A kitchen queen’s secret: From leftovers to reruns

It had become a hobby to toss different ingredients and churn out a gourmet spread like never before. The disarming trick had everyone lapping up the Russian rice, mixed vegetable quesadillas and baked rice balls

Women who love to cook are experts and powerhouses of culinary concoctions and delicious ideas that they lovingly incorporate into their dishes. While they are the queens of the kitchen, on the flip side, they end up being the eternal consumer bins, too. Even those who rustle up appetising food in a jiffy are often at their wit’s end on how to deal with leftovers. While they sort, wash, cook and serve edibles, they also save, preserve, store and repeat. When they find no takers for the repeat, they inevitably eat.

It had become a hobby to toss different ingredients and churn out a gourmet spread like never before. The disarming trick had everyone lapping up the Russian rice, mixed vegetable quesadillas and baked rice balls. (Getty Images)

I realised this hard fact two decades ago when I myself was a young mother. My children were fussy eaters and I would invariably prepare a number of scrumptious bites. Often, the richly prepared food would go unfinished. I wouldn’t have the heart to discard it nor allow anyone else to disregard it. I would promptly gulp down the delish remnants. As a result, in a few months the mother hen had become a pyramid-shaped mother whale, and my weighing scale had been knocked askew with my unflattering pounds.

As far as the family was concerned, we’re a bunch of robust Punjabis whose love pours in the form of food. Like any other Indian, we too were the flag-bearers of good hospitality. Hence, the food cooked in our household was always more than required, good enough to accommodate walk-in guests. In fact, it’s considered bad manners to prepare a measured quantity.

While nobody was complaining about what I was cooking, the anomaly of the situation was that none of them were willing to repeat the profusely praised treat. Call it human tendency to look for something new every day, they found it hard to reckon with the fact that remainders of a flavourful fare would taste just as good.

Hence, my mind started looking for ideas to redo the leftovers and refresh them as new. By now I had realised that not everything fell into the category of ‘sarson ka saag’ or ‘mutton gravy’, which when older gets better. I talked to friends and tried to take a leaf out of their cooking patterns. I went on to Google to learn better techniques. I would watch the cookery shows with zeal and wished to take a peek behind their curtains, to see what they did with their leftovers.

My creativity would come forth every now and then, and I would rustle up an Epicurean meal with new dishes and nomenclatures. It had become a hobby to toss different ingredients and churn out a gourmet spread like never before. The disarming trick had everyone lapping up the Russian rice, mixed vegetable quesadillas, baked rice balls and so much more.

By now my family and friends were raving about my unique dishes and asking me for recipes. I felt like a queen once again. I would chuckle and say, “Be my guest one day and I’ll be happy to share my secret the next day.” alkagaurkashyap@gmail.com

The writer is a Chandigarh-based lawyer