A culinary nirvana

I am normally a pretty impatient cook. The only criteria I use while choosing items to cook is that it should be over by an hour and even during that time I shud have the freedom to leave the kitchen and watch tv/listen to music etc. I am not very finicky about taste and I normally eat anything which is edible which Kinda complements my cooking style as thats the term I
use to describe most of the stuff I cook - it is edible. But sometimes I have these waves of enthusiasm to cook something proper.I normally randomly throw in spices in no particular order and do not bother about the order, the amount of time each spice should be fried etc. But since it was vacation time I decided to expand my culinary skills by cooking a proper dinner.
I had help from my roommate,Vimal, who had a lot of information on when to add spices and who had loads of little tips on do's/ dont's of proper cooking.

So with that in mind I decided to cook madras style coconut rice and kerala style egg curry. It was a weird combination but somehow I felt that it would click. Even though kerala was the land of coconuts, I have found it odd that people in Kerala dont normally cook that.Coconut rice was something which is native to tamil nadu. A pretty simple dish to cook and one of my favorites if I wanted to pack lunch and bring it to school. Coconut rice can be eaten by itself or with a loads of other side dishes like raitha,chips,pickles etc. I first cooked the coconut rice and then started on the egg curry. Took two onions, cut them into fine slices. In the meantime I kept 6 eggs for boiling. I cut three tomatoes into fine slices and also one capsicum( I think they are called green bell peppers in USA, not sure). Added two table spoons of oil,once it was warm added mustard seeds and let them splutter. Once the mustard seeds have spluttered I added a tablespoon of fennel seeds and let them fry for 30 seconds.I then added onions and fried them till they turn light brown. Then added capsicum and fried it for 2-3 minutes.

Added half teaspoon turmeric, 2 tsp of coriander powder, 1 tsp chilli powder, and 2 tsp garam masala. I fried all the spices on low heat for a minute. These steps made the difference I guess between my previous cooking and this attempt. I was there all the time controlling the heat depending on the levels at which the vegetables were getting fried. My roomie also gave me
the tip that I should fry garam masala for some time in low flame for the flavor to come out.Tiny subtle things which made a huge difference between my normal cooking and this attempt. I then added tomatoes and mixed them well and closed the pan and let the gravy cook for 10 minutes in low heat. All the tomatoes reduced to a pulp. During that time, I took the shells of 6
eggs and cut them into half. Once the oil in the gravy started floating towards the top, I added salt and then took the yolk of one of the eggs and smashed it and mixed it well with the gravy just to give it that uniform egg flavor.Another piece of inspired advise by my roomie. I then added the eggs and added 3/4 can of coconut milk. I turned the heat to low and on the
first sign of bubbling of the coconut milk I switched it off.

For many people this might seem like a relatively simple dish to make and wonder what the fuss was all about. But to me this was the best dish I had ever made. It took more than an hour and the coconut rice egg curry combo was electric.I had not left the kitchen during that time and my concentration was wholly on the dish all the time. It was a new record for me. The spices
mixed with coconut milk and the egg yolk flavor gave it a unique taste. Of course I had eaten dishes which were 25 times tastier at my friends place but this one was the most satisfying. It got even better when I kept it over night in a fridge as during that time the coconut milk seeped through the eggs along with the spices.

Maybe he is not used to the elevation

Visits to families with new born babies have always been the most awkward of my social excursions during my childhood.Simple reason, you are expected to make cooing noises and cajole the baby and make the baby laugh in front of 20 people. I like babies, dont get me wrong.I am good with them whenever I am alone with the baby.But to do it in front of an audience, always makes me nervous. I get stage fright. So when the baby is handed over to me I end up moving my head up and down with a stupid grin and make random clucking noises like a hen, hoping the baby would laugh.I guess babies are very good at perceiving my nervousness and start crying within 20 seconds. Then normally the mother would come and rescue me. The baby would end up crying for another 10 minutes and all the laughter and merryment which was going on would die down leaving me feel like a party pooper.The fact that all my cousins were absolutely brilliant at making babies laugh added to the discomfort.Once when I was in middle school,10 minutes after I had made the baby cry, a 4 year old cousin did some wacky dance routine and made the baby giggle.That was the nadir.

Times were about to change.I had sudden growth spurts during my 7th and 8th grade and I was now one of the tallest person in the family. The next time I was handed over the baby and he started making uncomfortable noise I suddenly blurted out "Maybe he is not used to the elevation". I never knew what caused me to say that. I was thinking," There is a new utterly cringeworthy socially awkward statement made by Fig in town".And then as if by magic, they all started laughing.So the process of transferring a crying baby to the mother became smooth. That was the line I used every other time.That was my line.It was lame, and pathetic to a degree but it worked as in such happy moments, people are looking for a reason to laugh.I became confident during my social visits involving babies. I had the magic manthra, my social viagra.I had the line.

After using that line for about half a dozen times, I started running into problems with that line. Problem 1, I was getting bored by repeating that line.It was fake and staged but I still used it as it was my only get out of jail card. Problem 2, there were intersections in the sets of people who were present during my numerous social baby visits. By repeating the same joke I came up with when i was in seventh grade I was only going down even more in their estimation.Problem 3, I was now 21 and I felt kinda low that I was relying on something I came up when I was 12. Luckily, I got admitted into graduate program in the USA and that effectively ended my baby interaction.

Now recently, a colleague of mine gave birth to a baby.They bought their baby over to school for the first time today at around 6 in the evening.Only a couple of people were around. The Mom gave the baby to me to hold and with events taking their natural course,he started crying. I was about to utter the line, when I stared at the dad. He was as tall as me. The baby was used to the elevation.What do i do?Panic sets in.I needed to say something.My brain was working furiously when the mother took the baby out of my hand.At that point the dad said," Dont worry, your doing better than I did.He screamed when I first held him". Bam, I responded,"Maybe he was not used to the elevation". I dont think the dad heard that, but the other two grad students present started laughing at that line.Crisis averted.The line saved me again.When I was walking back to the lab,I realised,"There are some really tall dude/dudettes in this country.If I have to survive here, I need to find a new line.I decided I am not going to use the line again."Thank You "Maybe he is not used to the elevation".You have no idea how indebted I am to you.The time i discovered you was a defining moment in my life.