After a long long time, I
got into a local train and memories came rushing back as I stood there looking
at the harrowed and tired face of women rushing back from work. A sudden feeling of déjà vu and I went back
thirty five years ago to those days when I jumped into the local at Churchgate
to get a seat. Life is not easy when you are working and I know this because
for years I too rushed home to manage the kitchen and bring up my two devils.
It was a whirlwind life and believe me when I say that even then we were
crushed like sardines in a tin in the locals.
Planning the menu in the
head whilst travelling and grabbing on to the handle in a jam packed fast train
to deciding the stuff to buy as soon as I get off the train. Did that help? or
was I just too jealous of those women sitting in the train peeling green peas
and breaking the beans into smaller pieces. That was indeed the way to go but then I needed a seat in the train for
that, right!!! That most awful time of
running home to make a load full of dough for the rotis for my in-laws family
of eight. Just forty odd ones too.... Oh
yes, I would be the one to reach home first most times so always got started
with the help of my mom-in-law. That phase lasted for many years till we
decided to hire a cook... and when I moved to my place it was the saviour -
the bread.. and why not, after all I was a parsi and parsis ate bread and
always had the eggs handy. Eggs, my utmost favorite comfort food till date, so
easy to cook up. I remember a friend at
work asking me one day why do we put eggs on everything from bheenda par edu, to tomato par edu, to saali par
edu and he got a rap on his knuckles for being cheeky enough to ask whether
we put egg on our dal and
curry too !!! Oh yes, I love those instant
products available today. The non-veg
and veg instant mixes available in easy packs. The delicious chicken/mutton masala
mixes - chettinad, malai, butter, moghalai, tandoori - .name it and its
available and the same masala works beautifully for vegetables too... After all
it is just a marketing strategy to say non-veg and veg because it becomes
non-veg only when the non-veg is added...ha ha ha.... Love it even today ! Just
10 minutes of defrosting and mixed up with my meat and popped into the cooker.
It wasn't that easy when I
was a kid though... I still remember all those Sundays when Mom slaved in the
kitchen making those masalas, storing garlic and ginger paste, storing the
curry masala and even fried onions. Those many weekend masala grinding childhood
days when Mom would sit us down to peel the garlic and slice onions in what
seemed like kilos and never-ending. That
going to the bazaar to get the stuff for the week and then washing it all to
make smaller packs of the meats and freezing it. Then there were those days when I stared at those
crabs trying to crawl out of the vessel and I actually volunteered to wash fish.
Many still do that till date but it is all about to each her own.
And then there is nothing
wrong with innovating with leftovers by just adding tomato puree and making it
a gravy dish with rice or making your own jhatpat “bhajias” out of left over
vegetables and plonking them into tomato/onion puree or even kneading them up
in the dough. That worked for me… these shortcuts did. Rice was meant to be left over to turn into
delicious pakodas with tea the next day. Till today I deliberately ensure that
rice is left over to be dunked into loads of curd and made into pakodas!
Do I love to cook you may
ask and do I? Well, as a kid I did go to baking classes and my younger sister
still remembers the aroma of breads and cheese straws baking in the oven. I love baking and do that off and on, but not
much of cooking because when your daughter takes over the kitchen and feeds you
with "FOOD" the way it is meant to be, then there is no need for
shortcuts, is there??
