Cooking frenzy

Cooking is a highly therapeutic activity for me. I find it to be a kind of yoga, an effective way to de-stress, taking in the smells, measuring by instinct, concocting various dishes with interesting flavor and ingredient combinations. I do it as often as I can, with whatever ingredients I have on hand.

Since I most often cook for just the two of us (occasionally I make meals for TLC requests thru church), I economize where possible by buying ingredients in bulk and making large quantities of freezer-friendly food. We divide up leftovers into Tupperware containers for easy lunches to take to work.

These past few days, I have primarily been in two cooking modes: the first being the mission to efficiently use all the produce from my garden fresh or preserve it for winter use (making pesto by the gallon, freezing peppers and herbs, and figuring out how to can tomatoes), and the second is the carbohydrate-driven frenzy which struck on Monday – and resulted in me making enough Naan, Poori, and Pizza-dough to feed a small country.

The last time I made Naan was in January, I made about 14 and between the two of us they were all gone in the space of three meals! This time, I was more careful and went ahead and froze some for later.

Last night’s dinner was Poori and chana masala.

The best part of all this is the leftovers that we get to use up during the week! Yesterday, I brought rice, dal and potato fry with a bit of mango pickle in for lunch. Once heated up, people two aisles over could smell the food. (There’s always one person in any office who smells up the microwave / break room with Indian food – and of course, here, that would be me).

I asked my mom for her delicious pork vindaloo recipe – which I will try later this week.