I wrote about one of my home labs earlier.

So I thought I’d write about the more fun variety. My kitchen.

May or may not have over indexed here. But in my opinion, if I can’t cut my food properly, it’s gonna be harder when I cook it.

The cutlery. The Messermeister Meridian Elite 8” is my general beater. Easy to travel with and can take abuse. And the X50CrMoV15 takes an edge just fine on my Shapton 1000 grit and 5000 grit stones.

It started with a Victorinox Fibrox. Then a ZWILLING Diplome 8” that I later gifted to a relative when they started their first “real job”. Underrated knife. You get a similar profile to a Gyuto with more forgiving steel.

I also like having some extra sharp knives. I briefly had an Enso HD 6.5” Nakiri and Daovua Leaf Spring 210mm Gyuto. Sold them both off, wasn’t a fan. I ended up settling on one exposed Aogami #2 knife, a Kanemasa 156mm Nakiri. And one with the same steel wrapped in stainless, a Muneishi 210mm Gyuto. I should probably give Shirogami a try at some point, but not in the market for more sharp things at the moment.

My paring and bread knives are boring, 3.5” Mercer Culinary Zum and a 10” from their Millennia line.

Now for the heavier stuff.

A 12” carbon steel skillet. A 10” cast iron with a machined surface. A 12” and 8” stainless frying pan with a 10” that has deeper walls. Accompanied by a 2qt and 3qt sauce pan. Plus a very heavy enameled dutch oven.

Started using a wok over the pandemic. I only want to cook with it if I have real fire.

My only strong opinion on pots and pans is to not get cheap construction. I don’t really care if a pan is 3ply or 5ply or a “manly” metal. Is the build quality solid? Is the bottom of the pan welded on? If the handle is attached, is it riveted?

Where do these opinions come from?

I have been a vegetarian my whole life. My folks didn’t eat meat growing up, so I never acquired a taste for it. The handful of times I have tried it, the texture and flavor felt foreign in a way that didn’t contribute to my palate, so I had no reason to patch my diet.

Tangent. I don’t care for any Ahimsa arguments for vegetarianism. Look into the living and work conditions of the people who grow, package, and prepare our foods and tell me it minimizes Himsa.

But back to the point. After Freshman year, I moved into an apartment. Options were either spend money I didn’t have on eating out, or learn how to cook. So I picked the latter.

I had constraints. I wanted a source of protein and carbs, but I didn’t want roti. And I wanted something where the effort to meal prep scaled shallower than linear if I wanted to add volume.

So I settled on chole, rajma, butter paneer, and butter tofu paired with either rice or quinoa.

Starting with the easier one to learn, the carbs. Unfortunately when I asked my mother how much water I needed, she said she measures her rice to one line on a finger, and the water to the line above it. Super helpful. Eventually I learned the 1:2 ratio with adjustments based on your equipment and the final texture you want. Great life hack, lightly season the water.

Now the actual dishes. They all share a base gravy of tomato, onions, garlic, and ghee. Swap the proteins and you have four different dishes. Modify the spice and your variety increases exponentially. I also had some fun experiments marinating the tofu and paneer.

Once I got confident in those, I started branching out. And after I stopped living with roommates, I started looking into specific tools instead of whatever disjointed pieces I liberated from my mother’s kitchen.

Nice side effect was I got to practice my social skills, hosting and making chitchat. Good thing desi kids usually are down to eat a home cooked meal. Something something Atithi Devo Bhava.

Slowly over time the practice compounded to where during one of my trips to the gaushala, my mother and I competed dishes. And our friends preferred mine. Sadly, she still has the high ground when it comes to Gujju food.