Part#2: Dorakunaa Ituvanti Seva(i)?

It was not that I did not know any basics of cooking--we had a subject called Home-Science in school which had a lot of topics covering health, nutrition and cooking. As we were enthusiastic only about eating then(Isn't anybody, anytime?)we urged our teacher to only teach us recipes. We had a lot of terms to learn--frying, sauteing, roasting, broiling, blanching, etc. We were very eager about the practicals though and believe me, I played a major role in converting all our classes into only cookery-classes! We learnt to handle the dishes with care, decorate them and garnish them with the necessary ingredients. But alas, we learnt lots of sweet dishes--maida cake, Mysore Pak, kesari,etc and we just had a brush with sambhar,curry,roti,etc. Little did I know then that even with all this training, I wouldn't be able to please my husband easily.

My mother wasn't a bad cook either--only trouble was that Raju had a distinct marker on his tongue which never forgave anything slightly alien to what he felt was true Tamil cooking.

The first thing Raju asked me about my culinary skills was whether I knew how to make Sevai--rice noodles and 'Aavakkai'mango pickle. Then the readymade rice noodles were unavailable--everything had to be made at home.If this were the case these days, I would just have bought 'Concord' rice noodles and 'MTR' or 'Chinni's' pickles and made him believe that these were the ultimate in those items.

Firstly we had to borrow 'Sevai Naazhi'---a very robotic-looking instrument from someone we hardly knew. Actually the maid in our house then, Muniyamma, found one for us from some other house she worked in. She showed us which part of the 'naazhi' was static and which moved. Then we , that is amma and I had to ask some other maami how to go about making the 'Sevai'. I had seen this item being made with 'omappodi acchu'--the device used for making 'omappodi', but Raju wanted it done robotically--a robot operated manually.

All pitched in to make'Sevai'( I was all the while singing--Dorakunaa ituvanti Seva(i)!)--Muniyamma, amma, appa and me--Raju was the director of course! With lots of sweating,tips and tricks from appa, amma and Muniyamma, we managed to extract some passable uncooked sevai between us. Then we steamed the noodly thing and tried different forms of garnishing--everything on demand from the Director! We made somewhat edible lemon sevai and thengai sevai.

Whether we learnt to make Sevai in earnest or not, we did have a wonderful team-building exercise! Otherwise how can so many cooks(me, amma, appa, Muniyamma)not spoil the 'broth'? Raju must have felt sorry after all this for, he never asked us for 'Sevai' again!Good for all of us.

My Tryst with Thaligai(Samayal/Adige/Khaana banana)--Part #1

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach--I hear it being said always. But,..for a novice like me some twenty odd years ago, this was the most trying time--literally. My husband loves food! He is a pucca Thanjavur Tamilian and I was a poor Kannadiga girl. Though I did have Tamilian neighbors when I was young, I had not cared enough to learn their recipes. I knew all the terms and tastes of the myriad items my neighbor maamis used to serve us with whenever there was an opportunity....rasam, sambhar, kari/poriyal, kootu, pulianchatham, morekulambu, podimaas, vathakulambu, thogayal, vathal, vadaam, etc. Amma used to say that we had all those in Kannada cuisine too--saru, huli, palya, kootu/saagu,chitranna, majjigehuli, gojju, chutney, sandige, etc. She was careless enough to say that everything tasted similar, whether it was made in Madras or in Mysore. Little did she realise that she would have to serve a son-in-law who had an arm's-length tongue( Muzha neela naakku) and would never agree that the list of items in Madras and in Mysore matched.

Firstly I learned that 'Puli" or tamarind, 'Perungaayam' or asafoetida/hing are the basic necessities, not to forget lots of 'manjal' or turmeric. People in Karnataka , at least most of them cannot bear more than a dash of sourness in their cuisine. Most of them use jaggery to lessen the spice and add a slightly sweet taste to the dishes. This was the first big 'no no' from my husband, Raju. No sweet taste to the dishes--mom and I argued that it was only a small bit to adjust the spice--no, no, he nodded--let the spice be, don't do any 'himsa' to it! We said," Swalpa adjust maadi', meaning please adjust a bit--but he was not for any adjustments. So amma said, just add lots of tamarind, hing and turmeric to every dish and make it like we do at home--it should taste like he wants. Again, this too never worked. Raju argued that we were wasting precious ingredients and yet making no tasty food.

The funniest part of all this was that Raju did not know any recipes himself--but he knew how each one tasted at home. It was a pity that I did not have a mom-in-law to teach me the recipes that would tickle his taste-buds. He seemed to have gathered all the taste for good food(his type) from his relatives.

To be continued,..