A reluctant cook

“I’ll never enter the kitchen”, I remember myself declaring to my patient mother when I was in my rebellious teen phase.

No wonder then that my first experiment with cooking (after being tired of ordering takeout food everyday while working in Delhi) started off with a disaster.  I was trying to cook dal and rice for the first time in life.

A frantic phone call to my mother and 60 anxious minutes later, the results of my efforts were a dish of burnt dal, overcooked rice and a huge phone bill. And we had to order for dinner from a restaurant. I used to hate cooking so much that I even agreed to marry my husband only on condition that he would never expect me to cook! Thankfully things have changed since then.

Today, the kitchen scares me no more rather it invites me to try out new and creative experiments mixing ingredients, recipes and spices from across the world.

So if I fancy Spaghetti for dinner and cheese toast for breakfast, I can cook them up myself without resorting to frantic phone calls or restaurant orders.

How did this transformation happen? How did I get over my fear of cooking and start loving it?

Well apart from my mother’s tips, the other things that helped me were:

1. Exotic and colorful cookbooks that literally brought me the world on a plate with mouth-watering pictures and easy recipes from around the world. And of late the BBC Good Food Magazine that has just been launched in India has become a favorite read with its gourmet recipes and amazing food pictures. I guess I am addicted to it. 

2. A range of cookware – microwave, OTG, grill, food processor and the works that made cooking and chopping and mixing so easy.

3. Gourmet food stores like Nature’s Basket and Shorbet in Bangalore that stock everything from smoked cheese to salmon and an array of sauces, herbs and spices that lend flavor and aroma to the cooking.

4. Google.com which obligingly offered me new options of food blogs and recipes when I wanted to try out something new. Some of the food blogs like Purplefoodie.com are simply awesome.

5. Cooking shows ranging from Masterchef Australia to Nigella Lawson and Donna Hay which showed creative cooking and plating at its best.

6. And last definitely not the least, an encouraging daughter who feels her mother is the best ‘cooker’ in the whole world and is ever willing to sample my new experiments in the kitchen and even join me in my experiments.

And today, when I call my mother, it is she who asks for recipes. And I teach her new recipes for grilled fish and noodle soup and healthy salads.

But this post is not about my cooking journey. My favorite dessert of all time is Caramel Custard. Just love the soft pudding and the caramelized sugar syrup. Of course, I initially thought that it is too difficult to create it and I am destined to only savor it in restaurants. Imagine my surprise then when I tried it and it turned out perfectly. I am sharing the recipe I used (of course courtesy the Internet)

Ingredients

2 and 1/2 cups of warm milk

3 eggs

1 spoon vanilla essence

1 pinch of nutmeg powder (if available)

1/3rd cup sugar for the custard

1/2 cup sugar for the caramelization

Method

To caramelize the sugar

Put the 1/2 cup sugar on the gas in a pan with a sprinkle of water. In a few minutes, the sugar will start to turn brown and caramelize. Lift the pan and pour this in the container in which you will bake/steam your pudding. I generally use a cake container. This mixture should coat the bottom of the container. Keep it for 10 minutes for the mixture to harden and set.

The make the custard

Beat the 3 eggs together.

Add the 1/3 cup sugar. I generally use castor sugar. Since I prefer less sugar, this quantity might need to be adjusted depending on taste.

Pour in the warm milk.

Add the vanilla essence and nutmeg powder.

Pour the custard on top of the caramelized sugar in the container.

There are 2 ways to prepare the caramel custard.

Method 1: Steam in a pressure cooker

Cover the container top with a aluminium foil. Add water in a pressure cooker so that it reaches till about ½ of the container. Put the container and then steam it for 20 minutes. After the container is a little cooler, put it in the fridge. After 2-3 hours, take it out from the fridge, scrape the sides and then hold it on top of the serving plate. It should fall off in a smooth, jelly like mixture, holding its shape with the caramel sauce dripping down the sides. Keep it chilled till ready to serve.

Method 2: Bake in OTG

If you have an OTG, you can preheat it for 10 minutes. Place the container on a baking tray after filling the baking tray (till ½ of the container height) with boiling water.

Bake for 20-30 minutes till you see that the mixture holds its shape and does not look like a liquid mass.

Again put it in the fridge and later on hold it on top of the serving plate.

I have to add that my family is still quite unable to believe that I actually enjoy cooking and tease me no end for my past rebellions even as they try with brave hearts to sample my latest inventions in the kitchen:)