As far I can remember I have always had a keen interest in cooking. I started making chai (Indian tea) for my parents when I was just 6 years old. Shortly thereafter I was making roti (Indian wheat flat bread), but I did not start cooking main dishes and contributing to our meals until I was about 12.
My mother, who is my cooking guru, has been cooking since the age of 10. So it is fair to say that she knows her way around the kitchen. She didn’t really have a choice or an option to pick up cooking, it was a necessity for her in order to feed her family at home on a daily basis after marriage. In her time cooking was a required skill women needed to have therefore mothers had to ensure that their girls were well trained in the kitchen. There were no recipes or books they could just pick up and whip up dinner for their families. Instead, you basically received on the job training and learned to tweak the techniques according to your likes and your family’s tastes.
Hence, when I started learning to cook, my mother never gave me any measurements or recipes and for the longest time it was my biggest struggle. I would always ask her, “How do you know the amount of spice to put in the dish if you don’t measure it?” and she would say “Watch and you will learn!” She definitely had her own cooking method that did not include any precise measurements and it drove me crazy for a while. After watching her cook for years, gradually picking up on her techniques and applying them, the valuable lesson I had learned from her was that you have to learn to cook according to your taste, comfort and feel. The cookbooks, recipes and exact measurements will help guide you, but you have to develop your own style by trial and error! And that’s how I have learned to perfect my dishes for my family and friends.
Now that I have decided to share my recipes via my website/blog and cooking classes, I have had to recreate some of my dishes to keep exact measurements and the amount of the ingredients to use. As a result, I have slowly developed a habit of journaling everything while I cook to share it with the world. However, I will always stick to the cooking basics that my mom instilled in me, for life! Thanks mom!
As I navigate through my cooking adventures, I would like to help you develop your own style by providing you my simple Indian cooking recipes, tips and casual cooking classes.
