Sunday, August 22, 2004
My experiments with food
The time has come for me to seriously start cooking my own food. With less than a month to go before I am totally on my own, my mother has started pushing me. The only thing reasonably edible I could make thus far used to be cooked rice. Now I have started making the other stuff as well.
I cannot possibly live without vatthal kuzhambu. So that was the first thing I learnt. The last time I made it, I was more like a kitchen helper, strictly following my mother�s instructions and measurements under her supervision. Today, she decided to not even look in my general direction. Reminds me of swimming instructors who pretend they cannot hear you drowning. The toughest thing about making vatthal kuzhambu is crushing, squeezing and dissolving tamarind. This process is so hectic that it is used a metaphor in Tamil to describe �that churning feeling� in the stomach in the face of imminent danger. After almost hours of trying to karacchufy puLi, I burnt something, then I turned off the stove. All this while my mom kept herself distracted with making a Chinese dragon-head for some stage show. Nevertheless, I persisted with my doubts and all I got were irritated & sparse instructions shouted at me. That was mostly all I needed.
Eventually though, I seemed to have let it boil for longer than usual, which meant that all I was left with was the vatth from vatthal kuzhambu. With the murungakkai thaan sticking out of thick pasty stuff, the shallow pan looked like a freshly drained pond with little pieces of wood and leaves lying in the muck.
I had better luck with the rasam. Of course, they smell familiar, almost look familiar. And they taste wonderful. There is nothing like vatthal kuzhambu saadam with microwaved Lijjat papad, followed by thakkaLi rasam, and finally, fresh-thayir saadam with a little bit of vatthal kuzhambu thottukka. This is tam-brahm gastronomic heaven!
And my mother is proud of my cooking. What the heck, I am technically qualified, I can cook (do the neyvedhyam & feed the crows), I could always wash and clean, I can dust, and I can scrub the bathroom floor. Now the logical thing to do after good domestic training is to take out my horoscope and get me married to an NRI. Just that I am not trained in any classical arts; but I can hum 80s Ilayaraja tunes fairly well.
Comments to My experiments with food
Don't worry, if anything goes wrong..you can always get instant Samabar,Rasam mixes. Of course, you still need to know how to use them.
>> is to take out my horoscope and get me married to an NRI.
before that, get your varadatchanai ready.. ;-)
posted by 
Keybold
>> is to take out my horoscope and get me married to an NRI.
Oh..few more items u need to add to ur profile in that case:
Hobbies:Watching movies,Glass painting,Mehndi tattooing,classical music,ballroom dancing,Love reading,going on long drives,trekking etc...(The most cut,copy,pasted words in Matrimony ads of gals)
Also some of the points listed in here..
http://www.raapi.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_raapi_archive.html#107602925071159539
posted by rajesh
Hey.....
Puliya karaikka ve vendam.... go to any desi store (Bristol seems to be a metro in Brit land,from what i have heard and hence the incidence of such stores must be high) and you will get tamarind paste.
Alternatively just get 3 to 4 packs of dry tam powder (available in Ambika Applams surely and lot of other stores in chennai) which should last you for at least 6 months. Only that the dry ram powder will become hard and u have to break it before using it.
Btw...all you have to do with dry tam/tam paste is to just mix these with water and let it boil just like you will with karaichified puli.
And for recipes, irrukave irruku google.. and me ;)
posted by anantha
duh....
My Major - Avial, Minor - Poruccha Kuzhambu
posted by Nilu
I am proud to join the league of extraordinary gentlemen!
posted by Anand
Cmon.
Lets write the "Beginners Guide to cooking"
And what else have you made.
Try to make some curries - they are very essential.
And do get to know the American/English names of the various dhals. ITs very difficult otherwise.
posted by 
Yup - my advice is use the paste. there is somehting so yucky about the powder. I threw it away. I should have used it to clean the kutthivillkku.
Thai tamarind is fruitier - easier to deal with if you have a thing for starting from scratch
posted by tris
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