'EASY PEASY'!!!

 

For all those who have read my two earlier posts in the #BlogchatterFoodFest, cooking was not something that came easily to me when I was first married. Hence, I have wonderful memories of friends who taught me the rudiments and helped me out with easy recipes that I diligently put down in a little brown diary that turned into my Bible whenever I needed to prove my culinary prowess later in life. I recall being very excited when an aunt of mine gave me some stickers which actually smelt of food… for example, a pizza sticker that gave off the aroma of a pizza and a sticker of a peppermint that smelt divine. I stuck them down in my brown diary along with my collection of ‘easy peasy’ recipes that grew over the decades. Today, my diary is dog-eared and unmanageable with over 240 recipes, and I can say without hesitation, that they are all time-tested and dear.

One of the earliest recipes that I picked up at a friend’s house was peas pulao. When I went over, she was in the process of making it, and she volunteered to show it to me… this was over forty years ago, and yet, this ‘easy-peasy’ peas pulao is one that I still make, sometimes with my eyes closed. If I could manage it at a stage when I was a fledgling cook, anyone can do it.

‘Easy Peasy’ Peas Pulao: Recipe number 104 (Brown diary)

Soak basmati rice.

Cut onions in rings.

In a saucepan, take ghee, fry broken spices (bay leaf, clove, cinnamon, cardamom). Add a little jeera.

Sauté the onions rings.

Add soaked rice and peas and fry.

Add double the quantity of water (2 cups of water to 1 cup of rice) and add salt to taste.

Let it bubble and simmer till the rice is cooked.

                                                                                                    Pinterest

Over the years, I have collected so many cookbooks that anyone seeing them would assume that I am a MasterChef. What they don’t realise is the sacrifices that have gone into acquiring these books… for those who are keen on knowing, I would refer them to my husband’s cast iron stomach, one that he has developed after being a scapegoat to my umpteen culinary trials and tribulations! Add Instagram and Facebook recipes to the mix, and you have millions of recipes to try out, and only one lifetime to do so, unfortunately!

Of course, it also goes without saying that if you throw a stone at my family, chances are that it would go and hit a person genuinely fond of churning out culinary masterpieces, be it my grandmother  and grandaunts (in the hoary past), my sisters, real and acquired, my better half who had to survive and realised that he actually enjoyed the process (Thank God for that!), our daughter and son-in-love, and just everyone in the latter’s family, who make a ceremony out of good food. In fact, our entire family has a WhatsApp group aptly dubbed ‘Fun, Food and Family’ because we religiously believe in the significance of all three.

The moral of my post is patently clear. Get a good diary and write down all the recipes that matter. Watch MasterChef and Gordon Ramsay (shutting out his colourful language!), keep trying out your culinary skills (or lack of them) on anyone who is willing to take a chance.

And voila – await the emergence of a new MasterChef!

This post is written as part of #BlogchatterFoodFest