A little kingdom I possess,
Where thoughts and feelings dwell;
And very hard the task I find
Of governing it well.
~ Louisa May Alcott

...that more or less describes my situation!

 
I’m into a new mode of cooking these days — baking! All thanks to the new “convection” microwave we’ve got.

Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to bake stuff at home, and now that we’ve got the oven, I’m letting my fantasies loose, so to speak! :)

Last weekend I made Nakhatai and Pizza! Both turned out great, except that the Nankhatais were slightly crumbly in texture. I’ve decided that I added less flour than I should, so next time it should be pretty perfect. Then yesterday, I made this thing called Banana Bread (check out all the pictures here!). I had never had this delicacy before, but this is the thing: if, when I read a recipe, my mind conjures up a delicious image before me, I am more or less sure the recipe is good, and if it doesn’t manage to conjure this image, then I feel there’s something either missing or wrong with the recipe. Also, I tend to browse through many recipes of the same dish before fixing on one — on one hand I may get confused because it becomes more difficult to decide which is better, but on the other I am sure I haven’t fixed on one which is way off the mark.

My mom has somehow decided to make me the microwave cook in the house (just another of her ways to get me cooking more often). The microwave came with a free cookery class, which of course I was made to attend. The lady who conducted the class has been doing it for 10 years apparently; a Sindhi lady with a heavy school teachery air. One fellow attendee started asking a question when the pizza base with cheese and all toppled from our Sindhi lady’s hands and fell smack face down the floor. After that episode, she barked on anyone bothering to interrupt. I had personally many questions to ask, for one, why did my biscuits turn out crumbly? But frankly, I wasn’t brave enough. Thought I’d wait after class, when any insults would be dealt in private.

I am looking forward to trying out quite a few new things; next in line is grilled chicken! I have never made any non-veg except prawns before, that too, because the prawns came all pre-packaged, and all one had to do was dip them into the gravy. Chicken is a different ballgame, am sure, but am guessing I need to start now if am ever going to start :(
posted by Sylvia D'souza at 11:16 am 0 comments