For the Cooking-Challenged!!. Review on Bawarchi

''I'll bet what motivated the British to colonize India is that they were just looking for a decent meal.''

Martha Harrison

Even in this cholesterol-sensitive era, few cooks have tried to trim the fat from Indian food. And who could blame them? Traditional Indian cooking relies on rich ingredients and faith. If you're going to eat aloo paranthas with a dollop (or in my case with 2 dollops) of butter, one huge glass of sugar rich lassi topped off by Gajar ka Halwa, you must have faith that your arteries won't clamp shut before you get up from the table.

I will review Bawarchi.com from the Bachelor point of view. Its what comes naturally to me...fighting as I have been with repeated cooking disasters!

It is very easy for a typical bachelor to follow the wonderfully simple and easy recipes listed at this web site. For a typical bachelor, 4 points are of importance:

The recipes must be :

a) With as few ingredients as possible

b) With only spices commonly present in households

c) Without any complicated cooking instructions - everything

should ideally just be thrown together and heated :)

d) Ideally cheap (So that more money can be spend on beers and partying :))

Bawarchi.com is aesthetically very pleasing to the eye. There are no fancy graphics, no distractions, the colour scheme is consistent & pleasing and the raison d'être of the site is obvious: this is a no nonsense, no frill site, devoted solely to the culinary pleasures.

There are sections for veggies, non-veggies and Jain veggies. Check out the Chicken Tikka Masala in the non-veggie section, the panner makhanwala in the Jain section and the dum aloo in the veggie section...yummm!!

There is a tips section, which is very very useful, there are a lot of handy tips in this section, like, I bet you didn?t know that day old bread slices can be substituted for cake if cake is not available at hand, or that Salads can be made very decorative, by using normally discarded skins of apples, peas, cucumbers, etc. Wow. I mean, that is profound!

There is even a beauty tip hidden here( guys, don't even try this...ladies, I am sure this will be helpful!)--- Have an invigorating bath by finishing off with a bucketful of water to which 3 tbsp. of white vinegar, 2 tbsp. rose water and a few drops of your favourite flowery essence has been added. The vinegar makes skin supple and avoids the dryness and scaliness of skin

There is the mandatory reader's contribution section, in which I found some very cool recipes...check out the Microwave Bhindi masala.

There is an excellent section on Menus and their Selection, like there is a menu for people suffering from diabetes. In the health and nutrition section, we have Saroj (me thinks she is the big kahuna of this site) responding to reader's queries, though I am sure if she were to respond to some of my queries, she would probably quit her job...I mean, I am your typical bachelor guy who likes things in cooking to be with the minimum fuss, and generally tends to ask many stupid questions when it comes to cooking!!

There are plenty of mouth watering sweets in the festivals section, which has all the traditional festival recipes....check out the dishes in the Navratri section. There are sections devoted to Amul and Dhara...nice recipes there. Bawarchi.com also has a nutrition section for the health freaks among us, where a registered dietician and nutritionist answers reader queries.

There is a glossary section, which lists the Indian and English terms of cooking, along with measurement conversions. This, I feel, is the most important tool a budding cook needs. Another impressive feature of this site is that they have links to other food sites, so that if you can't find what you re looking for here, you can try at another site!

I would recommend Bawarchi.com to everyone, but especially to the bachelor's out there. All the recipes are easy to follow, written in a language that the cooking-challenged can comprehend easily, and the recipes are no-fuss, easy to cook. Most of these recipes are pure old-fashioned heart-exploding goodness ;)

''The receipts of cookery are swelled to a volume; but a good stomach excels them all.''

William Penn (1644-1718)