Mira has requested that I post the picture of her first Kerala fish curry effort - she cut the onions, ginger, garlic, and with a little help from me and some cue from the video in My Mother's Kitchen, we sacrificed seer fish/neymeen in the altar of a Kerala manchatty (earthen pot). The result was pretty decent, considering that no fish curry has tasted as good as salmon's after coming here.
Any way Mira was thrilled and put it briefly on her instagram status. She even cut spinach/cheera for me. All this after pitaji (V) gave her a pep talk in the morning that a girl should learn cooking and housekeeping skills in order to be ready for her new home after marriage. I couldnt resist myself, and said girls and boys have to learn equally and she is under no obligation to cook for the family unlike the generations of women who have come before her. That led to a morning verbal scuffle about how I spoil the kids with my wrong ideas 😈
Anyway I often feed Mira all my wrong feminist ideas though I advise her to quietly listen to her father but follow her own discretion on life matters as an adult - which can only be gained by reading voraciously and mingling with other cultures and people. Not the frog-in-the-well attitude of Malayali achayans and ammamas who have lived and studied only in Kerala or with Keralites.
p.s. I have started loving the cooking videos of Mrs Leela Mathew, who lives in the US and with the help of her septuagenarian husband, gives traditional cooking secrets to all who care to listen. Though I was not impressed initially, I have grown to adore her (she reminds me of mom at a time I cant visit her as often as I wish). I am no great fan of videos in general as I dont have the patience to sit through a full video and would rather read a cookery blog post where my eyes can gather what it needs and maybe go back to it umpteen times as I cook to clear doubts. Videos are different, especially from women - they yap non stop before they actually start the cooking process.
Get Curried, Banglar Rannaghor and (recently) Shan Geo are other YouTube favorites.
No comments:
Post a Comment