Whenever you tell someone, “I’m cooking this Sunday”, the question invariably is “Great! What are you cooking?” But as a person who’s cooking, the questions that really matters is ‘how I cook’ and ‘why I cook’.
The ‘how you cook’ part is relatively easy to explain: For one, you need to enjoy the whole process — from buying the veggies, to cutting and peeling to the final cooking.You need to be attentive and patient. Never perfect.
The ‘why you cook’ question is trickier. Apart from tasting good, the food I cook should retain much of its nourishing qualities. And for this one needs to understand what effect each ingredient has on the body.
And it’s for this reason that I picked up a new cookbook last week called Sukham Ayu — Cooking at home with Ayurvedic insights written by Jigyasa Giri and Pratibha Jain. The two blog as well and their website is worth checking out.
I cooked the Mint (pudina) Rice today. Here’s how it went:
Ingredients:
Rice (1 heaped cup), Onion (1), salt
Paste: mint leaves (1/2 bunch), coriander leaves (1/2 cup), grated coconut (1/2 cup), garlic (4 cloves), chilli (1)
Tempering: Ghee (1-2 tsp), Cinnamon (2-inch), Cloves (2), peppercorns (5)
Preparation:
Soak rice in water for 10 min.
Grind all the ingredients that go into the paste in a food processor. Add a lil water to make it a thick paste.
Heat the ghee in a deep kadhai (wok), and add all the ingredients of the tempering.
When they crackle, add onions and saute until onions turn pink.
Then add rice and saute for a minute or so more. Then add adequate amount of warm water (about 3 cups should do). It takes about 15-20 min to cook.
Though the recipe did not mention it, I added green peas while stirring in the rice. Another improvisation that I’ll make the next time ’round is add potatoes after adding the onions. And add 2 green chillies instead of 1.
The rice tasted lovely — flavours of the ghee, mint and coriander and the tempering spices blend nicely. The coriander gives a cooling taste while the mint gives it a nice zing.
I should’ve taken a few photographs but I was too busy serving (and later wolfing down) the rice to really remember. Shall remember it next time.
Tagged: cooking, sukham ayu, sunday cook
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One Comment
dyig to try out the mint rice….now yum yum