A Bowl of Elusive

Up until last year, we had employed a cook, whose cooking left a lot to desire. So we ended up ordering a lot of food from restaurants as we were unhappy with the food she cooked. After a while, we compared the expenses and decided it would be better if we let the cook go and ate outside or toggled cooking ourselves and eating out. So we gave her a month's notice and then I started cooking for two. Now my approach to cooking is simple - I follow recipes, which means I like things the way they should be. For instance, if I am making noodles, my carrots would be cut into super-fine juliennes and that is a time-consuming process of cooking. My wife insists that she would be happy with a lot less and maybe she would be, but I just can't get myself to compromise on my process.  It usually takes me whole afternoons to cook these meals - it's a lot of work, but I love it when a meal turns out well. I don't make very fancy stuff, just usual Indian dishes but the way they are tr