victory

Well, i’m back. Just a small triumph, one of life’s little miracles and surprises happened today. I was feeling a bit apprehensive and even a little scared of whether i could step up to the plate and fill the HUGE shoes of Ritu while she is gone. Could I take care of the kids? Could I cook food that they and the boys will eat? I was excited to try but a little trepidatious. I am cooking Indian food in an Indian kitchen for true blue Indians. Believe me, we are not in Kansas anymore and this is not grilled cheese and macaroni territory. Everything is not like it is in Canada, and even though I have been everyday watching and helping Ritu, there are so many subtle things that happen that... I didn’t even realize. How do i tell the coriander from the garam masala? How much tomato paste is right? What is the appropriate ratio of ginger to garlic to green chilli? And where the heck is the mango powder?? Oops and “watch out for the monkey Angie!” yells Nakul’s cousin’s wife from next door and sure enough, as i poke my head out the kitchen, there is a big nasty monkey peering around at me and seriously considering joining me in the kitchen for something to eat. I try to scare him off but he calls my bluff and fakes a lunge at me coupled with his best mean face, teeth bared. BAH! It works! He wins. I retreat, closing the kitchen door behind me. Rupa, her mom and I laugh but she advises me to keep my door closed if i don’t want company and she shakes an umbrella at the pest.
The kids are in school. I have 2-3 hours to prepare some vegetable, dahl and rice. Really I only need to make rice and dahl, i am told, and veg if you want, forget chapatti, just make rice. But I am not having it. I am going to make everything as close to how Ritu does it as I can. Why not? Its a challenge. I have already made chapatti three times in the last day and they turned out totally edible, so yay.
Now, i consider myself a fairly accomplished home chef back in Canada. I make good food. People always rave. I am confident there. Sushi, Mexican, Thai, Italian, Greek, you know, i figure i’m good. But here its another ball game, its cricket as compared to baseball. How do you get that chapatti to balloon up over the open flame? How do you get it to cook all the way through AND stay nice and soft AND come out nice and thin?
I think i must have put on a good show for aunti-ji as she sat in the sun about 20 feet away next door with a clear view inside my kitchen.
Nakul came home for lunch and we ate together. The food was good. I dare say as good as Ritu’s. This is really the first time I have had free range in the kitchen, all by myself, to cook Indian food and i realized that... there are some basic different things than cooking Indian at home in Canada. Our pots are different, the oil is different and i can’t find these skinny green chilis in Canada like the ones they have here. Who knows what other differences there are. Different flour... the list is probably long. So that is why my Indian food in Canada tastes so different from here.
But I DID learn one thing today while cooking. I am too scared to burn things. When cooking Indian food, it is important to get a good roast on the spices and on the tarka and on the vegetables. You have to let them brown really nicely to get the flavours to fully develop and i am always terrified of this. I am always scared to let it burn too much, but as it turns out... this is where the flavour comes from. Without that, the food can taste insipid, like something is missing, and no amount of adding ingredients can remedy this if you don’t give it a good roast in the pan.
But the true big triumph of the day that brought me such a great feeling of satisfaction was when the kids came home and i fed them. Manu, the little girl asked for seconds! Now listen. This is a girl who never eats. I mean, she is picky, and it’s hard to get her to eat. I have seen them bribe her with sugar to eat her dahl and rice. And here she was, not only was what i cooked good enough, she wanted seconds and i didn’t even have to bribe her! YAY! I did it!