Our household chemistry labs...
Do you remember doing all kinds of experiments in the chemistry lab when we were in school? How did we combine different chemicals to induce reactions or create novel solutions or gases?
Similarly, our home kitchens serve as laborataries for culinary experimentation. Yes, our kitchens are the chemistry labs inside our homes.
That addition of salt and sugar — sometimes little sugar and more salt, and sometimes more salt than sugar. These aren’t the only two ingredients that we Indians have in our kitchen. We have a list of spices stored in our kitchen to prepare all the delicious cuisine. Over and above that, you must know the quantity of spice you need to put in a dish. If it’s less, your dish might taste bland, and if it’s more, the whole dish would go wrong.
Still, I remember how my mother’s whole dish went wrong when a few guests visited our home and she wanted to prepare a sweet dish for them. She was thinking of preparing rawa (samolina) halwa, but I wanted her to prepare upma. Both halwa and upma are two different dishes prepared using rawa or samolina, but one is sweet and the other is salty.
Well, on that day, when I told my mother to prepare samolina upma, she said, “Guests are at home, so let me prepare halwa (the sweet dish).” She went to the kitchen and came out with her delicious preparation. My mother is a very good cook. From childhood, I used to see my father’s cousin brothers coming and asking my mother to prepare something for them. They always used to say, “Sister, prepare something for us; we really love to eat whatever you cook. You are the best cook in the world.” My mother used to go to the kitchen and come out with her delicious preparations. But that day, everybody’s facial expressions changed the moment they put the first spoon of halwa inside their mouth. My father said, “What happened to you today, so much salt? It’s halwa, right? There is no sugar in it.” My mother felt very bad about it, as she wanted to prepare something, but everything went wrong because of the confusion of salt and sugar.
The bond between a mother and her child is very deep, every mother keeps thinking about their children, and this is the main reason why my mother’s halwa became salty that day.
Coming back to the main point, have you ever heard about Indian turmeric? This yellow powder is the main ingredient in our Indian kitchen. All our dishes are incomplete without this powder. It goes into everything that we cook, as it has the capacity to build our immunity and keep us safe from diseases.
Did you ever drink that haldi dudh (milk with turmeric) when you had a cold or had a body ache? Definitely, because that’s one of the common traditions in our Indian households.
When I was a child, I always used to wonder why my mother put that yellow powder inside everything — actually, I liked the colours of continental food, whether they were colourful, green, or white. As I grew up, I got my answer: Why do Indians put that yellow turmeric powder inside everything?
In fact, whenever somebody catches a cold or fever in my family, I prepare a glass full of Kashayam for them. Kashayam is a kind of medicinal drink that we prepare using different kinds of herbs, like ginger, holy basil, black pepper, cloves, jaggery, and a little bit of turmeric powder. This is a magical drink that can soothe you and has the capacity to cure an extreme cough or cold.
You might have heard about rasam; it’s a famous South Indian soup. South Indian meals go incomplete without rasam. It’s a type of soup prepared using different spices and herbs, like black pepper, tamarind, green chilli, garlic, kadi leaves, tomato, etc. This tangy soup has the capacity to boost our gut health and help with digestion.
Our kitchen is a divine place for us as this is where we prepare all the mouthwatering dishes, including the herbal medicines that can prevent and cure many flus and diseases. And that is the reason why every Indian lady cleans their kitchen and does puja before cooking.
This small chemistry lab in our homes is a temple for us. We prepare food for ourselves and eat it with great divinity.
In Sanskrit, it’s said:
“Annam Brahma raso Vishnu, pakto deva Maheshvara, evam jñaktva tu yo bhunkte, anna dosho na lipyate.”
Meaning:
“The creative energy in the food is Brahma. The nourishing energy in the body is Vishnu. The transformation of food into pure consciousness is Shiva. If you know this, then any impurities in the food you eat will never become part of you.”
