I have been feeling particularly lazy to cook these last few weeks which is surprising since I love to cook so much.
In the last few months since I ran out of the rat race ( I realised I was not a rat and didn't much fancy racing anyway) I have been exploring my cooking skills and thoroughly enjoying it.
Had I not been so greedy as to devour my creations instantly I probably would've blogged them and had quite a few posts to show here.

Anyway as of today I was feeling too lazy and too hungry to really cook, but unfortunately unlike my mother who can sprinkle some salt on parboiled cabbage and devour it as if it was a wedding feast (which it WOULD probably be for my wedding if she has a say) I am more like my father. I imagine my most favourite food, childhood goodies that I had eaten in an aunt's house who I have never seen since, my mind swirls as I imagine the flavours and the spices and only make myself hungrier.
But unlike my father I know better than to actually display the rage at the most likely event of being served boiled cabbage instead. Nevertheless, I am PISSED OFF.

So a common predicament these days for me reaching a compromise between my lazy self and my hungry self. As so it happens I chanced upon a packet of Maggie Noodles (shudder shudder).
Bachelor food??? I can't eat bachelor food!
I may be single and living alone, not to mention currently lazy but I am most certainly not a shuffling-dusty-Bata-floater-footed-6-month-old-jeans-wearing-trimesterly-bathing-smelly- bachelor!
Over the years of living alone, the image that flashes to my mind as I think of Maggie has shifted from the bunch of cute 8 year olds back from school demanding for "Maggi Maggi Maggi" to a bunch of ragged 20 something boys shoveling packets of the damn thing in to a dirty electric kettle (how old is that water?? yechhh!)

I did what I usually go when faced with a predicament. I JFGIed. I went through about 20 recipes and decided they would all taste the same anyway, which would be just like what my mum makes when she wants my silly brother to eat his veggies (even at this age yeah! tsk tsk tsk).
Thats when I closed my eyes and did a quick scan of all the memorable Maggies I had consumed and found one that really stood out.

As a child I refused to eat Maggi without ketchup. Now that I think of it I did'nt even like ketchup but I think I was just being whiny.
One day in 1988 after the Maggi was made and served, a sudden whisper spread from the kitchens though the household that the last drop of tomato sauce was liquidised thrice and thwacked out of the bottle. The Maggi was made and getting cold fast, the men folk were all away at work, there was no one to go or to be sent to the store to buy more, the snotty little terror was already suspecting something and heading to the kitchen to investigate. Aiyyyoooo! What do we do?

That was like a common scenario in the house those days ha ha :P.

So my aunt sat me down and told me the truth about what I had to eat the one and onle time in her life. There is no ketchup and there is nothing we can do about it so will you try to eat it plain or should I squeeze a lemon into it?
So a lemon was squeezed and found to be surprisingly good by one and all and it was a happy day in good ol 612 that day.
I never tried it again but always remembered how good it actually was.

So here goes my version of Lemon Corn Maggi. And look I've actually remembered to take a picture!.

What you need:

A small onion - finely sliced chinese style.
Green chilly - 1 or 2 according to your taste,slit and finely chopped
Frozen Sweet Corn - a handful. I had a packet in the freezer and just followed directions till it was ready to eat.
Chilli powder - to taste
Dhanya powder - a pinch
Oil to fry

What to do:

And of course a packet of Maggi masala noodles with the taste maker.

Before you get down to the cooking, seperate the Maggi into the full pieces and the broken bits.By broken bits I mean the fully seperated bits you find in the bottom of the packet, they should still be stuck together even in small pieces.
I kept a fairly equal portion of both. But you can figure it as you like.

Heat a little oil in a pan and add the onions and chilli.
Fry till the onion turns golden brown.
Toss in the Maggi tastemaker, chilli powder, dhanya powder and the broken bits and let it fry for a while.
Then add the corn and stir fry for bout a minute. You might need to add a little salt at this point for the corn.
Now pour in bout one and a half cups of water into the mixture. Stir it in and let it boil.
Once it starts to boil add the remaining Maggi and let it cook as usual.
When it has cooked to your liking turn off the flame and squeeze a lime over it and mix it in.

What I learnt:

1. No matter what the instructions say boil the corn for bout 5 minutes anyway.
2. The broken bits that were fried in first were also more flavoured. That gave a nice edge to the whole thing.
3. The dhanya powder I was slightly doubtful about complemented the lemon beautifully.
4. Frying the veggies first and boiling it along with the noodles is better than trying to mix precooked noodles into the veggies which turns lumpy and hurts my wrist for weeks.
5. The lime I had in the fridge was a little old and hard as a rock so due to my aforementioned delicate wrists I cut it into half and popped it into the micro on a whim. It was eazzee squeezee all the way through.

So here's the picture I finally took. It is not a very good one but heck I was hungry!!.

As you can see I did add a drop of ketchup to my plate to test my memory.

I really didn't touch the sauce a second time.

What I learned about me:

I don't remember dates, names , faces, anniversaries, conversations, movies, books, people, birthdays, phonecalls, numbers, words a lot of times but it doesnt really bother me that much.

I remember flavours and events that transpired around them. And when I am hungry and don't get what I want I get PISSED OFF.

What does that mean about me?
Go figure....