Love in the time of cooking!

I want to tell you guys about my husband who loves cooking and for whom cooking is a stressbuster. No matter how much work-load he has, he helps me in cooking too, amongst other household chores. 

When we got married, I did not even know how to chop vegetables, so I used to wait for him to come home and guide me. I learnt cooking from him and for him. Now I do experiment because of my toddler; however, I still don’t much care for cooking. 

There are days when I am either tired or unwilling to cook and he makes food or settles for dal-chawal. Actually he doesn’t settle, he enjoys eating dal-chawal, especially dal. One dish that he can have every day and night is dal. Whether at home or at a restaurant, he loves to eat dal. It can be in any form – plain, tadka, double tadka, spicy, or non-spicy. His favourite food combo is dal fry + paratha. I could never understand this combo but gradually started liking it. His favourite is toor dal. At times the chosen combo is plain dal+ rice + ghostpepper pickle (bhoot jolokia) where the pickle too is made by him. Before marriage I had never heard of it; it’s only after marriage that I got to know about the spiciness of bhoot jolokia but still don’t have the courage to taste it. 

Now I feel that cooking dal is extremely simple but the first time I cooked it and made tadka for it, it got burnt because I did not know how long to fry jeera for!  But to my surprise, my husband not only ate it but appreciated it as well. 

There was one time when I had put chana for boiling without water: I was very sleepy and I simply forgot! The burning smell made me rush to the kitchen to turn off the gas and open the cooker! My husband was highly amused and could not control his laughter. He took it lightly and we still laugh about that episode.

Because of his appreciation or polite feedback on my attempts at cooking, I started learning how to cook. There was more encouragement and teaching than criticism from him which was, and still is, the best part. 

During lockdown, like many others, I too experimented with various dishes and every time I received support and encouragement, which really motivated me to try out new recipes. After marriage, girls miss their mom’s food, among other things, but thankfully I have someone who never lets me have this feeling. There are some dishes that I prefer to have the way my mom makes. So sometimes, and especially during my pregnancy days, he used to make them for me, especially potato fry in mustard oil. The ratio of oil and masala has to be perfect for the awesome taste. 

I am indeed blessed to have a wonderful life partner.