Meme - 10 things that i miss the most of my mom's cooking

SATURDAY, JULY 08, 2006

Meme - 10 things that i miss the most of my mom's cooking

Meme - 10 things that i miss the most of my mom's cooking!

Kitchenmate of kitchenmate.blogspot.com has tagged me to this one! So here it goes:


My mom is a very good cook or to be more honest an excellent cook. She not only is an excellent cook , but also ever willing to share her recipes with anyone who asks for them! She used to say this" when you die you are not going to carry your recipes with you , so why not teach someone that dish, so that recipe will live on even after your death!"Anyway here are the 10 things i miss the most about my mom's cooking.

1) Lamb pulao - My mom makes mouth watering lamb pulao. The day she cooks pulao, even our neighbours will know what is for lunch in our house! It used to smell so heavenly & taste so good. She has handed out the recipe to many in our circle of family & friends, but none of their preparations taste like my mother's ! One of her friend , not satisfied with the handwritten recipe, even took on a hands on training from my mother for the biriyani, but still she is not able to get it right! Maybe this is what they call 'kai patham'?
2) Aappam - Her aappams are perfect each & every time & are fermented using toddy! Her muttai aappam & thengai paal appam ( the coconut milk will be poured in the centre of the aappam, & allowed to cook to a semi liquid state) were something to die for!
3)Gateau - Her gateau is very popular among family & friends. Preparations for the gateau will begin atleast 15 days in advance! Her gateau recipe is a very elaborate one which calls for 40 eggs etc & the day the cake was to be made, my parents will start beating the eggs at 6 o clock in the morning & by 8 o clock they would have finished everything & my father would take it to the bakery to be baked! No question of baking it at home, it had to be baked in an stone oven!I have the recipe , but my gateau never turns out brown in colour like hers!
4) Murukku - Her murukkus were crisp, but at the same time used to melt in our mouth. This is also another one of her recipe that has been passed on to many!
5) Paruppu sadam - This was one of my favourite dish & we always used to have it with poricha mutton! My friends used to say that it should not be called paruppu sadam but dal biriyani!
6) Athirasams - She makes both the vellam & sugar adhirasams & fries them in pure ghee. Got to learn this when i visit her !
7)Crab masala - Since this is my favourite, this dish will be made atleast twice a week whenever i visit home:)
8) Rawa kesari - She always used to insist on bombay rawa( bigger grains) , to prepare this dish!And since the big rawa was not available at our place, my uncle R would send us the bombay rawa( and maami varthals) by courrier service regularly!Her kesari would be dripping with ghee, just thinking of it makes my mouth water. Got to add this too, we have never bought ghee from outside, she always used to prepare it at home eventhough it was tedious work!
9)Curd rice - She transformed even this simple dish into something special, by adding ripe mango cubes( from our own mango tree), seedless green grapes etc, yum yum!
10) Paruppu rasam & mutton pepper fry - my ultimate comfort food!
Eventhough this list is only about the 10 dishes , i would like to add one more - her mutton chops , markandam rasam, kari sambar & seafood dishes were simply slurp! slurp!Mmmm! why even her filter coffee was sooo good!
What was surprising was she not only cooked yummy non vegetarian dishes but also equally delicious vegetarian dishes! Her friends tease her saying that she must have been a brahmin in her previous birth to cook such yummy vegetarian dishes! Thanks kitchenmate for having tagged me on to this meme , for i really enjoyed listing out my favourite food memories here!