Cooking and the senses

Steel masala dabba - container in an Indian kitchen

It’s amazing how cooking can assail all your senses. Yum and yummier………

First the touch. You can feel the vegetables. You can knead the soft dough with your fingers. Warm melted butter. Cold frozen peas.

Behold the colors. A salad with carrots, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, red, orange and green bell peppers? Yellow lemons. Purple egg plants. Egg white. The bright yellow turmeric, red chilli powder, brown cumin powder stored in the steel garam masala dubba tempt you. The eyes can’t get enough of the variety of colors.

Hear the sizzle of onions, ginger and garlic frying in hot oil. The mustard seeds bursting and popping out of the pan. The whistle blowing from the pressure cooker. The grating of the coconut. Vegetables that go ..... chop, chop, chop. Rice boiling in hot water. Dosas and pancakes hissing on the griddle. Going deaf already?

Smell the curry powder. Festive cardamom. Sweet and spicy cinnamon and cloves. Boiled chicken and eggs. Flavors rising from the pans, tickling your nose and teasing your appetite.

Taste the salt. Savor the sweet crème brulee or holige. Enjoy the tangy rasam as it hits your tongue. Wrinkle your nose when you taste the methi seed in the seasoning. Bitter. Warm up as the spice of the curry settles down in your belly.

You'll also get lots of chances to use your imagination when you've to cook in a hurry, with limited ingredients and no time to run to the store. Don't panic. Let the creative juices flow.