Happy Mother’s Day to all Mums! Even though we are still in lockdown and may not be with our loved ones this Sunday, let’s take comfort in knowing we will hopefully be with our nearest and dearest very soon. At least we have technology to connect us 🙂
For those of you who know me and my family, you will know that I love to cook and so did my Mum. I’ve loved it from a young age and that is because my Mum taught me so much. Cooking seemed to come so naturally to her. She would put on a whole spread of food if anybody was coming over, or whip something up after she had done a long day at work. But most of all she would experiment. I always remember her sitting in front of the TV on the weekend watching Saturday Kitchen with a notepad, scribbling recipes down as quick as possible as back then recipes weren’t easily found on the internet.
My Mum wrote most of her recipes down in a notebook and I am lucky enough to still have it today. I cherish it so much but sometimes I really struggle with some of the recipes! Some recipes have no quantities or detailed methods. This just shows that my Mum and people of her generation ‘just know’ how much to put in. When I was younger I would ask, ‘how do you know how much to put in?’ and the answer would always be ‘you’ll just know’.
And as frustrating as that was at the time, I can completely understand it now. If my daughter asked me how do I know how much water to add to chapati flour to make chapatis, I would also answer ‘you’ll just know’. Now I’ve learnt that it comes with experience.
One of my favourite recipes of my Mums were her sweetcorn bhajias. They were my favourite savoury snack! I’ve always wanted to make them as I haven’t had them since before she passed, so I thought I’d take a trip down memory lane and give them a go. I bought all the right ingredients but as I expected, there were no quantities or methods. I’ve made other bhajias before so I didn’t think they would be much different.
Therefore I whipped up a batch and tried my best. Whilst my version were tasty, they were not the same. They weren’t the same size, colour or consistency. I wish I could just ask her how to make them. However I will keep trying!
I will share the recipe once I have perfected it. This just makes me appreciate how amazing my Mum was at cooking and how I possibly took it for granted. If I could go back I would hover over her like a bad smell and ask her a million questions. For now I will be grateful for all the delicious food she made me and everything she taught me. And I hope to do the same for my daughter, although I will make sure I write down the quantities! 😉
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a lovely day wherever you are 🙂
Cook with B... 