My experience in cooking…..a part of my application for job…..
After serving 40 years …one year as a Sales representative in vicks. ..and ..over 32 years as Officer in a Public sector
Bank in various capacities I have experience as salesman and a seasoned banker
Now it is time for me to search for some job after my retirement due in June, 2007.My google search…etc through Naukhri.com/Monsrter dot.com/Job .com etc provide large number of jobs in various fields/industries in India and abroad. But more often that not the employers requirements range from IT Professionals, Chartered accountants, Cost accountants, Company secretaries, Attorneys, etc with sufficient experience in the filed.
It was at this point I have my considered view/opinion that I should include my experience in cooking in all my applications.
I state hereunder my experience as a cook before marriage and after marriage.
I have no formal academic training/experience in cooking except I can say I hail from Palghat which as produced many cooks, crooks and civil servants.
As family inheritance/legacy I always mention my mother nammammai Annapoorni who was a recognized very good in cooking throughout her life time by all her contemporaries and children as well. Some of her preparations so tasty like filter coffee keeramolaghoottal chakkavaratti pazhavaratti,Urunda kozhambu,adai,avial,dosai,godhumbu dosai,vella dosai ,etc can not be copied by anybody till today. Of course she has lifetime experience in cooking being the mother/daughter in law of large families.
Then there were special preparations like paal payasam Aandinuravu, Aayushhomam….vadai,idli,uppittu, etc on Aavani avittam and then the ney paayasam made on the occasion of Bagavthi sevai etc.Those days we hd no gas stoves electric cooker etc but everything prepared using vessel/uruli using mannu aduppu using firewood burring as the heating source.She had capacity to make good food and please all her children and all relatives .She has left a legacy on some of her a offspring and many of her children aren’t good in cooking…..
I had necessity to enter the area of cooking in my personal interest and for my survival. It was in 1970 I was working at Mariammanahalli in Karnataka a rural place with no Brahmin hotels , Saravana Bhavan etc..there.I had to prepare my coffee, food, etc and consume it .I had written a letter to our Sister Lakshmi who had sent me a long letter giving ideas/clues in the subject which I started following systematically. Her letter was quite informative as it contained minute details like quantity of water to be added to milk, the amount of salt, chili powder , etc to be added in making rasam, sambar, etc.Initially I purchased necessary vessels, tools like knife,cheena chatti, plate, vessels for making samabar, rasam, etc and the Bharath Brand kerosene stove along with match box, one mathu for curd churning. Also was with me one filter coffee paathram…
I followed the instructions given by Lakshmi as below;
1.In the morning buy ¼ liter cows milk not buffalos milk from the milkman in a vessel
2.Add half a tumbler of good water to dilute it as pure milk is dense and hard to digest etc
3.Boil water ..1 cup in a small vessel…keep the idukki or say holder in hand remove it from stove after fully boiled. This boiled water use only for mixing with coffee powder in filter.
4.Put 2 spoons Robusta coffee powder bought from Coffee board in filter vessel
5. Add boiled water hot over till and the filtered coffee powder decoction stard trickling down
6.Now boil the milk with water already added
7.Add decoction from filter to milk, add 2 spoons of sugar and sir with another spoon.
7.Coffee is ready
Drink coffee feel its flavour and say
Idu filter coffee, Nallayirukku.besh besh
Again don’t waste the used coffee powder in filter instead add second dose of boiled water and prepare coffee as usual and serve it to unwanted guests as it will be of poorer taste.
Now it is the procedure for making koottan/rasam/ say samabar.
First get necessary vegetables like tomato,ladies finger,ptotato, chembu,pumpkin,drum stick etc.
Wash the vegetables for some like potato.carrot remove the skin using knife.
Thereafer cut them into smaller pieces small enough to enter through the mouth.
Take a vessel with ½ liter of pour water
Add sambar powder 2 spoons,20mg of common salt.
Keep the vessel on oven for cooking say 10 minutes till the vegetables are fully cooked.
In the side keep a small vessel with tamarind soaked and squeezed in it .
While the rice being cooked in cooker lower pan keep on the upper pan one vessel with water and 4 spoons thuvaram paruppu for cooking.
Before cooking of rice wash the rice, remove the stone add water 21/2 times by volume the quantity of rice being cooked.
Thereafter add the tamarind juice to cooked vegetable in liquid ,add the cooked thruvam paruppu, add asafetida, turmeric powder, coriander leaves and the final work is porichukottal…..that is frying in thengai ennai kadugu and Ulutam paruppu both very little quantity …add to the total samabar under preparation and keep it in aduppu for getting mixed up and make it tasty.
By trial and error somehow I gained experience in the art of cooking and making items like satham, coffee, sambar, paayasam,avil uppuma,etc before marriage.
After my marriage in 1974 I got on the job intensive training in cooking and some of my preparations are:
Filter coffee
Tea
Sambar
Rasam
Sambar
Akkara vadsal
Puliyodarai
Elavadam
Adai;Aviyal
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While I was in Quilon during 2000 I used to add cashew nut in samabar as cashew nut was available in plenty there. It had a special taste too…although may be banned now as cholesterol.
Of curse I had experience for another 2 years in Bombay while I was staying in Andheri and Borivli adding up to my experience in preparing food.
Perhaps the experience I gained I certify myself to be good and use a s a trump card as I can always say I know cooking. Also as and when my wife is away from home I can try my expertise, cook good food and taste.
THIS IS MY EXPERIENCE in …. Cooking……
LET ME SEE IF IT IS OF ANY VALUE IN MY APPLICATIONS FOR JOB…….
