And who hasn't watched the famous movie ‘Ratatouille’ with an 8.0 imdb rating.And if you haven't, let me tell you it's a modern day version of Stuart Little, only a much productive rat who isn't roaming or saving his ass from the cats but cooking!
Yes you heard it right, a rat cooks and not just for other rats but it owns a restaurant of its own, feeding human critics(homo sapiens): the hardest to please! Saying that I still believe in the idea that anybody can cook. I don't know many dishes but I cook thrice a day and when I say that, I mean every word of it; I ain't a fabulous cook but at times out of sheer luck I end up cooking something worthy more than a restaurant!
When I was planning to get married, people gave me all sorts of tips and told me to learn how to cook since it's considered as one of the essential life skills for survival. However, adamant as I was, I refused to learn. In the least did I know how China was planning to make me stay at home without a maid and so 2020 came with the biggest challenge: cooking and not just that pleasing a family of five who are ‘staying at home’, at times without any earnings but also the only thing that pleases them or arouses their interest in living was ‘food’. I tried learning through you tube channels and every video had a different story to tell. Some did tell me to add a few cashews to my curry, but hey! who can afford to have cashews twice a day and gain infinite calories since exercise was a privilege due to lack of space.
However I learnt something fruitful, that cooking any Indian curry is basically a beautiful blend of onions, tomatoes, green chilies, ginger and garlic. Your add them in whatever way you want to, probably only the onions first and the tomato puree later or let them have some fun together. Blend them together and make a paste to sauté, or sauté them first and then blend them to make a paste. And then it's just a few spices that are always going to be there: salt(if you have put in some extra, just roll out a little bit of dough and put it in the curry when it's being cooked and take it out before serving), red chilly(if it has become extra spice, just squeeze in some lemon juice), coriander powder, fenugreek leaves(often mispronounced as ‘kasTuri methi’ in Indian homes, garam masala, turmeric( because my mom tells me, it has numerous antioxidants), a bit of amchur or chat masala and well some cinnamon in the beginning. No matter how it turns out to be, don't forget to garnish it with coriander leaves. Nevertheless, don't worry so much, it's going to turn out good and if it doesn't well, keep the Zomato app downloaded(wink).
Start by putting little amounts of these spices and experiment of how did you like the taste, you can later choose to add a little more or completely remove a particular spice depending on how you like it. Now come on, don't be so particular. The best of the chefs have also experimented their way to success and we aren't chefs, right? We are working women who cook because we love our family and at times it becomes an obligation because China doesn't reveal its big plans.
