It's the little things. And this little things is a big deal..
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| Banana Date Bread - First Baking session in two years and first ever successful bread |
I have an oven!
You don't know what you've got until its gone and for me the oven was gone for two whole years. It got to the stage that I was salivating a little too much over eating baked potato at restaurants.
Indian kitchens are not equip with ovens because Indian meals are prepared either on a stove top or in a tandoori oven. A built-in, gas or electric oven always features in Australian kitchens. Aussies use ovens for roasts, pasta bakes, pies, cakes and biscuits and usage peaks during Christmas season for making the roast dinner, gingerbread men and a pudding (hence my quest to find oven-less Christmas recipes this year).
We were planning on buying an oven next year but then a few days before Christmas our friends kindly passed on their portable oven to us as they had upgraded to a bigger one! I got over-excited and pumped out three cakes, two roasts and two pasta bakes in the space of 48 hours. Admittedly, that was slight overkill. But I did find out that this beauty bakes more evenly than most built-in varieties.
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| Quite proud of my first attempt |
Owning an oven in Mumbai is exciting for another reason. I will never make Indian curries as good as Ratnesh's family but the oven is my familiar territory. Perhaps I finally have some way of giving to them something that I make with my own hands and that they will enjoy. For this reason and with a new appreciation for the wonder of ovens, I might just be baking more throughout 2013 than I ever would living in Australia.
Buon Appetite!
Hey, your post really reminds me of my oven while I lived in India. It was very similar and so true one gets so excited over it... just baking.
ReplyDeleteHope you'll have lots more fun with it! :-)
Ha! So that would explain why, when I lived with two indian guys in a share house, neither of them was very miffed when the oven broke and remained unfixed for three months. Found your blog through Samara's and I like it - I spent a month in India doing fieldwork for geology honours degree and it was definitely a culture shock so I love reading your opinions on living there.
ReplyDeleteI know, I didn't realise how relaxing baking was before this either. There's not that much to it.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, Ttat would be why! I'm guessing they probably never used the oven before it broke, right? No one in Ratnesh's family knows how to use one. Welcome to the blog, it's nice to know you're enjoying it :)
ReplyDeleteI have had to adjust trying to bake in my microwave/convection oven. Some things turn out well and others not. What's the make/model that you are using as I would like to get one :)
ReplyDeleteI will let you know once I am back in Mumbai - however my friend's mum sent it to her from Croatia originally, so you might not be able to get it in India. I'll let you know the brand of her new oven, which she bought here.
ReplyDeleteHi Eliza - The brand is SEI. Its a small over for a one-two person dinner. 230V, 50htz, 600W
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