My maid Savita has been making lunch for me from the past several months now. Not that I don't like to cook now-a-days. But every work from home working lady knows how challenging it becomes to prepare meals three times a day while you juggle a 10-12 hour work life also. Hence just to balance the yin and yang of cooking in my life, I have outsourced the lunch prep to my maid.
The obvious question is has that really reduced my efforts in the kitchen ? The answer is both Yes and No. When I was managing my lunch, on days I didn't feel like cooking, I would just whip up some shortcut meals like leftover dishes from the past night or just make extra poha in breakfast and have the same in lunch. But now I am forced to start my day thinking what Savita needs to cook that day. If I happen to forget getting the vegetable she will be making, then there is an additional mad rush to get it delivered through any of the 15-minute delivery apps before my maid arrives.
I want to have rotis in lunch but making them was always a pain for me, that was perhaps the strongest reason for me to think about getting a cook to make lunch. And while she is at it, I thought alright lets ask her to make the subzis as well, that way no leftovers from last night, I would always eat fresh - the first step to keep one healthy!
It didn't take me long to realize the fallacies of my decision. I had probably envisioned having something similar to what my palate was used to. But I was wrong. The inherent Marathi mulgi inside Savita was confused at my food requests like peyaj potoler , kundrur torkari, shada alu, khichudi, fulkopir torkari etc. I realized, just like I don't speak Marathi organically, Savita also doesn't speak my food language. Most of the dishes she made had an unmissable amount of ground peanuts or like 3 cups of oil floating lavishly on top or the generous usage of chilly that would start a raging fire in my mouth.
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.
Preparation Time : 15 minutes
Cooking Time : 15 minutes
Serves - 2 adults
Ingredients :
- Brinjal - 1 Medium
- Garlic cloves - 10
- Tomato - 1 medium
- Onion - 1 medium, finely chopped
- Green Chilies - 1 finely chopped
- Cilantro - half a cup loosely packed, finely chopped
- Mustard Oil - 2 tsp
- Salt to taste
Procedure :
1. Wash and pat dry the brinjal. Make deep slits all over the surface of the brinjal.
Tips: To ensure your brinjal is not having any mature seeds always select brinjals which feel lighter.
2. Now carefully stuff each slit with a garlic clove ( the slits need to be deep enough so that you can push the garlic cloves completely inside).
3. Place the brinjal on an open flame and keep turning occasionally until the outer skin is completely charred and flaking.
4. Place the charred brinjal in a plate and let it cool down
5. This is an optional step. I wanted to add a slight tanginess to the bharta hence I roasted the tomato as well. cut the tomato into quarter. Take a roasting net and place the tomatoes skin side up. Keep turning the tomatoes to get a uniform char all over. Let it cool down as well.
6. In the meantime finely chop the onions, cilantro and green chilli.
7. Peel the skin off the eggplant and the tomato while they are still slightly warm as it will be easier to do.
8. Now chop the eggplant and tomatoes with a knife
9. Add the chopped onion, cilantro, green chilli, salt and mustard oil to the chopped eggplant and tomato.
10. Now is the time to use your hands as its traditionally done to mash everything up nicely. But if you don't want to use hands then use a masher or a fork to bring everything together.
I like to serve begun pora with freshly made rotis or Indian flatbreads but you can enjoy it with steamed rice also.
