One of many things that made me feel homesick after coming to US was the food. I am a foodie and I like to taste all different kind of food. While growing up I did not visit many restaurants. When I first came to US and got my salary (as a grad student though) I thought lets live life, lets try all these restaurants, why should I learn to cook. However pretty soon I started to miss my mom's food. Although there were plenty places to eat but they never satisfy your need for everyday simple food. So I started cooking because I was missing my home, my mom and her food. I could not get the first two but I thought I might have a chance for the last one.
I have never tried my hands on cooking when I was in India. Thus I know exactly how do you feel when you search for easy recipes but all you get from Internet is the elaborate ones. Very soon you get the feel that cooking is one of the hardest things on earth. Every time you plan to cook you realize you do not have all spices mentioned in recipe and as a beginner you are afraid to ignore that fact and end up buying a 1 lb pack of some spice that you are not going to use ever...
So from now on I am starting a new section, Cooking 101 especially for grad students who has least amount of time for cooking and limited resources. I am going to put together recipes that are easy, tasty and does not require a whole lot of ingredients.
When we go to a super market or to an Indian grocery store we think wow..... so many options are here, lets make all of them and we end up buying a lot more than we can consume. Ultimately we have to put them in trash. As a grad student the last thing we want is to waste food. If you are new in cooking area, NEVER buy two variety of main vegetables at one time. So lets get started. For cooking 101 its better to have the following items in your fridge/storage,
Vegetables:
Onion*
Potato
Tomato**
chilies**
Spices:
Cumin seeds
Mustard seeds
Cumin Powder
Coriander powder
Turmeric
Chilie powder
Garam Masala
Garlic paste
ginger paste (it might be tempting to buy a ginger garlic paste instead of buying them separately but trust me don't do it)
Lentils:
Masoor Daal
Mug Daal (yellow one)
Toor Daal
Others:
Egg**
Milk**
Fish or Chicken (a pack of frozen chicken in fridge always become handy)
Soyabin (if you are a veg person)
*Keep your onion in a plastic bag in your fridge. This way it will not make you cry while cutting it and it will last longer.
**Tomato, chilies, milk and egg they have expiration date. It is not printed for the first two but they do not survive for long, not even in the fridge. So while buying them calculate how many of them you need and get the exact amount.
Important gadgets in kitchen to survive
Microwave
Blender
Apart from this list, you can buy any vegetable you want depending on what's you are going to make. But always remember if you buy cauliflower, cabbage, eggplant on the same day and cook one of them, in recent future others will go inside your trash bin not in your stomach.
Garlic - 2 cloves, chopped
Depending on the choice of gravy thicknesd add water
Garlic - 2 cloves, chopped
