Momma Meme

“My mom is not a great cook...”

If she ever reads that, she is gonna kill me, literally, with one scornful look. haha. Hell hath no fury like my mother scorned :).

She would make sure we kids ate all kinds of vegetables, no fussing over that. She uses only the freshest vegetables and cooks them in minimal oil. She is very meticulous about it, almost like a nutritionist. If we ever say, “We don’t want this”, pat would come the reply. “I am not running a hotel here for you to order. Eat what I give you."

She is a super fast learner in everything from cooking to even using an instant messenger. She just looks at a dish and tries to make it, since too proud to ask someone for a recipe. Sometimes they are a big flop (but she would never admit it), and sometimes they are a major hit. If we ever say it is major hit, then she would try to teach the person who first made it. Hehehe.

She was a stay at home mom, but yearned to go out and work. She was brilliant in academics, but chose to take care of us little devils. She would wake up early at 4 in the morning and work, work, work until 12 midnight for us. But she made sure, we would hear about it every single day, especially at dinner time. She won’t let us waste a bit of rice or curry and we would have to completely wipe the plate clean.

“Your dad and I work hard for it.” Then one of us smarty pants would remark, “But you don’t work!”. Instantly, the person who made that smart aleck comment would realize, it would have been better, if he or she were born dumb.

She would never let us skip a meal. We can be mad and angry at the whole World and the outer World too, but she would spank us, if ever refused to eat. “Do you know how many kids are there on the streets waiting to get at least a morsel of this?” We were never ever allowed to even say, “I am not eating food today” at our home.

Food from outside was a big No at our house. “You don’t know how they make it. They sometimes spit in it”, she made us kids believe that for a long time. But still sometimes, we would love to have something from outside especially during train journeys. When a vendor approaches, we would longingly look at him and then our mom, like watching a tennis game. This will continue (sometimes the vendor also joins in) until he leaves and then she would make a face and roll her eyes at us.

She makes the best tea I have ever tasted and never been able to replicate. She loves teas, and she drinks up to ten glasses a day. It is like alcohol for her. If she is sad, she drinks tea. If she is happy, she drinks tea. That was the only thing she let us have from outside. “How come?” and the retort would be, “Tea is very hot, even if they spit, the water is boiled.

”She never served any alcohol, even wine, at our house. Even though all her brothers and other families enjoyed alcohol, it was a big na na at our home, only at our home. I too extracted that promise from my husband during the initial days of our marriage, much to the dislike of his and my friends. It is so hard to stay like that especially in U.S. So, it is official that, “No drinking at L.G’s house” :-), even though I have to listen to lengthy sermons from our friends on the benefits of it, during every party at our house.

The first thing she asks when we call her up is, “Mole, what did you eat?” I have this habit too and unconsciously ask my friends the same.

She makes the best fish curry in the World. We used to have fish curry in the morning (even with idlis), lunch and dinner. She was crazy about fish. She would say, “Malayalees and Bengalis have the most beautiful skin and eyes. Why? Because we eat fish!” Since we never saw anyone other than a Malayalee, we believed that until we all went outside Kerala :-)

She always waits for us all to finish eating (even now) and then sits down on the floor with her legs folded towards her chest (I have never seen her at the table) with her food in a steel plate with all the left overs. Usually, she gets the fish head or the bone part, since she would forcefully make us all eat the best parts. Then she slowly mixes the fish curry and rice with her fingers and instantly we all would circle her and ask, “Can I have one urula amma”. That is the best food I have ever tasted in my life.

My dad would scold us, saying. “Your mom hasn’t eaten anything from the morning. Stop digging in her meal.” and she would say with so much love in her eyes.
“aargghh....Daddy, they are kids. Never ask them to stop eating.”

This is my mom’s recipe for the best fish curry in the World. (Any objections to the word ‘World’ is overruled!)

Fleshy fish cut into 2 inch pieces – 3 cups
Shallots diced – ½ cup
Green chili diced – 4
Ginger diced – 1 tsp
Garlic diced – 6 cloves (if small Indian garlic, use 12 cloves.
Red Chili Powder – 2 tsp
Coriander Powder – 4 tsp
Black Pepper powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric – ¼ tsp
Kudampuli - 3 (Kudampuli is not kokum)
Curry leaves – 2 sprigs

Add salt and mix all the above in a pan along with the fish. Let it sit for 10 or 15 minutes.

Cook the fish in medium flame by adding 2 cups of thin coconut milk (or coconut milk without the cream).

Do not cover. When fish is cooked, take off from flame and add ½ cup of thick coconut milk or cream of the coconut milk. Cover.

Heat 3 tsp of coconut oil; splutter 1 tsp of mustard seeds, 1 tsp of diced shallots sautéed until brown and add 3 red chilies split and ½ tsp of fenugreek seeds. Add to the fish curry.Serve with love.(All the time I read about memes, I wanted to do one badly and when I was finally tagged by couple of people, I got so lazy...:-))

Thank you all (Garam Masala, Nabeela, Priya Bhaskaran, Vineela) for tagging me. Many thanks to Garam Masala for this meme

I have no idea whom to tag this. I wanted to tag Sarah at least, but she also was tagged. No chance to tag for late comers? Can I declare the meme ends here? :-)