Accidentally, In love ( UNDER EDITING )

Chapter 31 : True Love & Obstacles

Chapter 31 : True Love & Obstacles.

Arnaud's Point Of View.

How to make Poondu kuzhambu

Serves -6

Ingredients needed

Pearl onion - 1/2 cup

Garlic - 3/4 cup

Tamarind - golf ball size -( approximately 40 grams, but it depends on the quality of tamarind)

Sesame seed oil - 4 tbsp

Sambar powder -3 tbsp

Salt as required - (I use only rock salt for kulambu )

Preparation

Soak tamarind in hot water for 20 minutes.Then extract the juice (around 3 cups) and discard the pulp.

Peel the onions and garlic and cut it into half if it is big.

For the seasoning

Mustard -1 tsp

Fenugreek seeds -3/4 tsp

Hing -1/4 tsp

Curry leaves -few

Method

Heat sesame seed oil, add mustard seeds, when it splutters, add fenugreek seeds, hing and curry leaves.

Then add garlic and pearl onions and saute nicely for a few minutes.

Add sambar powder, salt and tamarind water and bring it to boil.

Keep it in medium flame and cook till it thickens and oil separates.

Note -Use only sesame seed oil for best results.

I'm very sure that if Laurent was here, he would ask me why I'm peering so hard over a thick, fat cookbook whose cover has a lady old enough to be my grandmother except in a braid and sari, standing in a kitchen surrounded by bright and colorful vegetables, with a vessel of something cooking on the stove before her, and leaving out steam. All this, with me wearing a white apron with blue embroidery that says, 'This Dad can cook.'

Hold your horses. I know where you are going. No you have not missed anything, I'm not a Dad yet, but what I'm doing now will ensure that I get to see the day and hold a mini Zoya in my arms, Trust me if you were in my place, you would do just the same thing. Do I hear you ask Why? Well once Zoya's parents came out of the study this was what the conversation looked like.

"Arnaud, while your grand gesture has touched our hearts and your monologues has efficiently served it's purpose, you must remember what you are getting into. We are Indians and a marriage is considered extremely sacred. It's a bond between two families and not just two individuals. Therefore in order to marry Zoya and take her 'for better or for worse or for good times and bad times' like you Catholics have it, you must convince Ammachi." He says.

My expression must have given away my feelings. "Aammaa....qui?"

" No. No. A-M-M-AC-H-I Ammachi. It means grandmother." He said as though talking to a kindergartener. " She is my mother - in law and the matriarch of the family. No decision in the house is taken without her approval and consent." From the corner of my eyes I can see Zoya nodding her head sadly. "When Zoya wanted to study abroad, she had to go through Ammachi, similarly when Pia wanted to set up a practice in Bombay, she got Ammachi's consent." I nodded my head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry that my fate rests in the hand of a lady whose name I cannot pronounce.