Table of Contents Introduction Basic Equipment And Essential Pantry Items What Should Be In Your Cupboards Important Items for your Storage Room Different Traditional Sauces Hot Curry Paste Traditional Garam Masala Tandoori Mix Traditional Meat Curry Paste Understanding A Recipe Skillet Chicken My Way Simmering Chicken and Stock Preparation Poaching Chicken Rice Learning How to Recognize Rice Measurements - Liquid and Solid Teaspoons vs. Tablespoons in recipes Simple Pasta recipe Tips for Deep Frying Eggs, eggs, and more eggs Boiling Eggs Poached Eggs Fried Eggs Traditional scrambled Eggs Omelettes Conclusion Author Bio Publisher Introduction You do not have to be an expert professional Chef to become a good cook. In fact, cooking is one of the most satisfying of hobbies, once you get started by letting your creativity loose. Once upon a time, there was an old-fashioned attitude prevailing all over the world, that cooking came under the heading of a women's duty, prerogative, and work. Luckily, with the passing of time, more and more men are getting past this prejudice, especially in our modern world, when professions are not gender-based. In fact, most of the more popular and expert cooks in the world today are men. If you look at ancient times, you are going to read about Royal kitchens, where the helpers in the kitchen were always men and women, slaves in ancient civilizations, but the head cook was always a man. In Egypt, Greece, Rome, and even Asian civilizations and countries like China, Japan, Korea, and India, the master cook was almost always a man. The idea that cooking was the job of a woman, came from the fact, that a man could not be tied to the cooking pots, when he had to do the hunting of the food, or farming it on the land outside. Soon, as time went by, women began setting out their own boundaries in the household, and this included cooking. This arrangement worked well, up to the middle of the 20th century in developed countries, when there began to be a slow and steady change in mental outlook, especially in the roles of men and women in the house and the duties they had to do. But in older civilizations, especially where traditions still linger on, men are allowed into the kitchen, they want to cook, but they are not encouraged! I remember, in the 70s, when my maternal grandmother never allowed me to come into the kitchen, because that was her area. She had not encouraged her sons or daughters to learn how to cook either, and that did not serve them well, in a traditional society, especially after they got married! However, my paternal grandmother came from a family, where the menfolk enjoyed their food and they were quite capable of kicking up a fuss, if the food was not served according to their own tastes, specifications, and made exactly as they wanted it made. And that is why, they came into the kitchen, to give the food, their own personal touch, with spices and the last seasoning, before it was to be served up, piping hot. And so, thankfully, because father had seen his father and his grandfather entering the family kitchen – of course, after leaving their shoes outside, their wives insisted on that – he also became a bit of a foodie. And that is why, even though he is 85, he leaves the basic cooking to me, which is the womenfolk do the cooking, grinding, chopping, and all the heavyweight jobs and the men do the tasting, experimenting, stirring, etc.! Unless of course he wants to make something special on his own.