First Time ....... n Bang on Target

First time is always tricky ain't it ??? So what is it like for man to walk into kitchen for the first time intending to make something sensible which can fill over his hungry belly ?? OK agreed ... previosly my rendezvous in kitchen with stove and other stuff have been there , but they all were real quickies mainly for a cup of coffee or to help out our master cooks in quaters with cutting the stuff . Necessity is mother of all inventions they say ... and I cannot help but to agree. Necessity at least invented/discovered "The Cook" in me read on :

It was Sunday so my ever crowded quaters was empty there was Sushant in the morning though, but he too disappeared (must have given up lookin at : mein bed se uthneka naam nahi le raha tha).So when I finally woke up at around 5.30 afternoon and sat on the bed I found some heavy banging going inside my head (ouuuch sumbodies still bangin in der).after a quick wash I realised I had not eaten anything for the whole day and boyyy there were only some six and half more hours to go for the day to end. That was the time I really felt the pressure (fire in the belly). There was nothing in stomach and the gems ("gire" as we call dem in konkani) were desperate to eat my liver,intestines or whatever more there is in there . I had finished my quota of biscuits and other eatables so went down in the kitchen to look for hunt unfortunately there was nothing in there as well . I sat down for some time thinking about what to do I calculated my options. I had had some nasty OUTSIDE food for last couple of days and I did not have enough energy to walk all the way to Vinod's (place where my extra special Goan taste buds find solace). The decision was made it was going to be the plain , simple and very goan the "PEJ" in other words Kanji to be made by me.

I started the long walk to Bappa's (yeh its the same Shoppin center or so in University as you people know it). When I finally reached Bappa's the first thing I made sure , there was flavourd milk available. I ordered two packets and gulped them down my throat as soon as possible after that as they say Mere Jaan Mein Jaan aa gayi .I explained my plan to bappa and asked him to give me half kilo of rice. The expericed(Janna-toh) man that he is he told me even quarter kilo of rice will be too much for me I took the suggestion and told him to pack only a 1/4 kilo of rice for me and also a pack of pickle (I know people who know my eatin habbits will be laughing like hell but yeh I ordered PICKLEE) after shopping I found Uttam (he is my senior who always bumps into me at the right time .... I mean whenever I need him) .Uttam as I know is quite a cook so my cooking tutorial began from bappa's to my way back to Quaters . Uttam told me many things like ,Use only half of quater kilo rice . put three times more water then rice and so on and so forth ....

When I finally reached quaters and put the mix of water and rice (@ the ratio 3:1 I dint forget that :-)) I realized I had forgotten to ask Uttam about the IMPORTANT ingredient.. the salt yaar!! ........ how much salt to put ??? This time I said to myself no asking around trusting whatever the cook there is in me , I took around quater spoon salt put it in the mix kept it on heater looked at the stuff for some time. After some minutes there was nothing to do and someone again started knocking in my head I thought may be a bath will calm down the devil in there so I went for bath .

After I finished my bath I came down to see the fully prepared rice .... I don't know how many of you have seen it but rice looks very lively when it is dancing in (with) boiling water. The ice looked perfectly cooked. I was like oh !! I .... how ..do I say that ... I was like euphoric finally there was a dish made by me. I brought preparation down from heater. After the initial hoopla which lasted for around 15 seconds Biology took over the proceedings. It was time to Karo Bismillah. So I put the preparation in plate took a piece of pickle and tasted it. Bang it tasted heaven it was like I hit the bulls eye the rice was cooked perfectly , the water was perfect even the amount of salt put was just right ...... time was running out for me ...... 10 minutes and the PEJ (and the pickle) wass over !!!!