Things You Learn When You Start Cooking

In my Mom’s words – Covid has achieved what she never could. I now have to learn to cook for myself.

And of course, it comes with its own share of learnings.

1. Cooking Daal-Roti-Sabzi takes longer than a highly hyphenated chicken-a-la-king or a healthy banana bread. It’s also less fun. Less instagram-able. But after a week of fanciness, it’s what saves your ass (and tummy).
2. Whether or not a dish gets made is 5% dependent on how much we like it, 10% dependent on how difficult it is to make, and 85% dependent on the number of utensils required to make it. Except when A is cooking, and I’m the one washing the utensils. Then he goes the whole hog without worrying about consequences.
3. Goondoing aata is either super relaxing. Or messy and frustrating. There is no in-between. Also, I was about to write ‘kneading dough’, but that dainty fanciness is so NOT WHAT IT IS.
4. You understand the difference between tsp and tbsp in a recipe. Sometimes the hard way.
5. Things that were created to torture you: Cutting methi. Peeling garlic. Scratchy ladyfingers. Ensuring the aloo stays inside the paratha. That itch in the eye right after you’ve cut green chilli.
6. Hard boiled eggs are my new best friend. Efficient. Uncomplicated. You get what you hoped for.
7. You can actually lose weight by eating home cooked food. Or by being so tired and frustrated by the time you finish cooking, that you have no appetite left at all.
8. You have nightmares about those cringe-worthy times when you asked, nay, demanded that your Mom cook your favourite dishes. Or worse, when you cribbed about the lauki / kaddu that was actually cooked.
9. You finally understand the real gravity of the question, which till now you easily ignored every time your Mom asked (and you wonder if this is Karma getting back at you) – what do you want to eat today?

Do you find yourself forced into the kitchen? Are you enjoying it? Or are you, like me, creating cribby lists out of it instead?

P.S. I just saw a lizard in my kitchen. That’s it. I’m done. The kitchen is a quarantined zone now. Send some food over, please?