I feel like a novice at cooking today. My friends often tell me I am a good cook. But I always disagree. I am not programmed to accept compliments and the reason is because my boss never complimented my efforts ever. And my boss is here on a surprise visit and so I feel like a novice today. Well my boss definitely requires a good intro for she is an iron lady, an obsessive perfectionist in everything I am not. I sometimes think I am a rebel when it comes to everything she taught me and drizzled along with my impatience no wonder I can never be as perfect as my boss.My boss is my mom aka 'Kochu' a name my hubby coined for her ( a short form for Kochuthresia). Mom scares the hell out of me. I am still so much in awe of her that the moment she enters my kitchen all I do is ask her the measurements for everything I perfectly do in her absence. Such is her obsession with perfection she pretends she is a TV celebrity the moment she enters a kitchen. She needs pickle plates to line out her ingredients be it condiments or chopped veggies, she fusses over that one slice of onion that was thicker than the rest, the tomato that goes into the curry with peel ( she hates tomato peel and believes it never digests and hence should not go into any curry).
Like a school kid pining for acceptance I introduce her to the new posts on the blog always skimming for something she has not cooked and would be impressed. She silently observes conducts a viva on techniques and ingredients and nods if she's impressed. Kochu's visit often reminds me I still have a long way to go to win the Master chef title from her. I even wonder if I should shut down this blog since I can never achieve her perfection . As I type this I can see her wrestle with two sprigs of Palak. She is segregating them into two categories the long leaves and the short ones. This will make it easy for you to chop them evenly and toss them into the dal she says ( And when they are mashed how do you know which ones were long I ask myself). My boss and I can never agree on our styles and if you think this was about cooking guess what she thinks of my wardrobe arrangement, shoe racks, medicine cabinet and tool box :)
So while I was preparing this post she came and observed the pics tried deciphering what I could have concocted, felt happy at her predictions and went to sleep. I can see her now and it frightens me to how much I resemble her externally though we hardly share any personality traits.
Ingredients for Potato Soup
Potato- 4 large ones diced
Onion- 1 large
Maggi veg cubes- 4 or 2 cups vegetable stock
Milk- 1/4 cup
Salt- to taste
Pepper- 1 tsp
Butter- 2 tbsp
Dry Basil - 1 tsp
Directions
Prepare vegetable stock in advance. If you have maggi vegetable cubes add 4 cubes to 2 cups of boiling water and prepare a stock. In a pan heat some butter and saute the chopped onions. Once the onion softens add the potatoes and cook for 15 minutes. Take half the potatoes and cool them before making a puree of the potatoes in a blender. Add vegetable stock to the remaining cooked potatoes, to which the pureed potatoes can be added. Add salt and pepper and let the broth simmer. Add the milk to this broth and let is simmer for another five minutes. Before taking the soup off the flame add the basil and serve with bread or biscuits.
