CHENNAI : Vaishali Vijaykumar What makes one a good cook,” we ask Usha Mohan. After a mom e n t a r y pause, she says, “One who can prepare a feast out of the leftovers in the kitchen.” Usha’s response is evident from the way she swiftly dishes out a handful of items with the minimal vegetables and spices available in her kitchen. Give her ripened green chili, she will crush them and make pickle, or remains of previous day’s rice, she will grind and dry them in the sun and make vadams.
In her KK Nagar colony neighbourhood, Usha is everyone’s go-to for questions about cooking. Her preparation of masala vada, sundal and kesari were hotcakes at the Women’s Day celebration last month. Usha was 17 when she got married. Her working knowledge in the kitchen was limited to her mother’s instructions. “Those days we had a pumping stove.
What else would a class 8 girl know? Sometimes my mother used to ask me to grind spices on ammi. It was a timeconsuming process. I’d simply throw away the unground spices into the drain. Of course, my mother used to find out later. We’d have mixed rice for lunch.
Simple, soulful, and healthy recipes — whatever was served used to be consumed without questioning or complaining. We had no choice and everything was treated like a luxury,” says Usha, who has two d a u g h t e r s a n d f ive grandchildren. Usha continues to live in the same 44-year-old building in which she grew up as a child. Little did Usha know that she’d get married into a huge family within a short span of her engagement. “My husband belonged to a village called Thottiyam near Tiruchy.
His side of the family had excellent cooks. I had a lot to learn from my mother-in-law and six sistersin- law. The first meal I had to prepare after marriage, as per instructions from my husband, was rasam rice and lady’s finger fry. While I was wondering, my mother-in-law sarcastically asked me to wash it and fry it in a vessel with mustard seeds. I followed it blindly and messed it up. I will never forget my first kitchen mishap,” reminisces Usha, who doesn’t need a measuring cup or cookbook to prepare delicacies. She remembers them from memory.
Summer is the best season for Usha to experiment with all kinds of savouries. She prepares one variety of sundal every day. Based on orders from neighbours, she also grinds powder varieties like idli, ellu, sambar, paruppu podis. Her other specialties include maavadu pickle, vathal, vadam, and thogayal. “I like preparing things the traditional way. It’s the smallest of methods that you adapt which bring out a big difference in the tastes, across households.
I use two separate kadais for sweet items and spicy ones. My adai is popular for its softness. Even the hours of soaking and method of grinding matters. I’ve surrendered myself to cooking. The tricks are simple. Once we master them, there will be no need to go to restaurants. It’s been a dream to open a fastfood chain in the US. Hopefully, it will be true someday. Cooking is a therapy, pass-time, passion, and everything to help me get rid of sitting idle,” says Usha.