My cooking experiences .....

Since the time I have landed here most of my time goes on watching the idiot box & surfing...Here I do keep trying different stuff which is either a HIT or a Disaster....So I thought I would write about my cooking experiences.... A little background... I love cooking but it is mood specific & I m a health freak cook which means I would NOT be able to pour more of butter, oil or any kind of fats....

As per my Mummy seems I have helped her make roti or parantha since I was barely 10 yrs old.... Please dont misunderstand the above line as a self-praise, it was merely to emphasize my love for cooking... I even used to cook potato subzi with tomato sauce & bread as a kid and take it to school .... So yes I have loved cooking always and have loved to see people eat... I love when some people take interest in food and enjoy it thoroughly.. I have a few examples, my senior Mr. Kapil Kedar, my friends Saji, Snigdha, Jey, Murali, Ashish.... (people, this is a compliment and is definitely meant as one)

Ok now coming back to my title for this post...Here they are, the dishes I have cooked in the last couple of days and the way I feel about them....

Chhole...A Disaster.

Believe me, I had put in a lot of effort into this. Preparing lunch for your darling hubby on a monday morning coupled with the fact that there was no grinder to grind the onion & tomatoes was a pretty tough job... But  it did not taste even one percent of how it looks.... I dont know what went wrong but somehow all my hard labor was not justified... 

The learning : Dont cook more than u need... I had made a whole lot of it :( ... & International chick peas dont compare to Indian chick peas ;-)

Vegetable Noodles - Second disaster  :(

I took 5 full days to recover from the Chhole Disaster & jumped right into the next one on friday. By popular demand (Ofcourse theres no one else here to demand but Gomes) I made Chowmein. I am actually well appreciated for my Chowmein. It was even mentioned as better than a professionally cooked noodle from Mainland China, by my Brother In-law. But this time... at 10 in the night... a total disaster...

Horrible... Poor Gomes had to suffer with this as his dinner ....

Lesssons Learned : Taste & Measure soya sauce & vinegar esp when using a new brand...

Pani Poori - Super Hit

Finally something awesome. Thank god finally my husband had something good to eat and something he really liked too, Pani poori. BTW I just made the masala, Pani & Poori were ready made, that we got from the Market ;-). Although be aware that I have made the poori as well, once along with my sister during my Sister's wedding :).... Happy Happy Happy 

I AM the Custard Queen...

A lovely couple & their daughter ( Precisely Jey's Sis & Brother In-law & lovely Aashika) had been over for lunch this noon & guess what was dessert..... my very own, tried & tested, Custard ( ON DEMAND)... And here, in US, it comes out all the more tastier, with all the variety of Fruits that we can get..... Yummy Yummy yummy...... 

Lessons Learned : Just be humble & keep making it Yummier ...;-)

Dum Aloo - My Mumma style...

I have to tell u the story about this... This is the Dum aloo that is made every diwali by my Mom , My Cooking Queen, that we enjoy with Poori for dinner, right after the Diwali Puja... I dont know how, but my mom makes it with the exact same taste every year, take my word for it, and it is the BEST.... This morning I woke up not knowing what to cook for our guest, so I called my mom & asked her for THE recipe... I'm sure mine was nowhere close to Mom's signature taste, but it was very good..... Atleast my Husband says so :) ....

Paneer Masala - My "Star" Masi's recipes

In my life I'm blessed to be surrounded by awesome people who are also amazing cooks.. and in this list of sisters, aunts & friends, my Masi ( TARA MASI, rather Dr. Tara Dugar) takes first place, hands down... She is just an amazing cook who can cook or bake anything, from Mexican to Italian to Chinese to Indian, Mughlai .... Just about anything & everything and Pure Vegetarian ... She can turn ur dream dish to reality....:) And when I didnt know what to cook I got the recipe for this Paneer from her..... Even though I'm not a Big paneer Fan but still anything for the guest... Masi, sorry I didnt follow your recipe fully and ended up with an "almost" perfect dish.... this was purely cos of my Health conscious cooking (I didnt use as much oil as I should have :-( ...)

Lesson Learned: Follow the recipe to the word, esp when serving the guest....

Pulao... Yum...

Somehow I can never make Pulaos after making the rice separately cos it never gets cooked properly... it becomes sticky or it breaks while I mix in the other ingredients... Shankar (My friend) knows this when I had cooked for my whole team in Chennai & the rice became a disaster.... So I prefer to make it in the cooker directly with the veggies.. and this one, with my Mom's idea, came out great... Happy Happy Happy....

Poori --- Looks good ??? It tasted even better... :)

Happy Happy Happy... again

So now after this long post of mine if U r hungry please go and get yourself a glass of water, dont get tempted and have anything unhealthy ;) ... 

I hope I can achieve the same level of success in all the varied cuisines that I hope to cook. Now all I got to do, is get myself to cook the different dishes.... :-)