Hi Mamta,
I am a Marketing Research professional in Satyam Computers (an indian IT company) and have been working for almost 2 years in hyderabad, away from my parents. Prior to working here in Hyd, I had always stayed with my family and enjoyed home food. Believe me, I never realized the true value of it till I started living on my own. What I have realized it that you can get bored of the best food in the poshest 7 star hotel, but can never get bored of home food. 10 days of eating out and you start craving for home cooked food.
I just wanted to thank you for all the dishes that you have posted. I have tried various websites for recipes but the way you have given each recipe, taking care of the finer points and keeping it as simple as it can get is something I really appreciate. I love the way you bring yourself down to the level of someone who has just started cooking or who deosent know much about cooking (read "someone" as "Sambit :) ). I got to your website through google search yesterday and tried bhindi aloo and dal :) ..it was awesome and once I ate it I knew I need not go to google search again..I just need to log on to mamtaskitchen.com to quench all my home food needs :) ..now I am going to try some chicken dishes too coz I just love chicken..in fact my colleagues call me "Chicken King"..haha..
I shall write again..I dont even remember the last time when I typed so much..so you can imagine how happy I am that my search for the best home cooked food has finally ended!!
Thanks once again.
Warm Regards,
Sambit Mohanty
+91-9703003221
Aaw, thank you for taking the time to write such a lovely letter. I'm sure mum (Mamta) will reply soon.
The reason she comes across as a down-to-earth, normal person is because that's exactly what she is. Her career, before she retired, was in medicine, not in cooking, and she's never had any formal chef training of any kind. She has learned from family and friends and taught herself, just like you and me. So that is just how she writes her recipe instructions!
:)
Hello Sambit
It is so lovely t hear that my efforts have helped you to cook food as you like it and I am so touched that you have taken the trouble to write.
Both my daughters are also good cook, mostly selftaught like me. You will be a super cook in no time, if you cook regularly.
Love and best wishes for a speedy learning curve in cooking :-).
Mamta
Welcome to the "family", like you many of us did one search for something and haven't looked back since !
Steve
...what a great letter! I also dont go anywhere else for recipes now. Mamtas suit me just fine thanks!
Cheers
Steve
Amazing home cooked food, homely and friendly interactions, sweet words from Mamta (the motherly touch :) ).....I wonder...Am I back home?
Kavey :
You're so right...your mom seems really sweet and down to earth, and thats the reason all of us here relishing the dishes made using her recipes just admire so much , because if you see other so-called "professional" cooking websites (most of them) , it feels like the recipes are written by professionals for other professionals in the field. And though it's hard to believe that Mamta was in a profession other than one which would involve cooking, I guess thats one of main reasons she and her recipes can connect to people at all levels of cooking..from bachelors like me ( who until recently used to survive on stale pizzas or waiting for the neighbours wife to cook something nice and her husband to be sweet enough to offer that to us ) ..to people who have done some cooking in life ..to professionals, who need to realize that no food is good food without the homely touch (coz no one was ever born in a 7 Star Hotel, everyone has had home food for at least the first 15 years of their lives on an average) and they also need to learn how to give that touch to their professional cooking. What say?
Do keep posting messages..feels good..Mamta says you and neeta are also really good cooks..and self taught :)..now thats something very inspiring :) !!
Mamta :
First of all, I hope you did not mind me calling you by your name in my previous post, its just that this is soemthing that we follow at our workplace and its become almost a habit now (dont know good or bad), but since I relate to you as someone who is kind of family :) , I shall call you maam from now :)
Your efforts have indeed helped me cook some amazing dishes maam, and I hope that with your wishes I will be able to race along the speedy learning curve and will soon be able to make some meaningful and helpful contributions to your website, which would be a result of my various experiments with various ingredients :) To be very true , the previous line I have written is inspired by what you have written in your website,and which I found really nice, it states "Bear in mind that one can never duplicate a recipe exactly. Oven temperatures vary, quality of ingredients vary and we all take, and should take, some creative licence, making our own adjustments. This is what cooking is all about."
Thanks once again maam, I would love to meet you sometime, although I still dont know which part of India / abroad are you in. Hope to see a post from you soon.
Askcy / Steve :
Great to be a part of the family guys :) No more searching..just cooking and relishing :)
I swear I am actually starting to wonder..is this really me..I am breaking my typing records each day at mamtaskitchen.com :)
Keep posting :)
Dear Sambit
Well, when mum says that my sister and I are good cooks and self-taught I should add that, firstly, we often cooked with her when we were kids, so we were interested in cooking and food even as children. Also, when we were at school, cookery classes were part of the national curriculum so both of us did 2 years of cookery classes as well.
We (and mum) are all living in the UK so a little too far from Hyderabad for an easy visit, I'm afraid!
I am glad to hear you will continue to try more recipes and also to make your own variations to them. For most dishes there is no one, single, definitive recipe, rather each town, infact each family in each town, will no doubt have their own preferences and habits. So there are hundreds of variations. If you find a particular change that works well, do let us know and we can add a note about it at the bottom of the recipe.
Best of luck and hope to hear from you regularly here on the discussion boards,
Kavita (Kavey)
So...UK houses the best Indian chefs..now thats something India needs to worry abt ;)
UK..well it is indeed a little too far :) ..to be precise..the distance from hyderabad to UK is 4,874 miles or 7,843 kilometers which involves a 9 hrs 45 mins flight...sorry for going deep into numbers..I'm after all a Marketing Research guy :)
Well, I'm sure I would meet all of you someday, we do have a major Marketing Office in London at the Canary Wharf square, so you never know!!
Well I'll definitely keep trying recipes from this website everyday and will even try my own variations, which if works well would definitely be posted on this forum :) In fact, today I am trying Bombay Chicken curry, and have even invited a few friend over :)
Am leaving for a meeting now, will post a few lines tomorrow.
Take care, Regards to Maam and everyone there.
Sambit, well mum and dad were both born and bred in India, so one could argue that India still produces the best Indian chefs!
Indian cuisine has long been popular in the UK. These days there are very few places that don't have a local "curry house" (restaurant), though most offer rather anglicised dishes, most also have some dishes that are closer to what we Indians recognise. Generally, these restaurants are run by Northern Indians, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis and the basis of the dishes is all very similar.
But there is also a growth in interest in more authentic Indian cuisine and also cuisine from other regions of India. Particularly in London, one can find restaurants offering some extremely top quality and varied Indian cooking.
I'm hoping to visit Benares sometime this year. The chef, Atul Kochhar, was born in Jamshedpur and is the first Indian chef to be awarded a Michelin star. He has managed to maintain the traditions of genuine Indian cuisine whilst also modernising and adapting and offering unique presentations.
Anyway, must do some work now!
Warm regards
Kavita
Hello Sambit
May be we will meet some day, but please call me Mamta, everyone else does around here! Maam sounds so formal and 'not Indian', I am a very down to earth, informal person :-)!