5 Cooking Lessons I learnt from my Husband

There could have been many other themes to write about for my first post after wedding. But what comes to my mind instantly when I think about the last few months is cooking – for that’s what I had explored the greater part and that’s what had filled-in my time and attention too.

If you guessed my H is a good cook after reading the title, you’re wrong! To tell you the truth, he makes horrible dosas and probably just fairly good at chutneys (depends on his luck, not every time though) and rice (that’s because our cooker does a great job). Nevertheless, however, but, still, yet – I admire him for his theoretical kitchen knowledge most of which has been eye openers in my cooking history! Check them, could open your eyes as well 😉

1. It is not mandatory to peel onions before cutting:  Sometimes, it used to be a fight between the knife and the onion. And it feels anti-cooking to proceed with the half-peeled one. During one of those struggling moments, H taught me that if I do at least a single cut, peeling is much easier than wrestling with the uncut onion. Though he advocates multiple cuts which I haven’t agreed upon yet 👿

2. Why to do fine chopping to make chutney? I was trained in 2 ways to cut vegetables – fine chopping for dry curries and not-so-fine-chopping for gravies. But, how does the cutting modality matter to dump into the mixer for grinding? I saw him do this one day. 1 onion into 4 pieces instead of the (7 x 5) x 3 pieces (Yes, my onion formula!). An instant eye opener 💡

3. Understand the anatomy of vegetables: I’ve heard about spring onions, probably haven’t seen one before. I confess that I really did not know which part of it should be used. The first day I generously cut off the onion part to the trash and kept the grass part for dinner. But the second day, he caught me red-handed while doing the trash work 😳 And thus an engineer educated a biologist to study vegetable anatomy 😮

4. Rasam in 2 minutes: I was panicked when I heard for the first time that he needs rasam everyday. Along with water, rasam is another elixir of his life. Even after a Chinese or a north Indian meal, rasam and rice can be had. In my home, mom gives me rasam only when I have 102 degree C fever 😯

              I used to make this mistake of adding more tamarind , thinking rasam is all about tamarind. And eventually heat, heat and re-heat  to get rid of the raw tamarind taste. While my dad, mom and friends could not find the problem, it was H who pointed out that I need to lessen the tamarind content. And now my rasam-making technology has improved so much that I put it at the first place in my expertise list 😎

5. Most important lesson: Accept and agree his tips, but never let him in the kitchen. You don’t want to see disaster in the kitchen, do you?

Apart from these lessons, what I enjoy as a wife in the kitchen, is his occasional involvement. He doesn’t have to help me necessarily to make my cooking easier. Peeping into the kitchen sometimes for few seconds is a lot fun. If you’ve not done this before to your wife or stopped doing after few months of marriage, remember to do this – for your wife likes that definitely.

And I think it’s just not the cooking part. Even with every other house hold work, all that the woman needs is not actual help but just an acknowledgement that “I know you are constantly taking care of everything at home”. And there her heart smiles 🙂

Read Ancient Secrets – Introduction

nandhini.pfs@gmail.com

Photo Courtesy:

Spring Onions – www.photo-dictionary.com

Husband and Wife in Kitchen – www.masterfile.com