BOOM is not a Recipe for Disaster

My dear wife Deepa has a great penchant for collecting and ‘actually follow’ cooking recipes that have been carefully handwritten by her in these antique looking hard bound notebooks that she has been maintaining for several years now. Coming from a vast family of multi lingual individuals who all just love to eat and drink, these interesting recipes are passed on by food loving members of her large family and friends spread across the globe.

As I browse through these books, two very interesting things instantly strike me; One is that almost all dishes and items have simple names (leaving the continental ones alone) starting with the main ingredient and ending with the person from who she picked up the recipe thereby giving the full due credit to the individual in question. You can see interesting recipe names like Shell Fish Curry – Sinnas Mom, Vietnemese Chicken Soup – Ginette Aunty and the ‘Not Good – Goan Fish Curry by Geetha. The last one here has her personalized rating or warning tag for herself and for any cooking enthusiast like me so as to not try it ever at all.

The second remarkable characteristic of the recipe notebook is that most of these recipes are not categorized in any particular order or style or type of cooking as one would expect. They all appear in an interesting random fashion that might give an unsuspecting Vegan a bout of gastric convulsions to discover that the Bisibelebath by Arundathi is right next to the Pork Chops by Jaya Aunty.

Then there are some very interesting ones with bizarre sounding and rather intimidating names like BOOM by Ginette Aunty and the recipe goes on something like this which I am reproducing here word to word… BOOM (Ginette Aunty) ‘ Cook Pork with sugar, salt, pepper and crushed garlic. Boil Vermicelli and keep aside, heat oil fry chopped spring onions and keep aside. In a big vessel put the cooked vermicelli, pork, spring onions, sprouts, lettuce, pudina, cucumber and coriander and mix well. Serve with fish sauce and ground nut powder.’ BOOM! our very own desi style quick, easy and no-nonsense American ‘Boom’ dish made of Chilli Pork or Beef. What’s intriguing about this particular recipe is that there is absolutely no mention of the quantities of the varied ingredients that are put in or the number of people this dish would serve let alone any pre or post cooking rituals which are so meticulously described in those colorful coffee table cook books. But then again this works pretty well and as long as I can remember, we've never had any culinary disasters in our kitchen.

As I browse through her recipe notebook, I’m pleasantly baffled by the heterogeneous range of these cute handwritten random notes. You can effortlessly move from a Hot Malayalee friend (read fried) prawns to Pondicherry Crab curry to ‘Leg’ Paya by Mummy (who I thought was a staunch vegetarian) to Methi Murg to the exotic French Coq Au Vin and Cassoulet De Toulousse with a mix of Curry Powder, Mint Dressing and Walnut Cake recipes thrown in good measure in between to satiate the appetite of the most discerning gourmet or chef.

It’s no wonder an absolute delight for me to watch her when she always seems to briskly rummage through her personlized notes when preparing the most satisfying Spaghetti Bolognaise, this side of the Atlantic.

#Recipes

#CookingRecipes

#SpaghettiBolognaise

#CassouletDeToulousse

What's in a Name?

Well, I have never been a blogger before this and after reading numerous blogs out there, I wondered if it really was such a good idea to actually share my innermost feelings and views with the world. Come to think of it, I think it does make sense to actually do it so that people like me who love to read just about anything will actually start reading what I have written, so here we go. 

Its never too late to start something new. 

For starters, if you are wondering how I coined the name of this Blog and my profile, you ought to know its history. It all goes back to about a year ago when I first became a father back in early July of 2009, when I myself turned 40. For the average baby boomer this might seem like a delayed fatherhood but then again, as they say, life begins at 40 and I guess I decided to become a father when my life actually began in the first place. 

My adorable little baby boy was born on a bright sunny morning of the 2nd of July 2009 in the city of Bangalore and that was the real moment of truth when I began to realize what I have been missing out in life all these years of my own existence, sheer bliss. He was a puny little guy just like most new born babies but with these big expressive eyes just like those of my dear wife and the very first time when I held him in my arms, I knew my life had changed, for the better. In order to name our son, like most families, my mother-in-law had consulted our family astrologer. We had very limited options and we wanted to have a simple name that was easy to remember, pronounce and had a strong meaning. 

After a bit of discussion and deliberation we finally named our Son, Rishi, which according to the Hindu system means the 'first ray of the sun' when it's about to rise. My profile name is therefore named RiseNShine and Rishi is the short form of that phrase. The name of this particular blog 'ChipsAhoy' is a new coinage from the phrase ShipsAhoy (Term used in Hailing when a ship arrives or is seen). And why Chips, well this goes back to an important episode in my son's life. 

My wife's little niece Simran (Sims) who has come to really adore the little guy, while playing with him one day commented, 'Deepa aunty, Rishi is really like Chips, you cant stop eating them enough'. So we thought it was very cute and hence decided to keep it as our son's new petname 'Chips'. And the the word Ahoy means to hail as in an enthusiastic greeting of somebody's arrival. 

One a serious note, when I really think through this word 'Chips' which apart from meaning a slice of Potato fried in oil, it also means a fragment of something broken off from a whole and it fits perfectly right, because my Son, Rishi come to think of it is actually a small fragment of something broken off of me as a whole. In closing, as my son turns 1 year old this July, from here going forward I'm going to dedicate this Blog to my most priceless possession, my son Rishi or Chips. 

 In the days to come, depending on my mood swings and inclination, I will be posting blogs about my son, my wife, my life and experiences with food, films, music, travel and my dear old friends. ChipsAhoy!