Tadka in everything!

While making decisions about what to make for lunch today I decided to opt for a timeless classic. Egg and baked beans on toast.However, when preparing beans it did not once occur to me to simply just heat them in the pan. Firstly, I browned some onions,poured in the beans and stirred in some turmeric, red chillies, garlic and a few pinches of other spices too. This is not the traditional method of making tinned beans but it has grounding in traditional Punjabi cooking. The basis to almost every Punjabi meal has a base of browned onions, tomatoes and spices. This sauce is called Tadka.

The tadka I made for dinner

Scrambled eggs with an Indian twist. Green chillies, onions, turmeric and other spices.

  

The tadka has transitioned into my student cooking too, such as the spicy beans I made for lunch. Spicy beans were a doddle and I have watched my mother make those for years the real challenge is in cooking 'proper' Indian food. I would attempt Chick pea curry with rice for dinner this evening. Spurred on by the wise words of my mother (" good luck love!") I tied my hair into a regal bun, unsheathed the knife and diligently began chopping onions for the tadka.

Ginger, red chillies, garlic, chopped tomato, salt, turmeric, chili powder and garam masala are added to make the tadka and then the chick peas are added to the sauce.

After some time, I sat down to eat my meal which was not so bad but had the bluntness of a new cook. The chick pea curry my parents make is yellow in colour and the they have mild spice, creamy taste and consistency of a refined cook.

My version of Chick pea curry

Through comparing my cooking with my parents there is a distinct difference, it is not simply that I am not trying but there is an expertise that can only come with time. The meals my parents cook are aromatic, spicy and they drape over rice or sit in a chapati. I make every attempt to mimic their style and method but my meals are always bitty (as you can see in the photo). The spices, tomatoes, potatoes or meat flavours never blend or seep into one another but they simply and politely sit next to each other like strangers on a tube. Tolerating the presence of the other but always remaining individual and unyielding.

"Next time they will be better" says my mother.

Introduction

Introduction

So I guess I should introduce myself first. This is me:

And so is this!

and again.

You see, the thing about these photographs is that it looks like I'm at home in the kitchen but the trouble is - I'm not. I'm not a foodie. I eat all sorts of rubbish (I'm a student after all) and I have to confess... I'm actually a terrible cook. And I'm not talking about measuring amounts or rubbish baking. I mean burning soup and never getting toast right the first time. It's probably worse because my whole family is centred around food, and not its just the Kumars. Our entire lives are centred around meals, days are structured around it, weekly meal plans are made, shopping lists constructed, ingredients purchased.

My family enjoy food. Not just the meal, the debate of what to have for dinner, how we should make it and what will accompany the mouth-watering morsels that we envisage. My mother and father buy fresh ingredients and prepare the food together. A pinch of love here, and a sprinkling of laughter there. I did not inherit this love of cooking but I'm forced to change. Here it goes. My name is Indu and I'm a bad cook.