How do our food experts cook and eat? This week, Erasha of the mom-daughter duo behind @podihandscook takes our Q&A!
1. Your first memory of cooking?
- Growing up, my mother used to bake a lot. I remember helping her by cracking eggs, holding the beater, buttering the cake tin etc. The smell of a freshly baked cake… there’s nothing much that can top that.
2. How did Podi Hands Cook come about?
- Podi Hands Cook started out as a photo journal on Instagram to document my kitchen adventures with my daughter, Miss Podi Hands. She loves helping me cook. She used to be a very picky eater but would be more open to trying new flavours and textures if she helped make it. Then, there were many requests for recipes, so we started our website PodiHandsCook.lk to inspire and help other kids and adults on their own cooking journeys.
3. What’s your mom-daughter dynamic on your cooking adventures?
- It depends on the dish. She cuts, preps veggies, cracks eggs, rolls out rotti, works with cookie dough, assembles desserts and loves baking cakes. I need to measure out ingredients and help with the more complex components. Then, usually I just supervise the actual making as she can manage by herself. The dynamic changes drastically however, when Malla (Podi Man) wants to help too. He’s a four-year-old whirlwind and is very, let’s call it, “enthusiastic”, so needs a much closer eye and a lot more guidance.
4. What was your favourite childhood meal?
- Yellow rice, dhal curry, ala thel dhala, chicken curry, brinjal moju and cutlets! I love love love cutlets but never make them! I make yellow rice meals like this off and on, but it’s not the same as eating it in your childhood home. We would almost always (and still do) have a special yellow rice lunch like this at my parents’ house on Sunday. Most Sunday’s the extended family would gather and it would be one of those long lunches that just go on for hours.
5. Dead or alive, who would be your dream dinner-party guests to cook for?
- Nigella Lawson (I love her), J K Rowling (will beg her to write a prequel), Tom Hiddleston (why not, am I right?) and Oprah Winfrey (hopefully she’ll bring me all her favourite things). I’d love to cook something utterly Sri Lankan like Cutlets and Egg Boats with my signature Pink cocktail to start off with, followed by String hoppers, Chicken curry, Ala kiri hodhi, Devilled lingus and Pol sambol with my Chocolate Mousse CBP and a Very Berry Pavlova for dessert. It has to be a feast after all!
6. The most exotic food you’ve eaten?
- I’ve had eel at a local Sushi place and those obscure meats and crunchy bits on sticks on the streets of Bangkok. But, a more memorable exotic experience would be the Cassis Plum Dessert at the 2am Dessert Bar in Singapore, which was featured as a Pressure Test dish on Masterchef Australia 2015.
7. Your favourite odd food pairing?
- Nai miris sauce and grapes! You wouldn’t think it’ll work, but it really does.
8. As a recipe developer, your proudest food invention?
- My Harry Potter inspired Butterbeer Biscuit Pudding. A close second is my Cheese and Bacon Cookie recipe.
9. What’s a dish you’d love to relive for the first time?
- The Earthquake, from Swenson’s. It’s got 8 scoops of ice cream with 8 different toppings!!!!
10. How did you stay sane during lockdown?
- Surprisingly, lockdown didn’t affect me too badly. We were blessed with food to eat and a safe space to live in, with outdoor space for the kids to play in. Meal planning (to help with food rations), sticking to a routine/schedule with plenty of outdoor-garden time, reading and “special activities” like picnics, pancake platters for dinner and movie nights for the kids helped us all though.
11. What fail-safe recipe from your blog would you recommend?
- Chocolate Mousse CBP and my No Bake Tropical Cheesecake.
12. Your favourite leftovers?
- Any yummy meat curry! It just infuses overnight and everything tastes better the next day. Also, any kind of party food. You’re usually too busy to actually enjoy the food, if you are hosting an event. So, leftovers to gorge on while relaxing in front of your favourite show the next day are always welcome.
13. Do the cooking or have someone cook for you?
- Definitely have someone cook for me! Unless someone will do all my mise-en-place, cleaning, serving and washing up.
14. If you are put on the spot to prepare a dish – savoury or sweet?
- Savoury! It’ll be a version of my dad’s Jaggery Pork dish with jaggery, soy sauce and plenty of fresh Scotch Bonnet chilies and lemongrass!
15. Your favourite recipe that has been passed down to you from family?
- Our love cake recipe, which my mother always makes at Christmas. It’s one of those generational recipes and I may be biased, but it’s the best love cake I’ve ever tasted.
16. What is your favourite part about cooking with your daughter?
- I guess it’s the whole act of just passing everything down. I come from a family of really good cooks; both my parents, my maternal grandmother and my aunt are very good cooks. Entertaining people and serving good food was a family affair; my love of food and cooking came from my family, so I love that I’m passing it on to my kids. She also guides Podi Man now- and she’s so patient and a very good tiny teacher. So, I love that she (at least for the moment) seems to be following in my footsteps.
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