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Friday, October 24, 2008

Aromatic Nostalgia!

Today I was frying Rava (Semolina), a little more than usual quantity, in good amounts of fat, so that I could use it whenever needed for my future cooking - saving time on frying it each time. The aroma from the frying Rava softly tickled my olfactory glands and made me so nostalgic of the good times spent at home with my parents, back in India. As the Rava kept frying in the pan, it effused a strong, sweetened, savory and scrumptious aroma pulling out the sweetest memories from my pot of yester years!

Diwali is just around the corner and I go back remembering how by now my mom would have finished with making of all the sweetmeats like Karanji- Rava Ladu- Anarase- Thelchi- Shankarpale- to be savored on the day of Diwali. My sister and I were potential helpers of my mother in this endeavor. It was such fun to sit through all the lengthy procedures of making the Diwali goodies. It wasn’t easy at all. Each and every item stated above needed a pre -preparation with lots of culinary ingredients to be cleaned, sifted, sieved, soaked, fried, roasted, simmered, cooked- not to mention the culinary experience and excellence needed that went with it - an undoubtedly and a truly time consuming affair - all this for the simple pleasure of delectable indulgence which occurred only two or three times in a year on some special family occasions. So there was this absolute participation and contribution from each and every one of us in the family to celebrate this festival of Diwali - making it more of a deliciously rich festival per se- what with all the fat, sugar, jaggery and the dry fruit stuff which went in preparing these mouth watering delicacies. And later after relishing them, we collectively bantered on seriously shedding those extra pounds we actually gained after the festivities.

The aroma filled in my kitchen here, as I recognize, was so similar and as intoxicating to the ardent aroma coming from my mom’s kitchen whenever she prepared those sweets. I miss her a lot today and her sweetmeats a big time. Her love infused creations of all these delightful sweets always unfailingly filled my heart, and later my tummy, with joy. I will always love you Ma!

Mood of the day: Serene

-Manasi

"The act of smelling something, anything, is remarkably like the act of thinking. Immediately at the moment of perception, you can feel the mind going to work, sending the odor around from place to place, setting off complex repertories through the brain, polling one center after another for signs of re recognition, for old memories and old connection. " -Lewis Thomas

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