This post is my entry for “Kitchen Mishaps Event” conducted by my friend Malar . Thanks a lot Malar for holding up your post for one more day for me :) This is a very interesting event, I am looking forward to read the entries of my foodie friends. I don’t have any photographs of my messes (I keep deleting all the disheartening photos periodically….that would have made this a good post) I guess, but I do have some funny stories to share. Some of my friends whom I have met recently think I am a great cook, but I have had my fair share of kitchen mishaps and disasters starting from over spicy foods to too-sour-to-touch curds, even some burns or cuts, wherein I would call my hubby and cry over the phone :(. Recently I even had a small accident while making seedais. Luckily I managed to escape this with two burns on my hand but hot oil spilled all over the kitchen starting from the cabinets and floor, to the ceiling. It took hours for me to clean everything.
During the initial days of my marriage when we were staying in Hyderabad, my grandma was staying with me for a couple of days and one day we decided to make puris for breakfast. She asked to mix the dough. I started to mix the flour, water, and oil and when I mixed everything the dough looked strange and it was too smooth to touch until I realized that instead of maida (all purpose flour), I had used rice flour! Luckily, grandma prepared thattais from that dough, so it was not a total disaster.
There was one incident that happened the first week of my stay in Hyderabad. I was a new bride then and a newbie at cooking. I think it was the very first day when my parents left me and went to Pondicherry. Hubby dear was too confident of my cooking and invited a friend for lunch the very same day (he never made that mistake for a long time after that…these days we have friends frequently at our place to hang out). I panicked, but I managed to bring out a decent meal at least that’s what I thought. I prepared vatha kuzumbu, rasam, omelette, rasam and we managed with a few store-bought items. Turns out that I didn’t add tamarind for the kuzumbu and I didn’t know at that time that the onions should be sautéed at first before adding them to the eggs….oops! that was a total disaster, it was one huge lumpy omelet.
There was another incident when I was staying at my sister’s place. We learnt a good lesson that day, never make gobi Manchurian with besan. We ran out of maida and corn flour, so we prepared cauliflower bajjis and added them into the gravy. It was a soggy mess but the taste was ok.
These are a few funny incidents with my cooking, for the rest, you need to ask my guinea pig (my hubby). He is sure to have a lot more stories. I hope all of you had a good laugh over this post :)
Dear Gita,
ReplyDeleteThats so kool, that you worked over this article for the event...inspite of your tight schedule. I really appreciate it and thank you so much buddy.
I am happy to include your well-written post, yeah...who wouldnt have mishaps in the kitchen, come-on we are all in the row:) Yep, its shaping up art' right...now we can share, have a good laugh and learn from our own mistakes. I have bunch of such disasters...
No probs...pictures are not mandatory:)
my my my---------- what a honest confession of all the messes.A very interesting post of ur personal experiences.I am sure all of us have had to go through all these things at some time or other.we often improve only by experience and practice as years roll on.
ReplyDeleteSuch a interesting post Gita...that so nice of u for sharing with us some of ur personal culinary experiences..
ReplyDeleteI'd call it the Kitchen Misadventures! I at first LOLed at the post but after that it was wrong of me to laugh as I also had experienced these incidents. Anyways, n00bies tend to have some damn mishaps!
ReplyDeleteDon't we all go through this phase when we make mistakes and learn from them. Enjoyed your post, loved how your grandma managed to turn the rice flour dough into thattai, I am sure that was one mistake that you must have enjoyed making :-)
ReplyDeleteGita,
ReplyDeleteThis post is awsome.
Recipe posts are routine.
But sharing what you learnt from the recipe mishaps is fun.
Photographs would make uniqueness in your posts.
I too had a lot of kitchen mishaps.
Boiling eggs in microwave oven out of enthusiasm during the early days of cooking.
2 minutes after, when i removed it from oven, and about to keep it on counter, all 3 eggs blasted like a bomb and egg yolks is all over.
Over counter top, refridgerator, ceiling, and all over a great mess.
We are such a conservative brahmin family, my mom was mad at me.It spoiled my holiday cleaning the mess.
Next time when you have a mess, share it with us too.
Love you and your posts gita.
for omlet we don't have to saute the onions.it tastes good.every new bride has kitchen mishaps which is awful and now if we think of them it gives a nice smie and its good to remember those moments.
ReplyDelete