I love cooking – and trying out new recipes. But unlike my good (and excellent cook) friend Pina who started cooking when she was 10 (check out the post on her!), I cooked my first meal only after I got married. I loved it so much that I was soon cooking for large number of people – despite my hectic job as a writer/journalist.
While none of us were allowed to cook a meal “in my mother’s kitchen” (my father did – when she was away – but that’s for another post) all six of us (3 boys and 3 girls) did all the preparations: roasted spices slowly till they got fragrant, kneaded dough till it got soft and malleable in our hands, ground masalas (a blend of spices) with the stone grinders at home, stirring the Christmas goodies in the large copper pot, pickling mangoes….the list is endless…..
Today I rarely cook Indian meals – unless there is a very special occasion. But all my cooking is intuitive. When my friend Mario got me some wonderful bottarga and cheese from his hometown in Sardinia – I looked up Mario Batalli’s recipe for the pasta that I love. While I did not follow the recipe exactly – it was still delicious!
I hope this blog will bring together a community of friends and friends of friends – with a few degrees of separation. You don’t have to be a cook, or even like cooking – it’s important that you like food though…and love relationships you build over food. If you have a recipe to share please post it (with a picture of yourself and the person whose recipe it is).
Bon Appetite!
