Life Coach - Kaikaku - 6 - tastebook

I read that mixing 3 parts of wheat flour with 1 part of rice flour makes the roti soft for hours after preparation.
I did not like the rotis made in langar - they were not fully cooked or if cooked has black spots on them. The reason for this was the number of rotis that were to be cooked plus the scarcity of time to do so. I decided that instead of 6 inch rotis, we make 12 inch rotis and focus on cooking them properly.
Just 2 instances that made rotis of my langar palaptable.

Most of us have made some improvements in the langar house. For example Col Deshmukh tiled the walls, the floor and the ceiling of the butchery. A rotating shower at the top with a sloping floor and drains all around ensured cleanliness in minutes.

So if we could share our improvements in the cook house - an army marches on its stomach, we would all benefit.

Imagine feeding an army of 12 lacs strength at one go and the options available to meet the taste buds given the resources. We do actually feed an army of 12 lacs at one time, since most of us eat at the same time though we are separated spatially.
And it is a wonder that we still have the same menu that were there maybe 50 years back or at least 20 years when I ate the first time in an officer's mess. It means that in 20 years we have not evolved much in cooking.

I cook due to necessity. Indian food is costly in US, my wife works full time and we want our daughter to like Indian food. So I end up cooking at least a meal a day for the family. I frequent cooking blogs and search recipes. If I find a good one, I try it out and if it works out well, I store it for repetition in future in tastebook. com.

Imagine a repository of recipes used by various cook houses with the additional information on innovations. We can ensure good taste from the same ingredients. Will we need to teach our cooks to browse - why not. Will they learn - you will be surprised? I gave my RR cook a recipe book in Marathi with 500 recipes and asked him to make one daily with whatever was available. He put it to good use. In our 67 mess we sent our cook to work in a popular restaurant in the evenings. 2 weeks later he surprised us with his new found skills - the first dish we had from him was sizzler - I guess none of you have ever eaten this in the mess. The idea of the cook being sent out was of my CO. But it opened my eyes, that do not accept the mediocre. If officers feel that the hotels make better food then something is wrong with our cooks or us.

If we can create a similar tastebook.com for our cooks, the options are endless, decide what you want to eat, and it will tell you the exact raw materials, the calorie content, etc etc.