Julia Child of Kerala

Well, there were days when I used to think boiling water and making tea made me a good cook. I was in Bangalore staying in a house with a kitchen (earlier, kitchens never existed in a house, only the dining table) and had to learn to cook the hard-hard way.

I didn’t know sambar needed toor dal. I had seen vegetables floating in it and thought oh ok, sambar is easy - cut all vegetables, add water, cook. I thought the yellow tinge is from the turmeric. And I even had the guts to serve it to friends. They never came back, of course. Oh I could curdle the curd curry to shame. I would add 3 tsp of turmeric to 1 cup of curry, and I thought my mom was really stingy in using her spices. I could boil the curries to death until you see one big sorry mush. I could make egg curry in water. Yes, I would add 2 boiled eggs, 4 tsp of garam masala (No, I cannot be stingy like my mom) and 4 cups of water and had the audacity to call it egg curry. I didn’t even know sugar won’t dissolve in cold water. I would add sugar to tang with ice cubes and would serve the sour tang. I would splutter mustard seeds on every curry. If you just had a spoonful of curry in your hand too, I would splutter mustard on them. I liked the "sshhhh" sound of it and the smell. That sound was like lunch/dinner bell back home.

I would call up my mom and ask for recipes, and she would yell at me saying "Oh My God! Who told you to cook? I am scared you wont switch off the gas stove properly. Don't even go near the kitchen. It is dangerous."

My mom had told me she too learned cooking the hard way. As a new bride she made chicken, she put chicken on the stove and started chatting. Well, the chicken charred, but her friends stayed. They said carbon is good for the body and ate the charred chicken. My friends were not that nice. Well, like mother like daughter, eh? Well, my mean friends started teasing me like anything and I was adamant I will learn cooking. I went to a bookshop at Brigade Road in Bangalore and got the first book I saw.I started to cook, slowly. The hard part was to translate all the English to Malayalam. I knew the vegetables only by Malayalam names. But I learned. My friends returned slowly with a wide grin on their mean faces. They would eat my curries and laugh like anything. They didn’t leave abruptly like the first time.I had never even heard of a Mrs. K.M. Mathew then.Then, one fine day I found her and then I started to love cooking, started to cook in a better way. She even taught me how to bake delicious fruit cakes.Mrs. K.M. Mathew is without a doubt the Julia Child of Kerala. Mrs K.M Mathew has authored around 21 cook books starting from 1953 I guess.Her cooking style is Central Kerala.It is a known fact that, if you give even papaya skin to women in central Kerala, they would cook up delicious dishes in minutes. Well I am too from central Kerala,but there are exceptions for everything you know.

In U.S I was introduced to this frail old lady through my television set. She was honest and funny in her cooking shows without any airs. I loved her! If she drops something on the floor while cooking, she would say, “Oh, it doesn’t matter, just wash it and use it”. She would say, use real butter, we need flavor - not margarine or cheap imitations. She lived to 91. So I know it is not the butter or the so called fats, it is ‘moderation’ that is going to make you live healthy.

My friends came for a get together last year and I prepared lunch for them (I am good at heart you see, even when their mean laughter were ringing in my ears). After lunch, they said, “Hmm…you have learned to cook”. Well that’s the ultimate compliment I can get from those mean brutal hearts!

When my aunt visited us last time, she nearly had a heart attack seeing me cook. " Mole, you didnt even know a spoon from a fork, and look at you now" - Well,well..ahem..I put on a humble face even when my head was hitting the roof :-)