I learned to cook from my Mom, well, technically she didn't really teach me but I used to hang around in our kitchen a lot as a little boy and watched her grind the Indian spices from the seeds, use a stone grinder to make coconut chutney, use a grater to get raw coconut that was added to almost every recipe.
My mom cooked every day, she made just enough for the day. She was an excellent cook. Though she was originally vegetarian she learned to make meat and made many amazing meat dishes too that we all loved.
I actually learned to cook just after leaving college where I had to share a house with a few other of my college mates while attending practice school. We couldn't really afford to eat at restaurants so had to learn to cook. At that time, my friends were all vegetarian so I learned to cook vegetarian food. Meat was simply not affordable anyway so we had to stick to vegetables. When I came to the US for the first time again not having enough money meant either unhealthy fast food each day or cooking. This was when I learned to cook.
When I left for the US, I asked my mom to write out her recipes and she did. That was 22 years ago and I still have her recipe book and have carried it with me to 8 different homes, has been my constant companion to cooking anything Indian and represents the best of south Indian cooking.
Here is a PDF of the original, I hope to translate it to this blog eventually but its always nice to have the real thing.
