his way to work.....dropped off at the wholesale market and armed with my shopping list, bought myself an awesome load of choco making supplies.......moulds, raw material, packing material and the works!! walked a little down the lane and in pure greed bought a tonne of christmas decoration ......i can do up two trees with what i have now!! got back home and surveyed the damages....there was this eagerness mixed with trepidation...what if i make a mess.....what if i set the chocolate on fire? what if i just totally flop? should i wait for K to get back home for moral support till i begin to finally do what i have been fantasising about?? all these questions going through my head and i had to admit i was dying to try it out....so i spread some old newspaper on the kitchen counter top......set up my supplies and begin.....i'll tell you that it was very scary to begin.....once i got the hang of what i was doing....it all happened very quickly....i made some marbled shell chocolates, plain mounds and one set with nuts.......i was very happy with the results but had some leftover melted chocolate.....so added about 3/4 cup maida, 1/3 cup cooking oil, sugar, baking pwd and whipped it up and set it in a muffin tray.....voila......lovely cupcakes.....i havent been this pleased with myself in a few weeks now!! i'm so happy....as i type this out, am waiting for K to come and pronounce his verdict.....!!

food blogging

mind over matter or is it the matter of the mind?? i have been obsessing over food blogs for the last few weeks ever since i discovered them....(why am i always the last one to know these things??)

it seems like many people have met with unexpected b ut well deserved success at this....lovely....soon food blogs will replace recipe books will they??

i liked quite a few....they seem to have this online party amongst them....makes me want to try my hand at this as well......i have been cooking regularly with various degrees of success for the last few years...especially after the marital knot was tied......i enjoy it and have tried to do it with consciousness....am an incurably chronic food nag.....k will vouch for this...am surprised that plates of food havent been flung at my face thus far while i have been indulging in the act....of nagging that is.....one time compliments dont mean a thing to me....i am a firm believer of pavlov's conditioning....it has to be reinforced like a barricade, or super strong glue!! ask k.....he will tell you and how!!

but like everything else that i do, i tread with caution...thats cos i can't handle failure very well i guess...i like to be successfull every time....i cant accept the fact that i cant do something perfectly in the first attempt.....i am my worst critic.....so i dont try radical stuff....things that may turn out inedible....so far so good i guess....i've barely had a disaster apart from the brick that was meant to be a cake......charred veggies that didnt know what they were before they got into the pan........

am off now to seek some more food blogging inspiration.....