Recipe: Thenkuzhal and Manoharam (2 in 1 sweet and salty crunchies)

After reading my posts on a Kerala Iyer Wedding, friends have been asking me why I still have not written about Seer Bakshanam and most importantly Sambandhi Sandai. I will write about these later.

In the meanwhile I have been busy with my vattal making and my annual squash preparations.

I also had to send some snacks for our handsome and charming son through a friend who was visiting India. I decided to write about that first.

This time around, I made the family favourite of sweet and salty crunchies. The salty variety is known as Thenkuzhal and the sweet variety is known as Manoharam. I also made melon seeds halwa and kanupodi.

Thenkuzhal literally means “tubes of honey”. Perhaps it got the name because it looks like a hollow tube. In the olden days, peolple who used to collect produce from the forest used to bring back honey that they collected in the hollow of a bamboo tree. Curiously, thenkuzhal is not a sweet preparation.

Manoharam means “simply beautiful or delicious”. This crunchy sweet just melts in the mouth. This is one of the favourites which is used to fill the Parupputhengai kudu and to make the “kuttys” during the wedding and other functions. Many such kuttys are needed for a wedding. Usually, South Indian sweets are soft. Manoharam is a rare crunchy sweet.

Let us move on and see how the 2 in 1 sweet and salty crunchies are prepared. The ingredients are the same for both. My mother used to make this with rice flour and urad dal powder. I have learned a tastier combination from my cousin-in-law, Rajam. I like this combination better, it is simply delicious. Thanks Rajam!

Both of these preparations require a mould to shape the dough. It is a container with a mould at one end. this mould has differently shaped and sized holes for the dough to squeeze through. a piston is used to squeeze the dough through.


Ingredients:

Rice flour : 2 cups
Bengal gram dal : 2/3 cup
Green gram : 1/3 cup
Urad dal : 1 tbsp.
Butter : 2 tbsp.

The above ingredients are same for both thenkuzhal and manoharam. Roast the bengal gram dal and green gram and urad dal separately, until they turn slightly pink in colour and a nice aroma emanates. Cool and powder them together to a very fine consistency. Sieve to ensure fineness. The proportion is, 1 cup of mixed grams powder to 2 cups of rice flour.

Additional ingredients for Thenkuzhal:
Hing or asafoetida : size of a pea, soaked in water (one may use hing powder also)
Jeera : 1 tsp.
Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying.

Method:

Sieve the rice flour and the gram flour together. Knead the butter and salt together by hand in a wide pan. Add the flour, jeera, hing and enough water to make a stiff dough (stiffer than chapathi dough). Heat oil. When the oil smokes, press the dough through the mould using the plate with 5 plain holes. Remove from oil when cooked. This is Thenkuzhal. Enjoy!



For Manoharam:

Make the dough using rice flour, gram flour, butter and only a pinch of salt and fry as above. Fry the dough into thenkuzhal as above.

Break the fried thenkuzhal into 1” pieces.

For 1 measure of broken thenkuzhal use the following ingredients:

Jaggery : 3/4 measure ( sugar also can be used instead of jaggery)
Coconut or copra pieces : 2 tbsp.
Dried ginger powder : 1 tbsp.


Melt the jaggery in 1 cup of water. Strain to remove any impurities or sand. Pour into a thick bottomed wide pan, add the the coconut pieces and boil to get a very thick syrup. To test the thickness of the syrup, drop half teaspoon syrup into little cold water; it should make a hard stone like ball. (Care should be taken to boil the syrup to a thick consistency or the thenkuzhal will become soggy). Remove from stove add the dried ginger powder and broken thenkuzhal. Keep stirring with a long and firm spatula until all the pieces are coated with the syrup and the pieces are separated. This is a slightly tedious process. Enjoy the delicious manoharam!

Recipe: Kashi Halwa

Having aroused the appetite of everybody by giving a big list of the goodies we had during the wedding, I feel it only proper to give the recipe of some of the goodies we had. We already have recipes of Rava Kesari, Aviyal, Olan, Nendran Chips, Sarkkarai puratti, Sambar, Kalan, Idli Molagai podi, Puliyodarai, etc.

We will now prepare Kashi Halwa. Many people are under the impression that Kashi Halwa is some special sweet of the city of Kashi or Benares. Far from it, Kashi Phal in Hindi means ash gourd or winter melon, Vellai Pooshanikkai in Tamil, Elavan or Kumbalanga in Malayalam, Kumbalakkai in Kannada Boodha Gummidikkai in Telugu. This vegetable is cooling, and also a laxative and diuretic. Additionally, it supplies bulk with a low calorie count. The juice of this vegetable is said to have many medicinal properties. This vegetable can be used to prepare many dishes (for instance, olan). Kashi Halwa, however tops the list.

To prepare Kashi Halwa, one must use fully mature ash gourd, which is heavy for its size. When cut it should be firm and not spongy. The vegetable should be peeled, washed, deseeded and grated. The gratings should be squeezed to remove all the water content. The gratings should be dry. Do not throw away the water. It can be used as vegetable stock for preparing soups or even sambar or rasam or dal.

Ingredients:

Grated and squeezed ash gourd : 2 cups
Milk : 1 cup
Sugar : 1 cup
Ghee : 3 tbsp.
Saffron : 2 – 3 strands
Orange food color : a pinch
Cashew nuts(broken) : 1 tbsp
Raisins : 1 tbsp.
Cardamom powder : ½ tsp.

Boil the milk and cook the grated and squeezed ash gourd in the milk. (I did it in a pressure cooker, so that by the time the ash gourd cooks the milk also thickens). Mix the saffron in a little milk and add to the cooked ash gourd. Mix the food color also in a little milk and add to the cooked ash gourd. In a heavy bottomed pan, heat 2 tbsp. of ghee and saute the cooked ash gourd in it for 5 minutes, Add the sugar and keep stirring until all the sugar is absorbed and the mixture starts leaving the sides of the pan. Add one tbsp. of ghee and mix well. Add the cardomom powder and remove from the stove. Heat the remaining ghee in a pan and add the cashew nuts and raisins. When the cashew nuts turn light pink in color pour onto the halwa. Mix well.

Enjoy the delicious Kashi halwa!

The Wedding (IV)

When I started writing about Kerala Iyer Wedding, I thought I had just enough material for one post. Little did I realise that I had just touched the tip of the iceberg. Many of our friends have been asking me to write the most important event of the Kerala Iyer Weddings, namely the Sadhya or the special feast which is the most important part of the wedding. As I have always said, Kerala Iyers are expert cooks and these days, even the Tamil Iyers have started hiring Kerala Iyer cooks to cater their weddings. Even in Kerala, a wedding in which the feast is prepared by Pattars, as Kerala Iyers are known among the non-Kerala Iyers, is considered the best wedding feast. The other day we were watching an old Malayalam movie, in which the groom’s father tells the bride’s father, “We cannot have a wedding lunch prepared by any one less than a pattar.”

In addition to the wedding feast, the most important item which occupies the pride of place and which is carefully scrutinized by the guests and the groom’s party, is the Chir Bakhsanam or Palaharam as it is known among the Kerala Iyers. Depending upon the custom in the bride’s family or the demand from the groom’s family, it is either Full Chir or Muzhu Chir, wherein 101 items of different types of sweets and savouries (may go upto 11 different varieties) are given to the groom’s party during the wedding or Half Chir in which 51 items of different varieties of sweets and savouries are given. In addition to this, the bride’s party has to prepare additional quantities to be distributed among their family circle. More about chir bakshanam later.

Coming to the wedding feasts, since the groom’s party arrives the morning before the wedding, the meals are spread over 3 days at the most, or 2 full days, if the groom’s party leaves on the day of wedding. At this wedding, the feast consisted of a breaksfast, lunch, evening snack and dinner on the previous day and on the wedding day and a pathiya sappadu (which in inself is a grand lunch) on the day after the marriage and packed lunch for the groom’s party to take home.

There was a 24 hrs cofee/tea stall at the venue of the wedding, so coffeeholics like hubby-dear had no problem.

Returning to the menu for various occasions, there was coffee on arrival at the wedding hall on the morning before the wedding, followed by breakfast.

Breakfast menu included

Rava Kesari
Rava Idli
Sambar vadai
Venpongal
Kothamalli chutney
Kothsu

Coffee/Tea followed
For the Lunch on the same day, we had

Thayir Pachadi
Chenai roast
Payar Thoran
Aviyal
Olan
Parippu
Ghee
Rice
Pappadam
Nendran Chips
Sarkkarai puratti upperi
Aamai vadai
Kadamba Sambar
Kaalan
Tomato Rasam
Paaladai Pradhaman
Buttermilk(ghetti Mor)
Pickles and
Puliinji

For the evening Tiffin, we had

Wheat Halwa
Mysore Bonda,
Pesarattu Upma
Allam Pachadi
Chutney and
Tea/coffee

In days past, the wedding meals started from this point and hence the evening tiffin on the previous day of the wedding used to be a very grand affair. Usually, the items served were two or more varieties of Rice Sevai, bonda or bajji with chuteny and 2 or more sweets, one of them usually Jehangir. I still remember my father asking us, “don’t we have to go for the evening tiffin of Rice sevai and Jehangir?” during one of the unconventional weddings of the current days, when there was only one day program for the wedding. This was when he was 80+ and we had a hard time explaining to him that the wedding program was only for one day. Finally, my sister-in-law had to make rice sevai for him in the evening.

The janavasam dinner is traditionally the most important dinner of the wedding. In the olden days, this dinner used to be a grand affair especially because it was cooked for a smaller crowd. Most of the people conduct the wedding reception also on the previous night these days, hence the dinner is much more elaborate. Usually there are North Indian, South Indian and even Chinese dishes to cater to the present day fast food addicts. Dosa counters and chat counters are a common sight. Varieties of salads are also part of the menu. In some weddings dinner is served in tastefully decorated buffet halls and to cater to those diehards who prefer to eat on a plantain leaf that is also arranged. While most of the Iyers in Tamil Nadu still prefer to have a classical music concert at the reception, other forms of music have started to become popular in other parts.

At R’s wedding, the reception was slated for the evening on the wedding day. However, we had an elaborate dinner in the evening after the Nischyathartham, which had


Sweet Pachadi
Thayir Pachadi
Khosemalli
Potato Karakkari
Cabbage and Peas Curry
Kootu
Bholi
Paal payasam
Aamai vadai
Rice
Parippu
Ghee
Murungai, chinna vengaya sambar
Appalam
Chips
Lemon Rasam
Ghettimor and
Pickles.


The wedding morning breakfast consisted of,

Kasi Halwa,
Idli – Molagaipodi
Chutney
Ghee Pongal
Medhuvadai and
Kothsu

For the grand wedding lunch, we had,

Sweet Pachadi
Thayir Pachadi
Beans Usili
Vazhakkai Podi potta kari
Mixed veg. Kootu
Khose Malli – 2 types
Aamai vadai
Puliyotharai
Parippu
Ghee
Rice
Kadamba Sambar
Vendai Morkozhambu
Laddu
Idichu Pizhinja Payasam
Appalam
Nendran chips
Mysore Rasam
Ghetti Mor and
Pickles.

We had a snack of
Pineapple kesari
Mixture and
Coffee
just before Nalangu.

The evening reception was followed by a grand dinner with a big spread,

The menu was:
Poori
Kurma
Chana Masala
Veg. Pulao
Sweet Pachadi
Thayir Pachadi
Sambar Satham
Kothamalli satham
Appalam
Chips
White rice
Pineapple Rasam
Paal Payasam
Jehangir
Vatral Kuzhambu
Thayir Satham
Pickle and
Ice cream.


The day after the wedding, no breakfast was arranged. Instead there was a sumptuous brunch. This was supposed to be a Pathiya Sappadu, a light brunch, but in itself it was a very elaborate brunch.

The brunch had:
Manathakali Keerai Thayir Pachadi
Urulai Podimas
Chembu roast
Thakkali Poritha Kootu
Gulab jamun
Semiya Payasam
Parippu
Ghee
Rice
Milagu Kuzhambu
Jeera rasam
Appalam
Vadam
Ghetti mor and
Pickles.

The sadhya wound up with packed lunch for the groom’s party, which included,

Idli, Molagai podi
Thayir satham and
Puliyotharai and vadam.

Having described the menu for various occasions for the wedding, I have decided to post the recipes of some of the items served (some I have already posted earlier), in the immediate future.

The Wedding (III)

After the feast, after everyone has rested a little we make time for some fun and frolic: Nalangu. This involves no vedic hymns. It is basically an occasion for everyone to relax and show their talent in singing along with some playful activities between the bride and groom in which everyone participates. Nalangu is an occasion for relatives from both sides to mix and get acquainted. The nalangu normally lasts an hour or so. The ladies on both sides take turns in singing and teasing the bride and the groom. It also provides them an opportunity to exhibit their literary skills, music compositions skills and to humouruosly point out the shortfalls on either side in the conduct of the marriage etc. Both parties tease each other through the medium of music. In fact, some ladies specialise in composing such songs and train the youngsters to sing them. The bride is also required to sing a few songs during the festivities. In the olden days it was a practice to teach the girls a few songs, whether they had the aptitude for music or not. It is these occasions that used to enliven the marriages in the past.

The bride invites the groom for the function with a song, which used to be called Pathyam. In the olden days someone from the groom’s party would sing another song in acceptance of the invitation. The bride and groom then sit facing each other and all others sit around them. The bride then applies nalangu (a paste made of turmeric and kumkum} on the grooms feet, combs his hair and shows him the mirror. When he is satisfied with his looks, she breaks roasted papads over his head much to the amusement of one and all. The groom then does the same things to the bride. Relatives on both sides help the groom and the bride to avoid the papads falling on their heads. After this they start rolling a coconut between them, (first they roll a ball made of flowers and then a coconut made of brass and then a real coconut) to the accompaniment of songs from the gathering. Usually it is one song from the brides side followed by another song from the groom’s side. In the olden days, this time was also used by the groom’s party to criticise the wedding arrangements, etc., through songs, which would be aptly answered by the bride’s party and in retaliation they would find fault with groom’s party and so on.

At the end of it, groom and bride are made to test their strengh by wrenching the coconut from each other’s hand, etc. Both are given three chances. While the bride is allowed to hold the coconut with both her hands and groom is made to wrench it with one hand, the groom is allowed to hold the coconut with one hand and the bride is allowed to wrench with both hands.

These days, the evening is set apart for the reception and dinner. Many people arrange the reception the previous evening. In the olden days, there was another loukika function called Thozi Pongal in the evening, which was the time for the bride to visit her friends’ houses and bid them farewell. This ritual is only for the bride. Her uncle and all other friends and relatives usually accompanied the bride as she went to each of her friends’ houses (only to the front porch, where she would be received and an aarti done to her with a red solution made of turmeric and lime and this solution is poured on to the dhothi of the uncle). My mother says that when she was married, she was taken to her friends houses atop an elephant.

After the thozhi pongal there used to be one more swing-related function for both the bride and groom followed by some more vedic rituals and homam.The most important function of the evening was spotting the Arundhathi and Dhruva stars. The priest points the stars to the couple and the groom in turn points the star Arundhathi to the bride and askes her, “did you see the Arundhathi?” symbolizing his request to her to be as faithful and loving as Arundhathi and the bride points the Dhruva star to the groom and asks him “did you see Dhruva?” requesting him to be as devoted as Dhruva.

Aashirvadham which literally means blessings, follows. The priest chants hymns blessing the couple with a long and happy married life filled with lots of riches and children and throws colored rice (Akshathai) on them which is caught by the groom in his spread out upper cloth, called uthareeyam. Aarati is performed to ward off any evil eye cast on them. After this the akshathai is collected into a bowl and the bride and groom perform namaskarams to all the elders from both the families and take their blessings.

With the Aarati the auspicious rituals come to a close, much to the relief of the bride’s father, who is a “man reborn” by now.

Usually the groom’s party take leave the next morning. There is the custom of sending packed food with them, which is known as Kattusatham. This must have originated in the olden days, when people had to travel long distance by walk or bullock cart for long hours. The packed lunch was given so that they could rest in between and have some refreshments. One wonders why this practice should be kept alive in the current “jet age”.

The Wedding (II)

The wedding day has so many rituals packed in the morning and if the Muhurtham (solemnisation of the wedding) is very early, then the activities need to be started real early, sometimes at 3.30 am itself. Thankfully, for R’s wedding, the Muhurtham was not very early and having done the vratham etc. the previous day itself, the morning was quite relaxed. Normally the bridegroom’s party arrives at the bride’s house only in the afternoon of the previous day and therefore all the rituals are done on the marriage day only. These days both parties arrive at the Mantapam towards afternoon of the previous day, the event managers arrive in the morning and make the necessary arrangements. In the present wedding as already mentioned earlier both the parties had arrived at the Mantapam in the morning of the previous day and therefore had performed the Vratam.

The first ritual on the day of the wedding is Mangala Snanam for the bride and groom, for which, the toiletries like, bathing oil, soap, shampoo, shaving soap, brush, etc., need to be taken to the groom. After this, both the bride and groom get ready after the ritual bath.

At this point, the groom, suddenly decides to give up all the earthly pleasures to go to Kasi, in pursuit of spiritual knowldege. For this, he is attired in formal panchakacham and walks away with a walking stick, a handfan, an umbrella, a veda pustaka and some groceries for the journey. The uncle of the groom holds the umbrella for him. Usually, he walks upto the nearest temple, by which time, the bride’s father meets him and promises to give his daughter in marriage and requests him to give up the Kasi yatra. He is then ushered to the venue of the marriage where the bride is waiting with a garland in hand, ready to receive him at the front door. They both are supposed to meet for the first time. These days, they are made to sit together on the previous day itself / even at the engagement ceremony. Some parents make a vain attempt to avoid their sitting together before the wedding rituals are completed (there are instances where the receptions are postponed to the muhurtham day just to achieve this end); I am yet to meet a parent who has been successful in this attempt.

After this, the bride and groom exchange the garlands, helped by their respective uncles. This is the time for lots of fun and frolic, intended mainly to relieve the bride of the tension in entering a new phase of life with a stranger. (This was the custom in the olden days, these days the bride and groom meet and discuss about their compatibility and then take the decision).

The bride and groom sit in a swing and the ladies present sing songs. The swing represents the ups and downs of life. The bride and groom are given “milk and plantain” by elderly ladies. This has many explanations. The most important being that as the bride and groom are supposed to observe a fast on this important day until the solemnisation of the wedding, the milk and plantain are supposed to give them some nourishment. Another explanation is that, just like milk and plantain combines well without losing their respective identities, the groom and the bride also should be united in all their thinking and decisions, but at the same time maintain their identities.

This done, the evil eye is exorcised by coloured rice balls in red and yellow colors. The bride and the groom are then, taken to the vivaha Mantapam or the venue of the marriage.


After the initial vedic rituals, the bride is given away as dhana (offering) by the bride’s parents to the groom to the accompaniment of vedic chantings. The groom then offers the traditional dress to the bride. Meanwhile the Mangalya or the bridal necklace is passed around the congregation for their blessings. The bride wears the new 9 yards saree and sits on her father’s lap. The groom ties the Mangalya sewn in a yellow thread around the bride’s neck with a knot. The groom’s sister ties two more knots, symbolizing the harmony in the family.

Next is Panigrahanam, which is the actual “muhurtham” they say though for all practical purposes, Mangalaya dharanam is considered as the muhurtham.

This is followed by the Sapthapadhi, in which the groom and the bride take 7 steps together, symbolizing life long friendship and togetherness. The groom actually holds the right foot of the bride and helps her walk the 7 steps, at the same time holding her right hand. The 7 th step of the bride is placed on a stone (Ammi – which was used for grinding in the olden days and hence this ritual is also known as ammi mithikkal) and the groom tells her, “be firm as a rock in your decisions and also in your resolve in life.” The Sapthapadhi is the most important ritual of an Indian wedding.

The Sapthapadhi is followed by Udhwaha Homam and Laja Homam. If the groom’s sister ties the two knots of the Mangalyam, it is the bride’s brother who offers the laja (puffed rice) to the hands of the bride and groom, who then offers the rice to Agni, the Fire God.

More homams follow and the whole congregation blesses the couple along with the vedic pundits, and with the singing of Mangalam by elderly ladies the morning functions come to a finale.

Then follows the grand lunch, after which guests take a little nap before the evening functions.

The Wedding (I)

R’s wedding was a grand affair as always with South Indian weddings. The proceedings of the actual wedding ceremony started on the previous morning. (The preparations have started months in advance, in fact, as my husband says from the day R was born). In the olden days (when my parents and in-laws got married), the marriage functions lasted 4 days. As the years have gone by, owing to the constraints of time and space, the functions are now conducted over two days. The main reason is the unavailability of marriage halls and the high rents for them. There are halls charging rent up to Rs 1 lakh per day, the reasonable ones being about Rs. 30000 to 50000.

The marriage was to take place in a famous marriage hall with separate rooms for the bride’s and groom’s party and spacious hall for the ceremonies with an attached kitchen and dining hall. The entire hall and the rooms were air-conditioned.

Early in the morning by about 5.30 am the bride’s parents arrived with some immediate family members, to make sure that the hall was ready and the marriage contractor had made all arrangements. Preparations for the breakfast had begun. The bride and other members of the family arrived by 6.30 am followed by other guests. The bride was received with nadaswaram at the entrance of the hall.

The bridegroom’s party arrived by 7.30 am, they were received at the entrance by the parents of the bride and other elders with trays laden with fruits, coconuts, flowers, betel leaves and nuts, to the obligatory nadaswaram recital. Aarti of the groom was done by the prospective mother-in-law and the bridegroom was garlanded by the bride’s brother. The bride’s brother and bridegroom’s sister occupy special positions in Tamil Iyer marriages. The paternal aunts and the maternal uncles and their wives also have to play important roles.


The first ritual is Vigneswara Pooja, seeking the Blessings of the Lord for the successful accomplishment of the ceremony without impediment, followed by Punyaha Vachanam, followed by Pandakkal puja. This is sanctifying the pole of the tent to be raised in front of the hall (in the olden days, the marriages were conducted in large tents, put up in front of the house) for the smooth conclusion of the function.


Vratham follows which is a resolution taken by the parents of the bride and groom, separately, to conduct the marriage of their daughter/son with the blessings of the Almighty and the elders present. A “yellow thread” sanctified by vedic mantras is tied on the wrist of both the bride and groom by their respective fathers to symbolize the resolution, which is knows as Kangan dharan. There is a belief that after the kangan dharan, nothing can stop the marriage function. There is also a popular saying, “Kanganam kattindu erukkan,” to indicate how determined a person is about something.

If the jathaka karma and namakarana have not been performed for the girl as per vedic rites earlier in their lives, they are performed now.


There is a ritual of sowing nine varieties of seeds by 5 sumangalis in five small earthen bowls filled with soil which are watered for 3 days, by which time the seeds would have sprouted, which indicates good progeny for the family. The sprouts are then immersed in running water or a well.

Nandi was performed by the groom’s father, seeking the blessings of the ancestors for the smooth conduct of the ceremony.

This almost concluded the morning ceremonies.

All this time, the guests are busy catching up with friends and relatives and generally making a lot of noise.

One thing you observe in south Indian weddings is the rich brocaded silk sarees and elaborate jewellery worn by the women. One can see the latest designs both in sarees and jewellery there. One can also easily identify the immediate family members of the both the bride and groom by the richness of the sarees worn by the women. There is a practice of presenting the immediate family members with silk sarees/dhothies. In R’s wedding, the groom’s parents had selected sarees of the same pattern for the cousins of the groom. They had selected one combination for the daughters of the family and another combination for the daughter-in-law. They deserve to be complimented for the time and effort spent in planning and selecting the sarees and even clothes for the children in the family. On the wedding day, one could see even a one-year-old girl having the same color of silk pavadai, as her 5-year-old cousin. They need to be applauded for getting the blouse materials to all persons concerned well in time so that they could make and wear them for the wedding. These days, usually owing to the different tastes of the youngsters, we don’t see such uniformity in selection of the dresses.

Lunch followed. After a brief rest and relaxation, there was a program of Radha Kalyanam – a bhajan by a professional group. The acoustics of the hall was not at all supporting the bhajan and nobody could make out the words of the songs.


The evening programs started around 6.30 pm, with Janavasam and Nischayathartham. The groom is usually taken on a procession to the nearest temple. This was an elaborate function in the olden days when the groom was taken in a procession that included members from both parties around the village. In later years, in towns and by the rich, the groom was made to sit in an open car and taken around. Here he went up to the gate of the hall, where there is an idol of Lord Vigneswara. This was followed by the Nischayathartham, when both the parties once again reaffirmed their contract to get their daughter/son married to each other. Both the bride and groom are presented with gifts from the parents of each other. The bride was given a rich silk saree and some jewellery by the groom’s parents and the groom was presentd with a suit by the bride’s father.


Elaborate dinner followed and all the guests retired to their respective rooms.

Usually this is the time the bride’s party gets busy with making kolams or rangoli for the next day’s marriage and getting other things ready. These days, the marriage contractor takes care of everything including the kolams and flowers and garlands.

Chennai trip

We are back after our visit to Chennai. We had a very hectic but very enjoyable trip. The weather especially was very pleasant. Though we had an A/C room, we had to switch off the A/C at times.

The main purpose of the visit was attending the marriage of R, the daughter of a very close friend, K. As usual with all south Indian marriages, the marriage was a grand affair. We met many old friends and acquaintances after a very long time, some after about 35 years. But not many had difficulty in recognising us. We had met many people during the wedding of the parents of the bride. This made the function more special as this was the first in the series of marriages of the second generation, whose parents’ marriage also we had attended. We had a lot to catch up with people starting from the parents’ marriage.

This took me back to the trip we took to attend K’s wedding at Palani, the hill temple town in Tamil Nadu. We had to travel by bus as there was no direct train from Bangalore in that route those days(over 30 years ago). We had travelled with our one year old child and the bus tire burst twice on the way, leaving us stranded on the road for hours together on both occasions. With no hotels or coffee shops in sight, we had to walk some 2 kms to get some coffee and milk for our child. Finally, we reached Palani at 6.30 pm instead of 6.30am.

During this wedding, I also met P, the beautiful cousin of R, who was a 2 year old naughty child during K’s wedding. She is the mother of 2 little kids now and doesn’t look a day older than 20. I reminded her of the interesting incident that took place during K’s wedding. As I said earlier, our elder son was one year old then and somebody commented to this 2 year old, how smart the little boy was. It was too much of a blow to the ego of the 2 year old and she came running as if to hug the boy, but to our utter consternation bit his ear. I had a tough time consoling him.

At that time our younger child was already on his way and this made my astute and blessed mother-in-law to take vow that she would get the first mundan of the child to be born at Palani (What if he had turned out to be a she? – Ed). For various reasons, we couldn’t manage a trip to Palani for the next four years. Our younger son had long curly hair when he went to nursery school. Though most people trim the hair of the boys before the first mundan which has to be performed after the age of 2, strictly speaking no scissors should touch the hair before the vedic ritual of choulam (mundan). Hence we had not trimmed his hair at all until the ceremony. Once his teacher sent him home with a note, “Please cut your daughter’s hair”.

As usual, I have digressed from R’s wedding to her parents’ wedding. More about R’s wedding later.

During our Chennai trip, we also visited our 92 years old chithappa, my brother, my mother, my cousins, did some shopping at the famous Ranganathan street and Usman Road and visited our (handsome and charming) son’s India Office.

Time Out

I'm gone on a trip to Chennai for a few days. Posting resumes when I get back!

Recipe: Kanu Podi

Kanu Podi is a special powder for Kanu. The Ellu Sadham I was referring to earlier is prepared by mixing this powder with cooked rice. A few years ago, we had my paternal uncle and his family as guests on Kanu day. As usual, I had prepared kanupodi and ellu sadham. My chithappa (uncle) enjoyed the podi so much he said, “I am tasting such wonderful kanupodi for the first time since I left home”. He was then 65 years old and he must have left home after his studies when he was 15 or 16.

Ingredients:
Sesame seeds (Ellu) : 100gms (Black or white)
Jaggery :50 gms
Red chillies : 1 or 2
Salt to taste

Dry roast the sesame seeds in slow heat . The sesame seeds will splutter, so be careful to close it with a lid with a knob, but at the same time keep stirring the contents. I use a pan with a handle and lid and keep rotationg the pan holding it at the handle. Once the spluttering stops, remove from the stove and add the red chilli. The red chilli will get fried in the heat of the roasted sesame seeds. Crush the jaggery into small pieces.

Now comes most tricky task. Dry grind the sesame seeds, redchillies, salt and jaggery pieces ever so gently. Just grind for a second, open the jar, scrape the sides and grind again for a second. As soon as the contents are ground to a powder, immediately remove. This is the most delicious Kanu podi or ellu podi.

This tastes good with thayir sadham also.

If ground at a fast speed in a mixer, the sesame seeds will extrude oil and the result will be a messy mass. So be careful.

Recipe: Mixed Vegetable Rice

When any tamilian or kerala iyer hears about kalanda sadham it is usually the Puliyodarai/Lemon rice/Thengai sadham (coconut rice) that comes to mind. But when we were growing up, as I always say, these rice preparations were not popular in our rural Kerala village. Instead, we had Ulundu Sadham (Urad dal rice) and Ellu Sadham (sesame rice) and of course, Thayir sadham (curd rice), which for some reason was referred to as Thimiral. I wonder why. It was Keerai Masiyal for the side dish. Since all vegetables that we used came from the kitchen garden or from our farm, we used the keerai (spinach) from our backyard, which was the seasonal vegetable. So it was keerai masiyal on Kanu day.

When I started my own family I made a small change to the menu. In addition to the various mixed rice preparations, I invented a mixed vegetable sadham, as my husband and I could not imagine a meal without vegetables.

This rice is different from the usual fried rice or pulao or veg. biriyani in that no garam masala, whole or powdered, is used and it is only flavoured with the Kerala’s own coconut and green chillies and ginger.

This Kanu I again prepared mixed vegetable rice, puliyodarai and thayir sadham with home made vadam. Here is the recipe for the mixed vegetable rice.



Ingredients:

Carrots: 100gm
French beans: 100 gm
Green Peas : 100gm
Capsicum (green bell peppers): 50 gm
Cauliflower: 100gm

Rice: 1 cup

Grated coconut : ½ cup
Green chillies : 2 or more according to taste
Ginger : ½" piece
Salt to taste
Cooking oil : 1 tbsp. + 1tsp
Hing (asafoetida) powder : ½ tsp.
Mustard : 1 tsp
Urad dal : 1 tsp
Bengal gram dal: 1tsp
Ground nuts: 1 tbsp.
Curry leaves: 1 sprig
Coriander leaves: 1 tbsp.

Method:

Pressure cook the rice with 1tsp of oil, so that the rice grains don't stick to each other. Spread the cooked rice on a plate to cool, so that it doesn't get mashed up while mixing.

Grind the coconut with green chilles and ginger coarsely without adding water.


Cut the all vegetables into small cubes, about 1 cm long. Cook the vegetables, except the capsicum, retaining the crispiness (don’t over cook) and strain the water out. Heat the oil in a pan. Add the hing powder and mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start spluttering, add the urad dal, bengal gram dal and grounds nuts. When the nuts and dal turn light brown, add the curry leaves and capsicum pieces. Saute for a few minutes, until they are cooked. Add all the other cooked vegetables and salt. Saute for few more minutes. Now add the ground coconut mixture. Mix well. Remove from the stove. Add the cooled rice and mix well, until the rice and vegetables are mixed well. Garnish with finely cut coriander leaves.

ENJOY THE COLOURFUL MIXED VEGETABLE RICE.

P.S. I don’t add turmeric powder in this rice, as I feel it spoils the colour coordination of the otherwise colorful rice. Being a die hard Keralite, I use coconut oil for this rice, as it imparts a special flavour to the dish. In the olden days, in rural Kerala the Iyer families did not use onions. Even today it is so on festival days. Onion may be added while sauteing, to improve the taste.

Kanum Pongal/Mattu Pongal/Kanu

I hope everybody had a very enjoyable Pongal. We celebrated Pongal in our own simple but traditional style. There was Sankramana Tharpana to be performed for the Pithrus. Sarkkarai Pongal and Venpongal were prepared and offered to the Sun God. We had a breakfast of Sarkkarai Pongal and Venpongal with coconut chutney. Lunch was Avarakkai Pulinkari and carrot and beans thoran.

I wanted to sit and write about Kanu or Kanum Pongal and its special dishes before the Kanu day, post Pongal lunch. But then we had a steady stream of visitors, distributing ellu bella (a custom in Karnataka, offering sesame seeds and jaggery to all friends, to say, let your words be always sweet). I had to entertain them. By then I had also prepared some Medhu Vadai. Then my brothers and their families arrived. With three little kids, all under 6 demanding different things at the same time, I was out of breath by the time I could satisfy all of them and also attending to my guests. I offered them Sarkkarai Pongal and Medhu vadai (I had actually prepared very few, and I had to cut them into bits to distribute among all. My brother was saying, distribute one small piece to each, like kovil ammanji’s appam). More about Kovil ammanji later.

But enough rambling. Coming back to Kanu, the day after Pongal is observed as Mattu Pongal or Kanum Pongal or just Kanu. On this day the cattle are given an oil bath and decorated with flower garlands and kumkum and given sweets to eat. In Tamil Nadu there are cattle races and bull fights (Jalli kattu) on this day. Hence the day is known as Mattu Pongal.

It is also known as Kanu and is a special day for girls and ladies. On this day, early in the morning, the eldest lady in the house applies raw turmeric paste on the faces of all the younger women and girls. After this oil is applied to their hair. Then all the girls and ladies offer rice balls (small lemon sized balls) topped with pieces of turmeric, coconut and jaggery to the crows. As usual, it was our athai, who would lead us in this, and when we offered this to the crows, we sang, “Kakka podi vechen, Kanu podi vechen, kakkaikkum mattukkum kalyanam,” which could be roughly translated as, “I offer, Kakka podi and Kanu podi, it is the marriage of the crow and the cow.” Does sound really idiotic, when I think of it now. Perhaps, the words had to be different, I don’t know. But this is what we said.

After this, our athai would lead us to the stream nearby and give us an oil bath. Back home, we would all dress in new clothes and lots of flowers in our hair and would go visiting friends.

On this day, the menu would be different from the usual, sambar, kootu or thoran. We had, what was generally known as “kalanda Sadham” or mixed rice with pappads or vattals. Of course there was the “Kanu Podi”.

Recipe: Venpongal

Having given the recipe for Sarkkarai Pongal, I thought it would be fitting if I gave the recipe for Venpongal also. Aama vadai and Obattu recipes later.

Ingredients:

Raw Rice: 1 cup
Roasted Green Gram dal: ½ cup
Ghee: 2 tbsp.
Ginger: 1" piece
Pepper corns : about 10 nos.
Jeera: 1 tsp.
Asafoetida: size of a pea
Salt to taste
Curry leaves: one sprig
Cashew nuts: 5 or 6
Raisins : 1 tbsp.
(The last two are optional)

Method

As I said in Sarkkarai pongal, use only south Indian cooking rice. Wash the rice and dal and cook in 4 cups of water with asafoetida. The rice and dal should be cooked real soft . Mash the cooked rice and dal with a spatula adding enough salt.

Slice the ginger into small pieces. Break the cashew nuts into small pieces.

Heat 1 tbsp. of ghee in a pan, add the pepper corns. When the pepper corns get fried and start floating on the surface, add jeera and sliced ginger and curry leaves and pour into the cooked venpongal. Heat the remaining ghee, add the raisins and cashew nut pieces. When they turn golden brown add to the venpongal (The tempering could be done in one step, if you are experienced enough not to burn any of the ingredients).

Enjoy the Pongal with coconut chutney or Kothsu.

Pongal

Pongal, or Sankranthi as it is known in Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, is a very important festival in the Hindu calendar. It is a harvest festival in most parts of India. (In Kerala of course, Onam is the harvest festival).

This is the day that the Sun God starts His journey towards the north and hence it is the first day of Uttarayana which extends upto about 15th of July. Uttarayana is considered to be the most holiest half of the year. In Bhagavad Gita, the Lord says, "I am Uttarayana among the ayanas."

It is known as Makara Sanakranthi in Kerala and is celebrated by all. One who does not observe Makara Sankranthi is comapred to a wild fowl. There is a saying, “Kattukozhikkendu Makara Sankranthi?” meaning "what does a wild fowl know about Makara Sankranthi?"

In Kerala, in the olden days (I really don’t know what they do now), the houses were cleaned thoroughly and white washed before Sankranthi. Even in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, there is a thorough cleaning of the houses. In Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, all old things are thrown out and a big bonfire is made on the day before Pongal, which is called Bhogi fire. The day before Pongal is celebrated as Bhogi. In Andhra Pradesh, Makara Sankranthi is known as Pedda Panduga or "The Big Festival” and is celebrated in a grand manner, similar to Onam in Kerala. In Tamil Nadu Pongal is celebrated in a big way.

Bhogi is also celebrated in a big way in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In Kerala it is the Sankranthi day that is the big day. This day has become more significant in Kerala, especially in the recent times, because of the Makara Jyothi day of Sabarimala (On Sankranthi day, a light mysteriously appears in the distance near Sabarimala, it is taken to be a sign from the Lord Ayyappa to His devotees). Awareness about the Jyothi is growing thanks to the direct telecast of the appearance of the “Jyothi” and the accompanied special poojas at Sabarimala.

All festivals in India have their own special food. For Bhogi in Tamil Nadu, the special dishes prepared are Poli or Boli (Obattu in Kannada) and Aama vadai (Ambode in Kannada, Parippu vada in Malayalam).

Poli is similar to stuffed Parathas, except that the covering dough is made of Maida. The stuffing is made of either Bengal gram dal and jaggery or Bengal gram dal, coconut and jaggery.

Aama vadai or Ambode is prepared with bengal gram dal, toor dal and urad dal.

Recipe: Sarkkarai Pongal

Pongal is already here. Though many varieties of Pongal are made these days, Sarkkarai Pongal (sweet) and Venpongal (savoury) are the top hits. Since many visitors to my blog informed me that they were trying out the recipes I publish, I thought I will give the recipe for Sarkkarai Pongal before Pongal, so that my friends out there can prepare the pongal and enjoy.

Though Sarkkarai pongal had not made inroads into rural Kerala when I was growing up, I learnt long ago about the genuine article, true vaishnavite Sarkkarai pongal, from an authentic source: Komala mami. Thank you, Komala Mami.

In the olden days, (may be even these days in some households) Pongal was made in a vengalapanai, which is made of bronze and is a very thick deep vessel with a slightly narrower neck (top). It was customary to gift a few vengalapanais to the daughter at the time of her marriage. The Iyer households used these vesels for regular cooking of rice, boiling milk and preparation of curds before the advent of cooking gas and presuure cookers in rural areas of Kerala. The main source of heat those days used to be firewood.

On Pongal day, raw turmeric roots and green mango leaves and flowers were strung in a thread and tied around the vengalapanai and milk was boiled in it. It was customary to greet each other with “Pal Pongitha” (have you boiled the milk). To the boiling milk was added the fried green gram dal and rice and pongal was made. The Pongal prepared in the vengalapanai tasted delicious. It was a tedious process though. One had to keep stirring it constantly so that it would not get burnt nor would it boil over.

Here then, is the easiest and quickest way of preparing Sarkkarai Pongal in a pressure cooker. It will taste as delicious and sweet. (My husband says, these days, nobody remembers the taste of Sarkkarai Pongal cooked in a vengalapanai, so it doesn’t make any difference).

Ingredients:

Rice : 1 cup
Roasted green gram dal: ½ cup
Jaggery: 2 cups
Milk: 1 cup
Ghee : 4 tbsp or more
Cashew nuts : a few
Raisins: a few
Saffron : 2 or 3 strands
Cardamom powder: 1 tsp
Cloves : 2 nos.
Jaiphal or Jathikkai or nutmeg :1 no.
Pachakarpooram or edible camphor (cinnamonum camphora) : a pinch

Method:

Boil the milk with 3 cups of water in a pressue cooker. (For sarkkarai Pongal always use the regualr south Indian cooking raw rice like Ponni or Sona Masoori or Nellore, don’t use Basmati). When the milk and water boils, reduce heat and add the washed rice and green gram dal into it. Close with the lid. When steam starts escaping through the vent place the weight valve and cook on low heat for 15 – 20 minutes (This is for people using gas stoves and where the heat can be brought to absolute minimum. Those using electric stove, be careful to switch off after one whistle and allow the pressure cooker to remain on the same stove for another 15 – 20 minutes). Open the cooker only after ½ hr.

In the meantime, melt the jaggery in 1 cup of water and strain to remove any impurities (In the olden days, jaggery was crushed and added to the cooking rice and dal mixture, I would always recommend to melt and strain the jaggery as it will always have some fine sand particles).

Dissolve the saffron strands in a tbsp. of boiled milk and keep aside.

Lightly roast the cloves. Powder it with 1/8 of the nutmeg.

Open the pressure cooker and mash the contents well with a metallic spatula. Pour the strained jaggery syrup into the cooked rice and dal mixture and heat ,stirring continuously, until the mixture becomes homogenous and is of a dropping consistency. (Care should be taken to see that all the moisture doesn’t evaporate and the pongal becomes dry). It should be in a loose but not running consistency. Add 2 tbsp, or more ghee and mix well. Add the saffron mixture. Remove from fire.

Heat the remaining ghee and add the raisins and broken cashews. When they turn golden brown pour into the Pongal. Add the pachakarpooram and cardomom powder and cloves and nutmeg powder. Pour one more tbsp of ghee.

Offer the Neivedyam to Sun God and enjoy with family and friends.

The Vaishnavites pour one more spoon of ghee in the palm of the guest after serving Sarkkarai pongal.

Don’t be stingy with the ghee or whatever reason. Sarkkarai pongal’s taste lies in its richness. It is said that ghee should not be measured but poured into the Pongal with closed eyes (Kannai moodindu ney vidanum).

The pachakarppooram has a strong flavour, so use it only if you like it. All other ingredients, like cloves, nutmeg, saffron are also optional. So If you don’t have one of these, don’t panic. You will still get a tasty pongal. These ingredients only add to the flavour of the Pongal.

P.S. Many people complain that their Pongal turn out very dry and hard. The secret is in switching off the flame when there is still some moisture in the pongal.

Pongalo-Pongal

Recipe: Date and Walnut cake (eggless)

I have been planning to make an eggless cake for quite sometime now but kept postponing it. Finally when I located some milkpowder in the fridge, I thought, “let me make eggless cake using the milkpowder”. Except, of course, I had no idea how to incorporate milk powder in a cake recipe. Neither the Internet nor my handy book was any help. But now that I'd decided to bake a cake, I decided to go ahead and do that anyway, except instead of using the milkpowder, I stayed traditional. (If anybody knows how to use milkpowder in a baking recipe, I'd like to know). Instead of eggs, I decided to use curds (yoghurt)

As always, I was going to make use of the things I already had at home. I had just one cup of flour. So that would be the quantity of flour I would use. Accordingly, I sliced and cut the dates and walnuts (2 tbsps. each). I had only ½ cup of powdered sugar. The baking guide, to which I have been returning recently, says, “castor sugar helps to trap the air better than powdered sugar," so I decided to use castor sugar to fill the cup. I always have homemade butter in the fridge , so that was no problem. Even after slicing the fruits and nuts, I did not find the time to bake the cake for two days. So the next day, in between my cooking I started the cake also. The preparation and baking took exactly one hour (slicing the fruits not included).

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

Flour: 1cup
Butter : 1 cup
Powdered sugar : ½ cup
Castor sugar : ½ cup
Cocoa powder: 1 tbsp.
Walnuts(sliced into tiny bits): 1 tbsp.
Dates(sliced into tiny bits): 1 tbsp.
Thick curds: 1cup
Baking powder: ½ tsp.
Baking soda: ½ tsp.
Rind of one lemon
Juice of one lemon
Milk to get the required consistency

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200 deg. centigrade (390 F).

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the curds and cream some more. It may curdle a little, don’t worry. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda twice. Mix the fruits in a tbsp. of sifted flour and keep aside. Gradually fold in the sifted flour into the creamed mixture alternating with the fruits mixture. When all the flour has been added, mix in the lemon rind and lemon juice. The dough should be of dropping consistency. If not, add little tepid milk (not very warm) to get the right consistency.

Pour into a 9" dia baking dish (well greased and dusted) and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes clean.

My cake came out just right. Fluffy and soft and melting in the mouth.

HAPPY BAKING.

2007

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day has come and gone. Many people called to wish us on new year day and we reciprocated. So far so good. They all continued with ”what did you do for New year eve and New Year day?” Now this has always been a very difficult question to answer: difficult because we have never done anything special on New Year eve and New Year day. While my children lived at home, I used to make a sweet on 1st January.

In India, we have differrent New Year day for each part of the country. Where as the Malayalam New Year starts in the month of Chingam (August-September), the Tamil New Year starts in Chithirai (April-May ). Kannada and Teleugu New Year starts on Ugadi (March-April), and if I am not mistaken Maratha New Year starts on the same day and they call it Gudi Padva. Similary there is a Parsi New Year day and other parts of India also have a New Year day of their own.

Even the fianancial New Year starts on a day different from January 1.

How many times do we celebrate New Year day? So what do most people do on New Year eve? Many of them sit in front of their idiot boxes either with their family or with a group of families and munch and drink watching the various tragically comic programs dished out in the exact same way Year after Year. Year after year, every silly TV channel invites you to spend the New Year with them. Few people get together in clubs and again eat and drink. The so called elite get together in the star hotes or star club houses or resorts and eat and drink. The younger generation go out to the busiest streets in the city and visit all the pubs and get drunk and become unruly and atleast some of them get involved in accidents ( sometimes fatal) driving back in a drunken state. And a major percentage of people like us consider it as just another day and get on with our routine. Many offices work on the New Year day, anyway.

Traditionally, all Indian New Year days are celebrated with extreme austerity and solemnity. No non-veg and no alcohol. It has a sort of religious importance and in most of the regions on the New Year day, the almanac for the Year is read and remedial measures if any, due to adverse planetary positions, are laid down. The eclipses and the important festival days of the Year are read out. Special poojas are performed and the blessings of the elders are sought. There are special services in the churches.

Most offices in the Western countries are closed on the New Year day just as the scools and offfices in different states in India are closed on the New Year day of that state. The Jan 1st as new Year has originated in India only after the British came to India, but perhaps does not appear to have been accepted by all religions and therefore has stayed as just a celebrations by a few in clubs, resorts and streets, followed by a few drunken brawls, accidents due to drunken driving, molestations etc. I have not heard of any New Year day being celebrated with so many ugly scenes anywhere in the world. No New year day desrves to be celebrated in a way which makes people knit their eyebrows as many do on the following day when they read reports on the New Year eve incidents in the news papers.

Thiruvathira 2007

Another Thiruvathira. As has now become a practice, I get ready for Thiruvathira festival the previous evening: the vegetables are bought, rice roasted and powdered, dal roasted, jaggery measured, pressure cookers kept ready. After I have roasted the rice and dal (I do it in my oven, for uniform roasting and also to save myself of the pain in my arm from constant stirring), I put some peanuts for roasting. I just could not resist shoving in handfuls of peanuts into my mouth, whenever I saw them. Perhaps this, caused a very bad sorethroat by evening and I started getting spells of dry cough and my throat became very hoarse. I knew if I did not take a medication for this, I may perhaps wake up with an upper respiratory tract infection, which I am very susceptible to and then if I took an antihistamine, this may make me drowsy and I may oversleep and my Thiruvathira plans would get upset. I decided I did not want to get an URTI and took an antihistamine and went to sleep. Thankfully, I could wake up at 4.45am(!).

After the usual oil bath and works, I started preparing Kali and Kari. Hubby dear had cut the vegetables by then. I put the vegetables in one pressure cooker and cooked the dal in the other. This time around, I used Kavathu, Red pumpkin, sweet potatoes, Avarakkai and Toovar pods. I just cooked the vegetables for one whistle. The dal was also cooked for one whistle. Meanwhile I melted the jaggery in 4 cups of water (I used 1½ cups of rice flour this time) and poured the melted jaggery into the cooked dal and when it started boiling added the rice flour and closed the cooker. I put the weight on the cooker and reduced the heat and switched off the stove after 10 minutes. After 20 minutes when I opened the kali was perfectly done.

Though the Kerala Iyers make the Thiruvathira Kari with kavathu, red pumpkin and avarakkai (traditionally), the Tamil Iyers make a different type of Kari, almost like sambar. They make what they call as 5 curry or 9 curry or 11 curry or 13 curry depending on the number of different vegetables used (5 curry will have 5 different types of vegetables, 9 curry 9 types of vegetables and so on..)

Kalyani mami told me today that she made 13 curry, using carrot, beans, cluster beans, avarakkai, mochakottai, peas, white pumpkin, red pumpkin, potato, sweet potato, chenai, chembu, capsicum and chow chow. They use tamarind and dal and made a sambar masala with coconut, dhania, bengal gram dal and red chillies. She has not heard of kavathu she said. We still use only the traditional vegetables and do not use the so called English vegetables (carrot, beans, peas, etc. are generally referred to as English vegetables) for preparing the Thiruvathira kari or for that matter during Sradhams etc.

Vaikunta Ekadasi

Yesterday was Vaikunta Ekadasi. Vaikunta Ekadasi is the 11th day in the lunar calendar after the New moon in Dhanurmasa (December 15 – January 15). It is considered to be the day on which the doors of Vaikunta (heaven) will be kept open for all the saintly souls. Special poojas are performed in all Vishnu and Krishna temples in the south. It is a very important day in the Vaishnavite calendar. The doors in the Srirangam temple in Trichy are open early morning and a special darshan of Lord Ranganatha is offered to the devotees with special poojas and alankaras. Doorsarshan arranges special direct telecast of puja and other celebrations on the vaikunta ekadasi day.
The day is observed as a very sacred day by all the Vishnu bhaktas and many people fast on that day. It is believed that by observing a fast on that day and spending the day in poojas and prayers to Lord Vishnu, one will be absoved of all sins and will attain Moksha and the doors of Vaikunta will be kept open for the soul after it leaves this physical body. The soul does not have a rebirth anymore and attains the feet of the Supreme Lord.

There are different types of fasts observed by different people. Some people fast the whole day without consuming even water and just sip tulasi theertham in the evening after offering pooja to Lord Vishnu. They then have a supper of fruits and milk.
There are others who would drink milk and eat fruits once or twice a day and nothing else.
Some others will avoid consuming rice based foods and will have only wheat preparations like chappathis or porridge with some vegetables only once a day and milk and fruits for dinner (Interestingly, I had once talked to a lady from North India who was observing fast during Vasanth Navarathri. She mentioned that they eat only rice preparations in the night on the fast day).

As children we used to join the elders in this "fasting" when we could eat special food like, chappathis, vella dosais with ghee and honey and parippukanji, and being the season, boiled sweet potatoes.

We had a Chellappa uncle who used to make elaborate preparations for the Ekadasi fasting. He would tell our Kalathappa (our granddad):

"Krishna! Today is Ekadasi. I am fasting. I don’t plan to have anything, even water (jalapanam vendam). Around 6 am, I had a glass of milk and 4 bananas. At 10 am I will have a dozen vella doasas (sweet dosas made with jaggery and wheat flour) and 2 or 3 glasses of wheat germ kanji. Around 3 pm, I will have a glass of coffee and a few boiled sweet potatoes and a couple of bananas. And in the night I will just have some vella dosas and bananas and few glasses of Parippu kanji. Apart from these I wont have jalapanam (a drink of water) today. If we cannot fast even on Vaikunta Ekadasi, what is the use of this life?”

Reports say many people including ministers, politicians, big business magnates, throng the important temples like Tirupati Balaji, Guruvayoor, Srirangam on Vaikunta Ekadasi Day and stand in queues for hours together to have darshan of the Lord on this very sacred day. I was just wondering, if the Lord appears in front of any one of them and says, "Bhakta, I am pleased with your devotion. Today the doors of Vaikunta are open. I have come to take you with me to Vaikunta," what would be the reaction of the Bhakta?

Recipe: Poduthuval

How poduthuval got its name, I don’t know. Perhaps it was called "Podithooval," which literally meant sprinkling of powder. In this dish, traditionally no coconut was used and the curry was thickened with a powder made of roasted rice and red chillies. Now a days, of course, since coconuts are plenty, as usual with any kerala iyer recipe, a dash of coconut with green chillies is used to flavour this dish.

Poduthuval does not have a dal in it and no spice except coconut and green chillies.

Many people refer to different dishes as poduthuval these days, for want of a right name.

During the olden days, in the monsoon months of Kerala, when coconuts and vegetables were scarce due to the incessant rains, the only vegetables available were the summer gourds that had been preserved by hanging from the ceilings (cucumbers, white and red pumpkins) and the shoots of colacasia from the backyard, which would sprout in the rains. So the menu more often than not consisted of a poduthuval made from one of the above. Even there, the chembuthandu (colacasia shoots) poduthuval and pulinkari took prominent place. It tasted delicious. Some of them were dangerously itchy though.

I must admit, as children we never liked the chembuthandu poduthuval as it did not have the rich coconut flavour in it.

During the off monsoon seasons poduthuvals were always enriched with coconut. Some of the most common poduthuvals are mathan (red pumpkin) and chakkaravalli kizhangu (sweet potatoes – my dad’s favourite) idichakka (tender jackfruit), elavan and chakkakottai (white pumpkin or winter melon and jackfruit seeds), etc.

For long, I had not made this poduthuval and actually had forgotten about this dish. Ten years ago, when I visited my athai (paternal aunt) my athan(athai's son) told me, "Amma has made a special dish for you, mathan and chakkaravalli kizhangu poduthuval." I enjoyed the poduthuval made by my athai and on my return made the same poduthuval during my dad’s visit. He loved it, and said, "besh, besh!"



I visited my athai last week after 10 years. Though she is in no condition to do any housework now, I remembered my last visit and her poduthuval. On my return I prepared the dish remembering my athai.

Now for the recipe:

Red Pumpkin : 250gms
Sweet potatoes: 250 gms.
Turmeric powder: 1 tsp.
Coconut: 2 tbsp.
Green chillies 2nos.
Jaggery 1 tsp.
Salt to taste

For garnish:

Coconut oil 2 tsp.
(any cooking oil may be used)
mustard seeds : 1 tsp.
split urad dal: 1 tsp.
curry leaves : a few

Preparation:

Cut the vegetables into 2" cubes. Cook with turmeric powder and salt and jaggery (this may be done in a pressure cooker). Though both pumpkin and sweet potatoes are sweet, a little bit of jaggery enhances the taste.

Grind the coconut and green chillies, coarsely, without adding water.

Heat the coconut oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the urad dal. When the dal starts turning to a pink color, add the curry leaves and add the boiled vegetables. Boil for 5 minutes stirring well. Add the ground coconut mixtrure and boil for 5 more minutes. Remove from heat.

ENJOY with rice or rotis.

Merry Christmas

Once again a long break in my blogging, brought about by so many foreseen and unforeseen circumstances. In the first place, whenever our children visit us I get so busy in the kitchen cooking up various things, which we feel they enjoy (Both of them tell us not to bother so much about their meals and just cook some simple things). I went out of town to visit my elderly relatives, a trip that I had been postponing (for a variety of reasons) for more than a year now. My computer was not operational as the UPS had died. After my return, the UPS had not come back and I became busy putting the house back in order.

Yes, The Christmas Cake I had baked well in advance for Christmas came out just right. It was well risen, soft, spongy and melted in the mouth. I will follow this recipe always hereafter. For the quantities mentioned, I filled a 9" dia. round pan and two 2½" x 6" loaf pans. One loaf of cake went to our neighbour Veena and the round cake travelled with our elder son and we enjoyed the remaining one loaf. I have already soaked more fruits for another cake, may be during New Year.

Many people, including my mother, asked me what I did for Xmas. The best thing worth mentioning was meeting Mrs. Thomas, she lives across from our home all alone in a huge house. She is unable to move out of her house because of a knee injury she suffered last year. She was so happy with my visit and spent a long time talking to me about various things (I allowed her to do all the talking, as she doesn’t get much opportunity to talk otherwise). My handsome and charming son said, “that was the best thing you did ma, spreading happiness to a lonely soul”. My Xmas was made.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Recipe: Christmas cake

I have baked my Christmas cake well in advance this year. At first I thought I would follow the same recipe as I did last year for Anand’s birthday cake. I looked into the recipe and to my shock I realised that I had not included flour in the recipe. Uh Oh. I have since corrected it.

Since I did not have all the ingredients I had listed in last year’s recipe and did not feel like rushing to the store, I modified the recipe to include available ingredients. Hubby dear had cut the dry fruits (cashew, almonds, pistachios, dry pineapple, dry ginger, dates, raisins, walnuts, pecans, plums and prunes) and soaked them in plenty of brandy a month ago. Usually I would add cherries,which I did not have this time. I remembered how I enjoyed my trips to Whole Foods where I could pick up all dry fruits at one counter.

I had been using margarine or hydrogenated vegetable oil or butter according to availability at home. Since my (handsome and charming, natch) son recently prohibited me from using hydrogenated oil (contains transfat, he says) I used home made butter.

As I did not have brown sugar this time, I used 1 tbsp. of caramelised sugar to get the color. To caramelise sugar, heat 1 tbsp sugar in a heavy bottomed pan, stirring continuously. When it starts melting, reduce heat until the color changes to dark brown. Remove from heat and extract the caramel with 1 tbsp of water or milk.

The following is the list of ingredients.

Mixed dry fruits marinated in brandy :400 gms
Eggs: 3
Butter: 150 gms
Flour: 125 gms
Sugar: 150gms
Grated chocolate: 1tbsp
Caramalised sugar: 1 tbsp
Cinnamon powder: 1tsp
Mixed spices: 1tsp
Sodium-bi-carbonate: 1/2 tsp
Milk: 1tbsp

Method:

Pre heat oven to 180 deg C (350 deg. F)

Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add eggs one by one to the creamed mixture and continue creaming till the mixture is light. Add the caramelised sugar and melted chocolate. Cream some more.

Sift the flour twice with cinnamon powder, powdered spices and sodium-bi-carbonate. Transfer the marinated fruits to a bowl and mix with 2 tbsp of sifted flour (this will prevent the fruits from sinking to the bottom of the cake).

Fold the sifted flour into the creamed mixture gently, alternating with the fruits mixture. Pour into a well greased and dusted baking pan and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hr. Reduce the temp. to 150 deg C (300 deg F) and bake for another 15 min. Test with a skewer.

Remove from the oven. Rest for 10mins. Invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.

ENJOY

Sweet ghee memories

Most of the recipes in my blog have been inspired by my culinary enthusiast (not to mention, handsome and charming) son. Ever since he left home and started living on his own, I could expect a call from him any time of the day or night, trans-atlantic or trans-pacific, asking for directions to prepare a certain dish. He would have bought the ingredients and would be wondering how to start or at times he would have started the process and wouldn’t know how to go on.

The other day he called me and asked me how to melt butter to get ghee. As he would never eat ghee or butter along with his rice or rotis or bread since his childhood, I couldn’t hide my surprise until he told me that he wanted to prepare Rava kesari for the Thanksgiving lunch they were planning at work.

Having grown up in a family where we had cows and buffaloes and hence lots of milk and butter, I had never imagined anyone would need a lesson on making ghee from butter until I moved outside our village. In our house we had big vengalapanais in which a huge quantity of milk was boiled and set to form curd. We had separate vengalapanais for cows’ and buffaloes’ milk. We took turns in churning the curds early in the mornings and were rewarded by a big dollop of warm and fresh butter at the end of the chore. Nobody needed any cardio exercises on a treadmill. There was a big pole fixed on the corner of the kitchen to which two metallic chains with rings were attached. The vengalapanai containing the curds was placed on a coaster(kalavadai) made of coir. The mathu(churning wheel)was placed inside the curds and the metallic rings were slipped on to the mathu. There was another cord made of cotton thread which was wound around the mathu, between the rings, with long ends trailing at both ends, which was pulled from both ends. This is the best cardio exercise one could get. You do this for 5 minutes, presto, your warm fresh butter floats on top of the fresh butter milk. The cows milk butter was creamy yellow and the buffalo butter was white.

This butter was made into ghee every other day as there were no refrigerators to keep the butter fresh. The butter was washed in plenty of water to remove all the butter milk and put in a big kadai and heated, stirring constantly, until you got a fragrant golden yellow liquid ghee. The ghee was strained and stored in clay jars to retain its freshness. It set to a sand like texture. The residue of ghee is very tasty and we children vied with each other to get our idlis or rice tossed in the fresh ghee residue.

The trick of keeping the ghee fragrant and fresh for long time is in heating the butter to the right "doneness." As the butter is being melted, the water content in the butter evaporates making a hissing noise. Once the water content is fully evaporated, the liquid turns to a golden color with a good aroma. This is the right time to switch off the stove. If one is using a thick pan to melt the butter, it is better to pour the ghee into another container immediately, as the ghee may turn blacker because of the heat retained by the pan.

There is an interesting story told about the readiness of ghee. A new daughter in-law was asked by her mother-in-law to prepare ghee. The daughter-in-law did not know how to melt butter and she asked her neighbour how to test the readiness of the ghee. The neighbour told her, "Orosai adangina vanaliye erakku" (Remove the pan from the stove when the noise stops). The daughter in-law took it as Oorosai (the noise in the street) and kept the pan on the stove and sat the front door of the house, waiting for the noise on the street to subside. The rest of the story can only be well imagined. This was the story told to young girls to be careful when preparing ghee. Delay a minute and the ghee will lose its color and aroma and grainy texture.

Many theories are propounded by the new age culinary gurus to retain the freshness of the ghee. Some people say, add a pinch of turmeric powder, some say add a few curry leaves, yet others say add a few thulasi leaves. I would say, heat the ghee to the right doneness and store. It will remain fresh for ever.

If the ghee is not heated to the right doneness, it goes stale very fast and gives a very bad odour. When we were children, there were always some impromptu lunch sponsored by neighbours on occasions like a child's birthday or a "kappu ceremony" or a "thottil ceremony." It was a practice to serve ghee after rice was served and I was often surprised that the ghee smelt rotten. I used to come home and tell my Echiyamma about it and she would say, they have not heated the butter properly. "But they bought the ghee from our house this morning," I would say. What was the mystery of the fragrant ghee turning to a foul smelling ghee by the time they served, I never understood.

Recipe: Olan

Olan is the simplest and a unique dish of Kerala with no spice at all in it(except green chillies, which is optional) flavoured with coconut milk and coconut oil and fresh curry leaves. Yet, when made with the right ingredients in the right proportion, it tastes heavenly. It is made with simple gourds and cowpeas which makes it a very healthy diet even for invalids. No big feast is complete without olan on the menu.

The vegetables used have high medicinal value and are easily digestible and low in calories. Ash gourd, for example is rich in calcium and vit. B and C and fibre. It is also a diuretic and its juice is particularly good for diabetics and the obese . Sweet red pumpkin is rich in Vitamins A and B, protein and calcium and is a low calorie vegetable. Cow peas though a high calorie food is rich in protein, calcium and vitamins A and B.

Ingredients:
Red Pumpkin(ripe with a hard outer shell) :250 gms
Ash gourd(winter melon) :250 gms
Cowpeas : 2 tbsps. Or more according to taste

( tenderfresh green pods of the peas(lobia) are also used in preparation of Olan)
in case fresh lobia are used,
lobia :50 gms.

Coconut oil : 2 tsps.
Curry leaves: few
Jaggery : a small piece
Green chillies: 1 or 2
Salt to taste.

Preparation:
Soak the cow peas (if using dry peas) for 4 – 5 hrs or overnight.
Remove the skin and slice the gourds into 1½" to 2" thin squares. If using fresh lobia, cut them into 2" pieces. Slit the green chillies. Pressure cook the peas and vegetables and chillies until peas are soft. Add salt and jaggery and boil until the curry is thick (gourds will release their water content when cooked). Remove from heat, add curry leaves and coconut oil. Olan is ready to serve.


Olan can be prepared using only ash gourd and cow peas. Follow the same method as above, just before removing from the stove add a table spoon of thick coconut milk.

There is another variety of olan, called "Thondolan" prepared using raw bananas and lobia.

Ingredients:
Raw banana :1
Cow peas :1 tbsp.
Jaggery : a small piece
Salt to taste
Coconut oil : 2 tsps.

Preparation:
Slice raw banana vertically once and then into 2mm slices. Cook along with pre-soaked cow peas and add salt and jaggery and flavour with coconut oil and curry leaves.

ENJOY!

Bangalore - From an Air conditioned city to a city with air conditioners

We are almost into December and are still using the fans throughout the day and night and are sweating. When people away from home ask us how the weather is, they expect us to say, it is cold, or atleast, it is pleasant. We can only say it is hot. Is this the same city which was once known as airconditioned city?

Time was (this is only as recent as the early 70s when we moved to this wonderful city, the natives of Bangalore will have even more shivering tales to recount) when Bangalore had a salubrious climate. It was a pensioners’ paradise. It was a city which went to bed early and woke up quite late, because of the chill.. Unlike many other cities of India, no milkman rang the doorbell at 5.30am here. He would come only at 7.30am. People with little kids who need to be given milk early morning did not have to fret about not having a refrigerator. The whole house was like a refrigerator. No food went bad here. The vegetables remained fresh in room temperature. Not many people had a fridge. Fridge was more of a status symbol.

There were no fans fitted either. When we came from Delhi on transfer to Bangalore, our fan boxes remained unopened for years together, as we did not feel the need for a fan. If the Chennai residents say, Chennai has only three seasons, hot, hotter and hottest, we Bangaloreans were proud to say, we also have only three seasons, cold, colder and coldest. We did not have summers. Ours was a summer resort. If we had to make "vattal, vadam or karuvadam" we could not afford to be complacent. We had just 2 to 3 weeks from Sivarathri to make these things, between our winter and monsoons, which started by the end of March. Our monsoon would start with some pre-monsoon showers before Ugadi and go on till December.

Bangaloreans sported a monkey cap all through the year. They also a wore a woolen vest throughout the year. It was treat to watch the elderly Bangaloreans (the proper Bangaloreans who owned most of the agricultural lands/residential properties here) moving around on a rickety bicycle wearing a black coat and a turban. People went to vegetable shopping with a coat on. Early mornings were very chill. Bangalore women made the rangolis in their front yards in the evenings as mornings would be quite foggy and chill. We had green covers wherever we went. Ulsoor was the city limits during those days. No city map showed any place beyond Ulsoor, except a winding road from Trinity church towards airport called airport road, which was almost always deserted. You take a turn towards the airport road, the temperature dipped further as the roads were lined with trees and casurina forests.

During late 70s when we were allotted a residential plot along the airport road, we came to visit the place and were unable to find our way to the proposed site as the area around it was marshy and wooded.

Knitting enthusiasts like me could knit all year around. It was a pleasure to get out the house on weekends with kids to go to Lalbagh or Cubbon Park and enjoy the warmth of the sun. If Chennai had a cyclone, Bangalore just had downpours. The only industrialisation Bangalore had was some Public Sector undertakings with their own transport system to carry their employees. These were the only buses which crowded the roads during their shift changes. Otherwise public transport was very sparse. Bangaloreans were happy cycling around. People belonging to slightly elite class used scooters/motor cycles/mopeds. It was quite safe to travel by two wheelers, even for ladies.

With the 1980s came the boom of small scale industries in around Bangalore and there were more mopeds on the roads. City started expanding beyond Ulsoor towards the airport and all around. We still had winters which were quite cold.

With the software boom Bangalore exploded with people, private entreprenuers, multi-storied buildings and cars. The single and two storied skyline gave way to huge apartment complexes, mostly built on converted agricultural lands. They mostly depended on deep bore-wells to quench the thirst of their residents. The green covers started depleting, the ground water level went down further, lakes started drying up and in the new century, Bangalore started becoming warmer and warmer with very hot summers and next to nil winters. The whole city is dusty and polluted with motor exhausts and the city these days does not sleep. The once sleepy airport road is always congested with traffic and one cannot cross the road any time of the day.There are multi-storied building lining the airport road representing almost all software companies from all around the globe. The air conditioning business is thriving.

Recipe: Kozhukattai

Kozhukkattais are steamed rice balls with sweet coconut stuffing. No South Indian needs introduction to kozhukkattai or an translation for it. The translation is for the unfortunate ones who have not tasted this yummy, delicious and melt in the mouth delicacy, one with very little oil in it to boot.

Kozhukkattai is a most favoured sweet in our family, my late astute and blessed mother in-law simply loved it. Though usually it is prepared only during Ganesh Chaturthi or as naivedyam for performing Ganapathi Homam, she would invent some excuse to make me prepare this as often as possible. When the children were in college, she got a good excuse to prepare kozhukkattai every time they visited home. She would say "children were not here during Ganesh Chaturthi, so when are you going to prepare kozhukkattai for them?" Or she would say, there are so many black ants around, when are you going to offer kozhukkattais for Ganapathi? (there is a belief that black ants will disappear if one appeased Lord Ganesha). Our younger (handsome and charming) son’s sweet tooth was also a blessing for her.

Having said so much about sweet kozhukkattai, I would not be doing justice to other equally yummy savory kozhukkattais, of which there are many varieties, if I did not mention them. Ulundu kozhukkattai (made of refined black gram and coconut filling), vegetable kozhukkattai (my invention), ammini kozhukkattai (both sweet and savory), Uppuma kozhukkattai, are some of the more popular ones.



Now for our King of Kozhukkattais:

Ingredients (yields 20 – 25 kozhukkattais)

For the stuffing:

fresh grated coconut: 1 cup
grated jaggery: ¾ cup
cardamom powder: a pinch

For the outer shell:

Rice flour: 1½ cups
Coconut oil or any other cooking oil: 2tsp.
Salt: a pinch

Preparation:

The stuffing:

Melt the jaggery and strain to remove any impurities. Reheat and make a slightly thick syrup. To test, just remove the spoon with a little syrup from the boiling syrup and drop into a cup of cold water. If the syrup forms a smooth ball, soft to touch, it is ready. Add the coconut gratings to the molten jaggery. Keep stirring until all the water is absorbed and the contents leave the side of the pan. Remove from fire and add cardamom powder.

This stuffing can be prepared in advance and refrigerated up to 1 month. This keeps good in room temperature for up to 1 week.

The rice flour coating:

Heat a pan and add 2 tsp of oil. Add 1½ cups of water and pinch of salt and boil. Meanwhile mix the rice flour in1½cups of water into a smooth batter without lumps. When the water starts boiling add this batter and keep stirring until the rice flour becomes a smooth shiny ball. Remove from fire and cool.

To prepare kozhukkattais:

Knead the rice flour dough well. Take a lime sized portion and form into a cup. Smear little oil on your finger tips to make it easier to handle the dough. Put a smaller size ball of the coconut stuffing inside and close from all sides and pinch the ends together. Repeat till all the dough and stuffing is used up. Steam the kozhukkattais in a steamer or a idli steamer for 15 minutes.

ENJOY!

Tips: If banana leaves are available place the kozhukkattais on the banana leaf and steam.The kozhukkattais will not stick to the plate.

If any of the rice dough is left over, make marble sized balls of the dough and steam. Heat a tsp. of oil, add 1 tsp of mustard and 1 tsp of urad dal, bits of red chilli, add the steamed rice balls. This in itself will make a nice snack.

If the stuffing is left over, enjoy it as thengai thirattu pal.