Amma’s Cooking - Part 1

In the childhood memories of every good cook, there’s a large kitchen, a warm stove, a simmering pot and a mom.
Barbara Costikyan

Like most people, one thing I miss often is my Amma’s cooking. Over the years, I have come to the conclusion that no matter how many new, exciting and tasty cuisine I find, absolutely nothing can replace Amma’s cooking. I never realized this up until I left home after high school, and I no longer got my daily servings of Amma’s finest dishes, expect during those, once a year, short three week vacation to visit Amma, you know that time when you pig out on your mom’s cooking!

In the beginning, to supplement the cravings for Amma’s cooking, I started bringing back pickles, chammanthi podi, spices, and anything to suppress the cravings, and get through the year without being too nostalgic about food. However, this was no substitute, and I started eating out a lot, trying out new Indian restaurants, hoping to find one with similar tastes to Amma’s cooking. The food was good, but none came close, and it got expensive in a hurry.

Instead, I decided to go frugal, and turned to ready made, easy to make, meals in a box kind of stuff from the Indian store. They were reasonable priced, but other than that, they were far worse than the restaurant food. I dropped that idea fast and moved on to recipes on the internet. Initially, there was some hope: the food tasted fine, the body got some benefit from the use of fresh ingredients and good spices, and things were starting to look good. However, it still did not taste right, still not at par with Amma’s cooking, and not even a close substitute.

That’s when it dawned on me, why not just ask Amma, find out how she made things, write it down, and probably things will start tasting like Amma’s food. I could not have been so wrong about that assumption! Suddenly, a new window opened into the world of cooking, of which I had no clue. My mom did not just throw in a few things into a pot, and it tasted good. There were a whole lot of science, math and art involved in her cooking, including years of experience. She not only knew what the ingredients did from a taste point of view, but she knew their effects on health and well being. She knew what combination of ingredients did, the proportion and measurement of ingredients, and various cooking techniques; years of experience and honing of skills. I knew then, this was not as easy as writing a recipe down and following it, instead I will have to learn this art form from my Amma.

What followed was a great lesson in life, on how traditions, culture, and skills passed from generation to generation, the importance of that transfer and transition, and how such precious information could be lost when people migrate and lose touch with their roots.

To be concluded…