Have you always been interested in cooking new things? Does the idea of baking a batch of chocolatey brownies bring a wide grin on your face? Obviously you love cooking. So far, the faithful helper of a would-be chef was probably a fat recipe book written by Sanjeev Kapoor or maybe Tarla Dalal.

The recipes in those books always look so fantastic. But when we actually try them, it’s very rare that they end up looking like that. I have been frustrated myself so many times because I tried making something that I found in a recipe book and the end result looked nothing like the picture in the book that had me drooling.

The answer to almost everything today lies with the Internet. And here also, the Internet comes to the rescue of every would-be chef out there. No, I’m not talking about the websites of these great chefs that take so long to load, and which ask you to register and sign in and do a whole lot of annoying things. Simply look for your favourite recipes in the blog world.

Yes. You do know what a blog is right? It’s like a personal diary, which isn’t really personal because you’re putting it up for practically any person in the world to read. There are various kinds of blogs. Personal blogs, technical blogs, creative blogs and of course, food blogs.

Food blogs are written by people who have a passion for cooking and who want to share it with the world. So in these blogs you will find out about which recipe they have tried today, and how it turned out. Not only that, some of these people even take photos of each step and paste it on their blogs and they provide step-by-step
instructions on how to make anything. While you might think that this isn’t really different from a recipe website, this is where you’re wrong. A recipe website will simply give you the picture and recipe. But it won’t tell you that if you stirred the fudge for an extra five minutes, it might turn rock-hard. Or it might not tell you to add that secret something to make your pakodas simply mouth-watering. But in food blogs, people are less restrained and more open to share their food secrets with you.

I recently wanted to make pav bhaji but I was lazy to hunt around for my recipe book where I had
jotted it down. So I simply typed ‘pav bhaji+blog’ in google, and I came across this food blog that gave me such a fabulous recipe, that every one refused to believe me that I had such lip-smacking pav bhaji! The secret to it was that the blog author clearly stated not to use onions while starting to cook the bhaji. Use finely chopped capsicum, she said wisely. I followed and voila, soon my house smelled like Shiv Sagar or anywhere else where you get the best pav bhaji ever!

Also, a food blog is encouraging to the average cook like you or me. While the pictures they put up may look amazing, it makes you more confident to try out the recipe, because you know that maybe you too might end up making a concoction like that.

In most recipes you might come across some fancy ingredients. Often, the recipe will not tell you where to get the ingredient or what you can possibly substitute. But in a food blog, the writer/cook will tell you which shop they bought it from, and how they used something else when the particular ingredient was not available. After all, the blog is not a cut and dried recipe listing. It’s a story in itself. The writer /cook will share their experience with you, right from the time they picked out the apples from the market; to the time they put it inside a pie and placed it in an oven!

This last aspect is what I like most about food blogs. It’s almost like asking your mother or aunt for a recipe! What’s more, if you have any doubts, you can leave comments to the writer and they might get back to you too.
The next time you want to surprise your mother with something special you made in the kitchen, hunt around in the blog world. Simply enter the name of the recipe you want to make like this in the Google search bar: Chocolate fudge+blog and hit ‘enter’. You’ll be surprised at the number of searches Google will throw your way.
A note of caution: Do understand that every recipe often turns out in a different way because each cook/chef is unique. While you might not be able to make something exactly like how it’s shown in the blog, definitely you’ll be halfway there!

Feel free to get in touch with me if you have any doubts. You can contact me at andaleeb.w@gmail.com.