Like Cook for instance!
My first attempt at cooking under no supervision whatsoever, was to make French Toast. Sounds simple in theory. Here is the exact recipe my mother wrote down to help me hone my culinary skills: French Toast
It sounds relatively simple. Mix everything. Soak Bread. Fry.
But is it really that facile for a rookie chef?
Roadblock 1:
The instructions said half a cup of Milk. Which cup!!??
Mayyyyybe i should pick the big one..just in case..
Roadblock 2:
Do u recall the first time you broke an egg? Apparently just the right amount of force does the trick. Not too much not too little. Who would have guessed that i was bordering on the stronger side!? *thump..crack!.."OOPS!"..*
Do i really have to clean it Now??!
Roadblock 3:
On tasting the milk-egg-rose essence-sugar mix, it wasn't sweet enough. So another spoonful of sugar went in along with two more drops of rose essence. Big Mistake! I didnt account for the sweetness of the bread.
A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down..
Roadblock 4:
Soak the bread..for how long? Oh well, i just let it soak for 5min or so.. In my defense, the phone call i had to attend right then seemed pretty important, irrelevant if the matter of discussion was a typical Who-said-What.
Apparently if you leave the bread to soak for a long time, it breaks into tiny bits.. yeah, who knew!?
Roadblock 5:
I take the pieces of bread (they can't be called slices anymore) and drop them on the hot frying pan with oil. I leave it for awhile to get well done. Next thing i know, there is smoke and the unmistakable smell of charring food!
Nope.. Definitely was the bad kinda burnt..
..not the I-Just-found-Jesus kind!
Roadblock 6:Quickly flip the pieces after scraping them off the bottom of the pan. Flipping the slices over if not done right can lead to further breaking of these slices/pieces of bread into smaller bits.
Roadblock 7:
The dexterity with which one heaps all the bread bits (from slices to pieces to bits) onto a plate is unfathomable. 75% landed on the plate while 30% met the floor and the rest 5% just refused to leave the pan.
After this entire process of French Toast making, which involved too much milk, too sweet, bread soaked too long, erratic frying techniques what i got was a rather odd product.
It looked like Scrambled Eggs and tasted like Bread Pudding!
But it sure as hell wasn't FrenchToast!
......hmm.....hey......not bad.......YUM!
