InklingsInsight

Someone who has been picky about food habits and meals since childhood could not go without the food their mother had made. It is the story of my life. Since childhood, I always relied on potatoes, be it aloo paratha, aloo gravy, aloo curry, you name it, everything made of potato. I remember growing up in a joint family where paneer, dal makhani, and kofte would be the treat for special occasions or when guests would come. I never got fond of these dishes because I was attracted to the potato curry that my mother would make for every lunch I had in school. From class nursery till class 12th whenever I packed a lunch box for school, it had aloo curry with paratha and few times most likely in winter matar pulao. So, aloo curry with paratha had been constant and it was not just my favorite but my friends' favorite too. Even today when I talk to my childhood friends they would mention it, and crave it. Always causing nostalgia. Now it is time to share the special ingredients, and you w...

Monday blues aren't easy to tackle, and so does the morning schedule. After resting for two days straight, I need another holiday, then another, and so on. So, when I woke up today, I found it challenging to get out of bed because there was a long list of chores to accomplish before I left for the office. After much effort to stay in bed, I finally got out of bed at 7:15 a.m. I freshened up and took a cold shower, which was more of a hot bath because of the heat in the NCR region. I watered my plants and went to the kitchen. It was the day when I chose the option for cooking that was in my mind when I slept last night. It was time for potato capsicum curry. I chopped the capsicum and took a bowl with water to keep the peeled potatoes till I kneaded the dough for it to settle when I cooked the curry. There she was, the maid arrived right when I started kneading. The doorbell rang and I had to attend the door. She entered and waited for me to confirm if she should wash the utensils f...

Summers are at their peak in the Delhi-NCR region. When it comes to eating out, I feel hesitant and skeptical due to the fear of food poisoning or a bad stomach. Three weeks back, I started playing badminton in the evening, and it became challenging for me to return home and cook my dinner. I ended up either skipping my dinner or eating outside. It took only a few days for me to come to a realization that I was stuffing junk into my stomach which led to problems like nausea, bad stomach, pukish feeling, and fatigue.  For the first week, I blamed it on the change I was trying to adapt to. But soon, I realized it was a mere excuse, and it was the outside food that was causing health problems. You know every little change takes a few days to let you settle, and so did this change. I decided to manage cooking at home even on days I go for badminton and it did wonders. I understand not everything can be achieved within 24 hours if you have to live a healthy life.  Finally, I starte...

Every night before going to bed, I make a mental note of what I will cook the next morning. However, it rarely comes into execution because you don't know the mood in which I wake up. Some days, I run straight out of bed, finishing my chores before I leave for the office, while other days, I feel it's challenging to even breathe and crawl out of bed, making it a slow start to get through the day. No matter whether I wake up at 6-7-8 I ensure you cook my meal for breakfast and pack my lunch though the both are same with lunch with few add-ons. When I moved to a shared flat last year, I did not expect in my wildest dreams that I would cook my meals and I would fall in love with the process and home-cooked meals. Sometimes, it does not turn out well though that's how we learn and get better at developing a skill. But one thing that I learn so far in developing culinary skills is that more than someone else's opinion my opinion matters about how I cook. I know that is impor...

Living in a middle-class Indian household often means trying to make junk food healthy at home. I am fairly certain that most of you will be able to relate to it. In my childhood, I lived in a joint family and my elder cousins and mother tried their hands on making pizza at home. Not only that it involved healthy pizza and since we did not have a microwave at that time there was a hit and trial to find the right utensil to make a pizza that my siblings and cousins could consider if not equivalent to restaurant-style pizza but a decent one. We discovered pizza could be cooked on a non-stick pan by covering it with a plate or some other deep utensil and baati cooker (for those who do not know, baati is a Rajasthani cuisine served with dal and churma) being the best utensil to cook it well. So, old school me did not know how to make it in the microwave and tried to experiment with making pizza in the oven with a friend. Expectantly, we failed miserably and wasted two readymade pizza bases...

Recently, I started cooking for myself. I must say it is therapeutic for the heart and the soul. From deciding what to eat to what to cook, it has been a journey in itself. I cannot deny I have days of burnt chapati and curry, yet there is no going back to find another resort except for food cooked by my mother. Two months back, I shifted to a new place without planning how I would live in a shared flat as I had a picture in mind that there was a cook who would cook for me. But, when I came here, I realized that girls cook their meals by themselves. It was shocking for me because it was not in my plan. For a few days, I tried my hands at kneading and preparing curry that I liked, and the thought of having a cook went off my mind. Now, when I have to make something I did not try earlier, I would call my mother and ask a few things without knowing that my papa would ask me how the dish was the following day. Sometimes, if he was with her, he gave his advice to make the dish fine, and my ...