Especially among friends, it surprises me to find people that think of recipes as rules to follow. When cooking with friends, I am amused by those that level out the flour in the measuring cup or insist rajma cannot be complete without the addition of fresh coriander/ cilantro leaves. Some friends frequently receive links to recipes with comments like: "Oh, I am very creative, I always add my own tweaks to dishes", while others might reply: "How can I make that, I don't have any _ on hand". Between the two extremes, I have grown up watching my mother add sambar powder to pasta for fussy children and serve sandwiches as dinner to a group that felt a "meal" must include rice, chapattis could hardly count as lunch or dinner.
My favorite kitchen memory of my mother is this: Working 9-6 and trying to manage two small children, one of whom always wanted sambar and the other would eat nothing but rasam, my mother put her magic spoon to work. In her absence, we were given a 'spell'. No matter what she'd cooked, all we had to do was turn the spoon thrice. Dip it in deep and turn the spoon thrice to the right for sambar, and three times the other way to turn the sambar into rasam. Et voila! We each got what we wanted. Of course, the other requirement for the spell was two naive children who didn't know that curry powder sediments at the bottom of the vessel, or even really know the difference between sambar and rasam ;).
My own culinary adventures are similar. I like to think I can cook menus off several world cuisines, and given a spare pantry will whip up a kootu or a pasta or fajitas or a stir-fry. But none of them are 'authentic', and none of them are particularly 'creative', at least in my opinion. It's food, and it tastes good to those I cook it for. It fulfills our needs and keeps us happy, and that is enough for me.
Recipes are suggestions, not rules to live or die by. As are stop signs, as long as you look all ways ;). And so are 'principles'. There is always a different perspective, and principles/morals are guidelines on how to proceed, options one can choose to live by. If a moral cannot stand up to circumstantial logical scrutiny and open discussion, I don't think it is worth killing/ dying for, nor is it worth causing unhappiness over.
(P.S: Why does spell check find fajitas acceptable, but not rajma/sambar etc.? For those that want 'recipes' for any of the foods mentioned, I'm happy to oblige ;))
6 comments:
I want to 'Like' this post :)
though not much of a culinery-pro (i've only a handful of dishes i can claim expertise for) cant agree more with your 'principles' analogy..:) good job, this one..!
Good one! But, as always, at the risk of sounding "nerdier", I should also add that humans generally start learning anything through structured rules. Once they acquire the skills through the rules, they move on to applying their skills to innovate. As they advance in their skill, they build their knowledge to create, innovate, and improvise :).
This holds true for cooking, driving, playing an instrument, and following principles :). So I understand the need to stick to rules, but I would discourage stagnating in the first stage.
Sumi- If you want to 'Like' it, isn't that the same as liking it? :)
Thawed out!- Thanks, and welcome. Interesting name :)
Nee- I agree entirely, but somehow expect adults to have moved past that stage when it comes to principles, and also people that have been cooking all their lives ;)
Enjoyed this post !:-) I get what you mean, but I am still in the 'structured rules' stage !:-) Far from creating something new, I try to follow rules, so that I get atleast something right :-) Hopefully I'll experiment a little more once I get some familiarity with basic stuff :-)
Well, as N pointed out, rules are important initially, as long as one does not stagnate in them :)
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