Chef Paul: Indian Food
March 22 2011
My family loves Indian food. But we very rarely go out for Indian as my wife has become quite an accomplished Indian food cook. This wasn’t always the case.
When we first moved in together, years before we married, my wife rarely cooked at home. It all comes back to one fateful romantic weekend getaway at a friend’s cottage when she asked if she could help with dinner. I said: “Sure. You can whip the cream for the strawberry dessert.” Being intimidated with “helping a chef” she quickly turned that cream into butter…turns out I was supposed to tell her when to stop, even though she’s made whipped cream many times before.
Since then, the standard response when asked if she ever cooks at home is: “Why would I? I can make mashed potatoes or let Paul make better mashed potatoes.” But because my wife did grow up in a household where family supper was important and home cooking was a must, she has a true love of food and cooking. She was not about to let me do all the cooking forever. What my wife did is immerse herself in Indian cookbooks. Her rational was: “Here’s something he never cooks.”
Now, luckily for me, we have what I call “Indian feasts” on a regular basis. I call them “feasts” because it’s usually not just one or two dishes…it’s more like 10 to 15!!! My wife will spend all day cooking a huge, fantastic feast and then cool and freeze the leftovers for lunches…and boy do I LOVE those lunches. The aroma of cardamom and coriander permeate the house and have me salivating at the thought of her saag paneer, the chicken tikka masala or the wonderfully spicy daal she makes. I’ll gladly do the dishes (all 100 of them) just to savour her incredible meals.
This just goes to show that you don’t need to be a professional or an expert foodie to cook great meals, all you need is the desire and the passion to eat well.
