Recipe 3: Ragi Pancakes with Mushrooms [Attempt 1]

Yesterday, I learnt a very important lesson in La Cuisine: Cooking is like being in a relationship.

You have to be completely honest with the recipe. If you are going by the book, you have to stick to its instructions. You can’t lie about the quantities (Sorry, even a white lie is not excused). You have to trust the ingredients suggested, and not betray them with shallow substitutes. Not that you can’t cook anything with substitution. But if you are learning a new recipe, you better stay loyal to it. Otherwise, it’ll only be like a marriage that looks picture-perfect outside, but is broken into million pieces from within.

I confess. Yesterday, I committed adultery in kitchen. And the result was as appalling as a broken relationship. May be, worse than that. After all, there’s always some scope for a failed relationship to get mended, but not a failed recipe.

The recipe was Ragi pancakes with mushrooms. And I substituted everything with everything. Plain yoghurt was replaced with flavoured yoghurt. Chilli flakes were replaced with chilli powder. I still wonder what made me think that flavoured yoghurt will do its job! I was impatient. And impatience has no room in any kitchen.

And it didn’t just stop there. The instructions said quarter teaspoon each of baking powder and baking soda. Whatever went into that mix was definitely not a quarter teaspoon of anything. Too much baking powder and soda gave the pancakes a bitter taste. And the flavoured yoghurt (and by flavoured I mean... umm... blueberry flavour) gave the mushrooms a gummy fruity taste.

I was so demotivated after the whole fiasco that I thought I should better end this project. Or maybe not talk about the goof-ups at all, just upload a pretty picture and get done with it like nothing happened. 90% thoughts consisted of shutting down the shop. After all, I’m not as good as Julie Powell with cookery. Maria is not a veteran master chef like Julia Child. This whole damn thing is not as refined as Powell’s project. 

But then I thought, that’s why I should probably do it. I don’t want to open a Michelin star restaurant. I don’t want to please anyone with my culinary skills. People who know me already love me or hate me for whatever reasons they feel right. I want to do this for myself. Find out how I can take challenges in this unexplored territory. If I fail, I lose nothing at all. But if I win, I could at least walk into my kitchen as confidently as I walk in those presentation rooms.

So, my first attempt towards making Ragi Pancakes with Mushrooms was an epic fail. But, hell yeah! Here I am, following Kaizen and preparing myself for a second attempt to make the same Ragi Pancakes with Mushrooms. But just a little too perfect this time.

P.S. I could have uploaded a picture of my first attempt, which visually was not as disappointing as its taste. But it would be only a good idea to save it for a Failure-vs-Success showcase. (I just hope, it won't turn into a multi-photo collage) So till then, enjoy this comic from the internet. J