Its funny how different both of us approach cooking.
I am constantly reminded why men and women are different whenever we hit the kitchen together. DH treats it like he is entering a chemistry lab, I go into the kitchen for temporary artistic gratification.
This past weekend, we were vegging out on a balmy Saturday morning watching Food Network when we both decided to make it cooking weekend right after, resulting in both of springing up from the otherwise comfy sofa, ran out of the door, zoomed the car out of the driveway and hit the supermarket (ok, not that dramatic – but close). We just HAD to try making chocolate souffle IMMEDIATELY – after merely seeing a souffle on TV for 4 seconds (yes, we are visual people).
I was tasked to run back and forth to my Macbook to check the recipe and read it out to DH.
DH will only move his hands with exact instructions. He won’t go with “Whisk until naik“. What is ‘until naik’“, he’d ask and I would painfully explain until it hardens at the top at least.
“Define harden!” he’d quip, with his hands still on the handheld whisker and looking very unimpressed with my reading the recipe. And I’d reply nonchalantly -“Until you can see it!”. And so the drama ensues…
Its hilarious. We can never make a cooking team on Iron Chef. We will raise our voices, debate, poke each other with the laddle to prove a point and many other very rude gestures in a typical Malay husband-wife dynamics. I remember when he decided to make some instant lemang from Adabi – he had a post-it with exact remarks like – “Flip after 45 minutes, put more water after 10 minutes…” and carry the post-it around the house so he won’t forget !!
He also takes his time when whisking, mixing until he reads the NEXT instruction. I can’t do that, if I am in the kitchen with him as his sous chef, I’d be flipping with anxiety knowing some things will harden anyway because of his slow speed. Or so I thought.
But our cooking weekend is always a blast. We love our differing personalities and always laugh at each other’s antics. I, being the woman that I am – always INSIST I know better because I am female. And he will be armed with a list of retorts on why men make better chefs. I should seriously tape one of these cooking sessions and make a TV series out of it.
We made Chocolate Souffle on Saturday and Quilt Pie (pictured above) on Sunday morning together. He also Baked Chicken with Tangerine Salad for dinner on Saturday. I suppose his ‘chemistry lab’ is brewing with good food anyways, and I should not complain.