One of the best times of my life!!

One of the best times of my life!! I have found friends, one of them a soulmate...Manoj, we worked on the same work station, shared fights, jokes, chai, bidi, drinks and of course food. But nonetheless, I like them all. Along with Manya, my best buddies are Omkar, Bhupal and Rakshit. Though I am friends with Rajesh too...hey do visit his restaurant 'Madhuban'.

Food. It means different things to different people. And what of cooking? Some hate it. Others are coaxed to do it just for the sake of it. There is little doubt that it holds a special place in every household. You agree, don’t you?

For me, cooking is relaxation, enjoyment, the road to immediate gratification. The science amazes me. The blend of spices, the outcome of its mixture, the aroma, texture, taste…everything is magical. Many make it to be a treacherous task. Its like knowing how to fit the words into a raga and if you know music well its effortless. It’s a very subtle art actually…cooking.

My dream is actually to have a well equipped workplace, utensils, ladels, knives, spices, vegetables, fresh and cold storages, meat, et all. I visualize it in two ways, one…a huge kitchen with flowing hot and cold water and the works…but very personal. Another has to be on the beach somewhere…a round working place, rustic but well equipped…a dream that I share with my boy, Mohnish. The beach place is actually a commercial venture and I like the idea of having only beer with the type of the food that would be dished out.

With the wink of the eye and a chuckle, one says…”I know, it will turnout good!” after every experiment. Hmmm!!…..ummmm!!….yummmm!!…oh! wow….damn!....holy s..t!!….good heavens!! Give a mouthful to taste and hear these and many such swears!! There’s much a do about all this…so…

Well as time went by and so to say my cooking was appreciated, like every cooks heart would yearn to see satisfied and satiated faces…smiling yet cursing themselves to have gorged more than they should have!! So with me…I have never had the inkling to follow a recipe other than the one needed to make a perfect blend of powder such as, chutney powders of our south India. For that matter even garam masala can be made according to one’s taste and need to what’s cooking.

The intuitiveness to know the steps to adding ingredients, more than attentiveness it is the mind talk you have with what’s cooking, the complete involvement, your 100%, your vibes matter a lot…therefore you sometimes wonder why food tastes different when the same is cooked by two different people!

Now, allow me to say that in Indian cooking, jeera and mustard seeds actually don’t make sense in adding them to a seasoning together as they wary in their flavoring to the food… they are very distinct in their nature. Similarly, the most abused garam masala can be avoided in a coconut based fish curry as the taste of the fish itself is lost in the load of masala that’s added to it. For that matter curry leaves bring in that zing that’s required for a simply cooked vegetable or ‘subji’ as popularly called in India. Asafotadia is a spice added to reduce the ‘gas’ factor… which is again discounted by many cooks. Cooking is very scientific…not all fathom this!! Loads of fat such as ghee (clarified butter) or oil is not required to make cooking tasty, it’s the blend of seasonings and the time to cook that really matters, fat is only a medium.

Have you ever thought why do we as Indians need to have seasoning for our cooking? Why do we use say… turmeric or coriander seeds in our cooking? Is it that we follow our predecessors blindly or do we understand what we are throwing into the pan? Nowhere in the world would they know that ingredients of the garam masala produce heat in the body. It is the spice mainly of the north of India where in one experiences cold weather. Accordingly in the south of India the food is kept simple as the weather is always warm…with the least of the spices. Now western influence has brought alcohol. In a way it’s unavoidable and we have to adapt to all influences no doubt. But here sadly it’s regarded as a medium of intoxication rather than to add heat to your body. For example, Papaya generates heat in the body and cucumber is cooling…tell this to a non Indian all you’ll see is a shrug of his shoulder!! Shashtras on food of India have been written and forgotten, the names are being used by Yoga masters such as saatvic food, rajasic food and so on. Research is a big word now but our ancestors have done and are over with about food… but the importance is not carried on.

The palates of people are so abused that, one thinks what is made in a restaurant is more authentic than what is cooked at home!!

Asha S Saraswat