The story of my experiments with the "kitchen" !!!

Eventhough I have been staying away from my home for the past 8 yrs, frankly speaking I didn't know anything abt cooking. (Kindly note the past tense being used.) I'm fine with having food outside from hotels and there is no problem with me as long as the food is good. Hence there was really no need for me to cook for myself or to learn it.

But things do change and change is good. Recently I came to US on an assignment and here things were different. Here eating out meant shelling out too much. Once we (myself n my friends whom I stay with) had dinner outside and had pizza. It cost me $12 and the worst part was food was not good, I didn't like it. Given this circumstances I was forced to learn something which has been alluding me for so long - learning cooking.

Rice.... the easy one.
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Learning how to cook rice was easy. You need to have rice (ofcourse) and a cooker. Thats it, rice will be ready in a matter of 10-15 mins. Wow, I didnt know it was this easy !!! Now, when time came for my hands on - I took the rice, washed, put it in the cooker and left it there.

Usually it takes 10 mins and by the whistle you will know if its ready. But even after the stipulated time - I didnt hear any whistles, I returned to the kitchen to take a look and saw something was missing. Did I forget to put something ? Well, yes - I had forgotten to put the whistler on the cooker !!!

Oh my goodness !!! If somebody sees it I'm gone. Quickly I latched on to one of the whistlers lying around and put it on the top before others will come and see the negligence from my side !!! Since the whistler was put much later and I'm sure no whistles will be blown now, I turned it off after 12 mins.

Mahesh came to the kitchen to see how I'm progressing and he was surprised. Rice was already ready !!! Infact he could open the cooker so fast - usually evenafter turning off the gas you need to wait for the pressure to b e released as to open the cooker. But since I had forgotten to put the whistle the pressure had gone much too fast and cooking was done fastly. He was wondering how I made the rice so fast - not knowing what really had happened !!! I just smiled and prayed inside that the rice is atleast eatable !!!

Now to my surprise, when we used it for dinner - rice was just fine, infact it tasted better !!! Mahesh asked - Govindan, did u take any new rice ? It tastes so good today ? I said, no its just the same rice - the only difference is Gtouch !!! Telling inside - praise the lord !!! :-)

Mallu capsicum fry
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The next day, I spent some time googling through the making of various mallu dishes and found that there are numerous sites on this. We had only onions and capsicums and I decided to try my hand on that. So I cut them to small pieces. In between Giri came to tell me that the pieces have to be cut a little bit smaller and I was in no mood to take in any advice - he has been on the phone for the past 2 hrs and now coming and telling me that the pieces have to look leaner ? I told him - either u leave it to me or u do it. He went back happily and restarted chatting on the phone !!!

I put everything together, heated and the dish was ready in 10-15 mins. I left the task of putting right amount of salt to Mahesh as I know that salt is one little thing - that can ruin your entire efforts. I fried it for some more time and the capsicum fry got ready.

What to name my first preparation ? I was not sure at the beginning how my dish will end up with and so when my frnds asked what I was making, I didnt tell any specific names. So after it was ready and as it looked more like a proper capsicum fry - I named it mallu capsicum fry with Gtouch.... I guess it was good, Chandresh was telling wat ever you name it - the thing is good. I said thank you to him and lord. Praise the lord !!! :-)