Yummy yummy says my tummy

This blog post is directed to re-living those moments I spend in the kitchen with my wife, cooking, cooking and more cooking, now which is a happy spot for memory to rest.
I took a vacation in Jan this year, which was not actually according to my leave plan. I had planned for my leave in March, and had charted lots of activity for then, which I know today has shattered because I have been denied leave because of the paucity of staff. Now the leave I took then has taken even more significance, one because I could meet my beloved in Jan, and two because if I did not have gone then, it should have too long a wait, more of an agony. The plan came into my head like a bolt from the blue and...... wait, this isn’t what I am trying to tell!!!...I so easily miss the point. (But I sure will touch on this some other time)
Yeah, so I was @ home with Babitha and it was just the two of us. The entire home for us, for love, for talk, for eat & drink, for the occasional fight and yes, the awesome cooking! Babitha isn’t well versed in the culinary department. I think I am more a high-grader there. My wife thinks that I have it in my genes to cook well, dad being an executive Italian chef and mom an amazing cook herself, I cannot find reason to refute. So, she and I decided that this once we would cook more and order less, just to enjoy the moment spend in bringing out something with joint effort. And the story began. I have learned a bit helping mom in the kitchen. Shiju (my only brother) and I are really fond of cooking and used to try our hand in it from a very small age. As kids, both of us used to take pride in cooking sausages and making fresh juice. After beating all those apples and grapes and mangoes in the blender, we would put sugar syrup into it with so much air of precision as if it was rocket science. Then we would make each other or mom taste it and exclaim, wow!! Fantastic it is! But now, we would make Indian and Chinese and the occasional Italian and I still think Shiju is still a little better than me.
Babitha and I decided that we would work on Indian cuisine more and would use those spices to give it the extra spice and flavour. As a test group, we had chosen our neighbours cum first cousins, who would give us the final verdict on everything we tried. They were also kind enough to send in regular supplies of meals every day, just in case the whole cooking season flopped and burned. We started with fresh salads with dressings of olive and salad oil and graduated into making a full blown 3 course dinner for four members and they say, and I think too, it was awesome. But I know one thing for sure, we had an even better time cooking it for them. Here are a few moments of the same.

Chopping those fleshy onions will always make me weep

But lady’s finger was easy for the lady’s fingers.

The raw materials I managed to click


The orange suprise (we named it! It’s got fresh orange juice, wish a dash of white wine and a bit of vodka. It tastes awesome. Trust me!)

And here it comes... (Plz ignore the presentation. Firstly, we were too famished by the end of it and secondly, we are still to know more about it.)
THE MALABAR CHICKEN CURRY

BINDI MASALA, VENDAKKA THORAN

PANEER BHURJI

RASAM

CHICKEN CURRY

CHICKEN FRIED IN OYSTER SAUSE, CHILLY PASTE AND MASALA AFTER MARINATION WITH YOUGHURT

CHICKEN SAUSAGES WITH SOYA SAUSE, A DASH OF MUSTARD AND FRESH ONIONS

We were just too tired for the pudding, hence..


So that was how it went, and I am so proud of the ameteur chefs that is still in its infancy in the both of us! Yeeeah!