Mummy – My biggest food influencer

I was making kothimbir wadi and she thought I was making Alu wadi. While I slid away to my laptop to complete some work, in her excitement to help me complete cooking in time, she added tamarind water to the mix of besan kept ready. We had a friendly banter but when the kothimbir wadi was eaten, it was magical. When she touched food, she created magic. Mothers have a distinctive way of making food a touch above everyone.

Young 80-year-old lady

She was a young 80-year-old lady. Always, wanting to do something in the kitchen or discuss food with me. She was my mother.  She left for her last journey a couple of weeks back. She was my biggest food influencer.

Her learning paths

This is not a blog piece about food but a small memoir of my learnings from Mummy, as we all called her. She told us that she was 18 when she was married to Dad and came to Pune from Delhi. She had a big paradigm shift from a house full of non-vegetarians, she came into a house full of pure Vaishnavas.

She learnt some part of her cooking from her mother in Delhi but most of it after she came to Pune from her mother in law. Have heard stories of my grand father not liking food cooked by her for a very long time.

But it was just a matter of time that she ruled the Bhatia household with her culinary skills. She was the queen of the kitchen. I remember cousins coming from Mumbai, Delhi and all overused to come to have Sai Bhaji, Sindhi Kadhi, alu paratha. You name it and she had it in her culinary quiver.

Sundays were special

She had set a routine to food, roti and sabji in the afternoon; rice and some gravy for dinner. This continued for a major part of the life till we got married and habits changed.

Sunday mornings were special. I remember the Sunday mornings come alive with noises in the kitchen and the smell of sugar all around the house. We knew that we have the Mithi Bread (sweet bread). She made only the bread portion of the double ka meetha very often. Cannot ever forget that.

Seviyan patata or Dal Pakwaan or Basar koki all were on top of charts. Friends would specifically come on a Sunday morning to have Basar ji koki.

The other habit she put us in was that Sunday evenings was never roti / sabji / dal / chawal. Something like cheat days. It was sandwiches, pakoras, pizzas, burgers, paanipuri, bhelpuri etc etc. She never made regular food on a Sunday evening. This practice still is a part of the household. Sunday evenings are for fun food.  Many a times Sunday night was as simple as Malai (fresh cream) spread on bread and topped with sugar.  We’ve even had poha for dinner, at times, on a Sunday.

Her love for eggs

I remember a funny incident which is etched in my mind. She loved eggs and would not be able to eat because of the seniors in the house who were vaishnavas. Unfortunately, we also had gujju neighbours. This was a double whammy.  One day, my grand mother decided to go and stay with a friend in Pimpri (a big rarity for us). So while we were coming back in the pimpri – Pune local, mom asked us if we would like to have bhurjee for dinner. I could see it in her eyes that she wanted it too. If I remember correctly, we also discussed how to dispose of eggshells in a secretive mission. While walking back from the station to our house, we picked up eggs and bread (We have seen people dancing on the dough, something like the wine stomping festivals) .

The bhurjee was celebrated. She made food life very interesting. She played by the rule book most of the time but had her fun too.

When I started cooking

As a teenager there was a time when she had gone to Delhi alone for some reason and my sister used to cook most of the time in her absence. But, I did take a chance to cook my first aloo gobhi in her absence. Which is when I realised that “Apun bhi kam nahin”.

Then on it was a quite a few times, I would request,and she would then teach me. If I made a sabji and if she found something wrong. She would ask me did you put this masala after you cooked the food and I knew I was caught. The most important thing was learning. What to put in the oil, when to put the water and when to put the salt.

The Maharani of desserts

She had her way with desserts. I am a Sindhi and although cliched, but she had a unique way of making the Gajar ka halwa and she would make it by the kilo in the winters. She always maintained that it was the best way to start the day.

Lolo during thadri was another one of her sweet gems. I have a clipping of an incomplete video which I tried making with her when she made the Lolo. I will always cherish this.

When her hands touched the Sooji halwa, they weaved a spell on the people eating it. The sweet bread, the ice creams, the kulfis all had her touch to it. She also was skilful at making the perfect mawa. I have never been able to replicate that, even after learning from her and that’s possibly my failure.

I remember the smell and the taste of the caramelisation process.  In the desserts there was one more sweet she made from China Grass a kind of a pudding. Sickness would bring in porridge and sometimes we waited that someone  fall sick in the house to have the porridge.

She opens her armoury

After my grandmother grew a bit older, we did convince her to allow us to eat non vegetarian in the house. And then we had the teevarn (sindhi mutton curry) and the kheema and the chicken or fish frys at home. Mummy blossomed into her full self as the queen of the kitchen.

Final thoughts

I will not be able to end on the list of food she prepared. There was no internet then and no Tarla Dalal quick recipes. Her source of innovation and knowledge came from magazine like gruh Shobha and a few other such home magazines. Which she mostly got for the recipes in them.

When I read her tributes from most of the family members or friends or our friends, all talked about her food. Is that not a beautiful legacy to leave behind? It would be so nice that people remember me too by the love of food alone.

I have paid her my tributes as my biggest Food Influencer, but she was much more to me than only this. I have spent all my 48 years with her and i think she is one of the largest sources of strength and patience for me.