I started cooking recently; cooking with the rigor and fervor of an uncle who has been cooking all his life and has stories to tell about the time he lived in California for his masters and formed some habits around cooking. And this has taken everyone who knows me and everyone who has read my posts as well as me by surprise. I am going to credit the pandemic for this, like any other adult. I went from writing about the troubles with eating and hunger, how long it takes for an onion to cook to making and freezing marinara sauce, making lasagnas on weekdays, hummus, appams, carrot cakes while tweaking recipes over a weekend! I am so taken aback by this switch, that I have not let any food I cooked, any recipe undocumented. Here are my insights from cooking for a month:
- Hummus is salted Puran (the one that goes into a poli)
- Alfredo sauce should be considered a dairy product
- cookies are only different from candy floss in that they have flour
- a spoon has more qualities than we attribute it with consciously, which is just a less awkward way of saying that I have a favorite spoon to cook with
- When in doubt, set the oven to 180 degrees celsius
- I hear you about pink sauce pasta, but try white with the side of red. You can take a break from the intense taste of each with the help of the other.
- Levels of accomplishment in cooking
1. cooking while looking into the screen’ not settling for 31gms of tomato if the recipe says 30gms
2. making changes in the recipe based on last experience of cooking and eating it
3. making the thing without looking at the recipe
4. getting asked for a recipe
5. get asked how YOU cook that recipe - Hummus is part magic
