A Recipe for Ma

Lately, I’ve been trying to convince my mother to start using the Oven Toaster Grill that I’d left behind. After a few calls and video conferences, I think I’ve determined that she is suffering from what I do in my everyday life: the fear of starting something unknown (ask the query letter to a book publisher that never gets sent, even though it makes an appearance on my to-do list everyday.) And as most of you might know, this fear only gets worse when your first step is slightly a failure. 

I remember when my friend had actually given me the OTG as a housewarming gift, it took me a long time to warm up to it. The first few days, it still sat in the box. It took another few days to get used to seeing it in the kitchen.

Then I tried turning it on, but couldn’t figure out that the red light indicating that the oven is on only comes on when you turn the timer and not when you set the temperature, unlike the regular ovens here at home. I simply assumed it wasn’t working and let it sit there for another month, before finally fiddling around. I dug up the manual and learnt what the knobs were for, and how to work them. You’d think after my journey with food, I’d figured out how to work an oven! The smack I gave myself on the head after the OTG started working resounded in my kitchen for days after. 

In my mother’s case, it was the potato wedges that she had attempted to make. Any form of potato is my dad’s favourite, and one evening she decided to surprise him with some wedges to have along with his evening drink. Sadly, that ended with soppy, oily potatoes which she didn’t even bother serving up. To be honest, that was totally on me. I should’ve warned her that wedges might not have been the ideal place to start, considering how easy it is for potatoes to absorb oil, and wedges in general are hard to get right.  

The next weekend, I made another call and after a lot of “No ma, it’s going to be super easy! Trust me!” I convinced her to roast some nuts to have as a simple snack. Now, I’m not really sure what happened there, but after that attempt she avoided my phone calls like I used to avoid hers when I was 25, and she wanted to put up my profile on a matrimonial website. I later understood from her kitchen help, Pooja that there was an issue with the temperature, words were spoken with the oven, and the box of nuts got shelved to the far end of the cabinet. I doubt she trusts me anymore when I say “easy”. 

It took a while, but once she started answering my calls, I shamelessly switched it to video to do an impromptu lesson of “Ovens 101” while she filled me in on the family gossip. To anyone who has used an OTG, let’s not kid around, those dials on there are confusing as heck. Fire on the bottom, fire on top, fire with fan, just horizontal lines. Jeez. Recently, one of my cousins (who made a kickass cheesecake, by the way) was asking me questions about the process and then she asked me which mode of the oven she should use. I sat there staring at the photo she sent, wondering what the hell it was and eventually had to google it. So I could imagine how confused my mom was. As a backup, I took Pooja through the whole process as well. I then made my mom open up her fridge to help her decide on what to cook (I really didn’t want to repeat the whole potato wedges incident again,) and we settled on carrots. A simple, healthy snack. I also sent her a recipe to make sure there was no ambiguity. But, life got in the way. She got busy, the carrots got used for another meal and my mom conveniently forgot the big metal box occupying precious real estate in her kitchen. 

So, here it is, my super blatant attempt to guilt my mom into using the oven.

 “Ma, are you reading? I’m writing this simple recipe for cauliflower steaks and roasted carrots, just for you.” 

Cauliflower steaks are a regular in my house because it is so damn easy to make and quite frankly, my husband will devour any form of cauliflower that you give him. The masala that I use for this is what I call the “tipping masala” which is essentially tipping just a bit of each masala in my pantry for a nice mix. This is, by the way, how I learnt how to cook. Each time I’d ask my mom how much turmeric I should add, there was no teaspoon measurement. “Just add a little,” she’d say, showing it with her hand. We never really used spoons in our house for measurement. You can imagine how much of a problem this actually becomes when the time comes to write the recipe down. I had to actively pay attention to how much masala I was tipping into the pot. 

But coming back to the cauliflower, the main ingredients are turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, garam masala, and if you are feeling cheeky, dried amla (gooseberry) powder for a touch of tang, and of course salt to taste. Mix all of them together and rub it all over the cauliflower. You can also add some water to make a paste out of the spice mix and use a pastry brush to apply the masala on the cauliflower. Now, you can keep the cauliflower as a whole and roast it, but personally I prefer to cut it into steaks (like in the picture below) before it goes into the oven as there is more surface that I can smear the masala on. 

Lay it on a tray and in the oven it goes for 20-25 mins, until a fork goes through the stem without any resistance. I normally serve the steaks with a splash of yogurt, garnished with some fresh herbs. 

The prep for the carrots is super simple too. Peel, season with salt and pepper, a squeeze of lime and in the oven they go for 40 mins, until a fork goes through. 

I normally serve the steaks with a splash of yogurt, garnished with some fresh herbs. 

“See ma, that’s all it is. Easy.”

AuthorPriyanka SivaramakrishnanDifficultyBeginner

AuthorPriyanka SivaramakrishnanDifficultyBeginner