Anyway, coming back to the point. Five years ago, I called every adult who knew cooking to figure out the best way to prepare it. Piyush's grand-mom and my grand-mom had the same recipe. So, that was the one short-listed.
My mom (and MIL) told me to clean it very carefully. Each leaf should be separated, cleaned and cut for good taste. I separated primary stem, secondary stem, tertiary stem, quaternary stem, quin...well you get the story. For cleaning one bunch, I took around 10 days. The vegetable had started turning yellow. But, I was relentless. I ruined my eye-sight, hands and ego over it. Yes, ego!! Every other female I knew finished the job in twenty minutes, max. I know, you all know me as the most modest person ever. But, even the most modest person (like me!!) faces these tiny ego wars. Only if I had known that a day like yesterday was lurking in five years.
What was so special abt yesterday??? Yesterday I had external motivation which enabled me to clean an entire bunch of dill in five minutes flat. No exaggeration. My husband had started to steal the military helicopter and he had not bumped into the mountains even once and I was done with it. (Okay, in GTA V. In real life, my husband wont even pick an extra mint from a lunch.)
For those who are still with the story and have not ran off after GTA V, this is how I achieved that feat. My daughter was cleaning it with me. She started by picking on the tiny leaves. She thought it was a competition and she was losing. So, she started breaking the stems willy-nilly. That did not seem to work too well, either. Then she gave a serious thought. Tried to wear it in her hair, feed it to the soft toys, wave it on the TV, twirl with it, hit mommy with it. Nothing was working. Then after consistent efforts and perseverance she got it. It was most fun to tickle people with. Luckily, she had two human subjects for the experimentation. She tried on me first. Worked like a charm. Had to try the other human species. Worked even better. I think that was when my husband started losing control - of the military helicopter, that is - in GTA V.
Me and my husband are both very ticklish, by the way. No. Don't go on that path. I haven't, since she started walking; no, crawling. Sigh. Anyway, so, it worked for both of us. She was having fun and I finished cleaning my bunch of dill before my husband crashed. And yes, my husband did crash.
Conclusion of the story?? Nothing works as a better motivator. Not yelling. Not love. Not practice. The fastest way of cleaning a bunch of greens is having your 2.5, nearly 3-yr-old help you with it. I challenge anyone else to do better. THE END.
P.S: Dill (Anethum graveolens), also known as Lao coriander.In India, dill is known as shepu (शेपू) in Marathi and Konkani, savaa in Hindi or soa in Punjabi. (Courtesy: Wikipedia)
P.P.S. : I am not going to explain GTA V.
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