FOOD

The Fine Art Of Food

The Milestones in My Food Journey

Food is so much more than the mere act of eating.

It is the offering we give ourselves to nourish the inner fire within. If treated with care this fire within can nourish us and make us glow. We must be more mindful of what we eat when we eat, and who cooks the food. Food is love. We must grow our crops with love, prepare our food with love, and serve and eat with love and gratitude.

We all will agree that Mom’s food is the best in the world. Her secret ingredient is Love! It nourishes our mind and body instantly. Food absorbs the vibes of the person who cooks and how it is made. A slow-cooked dinner can rejuvenate you for better sleep. Try this next time when you want a calm evening!

Once a resistant eater, I became a seeker of food and a foodie only after my marriage.

I shifted to Pune City from my native place of Kerala in the nineties in pursuit of a career after my education. Somewhere during this journey, I started learning cooking for survival. I made my first cup of tea only after my marriage. Soon I progressed to making round rotis and subzi and other vegetarian dishes. Maharashtrian food is simple and balanced. Maharashtrian thalis consist of a small portion of rice, dal (lentils curry) rotis, sukha bhaji (a dry dish made of normally leafy vegetables ), rasa bhaji (vegetable curry ), and koshimbir (vegetable salad ) and sweet. This combination is extremely healthy and delicious unless you indulge too much in sweets.

I haven’t found many obese citizens here.

My native food in Kerala mainly consisted of rice, dal, sambar, many vegetarian curries, eggs, and fish. Papads, pickles, poriyal, and buttermilk were compulsory side dishes for a rich lunch. In my childhood, we never had rotis or chappatis in our diet, because wheat was not cultivated in Kerala. We had lots of tubers, green leafy vegetables, and daily fish. Fresh fish came from the seas and backwaters. I remember holding a fifty paise coin in my tiny fist and clutching a bag on an occasional visit to the fish market. Fish looked tempting to me. Even now also a homemade fish curry with spices and tamarind pulp elevated my mood. On festive occasions, we made Payasam, a dessert made with lentils, coconut milk, and jaggery.

We had grown a few hens at home to meet our poultry requirement of eggs. Further eggs were hatched to make adorable chicks. My Granny made a chicken delicacy occasionally when we had guests. I don’t know what magic went into those spicy chicken Thorans loaded with coconut slices and fresh curry leaves. I tried my best to recreate those dishes, but the perfection is somewhere lost in translation!

Kerala is a State surrounded by the sea, backwaters, forests, and mountains. This beautiful State is blessed with nature’s bounty and is also known as ‘’God’s Own Country ‘. Rich and moist alluvial soil produced golden harvests. We have lush green paddy fields, coconut and areca nut groves, and plenty of fruit trees like mangoes, jackfruit, bananas, and papayas, cashew nuts, tamarind trees to name only a few! The food tasted divine with organic spices,farm-fresh ingredients, and a variety of seafood! Kerala food is one main attraction for tourists as well as the citizens here.

My life progressed in Pune bringing up kids and catering to the needs of my husband who became very busy in his professional field. Once the kids started going to school and became independent, I had nothing much to do, except nurse my nostalgia for my village food. The daydreaming for Kerala food soon became a quest. The one who could have helped me make exotic food, my Great-grandma was no longer there.

Whenever I visited my in-law’s home, I was given only the duty of scraping coconuts. They looked upon me as a city girl who didn’t know how to cook. Everyone in my own family had the same opinion since my Granny never allowed me to cook or do any household chores. I was a resistant eater since everything was served on a platter if not silver!

The kitchen stopped being a monotonous place once I started loving cooking. I started chasing experts who made Sadya ( the traditional Kerala feast, the iconic festive food served on a banana leaf ). I spend time discussing recipes with these experts. I found myself in the kitchen, be it my neighbor’s house or the kitchen in a houseboat in the backwaters. This learning soon found results.

Friends and guests started to appreciate my cooking. I got promoted to making main dishes from scraping coconuts at my in-laws’ home! I hear my In-laws asking younger girls to ‘’go and learn how to make onion and green chili chutney the way she makes ‘’.

That is progress indeed. I have come a long way in my food journey. I remember the day I boarded the train to Pune with a suitcase stuffed with paper cuttings of recipes I loved to make someday.

Now, classic Cookbooks from inspiring writers like Edna Lewis and Julia Child sit proudly in my small home library along with my own self-published book ‘’The Tastes Of Classic Coconut Cuisine ‘’.

I share my skills in making traditional Kerala food with my readers through my blogs. I am working on e-books, which are easier and more approachable for readers who love to cook and explore the tastes of Indian food. What if you could make your own traditional Indian Kitchen with these tried and tested recipes? I have learned this Art of Cooking from scratch and now I can roll out a traditional Sadya with more than 24 items with great ease. If I can do this, you too can.