I admit, I had not read Soma's blog in some time. When I got to reading it, I discovered she has laid down some ground rules for complicated cooking and really complicated cooking. They are:

1) try sticking to only one kind of spice while cooking (eg. panch phoron/black cumin/ cumin seeds and not zerra dhaniya , garam masala all together..if you know what I mean).

The Mars-Venus rule applies here too. I have noticed that men generally tend to use 10,000 different masalas together - right from Mexican Chicken marinade to American lemon pepper (Trina tells me that you do not find lemon pepper on the other side of the Atlantic) to Bengali Panch foron - and create magic out of it. Although each experiment yields a different result, it is always novel. Every meal is a surprise when a man cooks, even for the cook himself. Women, on the other hand, are conservative by nature. So, they would make curry that tastes the same every day of their life. One's consistency is another's boredom.

2) do not use sugar in cooking excepting in making desserts.

Soma, you are a Bangal, and so am I. Just try telling this to edeshis. They use sugar in everything from shaak to machhbhaja. (Imagine the plight of a Bangal who has an edeshi partner). However, there is one exception to this rule. You can use sugar in the heavy curries to add colour. What you do is add half-a-spoonful as soon as the oil is hot. The caramel gives a crimson hue - even light curries look heavy.

Anyway, Soma is the greatest Biriyani artist that I have seen in my generation. So, she can talk about these issues with some authority. I just hope that she puts up some more of her really really complicated recipes on her blog. They are not that complicated though :)