Bachelor Cooking (1)

The tittle says it all - a series of posts in which I wish to share some basic recipes that'll be useful to any of you living alone or away from home. Some of these have been taught by my mom, a brilliant cook indeed! Also some of them are a result of my own experimentation at 2 am! I had talked about writing such a series of posts and after encouragement from a friend (yes Shravan you get a mention here like I had said!) I'm finally going to write these.

Here's a basic recipe of Lady's-finger vegetable:

1. Take about 200g Lady's-finger (for one - two persons) and wash and dry thoroughly with a cloth.
2. For each of the long vegetable, cut off the hard end portion; then cut circular slices of the rest of the length (don't cut too thin or thick).
3. Take one/two green chilies, wash and cut them each into 4 pieces (first cut perpendicular to length, then cut each of the halves longitudinally, exposing the seeds inside).
4. Now keep a vessel with little oil in it to heat - keep the flame medium high.
5. After a couple of minutes, put just one or two mustard seeds, and see if it crackles. If it does, then lower the flame and put in two good pinches of mustard seeds. If it doesn't crackle just wait for another minute and try again!
6. Now quickly add the chili pieces, and a small pinch of tamarind powder.
7. Stir a little and add the cut Lady's-fingers.
8. Stir properly making sure the spices spread everywhere. Add salt to taste.
9. Keep a lid over the vessel, and let the vegetable cook for about 5 minutes on low flame. Check in between to make sure it's not burnt, and stir once or twice.
10. Remove the lid, fry some more if needed. When the vegetable is properly cooked, it will turn soft and a few of the thin slices will have become golden brown. Turn the flame off.

Note: My mom warns me that this vegetable has to be properly dried before putting it in to cook, else it will become sticky and messy afterwards, which I totally dislike!

A very quick recipe, just learnt last night and it barely takes 10 minutes, from start to end! Tastes great with chapatis / rotis.

Comments, suggestions and alterations on this and future recipes are welcome! Also, if you do make any of them, I'd be happy to know! Hope I can write more of such.