Hope For The Best Curry

Servants have always been a problem in my home. For some reason, we don't seem to get a permanent household staff EVER! If they are honest, they don't work, if they work, they thieve, if they thieve, they break down one fine day, confess and leave! Thus, our kitchen sees a variety of cooks, but more often than not, amongst the four of us, it sees Mum the most.

This lady ABHORS going into the kitchen. Heat-sensitive that she is, she ends up letting off a lot of steam (apparently passed on by the pressure cooker)on us, and we end up looking like a lot of steamed lobsters- slightly overdone!

However, since generally my mother happens to be one of those extremely easy-going, happy-go-lucky people, she ends up in the kitchen, cooking for her (relatively) ungrateful family- ungrateful because, more often than not, I eat out, my father doesn't eat, and my sister is not even here!

These days, she has lost patience with proportions. What she does is throw together a few things, and pray to Lokenath Baba to make it come out just right- it might seem hard to understand, but every time she has done this, the dish has been delectable! This is what she calls her Hope-for-the-best Curry. Throw everything together and just hope for the best.

Her recipe goes something like this:

Fish/Chicken/Mutton/Egg/Veggies (SOMETHING!!)
Salt/Sugar/Soya Sauce (Yes, she is a lady who believes in the power of Soya)
Oil/Oil
Onion/Garlic/Ginger or Onion AND Garlic AND Ginger
Water (lots of it)
7up Lemon/Limca (for her to sip on while she happily martyrs herself for her family)
Turmeric, Cumin, Coriander, Chilli powders (preferably combinations-if you are feeling out of sorts go green and if you are feeling naughty, go red)
Hope (oodles of it)
Anything else that comes at hand

Fry what needs to be fried, and add the rest of the things with the water. Bring to a boil and let it simmer after that for 15 minutes. For chicken or mutton, its best to use the pressure cooker (this I mean). After that leave everything in the hands of God, and serve with lots of love.

Trust me- it cannot go wrong. At least, in this lady's case, she stands to be THE case in point, and her hope has never let her down- or us.

Love her for that!