If you are like me, you don't LOVE cooking. But if you are like me, you do accept that it's a very useful skill, both for men and women. And also, if you are like me, you have learnt this skill, just enough, to scrape by, so that you don't starve or get various gastro-intestinal diseases by ordering outside food.
Let me set this right. I don't HATE cooking. What I mean when I say I don't love it is, I am not passionate about it. Some people simply love cooking. They love to cook ordinary as well as exotic dishes and feed their family. I am not one of them.
So for a person like me Youtube was a blessing. I am not exaggerating if I say I learnt cooking by watching Youtube videos. My early days of marriage went something like this- I would get up in the morning. And I would have this urge to try a dish. But, I had no idea how to go about it. Zoop! I would rush to my laptop, search for recipe of the dish I want to try, read the ingredients and steps, realise I don't have half the things at home, rush to nearby provisions-store to buy whatever that was, would be horrified to know they don't sell the things in table-spoons (as mentioned by Youtube Baba), buy them anyway, bring them home, and cook the damn thing! And you guessed it right if you thought my dish would have looked bizarre. It looked nothing like the end product of the Youtube video I was referring. Sigh!
Now I am better. I can confidently say I know how to make few dishes quite well. Plus, I have learnt one essential skill- to be calm and unfazed- EVEN WHEN some ingredients are missing or I have screwed up some step.
Does that mean I have become a great cook? NOT AT ALL! Even now if I try something new, a good chance is there that it might not come out perfect.
But anybody who is a Mom here would agree, just knowing a few dishes well, does not earn you straight As from your children (or for that matter, from your husband). They are BORED if you keep serving them the same dishes, over and over. Understandably so.
So what do you do? Yes! you go to Youtube and check new recipes. In fact, I have not tried even 1% of the recipes I have spent half of my waking-time watching, so far. (Just watching them cook all those exotic things TIRES me out.) For example, do you know you can turn an everyday, plain, ordinary thing like bread into something exotic like sandwiches, Upma, Ras Malai, shahi tukda, pakoda, kofta etc. When I watch all this, I feel why can't people JUST apply butter or chutney or jam or nuttela or some such thing to that bread and JUST eat it. They don't. Why, you ask? Well, that's not acceptable to your consumers, a.k.a., children and husband. its TOO ordinary for them, you see?!
So now I have started watching EASY and QUICK recipes on Youtube. Who wouldn't want to try something easy and quick, if it keeps the family happy, right? Warning: Both these terms, ‘easy’ and ‘quick’ are MISLEADING.
The Youtube CHEF would be this trendy guy or gal, looking all fresh, excited and eager to show you their ‘quick’ recipe and you would be equally eager to learn it. As the video progresses, two things will become amply clear to you.-
1. The Recipe ain't quick as it requires lots of prep-work like pre-soaking things, cutting things finely or uniformly. roasting/cooling/grinding things, setting things in fridge for n hours etc.
2. It ain't easy. It's being shown to you by a CHEF and according to him or her it's easy. (He/she is speaking for himsef/herself. He/she is not speaking for you.) So he/she may caramelize, fry till GOLDEN BROWN, sauté, toss etc like a pro while we lesser mortals struggle to just keep things from turning into charcoal or scorching ourselves.
So now-a-days, I have taken a break from 5 minutes recipes. If my family has an urge to eat exotic stuff, I let them order it as a snack. How about you?
Category:Parenting and Family
