A la Carte !

Lock down blues anyone? My women friends especially? Food is the only “go to” these days for the whole family. Kitchen is the Operational hub and the social mantras like bonding, unwinding, entertainment, cleaning, sleeping all follow later, much much later.

Today I can only think food…my creative faculties are packed tight with innovation while also practicing frugality in matters of food. Simple home cooked affairs for the drastic times.Occasional cooking for the family was always an interesting deal, but these days… all are bent upon checking out the menu for the day in the waking hours itself! Instant noodles and bread get dissed in the face of the reigning preference for pure desi stuff(food of the country)!! So I give dishy names… Aloo Paratha with curd for breakfast, Tomato rice with potato dum for lunch! and Chinese fried rice with honey chilli potatoes for dinner! I cook a vesselful of rice, then go with permutations, combinations, cheat ideas all …dishing out the same staple in different garbs😬

Jeera Rice/Tomato Rice/Lemon Rice/Tamarind Rice/Curd Rice/Coconut Rice/Potato rice/Onion rice/Peas rice/Veg Fried rice/Egg fried rice

Then, very courageously I slog and wrestle to make a vessel-ful of wheat flour dough and then go… Stuffing all sorts of food stuff into flat bread( paratha)…

Aloo paratha( mashed potatoes)/Onion paratha/Paneer paratha( cottage cheese)/Gobhi paratha( cauliflower)/Carrot paratha/Methi paratha( Fenugreek leaves)/Daal paratha ( cooked lentils)

Improvise, improvise, upcycle, recycle, froth it, frill it, lace it, colour it,cream it, butter it, fry it- and serve it, day in and day out! No eating out… no respite so far… the lock down has taken the zing out of “ghar ka khana”( home-cooked food) at least for the home maker!The way Corona is behaving, I may not be able to improvise any further. All this gruelling over the cooktop may end in gruel variations( khichdi, kanji, geela chawal) as I reach the end of my patience, very soon 😬🙏

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