Lesson I learnt in my kitchen

Hi Kanaka

Your experience was a nice read and its not uncommon with any of us for that matter. But i believe that women are extremely good at multi-tasking while men completely fail at it! Ofcourse, multi-tasking does not mean doing all 'to do' tasks at the same time but whatever is feasible. For instance, when i plan to cook a dal and vegatable curry, my strategy is to put the dal on boil - meanwhile, i can cut the vegetables and begin with the curry preperation. And once the curry is cooking, i get on to preparing the tadka for the dal. i am sure most of us do such time-planning. But if its my husband cooking bonk- only one thing will be happenning at a time: and what i am able to achieve in 40 minutes, he takes more than an hour - not to mention the number of soiled vessels, cluttered slabs etc..

Basically, we women just need to exercise this capability of ours (multi-tasking) with a little caution and 'once in while' disasters are definitely plausible :cheers
Men cant handle it at all

Cheers
Charu..

 

Hi Kanaka,
One thing at a time--is OK.
Thing about and how long it takes to finish one job.
The above-said mess happens only if we attend a phone-call or chat with someone,
where we don't notice the time at allbonk
count me in too for these disasters in my kitchen too, happening now and then:cheers

sriniketan

 

Dear Kanaka
You have written so nicely about our daily occurence. Looks to me you had everything under control when the phone rang which got you distracted. If you had been in the kitchen maybe....

 

hai ladies,
here is my experience, i always plan to finish the cutting of veg in weekend this gives you a vast idea of choice on what you want to make, from beans kari to cabbage or any other veg, and another thing is simmering all gas while cooking this not only helps the food also the flavour gets enhanced, no hurry burry, even if it is for a day, as we put the cooker on a little tamarind in water and some dhall whatever u use all into warm waters and then proceed with the veg, while we are at it, the one whistle cooking for any veg is great, the same procedure of making kari with mustard, urad dhall and chillie and kadipatha and then the veg and some salt and so on, but sprinkle a little water just enough for the salt to melt out and close the pressure pan, one whistle and switch it off, the kari is done, in a few seconds your next venture of sambhar or dhall whatever goes in with rice getting cooked along with any veg u want of that too can wait once the rice over, now make the sambhar it is better to do it in kadai as we want the sambhar veg to be soft but at the same time retain the shape, now once this done a little salad, all these are meticulously done, phone rings, no problem the gas is in sim so no burning anywhere..sunkan

 

Dear ladies,
This is my takeaway from watching my mother multi-task:
Cut veggies while watching shows [TV]; On the first of the month after buying the provisions, & groceries, half prepare needed items, meaning, pare the kariveplai leaves, green coriander leaves, cut onion, ginger etc., to small pieces & store in double plastic bags so that you may just grab a little of this ready-to-use stuff while cooking for a day. Grind sabzi-masala and keep it in a jar in the fridge so that a portion may be readily used for the day's cooking. Also, I never throw away small left-over cooked veggies, I always gather them all and add dhal to make like a sambhar or some such preparation. When I keep a pressure cooker on the stove, I make sure all the valves are clean and clear, the weight properly on, the gasket cooled in the fridge overnight etc. I put 6 potatoes in the bottom, toor dhal in one pot above and mung dhal in another above it. sometimes I may also put a few other pieces of squash or another vegetable that I may need cooked ahead in this tower. This way I have several ingredients cooked utilizing only the one time pressure-cooking. If I am going to make banans or butternut squash, I keep them whole for a light pressure-cooking and the rinds just peel off very easily without damaging or wasting any of the pulp.

I put all my immediately needed spices and powders in clear top boxes and when clear-view top not available, mark the box on top with their name and store in pull-out drawers so that it is very easy to identify & use.

These habits have helped me cook quickly and join the family in activities.
Another thing I which have picked up from my Mother in law is, keep enough time for clean up after any activity [lunch dinner etc] and leave your kitchen in a condition which will be welcoming for you the next time you need to enter it. For those starting young families, even when you can, you must start including and expecting participation of your entire family in the activity of preparing food, setting the table, clean up etc to the extent anyone can [and believe me, each one can do enough] so that it becomes an enjoyable family activity and not just the woman's chore after a hard day's work at the office. Husbands may slowly find that it is a relaxing thing if they just help in a simple way such as cutting veggies or csraping ginger, etc. while carrying on conversation. Even the littlest kid can clean and place dinner-dishes ready for the family to sit down to eat from. Anyone can bring back utensils from the dining area to the cleaning area. Then everyone can go to watch TV or whatever else together! Not only that, the family will know exactly what it takes to get the dinner to the table [an essential family need] and will not be mystified if unfortunately the mother cannot do it for any reason, temporary or permanent!

 

My dear kanaka,
How many times the milk would have burnt at my place,you know?With microwave it sould be ok,may be you should apply some oil on the plate in which the kozhakattais wee kept?
A ny how please very careful in future.I had kept small kadai with little oil for the mustard to splutter,fotgot and the oil had gone uo in flames,my DH giving me murderous looks.

Take care,my dear.
love
mithila

 

Dear Kanaka,

Multitasking can be done,if we are not completely diverted off from a thing.

If I do one job at a time, I think everyday i need to take half day leave:biglaugh

But I too agree, sometimes it ends up in mess.

 

Each time I weld on my stove, it can distort. The same goes for all other welding on the inside and the outside before putting back on the doors. It is required to lean on them to make them fit, I will not have to do it again if the string of solder on the stack or firefox.