UAE: Indian home cook from Dubai who can make a 100 dishes using a waffle maker

UAE: Indian home cook from Dubai who can make a 100 dishes using a waffle maker

When Kiran Kataria, 57 years, first landed in Dubai, she couldn't even roll out a chapatti. Today, the Indian homemaker can whip up to a 100 dishes using just a waffle iron. You read that right, just a humble waffle maker. Kataria stumbled upon the wonders of this garden-variety breakfast gadget during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, when she was bored and isolated. Deprived of social gatherings and outings, stress and ennui drove the self-confessed social butterfly to keep busy in the kitchen. "I got nervous and decided to see what I could make with a waffle iron, since I'd already been using our sandwich maker to grill food since 2014.“ Her sandwich maker-turned-grill discovery comes with a fascinating anecdote too. One fine day, when the JLT-resident Kataria's stove gave up the ghost mid-cooking, she decided to complete grilling her half-done vegetables on a sandwich maker. She's never looked back since and continues to grill okras, capsicums and aubergines stuffed or marinated in dry spices. Realising the potential of her kitchen appliances to function over and beyond what they were originally intended for has also helped Kataria lose weight. Oil-free cooking cut to the top of