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Keeping it real in the kitchen

While I was momentarily intrigued by the potential of multifunctional ‘robots’ to make cooking-related work lighter, I struggle to imagine losing my autonomy around culinary chores

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Losing out on the collaborative possibilities of cooking with my kids feels like too high a price to pay. Representation Pic/istock

Losing out on the collaborative possibilities of cooking with my kids feels like too high a price to pay. Representation Pic/istock

Rosalyn D’MelloUnnerved by the inefficiency of our hand mixer, I found myself longing for the cheap Bajaj mixer I had bought when I moved into my apartment in Kailash Hills, which served me well for almost 10 years. When I was setting up our first rental apartment in Tramin, I hadn’t fathomed the extent to which the food I was accustomed to cooking depended on a good blender. Mediterranean culinary traditions make do with either a mortar and pestle or a hand-held mixer. This meant that the shop we visited in Bozen had no other options. For five years, I have been making do with the hand blender we settled for back then. I curse it each time I use it. The cafreal masala I make with green chillies and fresh coriander as the base always feels too coarse or not puréed enough. I evolved all kinds of hacks to make the process smoother — substituting whole spices with their powdered equivalents, using pre-made ginger-garlic paste, adding more water than I normally would — but I rarely manage to keep my frustration at bay.

So, the other day, I had a look at my finances and decided I could potentially afford something called a ‘Bimby’. I first used this device, marketed as a ‘kitchen robot’, several years ago, when I was contributing to a charity baking sale at the Tramin Christmas market. I was amazed by how the same gadget could be used to weigh, grind and knead ingredients. I did a preliminary search online and suddenly felt both overwhelmed and horrified by the sheer range of functions the device could eloquently perform, from chopping to grating to weighing to blending to steaming, roasting, and stewing. If you pressed a button initiating a left-ward rotation, it could even make you a risotto! You just needed to usher in the ingredients. Intrigued, I had a look at the cost, around two lakh rupees.

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