Amma learned to cook only after her marriage. As Appa was in a transferable job, she was cut-off from her family for most part of her life. With no telephone, letter being the only mode of communication, her cooking evolved by trial and error. Later when telephone became available, she would sometimes call her favourite sister-in-law to consult about a recipe. For the most part though, she was dependent on Samaithu Paar (Cook and See) cookbook written in Tamil by Meenakshi ammal. There were three volumes of this book with the recipes catering specifically to the Tamil Brahmin Community. It was Amma's Bible.
Festivals were always crisis times because each festival has a prescribed menu. Amma would frantically thumb through her Samaithu Paar book, trying to figure out which volume had the recipe, reading and re-reading as she tried to get a hang of it. I would be co-opted as the the helper to grind spices or rice or whatever needed to be ground using the traditional stone grinder (called Aatu kal in Tamil. The apparatus consists of a stone base with the middle hallowed into a cup like shape and a stone pestle). Together, and sometimes with Appa roped in, we would stumble through the prescribed menu. When Amma finally put it all together before Gods as offering, there would be a huge sense of accomplishment. We had done it!
When I went to US for Ph.D., I was presented with my own copy of Samaithu Paar or Cook and See. My copy is in English as I cannot read or write Tamil. There are no pictures, measurements are in obsolete terms, and recipes are written in very quaint language. But it is a book that helped me start my life in the University town.
Over the years, I have referred many cookbooks and food blogs but Samaithu Paar remains the book to be consulted in times of crisis.
Today was one such day as it is a festival called Thiruvathirai. I do not know much about its significance other than it is for Lord Shiva. Festivals in our house were celebrated not for religious reasons but for the food. The traditional menu for this festival is a rice sweet dish called Kali and a vegetable stew called Kootu. The past many years my Periamma (Appa's eldest brother's wife) was in Delhi and she would call me over to have the lunch with her. This year she is not there and I decided to make Kali and Kootu. I looked up the food blogs, consulted my sister-in-law but the fear of the unknown remained. So this morning, I took out the worn out copy of Samaithu Paar and with its gentle guiding managed to make both the dishes.
Sumitra came in just as I had finished cooking. She was the first to taste both the dishes. According to her it was tasty. So mission accomplished.
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