I was confused. I had tried food items from the boxes of my Marathi colleagues when we used to go to office everyday and still fondly remember the rustic taste of the Thalipeeth, the earthy notes of shepu bhaji or the comforting sabudana khichdi. Not to mention the delicious chicken curries. And none of these had any overpowering seasoning or spices. But the Marathi dishes that Savita was dishing out were making me contemplate my life decisions. Something had to be done and fast. I decided to teach her a thing or two especially about the seasoning and spice levels. Fortunately around this time my mom came down to Pune and I entrusted her the role of cooking teacher for Savita. 

While I would be sitting on conference call in my room, I would hear the daily banter of these two ladies from the kitchen, some of them borderline hilarious. After almost 3 months of scolding's and handholding Savita learnt to make some of the Bengali recipes. She also learnt more more thing, that at times we add a pinch of sugar in our dishes to balance. She also learnt to make smaller rotis which I preferred. The only catch was, I needed to keep repeating the recipes she had learnt, otherwise she would forget.

There were occasions when Savita would bring some special food cooked at her home - like ridge gourd gravy, capsicum gravy, masala baigan, spicy lauki subzi to name a few and I really loved them! So it was not that she didn't know to cook good stuff, its just that I discovered that she didn't want to spend much time cooking at my home as she wanted to wrap it up quickly just like how she finished her jhadu-poocha job at my home. I had to again council her and explain that if I was paying her a separate salary for cooking then she needs to devote appropriate time for the same. She probably understood I am still not sure, but I do see her giving time to this work now-a-days. But as you might have guessed by now, depending on a house help for anything comes with its own challenges and at times makes you feel you were better off doing it yourself. So as of now my bitter-sweet journey with Savita's cooking is going on till I decide on otherwise. 

The monsoons are already in, so one of these days I felt like having begun pora with roti. Begun Pora  is basically a mash of charred brinjal with some additional aromats. The northern part of India knows this by the name of Baigan bharta, but let me tell you there are several differences between a Begun Pora and a Baigan Bharta. First, we do not cook the the charred baigan mash again which is usually done for baigan bharta. Secondly I have seen people adding turmeric to Baigan bharta, but it is not added in a Begun Pora as turmeric would subdue the organic smokey charred flavor of the roasted Baigan. Its a very lazy kind of dish where you let the fire do all the hard work. I told Savita to make the rotis while I setup the brinjal to roast. I knew she wouldn't have the patience to roast the brinjal to perfection so I didn't want to leave the job to her.  Plus, the final finishing has to be done with a generous drizzle of mustard oil and a final mash to blend in everything harmoniously. Though its typically eaten in the winter months but monsoon in Pune is colder than winters. So I enjoyed the smokey rustic plate of deliciousness with the handmade rotis while it rained outside.