More Puthucode Memories

There was far more excitement this time as I was going to meet many of my cousins whom I hadn’t met in a long time and also because I was going to look at everything from a different perspective; I was going to collect material for my blog.

As soon as the train leaves Coimbatore Junction, I get myself glued to the window savoring each picture postcard scenario as it unfolds. I feel as if I have put all those flowers there and I know all the people living in the hutments lining the railway line. Each time I pass, I can see some new bungalows standing in the middle of nowhere, with 2 or more cars and I start thinking about the people living there and where were they all these days and before I knew it, we would be at Palghat Junction. And I love the bus ride from Palghat to Puthucode, where I can once again see all the familiar houses and landmarks and trees and flowers and streams. I see the school children getting into the bus and getting out. Where I used to see girls and boys barefooted but definitely with an umbrella, I can now see all of them wearing shoes or slippers. Boys in those days had half trousers, or knickers as they were called, or mundus (dhotis) and today, they are all dressed in full pants. Girls with open hair, wet after the morning bath, with an umbrella in one hand and their lunch boxes and books in the other hand used to be in long skirts and blouses and older girls in half sarees. Now there is a uniform dress code, in smaller places in India, the Salwar Kameez or Dress as they call it.

Almost in no time, the bus has taken the turn near the mosque and we are at the thottupalam (bridge). These days we have autorickshaws to take us from this point to our house, which is hardly 500mts. I prefer to walk, so that I can meet people on the road and exchange pleasantries.

Our house was already overflowing with guests who had already arrived, all extended family members and eagerly awaiting the ones who were to arrive later in the day.

I reached one day prior to the commencement of the functions. By evening all the guests had arrived, well most of them. Others were coming the next day and the day after.

So here we were, the cousins, our Echiyammas’s elder granddaughters coming together after a very looooong time. The younger ones were not there yet.

Puthucode Memories

As promised, I am (finally!) ready to write about my trip to Kerala to participate in the Upanayanam and Choulam of my nephews.

I would like to warn at the very outset that this is not intended to be an elaborate commentary on Upanayanam and Choulam, as I could not keep questioning the priest at each ritual. Even otherwise, whenever I asked him to explain the meaning of some ritual, he would say, “here she comes with a paper and pen.” However, the meanings of some of the rituals could be seen here and there.

As I have already said, we had just done the grihapravesham (i, ii) of our flat and were planning to shift to the new place before we left for Kerala. Only later did we realise that the builder had some more work to finish, like the final coat of painting and the final polishing of the floor. Hence we decided to postpone shifting to a later date. However we had started the packing and were loading one room with the packed cartons.

This is how one of our rooms looked then (and now also).


Going to Kerala has always been exciting for me. I get lost in nostalgia. Though I have spent only ¼ of my life in Kerala, to this day that remains the most memorable time to me. We didn’t have any coffee joints or any cinema houses where we friends could get together. Nor did we have any shopping sprees where daddy’s hard earned money could be spent. We were confined to our agraharam and we did not even go to the other agraharams, unless there was a purpose. Then we had our thodu, (the stream) where we friends would meet every day and exchange stories (what happened between 6.30pm the previous day and 8.00am on that day) and had a lovely time splashing about in the water. Some of us also took along our younger siblings and taught them swimming. Our washing would also get over along with the bath. When we did not return in some reasonable time, our elders would stand outside our houses and would send word with others coming to the thodu, to ask us to come home soon “or else.” After school, we would again get together on the street, gramam or agraharam as it is known and play games of dice or I-spy, or simply run around and make a lot of noise. Nobody would check us. Then we would all go to the temple and meet others from the other gramams and by 6.30pm, we had to be inside our respective houses. No staying out after 6.30pm. There were so many events and happenings and stories to relate to our echiyamma (grandmother) and others when we came home. This was the only communication line they had. No phones; no getting together for the older women. Even we young girls had the privilege only till we attained puberty. After that it was only going to the thodu and temple. No loitering around in the gramam. Luckily for me, I left my gramam at that age, so I did not have any restrictions until I left. All these memories rush to my mind each time I plan a visit to Puthucode.


How come there isn’t as much to remember from the later years as there is from the first 14 years of my life? As usual, I always put this question to my best friend and philosopher, my dear husband. Depending on the mood of the day, he will give me a different but acceptable answer each time.

I had been going back almost every year in the beginning; actually every vacation when I was in college and also as long as our children were in primary school. It was only after I took up a full time job and my in-laws became old and I could not leave them alone that my visits became rare, just popping in for some important functions and returning the same evening.

As always, having started writing about my Upanayanam trip, I have drifted to my childhood days and Puthucode. This is, perhaps, what makes it so memorable. I don’t know if today’s children have so much to remember about the place they grow up in. Even today, when I start talking to my mother over phone, we will drift from one topic to another and finally wouldn’t discuss the topic on hand at all. Alas, that trend is fast disappearing. Today people have nothing to talk about after the cursory, “Hello, how do you do”. I sometimes feel, they are afraid they would disclose something about themselves or their family, if they talked more. It was not so then. Two people had to just meet and they would exchange everything they knew about everybody. They were not hesitant to discuss their children or family with others. Everyone accepted that every family had problems and by discussing with others they would invariably get a solution from the experience of someone or by drawing parallels. At the very least one got the tension out. I do not remember hearing of anyone having to go to a cousellor or a psychiatrist in those days. There were always friends, philosophers and guides in the gramam. It was one large family after all.

Recipe: Palpayasam

Let us have a sweet ending to our 100^th episode (and start the next 100!) with a special recipe for Palpayasam. Palpayasam is known as the king of payasams. The palpayasam of Ambalapuzha is world famous, though I have never had an opportunity to taste the delicacy. The Kerala palpayasam is any day more delicious than palpayasams of any other region.

There is an interesting story about the palpayasam, which my husband relates to our guests whenever we serve the delicacy. The story is about an elaborate Sadhya (feast) where many distinguished guests were gathered. Kunjan Nambiar, Kerala’s renowned poet, who was famous for his ready wit, was among the guests. After having his fill of all the special dishes served, Nambiar announced, “I am full, I cannot have anything more.” The king, who wanted to have a dig at Nambiar, ordered for palpayasam. In came palpayasam and, unable to refuse the king, Nambiar had a go at it. The King asked, “Nambiar, you said you were full and can have no more of any thing. How is it that you had so much of palpayasam?” Quick came Nambiar’s reply, “Your Majesty, imagine a huge gathering of people with not an inch to spare. Don’t they make way if the Maharaja is announced? Similarly, when palpayasam goes in, the other items in the stomach move aside to accommodate it.” Needless to mention, palpayasam is the “Maharaja” of payasams.

The Kerala palpayasam gets its special taste from the thickening of the milk, sugar and rice in vast urulis.

It is also special in the sense that there are no added flavours like cardamom or saffron and garnishing like dry fruits, etc. In its simplicity lies its deliciousness!

The payasam is made in large urulis or charakkus and is stirred with long handled ladles known as chattukam which measure many metres in length. As I promised in my post on Idichu Pizhinja Payasam, I got pictures of these when I was in my village last month.

The first picture here is an uruli, currently lying unused in our ancestral home. The second is one of people actually making the payasam at my nephew's upanayanam there last month.



Though the original version called for preparation in small urulis, I have an easy recipe to prepare the payasam in a pressure cooker without the hassles of constant stirring and the extra care to not burn the milk at the bottom or boil it over.

Special thanks for teaching me this easy method goes to my aunt, Vasantha Chithi, who painstakingly explained to me the minute details of this method of preparing this payasam, which has never gone wrong. Thanks once again, chithi.

Here is the recipe for the palpayasam.

Since I always try to simplify my recipes to suit the requirements of our younger (handsome and charming, natch) son, who lives alone and loves to cook, I am giving below the recipe for just two servings. The quantity may be increased by multiplying the ingredients to suit individual requirements. Only take care to use larger pressure cookers when increasing the quantities of ingredients.

To make the payasam with 1 litre of milk, you should use at least a 5 litre pressure cooker.

Ingredients:

Milk (Preferably full cream): ½ litre (500ml)
Sugar: ½ cup
Rice: 2 tbsp

Sterilize the cooker by boiling 2 cups of water in it and rinse the lid and the weight with the boiled water, so that the milk won’t curdle. I do this exercise whenever I prepare milk based sweets.

Boil the milk and sugar in the pressure cooker. Wash the rice. When the milk starts boiling, reduce the heat to the lowest gas mark and add the rice. This payasam is best prepared on a gas stove, though I have prepared this payasam on an electric stove also. One needs to be very careful to control the temperature. Place a small spoon or a small shallow plate inside the cooker so that it will do the stirring action when the cooker is shut. Stir the contents well and close the cooker. Place the weight on the valve when steam escapes and allow the payasam to cook on a low heat. Switch off the stove after 20 minutes (If using an electric stove, switch off after 10 minutes). Open the cooker 30 minutes after switching off. Your delicious, creamy, Maharaja of payasam is ready.

ENJOY!

A few points to be given special attention:

Use a cooker large enough to hold all ingredients.
Reduce the heat to the minimum after placing the weight on the valve.
Switch off only after 20 mnts.
Open the cooker 30 mnts after switching off.

First century!

This, my 100^th post, has been a long time in coming owing to various reasons, one of them being my moving to Hyderabad to spend time with our elder son. Having started to blog in 2005 while visiting with our younger son, the two years of my blogging have gotten me a lot many friends from all over the world, and it feels nice when total strangers compliment me on my blog. Two years is definitely a very long time for 100 posts and I sort of try to feel justified in my irregular blogging whenever people ask me how I find time to blog.

Our son lives in a huge house with a vast garden; we need an intercom to communicate with each other and a bicycle to go around the house. I have my own exclusive enclosed cobbled courtyard to gaze at the sun and the stars; only the mosquitoes will not allow me to have the pleasure for long. It took a while settling down in the new house, as my son himself has recently shifted here and had not unpacked the boxes containing the kitchenware. He had done an excellent job of the packing though; the contents of all the boxes neatly tabulated down to the spoon and fork and carefully packed. Though they had been cleaned before packing, I am so fussy about the cleanliness of kitchenware that I had to clean and sun-dry them all over again. After 2 weeks, I am almost through with the job. As always with company allocated accommodation, there are lots of small jobs to be done, a switch here, a tap there and so on which gets done at its own slow pace.

The weather in Hyderabad is very pleasant at this time. It is cool and breezy (we are surrounded by tall neem trees and other trees like sithaphal, moringa, etc) with intermittent showers.

Now that I have started blogging again, I hope to be more regular. Wish me Good Luck!

Recipe: Brinjal Masala curry

I have been preparing this curry for a long time. I don’t think I learnt it from any recipe book or from anyone. I just started making my own recipes and this one turned out to be superb. I learnt how delicious it was only when my sister-in-law asked me once, “I understand you prepare a new variety or brinjal curry that is just superb, how do you make it?”

Here is the recipe.

I use the round violet brinjals for this.

Ingredients:

Dhania : 1 tbsp,
Chana dal: 1 tbsp+1tsp
Urad dal: 1 tbsp.+1tsp.
Hing : size of a pea
Red chillies : 2 or 3
Curry leaves : few
Brinjal: 250 grams
Onion: 1 big (100gms)
Tomatoes: 200 gms
Turmeric powder: 1tsp.
Mustard seeds : 1 tsp.
Salt to taste
Oil : 2 tbsp.

Coriander leaves for garnishing

Preparation:

Wash and cut the brinjals into 2” long pieces. Cut onions into small pieces. Cut the the tomatoes into small pieces.

Roast the hing, dhania, 1 tbsp. chana dal, 1 tbsp. urad dal, red chillies, and few curry leaves to a light pink color. Cool and coarsely powder.

Heat the oil, add mustard seeds. When they start spluttering, add the urad dal and chana dal. When they turn light pink in color, add the curry leaves and onion and saute until onions turn light pink in color. Add the tomatoes and saute until they are mushy. Add the brinjal and turmeric powder and salt and saute in medium heat until brinjal is cooked. Add the ground powder and remove from heat. Garnish with finely cut coriander leaves.

Serve with rice or chapatis.

Enjoy!

Update: Needless to say, this post along with my recipe for Vangi bath and my first post on brinjals are my entries for JFI July.

Recipe: Vangi Bath

Vangi bath is a Karnataka specialty and is a full meal in itself. It is prepared with the long green variety of brinjals.

Ingredients:

Brinjal : 200 gms
Dhania : 1 tbsp.
Chana dal : 1 tbsp. + 1 tsp.
Urad dal : 1 tbsp. + 1tsp.
Khus khus : ½ tsp
Hing : size of a pea
Sesame seeds: 1 tsp.
Cloves: : 2 nos.
Cinnamon : ½" stick
Marathi moggu: 1 piece (this spice looks like a big clove, I do not know the Hindi or English names of this spice. It is called Marathi Moggu in Karnataka)
Red chillies : 2 or 3
Curry leaves : few
Copra or dry coconut : 2 tbsp. (grated)
Gingelly (sesame) oil : 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds: 1 tsp.
Ground nuts : 1 tbsp.
Turmeric powder : 1 tsp.
Salt to taste.
Coriander leaves 1 tbsp.
Rice : 1 cup

Preparation:

Any cooking oil can be used according to individual taste. I prefer gingelly (also known as sesame or till) oil for this preparation for the flavour it adds to the dish.

Wash and cook the rice adding 1 tsp of gingelly oil to keep the rice grains separate (it should not be very soft). Spread in a plate to cool.

Heat ½ tsp oil and add the hing, dhania, 1 tbsp chana dal, 1 tbsp urad dal, khus khus, cloves, cinnamon, marathi moggu, red chillies and curry leaves and roast till the dals turn light pink in color and give off a nice aroma. Cool and powder coarsely.

Wash and cut the brinjals into 1” square pieces.

Heat the remaining oil and add the mustard seeds. When they start spluttering, add the remaining urad dal, chana dal, ground nuts and curry leaves. When the dals turn light pink in color add the cut brinjals and saute them on low heat, adding turmeric powder and salt. When the brinjals are almost done add the ground powder and saute for another 5 minutes until they are thorughly mixed. Add the cooled rice and mix well. Garnish with finely cut coriander leaves and your vangi bath is ready.

ENJOY

Optionally 1 tbsp. of lemon juice can be mixed to the vangi bath.

Suggested accompaniments: Vangi bath is just delicious as such, or can be served with roasted papads, or raita, or keerai masiyal ( more about it later).

Update: Needless to say, this post along with my recipe for Vangi bath and my original post on brinjals are my entries for JFI July.

Brinjals all around

Brinjals (also known as eggplant in the U.S.) are available in different varieties. Though there are many varieties of brinjals available in market today, my early memories are only of the long variety in both green and violet colors. The round ones were seen less often. As I have said earlier, when we were growing up most of the vegetables we used were home grown and during the monsoon months we had only the lady’s fingers and brinjals grown in our back yards and the summer gourds hung from the ceilings.

There weren’t many different ways in which brinjals were cooked those days, the most popular ones beings the Mezhukkupuratti (either brinjals alone or in the combination of raw plantain and yam ), arachukalakki and the nezhukari. Brinjals were used in Sambar and molakoottal also.

Since our family had great Andhra connections (long story for another time), we also prepared the stuffed brinjals or Guthi Vangaya koora. My father also used to relish the simple Vangaya Veppudu, a cousin of our Mezhukkupuratti.

Brinjal has remained a favourite with our handsome and charming children also. I prepare many varieties of brinjal curries and I could write for a long time on brinjal recipes alone. Here then are the two recipes that I prepare quite often. The first is Vangi bath, the other is my own invention, I don't really have a name for it, I'm just calling it Brinjal Masala. Along with this post, those two comprise my entries for JFI July.

Grihapravesam (II)

After getting the car repaired and getting it home, we all breathed a sigh of relief. We started getting busy with the other arrangements. Once again, our handsome and charming son took an auto and went to the new house to get it cleaned. Hubby dear went to the market to get the flowers and other pooja materials. I got busy at home packing the various things to be carried for the pooja and checking with my list to see if I had forgotten something.

The things we carried included:
Kumkum
Haldi
Sandal powder
Camphor
Incense sticks
Flowers for pooja
Garlands for decoration
Different types of vilakkus (lamps)
Oil
Wicks for lamps
Ghee for homam
Homakundam
Woodshavings and other materials for homam
Various pooja utensils
Rice paste for kolam
Rice, urid whole and other navagraha dhanyas (paddy was being brought by the vadhyar)
Navagraha cloth pieces
Coconuts
Vengalapanai for boiling milk
Gas stove
Match box

It is a practice to spend the night on the day of the Grihaparvesam in the new house. Therefore we had to carry some sheets and pillows for sleeping there.

In between I summoned the services of my beautiful and talented niece to make the kolams. Locating her took almost an hour as she was on her holiday outing.

Finally around 4 pm, we loaded as many things as possible in two cars (my niece brought her car and we dared to take a chance with the repaired car. My son’s argument “anyway, we have to take the car there. Why not make use of it to transport our things?”)

Since the flooring was marble, we added some haldi powder to the rice paste so that the kolam would be prominent. My niece made the kolams, while we arranged all the other things so that in the morning it would be easy to manage the things.




We got the chairs and tables for lunch. We called the caterer and confirmed the arrangements. We also called a taxi and asked him to pick us up next day morning from home.

It was already 9pm by then. We had to get ready by 6 am next morning. So we hired an auto and reached home, had dinner and went to bed around 12 pm and set the alarm for 3 am.

The muhurtham for the grihapravesham had to be either at 5.30 am or after 9.30am, We had chosen the later muhurtham as it would have been impossible for us to reach the place well in advance for 5.30am muhurtam, after preparing the payasam for the neyvedyam and Havis for the homam.

I got up at 3 am and prepared payasam and havis after my bath, by which time, my husband and son also got ready. The taxi came at 6 am sharp and we all (my friend, Veena, also joined us) left on time. The Vadhyar had said “you carry lighted vilakku, flowers, rice, dal,coconut, haldi powder, chandanam etc., when you go in. Accordingly we decorated the entrance with garland and entered the house and kept things ready for the Vadhyar.




By then my mother and niece arrived followed by my brothers and their families and other invitees. Breakfast arrived punctually at 08:30am and we all had good breakfast of idlis, vadai, kesari and coffee. As lighting of the stove was not allowed inside the house until after the grihapravesam, we had made arrangements for another gas stove to be placed outside in the veranda/lobby for preparing coffee. The caterer had brought milk, cups, coffee decoction and sugar. This way we ensured that fresh and hot coffee could be served to the guests as when they arrived. To our satisfaction, we could give breakfast to our guests upto about 10.30am. This was essential as many of the guests were not familiar with the location and had to spend a little extra time searching/enquiring etc to locate the address. Being peak summer many were quite tired by the time they arrived. We had also arranged fresh lemon juice to be prepared and served to all. The caterer also had brought enough and more of the food items to be served for all the people.



Around 9 am the Vadhyar arrived with 4 other vadhyars and started the preparations for the pooja.



We were once again asked to enter the house with kumbham, vilakku, flowers, coconut, etc.
At 9.30am, punyaham and kshiraprasanam (the stove is lighted for the first time in the house and milk is boiled. This milk is offered to the God as neivedyam and is taken by the yajamana, his family and guests) were done, followed by Ganapathy Homam, Navagraha Homam and Vasthu Homam.

All the homams and pooja went quite satisfactorily and all the invitees attended the function.






By the time the homams were over, lunch had arrived. We had arranged with the same caterer we had arranged for the “Grihapravesham” of our house, we are living in now. The only difference being that then he had come and cooked at our premises and we had a buffet lunch with more invitees, this time around, he prepared the food and brought it and we had fewer invitees.

The lunch consisted of:

Kichadi
Pineapple Pachadi
Kootukari
Aviyal
Thoran
Puliinji
Mango pickle
Sambar
Rasam
Parippu vadai
Mysore pak
Chips
Pappadam
Curds

AND

Idichu Pizhinja Payasam

The reviews were soon in, “The lunch was grand!”

Grihapravesham (I)

For sometime now, we had been planning to move to a smaller city/smaller place, just to get out of this maddening crowd in Bangalore. The roads have become very crowded, the vehicular traffic has increased to such an extent that walking on the roads is next to impossible. The haphazard parking of cars and motor cycles makes it difficult to get out of the houses or even enter people’s houses when you go visiting. The problem worsens if it rains.

We had always wanted to go back to a quiet and leisurely village in Kerala surrounded by greeneries and flowing water. Running water has been a weakness for me for so long. I would give anything to be able to take a swim in clear and unpolluted water. It has remained an unfulfilled dream so far. Somehow, moving to Kerala was not happening due to various factors. So when my brother suggested about an apartment a little away from the crowd, our handsome and charming son decided to buy it so that we could move in there and have a quieter life. The added incentive was that all my brothers were also buying an apartment each there, although none of them had plans to move in there at the moment.

The apartment house was ready for occupation from the builder’s point and people had already occupied. We wanted to make some minor modifications/additions here and there and also get the interiors done. We were promised everything would be done in 2 weeks time and we could occupy it by 1st week of March. We gave a month’s extra time and decided to conduct the grihapravesham after Vishu, so that our son could also get some vacation.We made trips to the new apartment almost everyday and though the interiors were ready by end of March, the additional masonry work had not even started. With lots of coaxing and cajoling we got some of the work done and decided to conduct the grihapravesham on the 23rd of April.

In the meantime, we started packing our things and also preparing for the grihapravesham. We had arranged to conduct a Ganapathi Homam, Vasthu Homam and Navagraha Homam and host lunch for a few of the near and dear.

We had to buy a whole lot of things and transport them to the new place, 6 kms away. The weather was scorching and humid..To reach this new place either we had to take an autorikshaw who would oblige at his will and ask for that extra 10 bucks or we had to walk upto 1½ kms if we decided to travel by bus. At times we walked almost 1 km to get a rikshaw. My memories went back 19 years when we had moved to our present house and did the grihapravesham in a much more elaborate manner. Things weren’t so difficult then, I remembered. We both were working full time and children were in school. When I said this to our handsome and charming younger son over phone, he said, “Patti was there amma.” True. My astute and blessed mother-in-law was around and she was a great manager and co-ordidnator. She was not at an age where she could get out and manage things but I could give her a list of things to be done by the various people and leave home in the morning for work and reach back late in the evening after visiting the construction site and every thing would be ready at home. Most importantly, all the four of us were mobile (on our own). We could finish many chores on our way up and down and didn’t have to depend on each other. Things were different now. Patti is no more with us and nor is any one mobile.

Couple of days to go for the function, my husband borrowed his friend’s car so that we could commute much more comfortably. Our son brought the car from the friend’s place. We all went to the apartment and stayed back longer to get the pending electrical work finished without any worry about reaching back home as we had a car. We came down at 7.30pm and found the car with a flat tyre. With great difficulty we got a mechanic to repair the flat tyre and we left the place around 8.30 pm. Hardly had we moved a kilometer and suddenly the car jerked and was going towards the electric post by the side of the road. We did not know what was happening and only our son’s presence of mind saved us from a major accident. He could somehow bring the car to the side of the narrow road and that was it. The car wouldn’t move, the steering wheel was not controlling the wheels as it had had come loose from its couplings. We were in the midst of a very busy road, hardly enough room for single lane traffic. We just couldn’t move the car. My husband phoned his friend, who just gave his mechanic’s phone number and said we could get in touch with the mechanic. It was futile even to imagine that the mechanic would be available at the garage at 9.30pm. My husband tried his luck with one of the workmen we had engaged to get some grill work done and it clicked. The nice man came with two of his boys and still we couldn’t move the care. Cars and buses were honking on all the four sides and I was sitting inside a hot and humid car. With nothing else to do, I just sat there and started reciting my Lalitha Sahasranamam per my daily schedule. Just then two boys came as if from nowhere and asked us what the problem was. They were car mechanics, they said and with great difficulty with the combined effort of all of us, we could push the car away from the road. The boys said, they would get their tools and see if something could be done. Meanwhile, our son insisted that we go home. With difficulty, we hired an auto and reached home at 10.00 pm. Later our son also reached home after having deposited the car under the care of the grill maker.

So the next day getting the car repaired was also on our shoulders. With luck, we could get the job done by evening after spending a handsome amount.

We had just 30 hours to go for the function.

Recipe: Pudina Chutney

It has been very long since I last posted on my blog. As I said earlier, I was too busy with doing up the new flat, arranging for the grihapravesham, packing to move to the new place and also visiting Kerala to attend my nephew’s upanayanam. There are so many things to write about, it boggles my mind. I don’t know where to start.

We also had to suffer an unbearable summer. Kerala was worse with higher humidity. By the time I was back, I had prickly heat all over the body. Luckily for us, we have started getting rains for the past one week and the temperature has come down. I hope the rains continue.

Before I go into the details of grihapravesham and Kerala trip, let me give the recipe for Pudina Chutney, which our younger son has been asking for sometime now. Though I gave him the recipe over phone, he said, it tasted more like “chilli chutney” when he made it.

Pudina (mint) has excellent medicinal properties. It relieves indigestion, biliousness, flatulence, iron deficiency anaemia and hence including pudina chutney in everyday meal is very good for health. Tea prepared with pudina leaves to which a tsp. each of lime juice and honey are added is an excellent cure for common cold, sore throat and that bloated sensation in the stomach after a heavy meal.

A face pack of fresh pudina leaves cures pimples and blackheads and is a very good moisturizer.

So here is the genuine recipe for the chutney.


Ingredients:

Pudina leaves(mint leaves) : 2 cups
Coriander leaves : 2 cups
Green chillies : 3 or 4 nos.(according to taste)
Tamarind or : size of a marble
Tamarind paste : 1 tsp.
Jaggery : 1 tbsp.
Salt to taste
Curry leaves and ginger: optional



Method:

Wash the pudina leaves and coriander leaves and green chillies in running water and wipe with clean towel to remove all the moisture.

If using tamarind, soak in 2 tbsp. of hot water. Grind all the ingredients together. Your tasty pudina chutney is ready. ENJOY!



It may look like a lot of quantity of leaves to start with and so don’t grind in a very big jar of the blender. Add little quantity at a time and with each grinding the leaves will settle down when crushed and the whole lot of leaves will go in a smaller jar, which will be more convenient to grind. In a bigger jar, once all the leaves settle down the grinding won’t be proper as the quantity will be very little.

This chutney goes well with chapatis, puris, dosa, idli and rice. This can also be used as a sandwich filling.

Pudina chutney can also be used as a side dish for Molkoottal.

Long timeout

It has been a long time since I posted, and it will be longer still before I get another chance to post. First we had Vishu, then we had to move our home, and now I'm off on to a family ceremony for my nephew's thread ceremony (pictures of Puthucode when I return!).

In the meanwhile if you folks can post comments about things you'd like me to write about, please do so, it will give me a good list to start off with when I get back.

Vishu 2007

Another Vishu. What was special about this year’s Vishu was that our son was with us to celebrate Vishu.

Though Vishu is the new year day for Malayalees, Tamilians, people of the North eastern states of India and also the Punjabis, this year (as in many other years), all the other people except Malayalees, celebrated their new year day on the 14th and the Malayalees celebrated it on the 15th April. That was because the Mesha Sanakramam or the time at which the sun entered the Mesha rasi was at 11.40 am on the 14^th. The Vishu Kani is seen on the morning after the Mesha Snakramam, Hence, though April 14^th was 1^st of Mesha masa, This year the Vishu Kani was seen on the 15th morning.

The year that was born on the 14th is named Sarvajith. There are 60 years starting with Prabhava according to Hindu Astrological science.

As usual, we had the Vishukani in the morning. From early morning on Vishu, I had a very bad throat and by breakfast time, it developed into very bad bronchitis and I was feeling so exhausted I had to drop the idea of making a grand feast with Chakka Pradhaman. I had been looking forward to this since our son was with us. But both the son and father insisted that I shouldn’t overstrain myself and we had a simple lunch of Manga Koottan, Kootu and Palpayasam instead.

While almost all the other Indian states celebrate Diwali with crackers, Kerala has crackers during Vishu. Cracker shops would sprout even in the remotest of villages a couple of days before Vishu. Usually schools start their summer vacation from the 1^st of April and hence children are at their leisure.

When we were growing up we could buy a big bag of crackers for just Re 1. A day prior to Vishu, Kalathappa (our grandfather) would give us 4 annas (25 paise) each to buy crackers. We would emotionally blackmail Echiyamma (our grandmother) to part with another 4 annas and the three of us (my sister, my cousin and I) would have in total Rs 1.50. This firmly in hand, we would march to the market. Before we left, Kalathappa would say, “don’t forget the “malapadakkam” for the kandam. This meant, ½ anna would go for that. Anyway, we would come back with a bag full of colormatches and sparklers and flowerpots and very few bursting crackers. Back home, we would divide our shopping and dry them in the sun separately. On vishu morning, after seeing the Kani, we would start bursting our crackers. On vishu morning, we would again be richer by Rs0.50, got as Kaineettam from Kalathappa and Echiyamma. So we would do one more round of the market to get some more crackers for the evening.

Recipe: Idichu Pizhinja Payasam

When I had written about the Wedding feast, one of the commenters said that (s)he had never heard of Idichu Pizhinja Payasam and I had promised I would post the recipe soon. I was waiting for a good excuse to prepare this payasam and the golden opportunity dawned today. Today was the “star birthday” of our elder son and as has been our practice for the past 15 years or more, we celebrated his birthday in his absence. Usually, we cook a grand lunch and he eats whatever stuff is available at his work place away from home. Thankfully, this time he went to my cousin’s home and had a grand lunch.

So for the birthday lunch, we prepared Mango kootan, Idichakka poduthuval (tender raw jackfruit curry), idichu pizhinja payasam, vadam and of course rice and curds.

While the recipes for Mango kootan and idichakka poduthuval will come later, today we will have the recipe for idichu pizhinja payasam.

The idichu pizhinja payasam is the most favoured payasam among Keralites and it gets its rather complicated name from the fact that the coconut milk, which is the main ingredient of this payasam, was extracted in the olden days by pounding the grated coconut in a stone mortar (called an “Ural” in malayalam and Tamil and “Okhali” in Hindi). The malayalam term for pounding and extracting is “idichu pizhinju” and hence the name. It is also known by the name Chathachathayam. It is the main neyvedyam in our Annapoorneswari temple during Navarathri, at which time this payasam is made with some 50kgs of rice and milk extracted from some 600 to 700 coconuts. The payasam is made in large urulis or charakkus and is stirred with long handled ladles known as chattukam which measure some 2 mts. long. I will try to get pictures of these during my visit to my native village next month. For the neyvedyam in our temple, a special type of banana known as kadali in malayalam is used. This is not very popular in Bangalore although I did see it in California during our last visit. I have not used this in my recipe. No flavouring agents like cardamom powder or dry ginger powder is used in the payasam and the natural fragrance of the coconut milk and kadali pazham and pure ghee enhance the flavour of this payasam.

It was very difficult for me to scale down the recipe for 4 servings, and I ventured to try it with milk from ½ coconut. I have never made this with less than 2 coconuts.

The pictures show the actual quantity of milk obtained from ½ a coconut and the quantity of payasam got from using the ingredients mentioned below.

Ingredients:

(4 servings)

Milk from ½ a coconut
Or
Readymade coconut milk ½ tin

Raw rice : ¼ cup
Jaggery : 1 cup
Sugar : 2 tbsp
Pure ghee: 2 tbsp


Method:

Extract coconut milk as explained in the recipe for Parippu Pradhaman.

Wash and cook the rice in the third milk (thinnest) . (This can be done in a pressure cooker).

Melt the jaggery in one cup of water and strain it to remove sand particles and other impurities.

Transfer the cooked rice to a thick bottomed wide mouthed vessel. Add the jaggery syrup and boil until the rice and the jaggery syrup are well blended and the raw jaggery smell disappears. Add the ghee and stir well.

(If using the bananas – make small round pieces of the banana and fry them in ghee until well blended and add to the payasam now.)

Add the second milk (thinner variety) and boil for another 5- 6 minutes until the payasam starts thickening. Add the first milk (thickest) and immediately switch off the stove. Keep stirring with a long handled ladle for another 5 minutes to prevent crust formation.

Enjoy!

P.S. : As I have said earlier this payasam is made in thick uruli made of an alloy called oodu in malayalam and vengalam in Tamil. This is a very thick alloy and retains heat for 1 – 2 hours. Hence the first milk is added only after removing the uruli from the stove. The payasam is not heated after the addition of first milk as the first milk might separate releasing coconut oil if heated.

Recipe: Tomato rice

This rice preparation is a favourite of the family. It is spicy, tangy and well balanced and is a meal in itself. It can be had with just papads or a raita. I serve it with a bland gourd curry (kootu) as the rice is spicy.

The recipe calls for dhania powder and chilli powder, however I use my sambar powder instead as the sambar powder contains a lot more spices, this enhances the flavour and taste of the rice. Actually, in most dishes I use sambar powder in place of dhania powder, which gives an excellent aroma to the dish.

Coconut milk is an important ingredient in this recipe. I make cooconut milk by blending fresh grated coconut with ½ cup of warm water and straining it through a colander. I repeat the process with some more warm water to extract all the remaining milk from the coconut.(While blending the coconut, I add the garlic and ginger to it, so that the juices are extracted along with the coconut milk). Ready made coconut milk can also be used.

Try this recipe and enjoy.

Ingredients:

Tomatoes : 250gms
Basmati rice : 1 cup
Coconut milk : 1 cup
Ginger : 2” piece
Garlic : 6 or more pods (as per taste)
Onion : 100gms.
Green chillies : 2 or 3
Cloves : 2
Cinnamon : 1” stick
Black cardamom : 1 no.
Bay leaves : 1 or 2
Dhania powder : 1 tbsp.
Chilli powder : 1 or 2 tsp (as per taste)
Turmeric powder : 1 tsp.
Salt to taste
Ghee or oil : 2 tbsp.

Cashew nuts : for garnishing.
Curry leaves and coriander leaves for garnishing.



Preparation:

Blanch the tomatoes by dipping in boiling water for 5 minutes and immediately dipping in cold water. Remove the skin (blanching helps in removing the skin easily). Make a puree of the tomatoes. Keep aside.

Pepare coconut milk as explained above or use ready made coconut milk. Extract the juice of ginger and garlic by blending and straining the juice. Keep aside.

Slice the onions and slit the green chillies.

Wash and soak the rice for 10 minutes. Heat ghee in a pressure cooker and fry the cashew nut to a golden brown color. Remove and keep aside for garnishing. Fry the onions to a golden brown. Remove and keep aside for garnishing. Into the same ghee, add the whole garam masalas (cloves, cinnamon and cardamom) and bay leaf. When they stop spluttering, add the slit green chillies and saute for a minute. Add the rice and fry till the rice starts spluttering. Add the tomato puree and coconut milk and juice of ginger and garlic. As the tomato puree is quite thick it provides only half its measure of water for the rice to cook. The ratio of water to rice for cooking the rice varies depending on the rice. Normally basmati rice will need two cups of water to one cup of rice. If quantity of coconut milk used is 1 cup and tomato puree is 1 cup, we need to add an additional half cup of water to the rice for cooking. Add the dhania powder, chilli powder (or the sambar powder), turmeric powder and salt. Close the pressure cooker and cook the rice with the weight valve on. When done, garnish with curry leaves, coriander leaves and cahsew nuts and fried onions.

ENJOY!
P.S.: Of course, this is my entry for JFI Tomatoes

Grahanam

We celebrated Ugadi on Monday. We refers to the Kannadigas, the Telugus, the Maharashtrians and the like. We at home of course celebrate every festival with everybody. As long as there is good food to be eaten, we Iyers are in! Ugadi is the new year’s day for all those observing the lunar calendar. People deck up the house and prepare a festive lunch and offer pujas in the temple. The important item of the festival lunch is Holige or Obattu and Ambode. I thought of preparing obattu, but then, my good friend Veena brought a few for us.

On Ugadi day, we also had a partial solar eclipse early in the morning. My mother was asking me, “did you observe the Grahanam(eclipse)?” I burst out laughing and asked her, “Amma, how do you observe Grahanam? After all you don’t have to prepare Parippu Kanji or payasam, right?” She said, “that’s true. You don’t have to prepare any thing.”

Having said so to my mother, my memories went back to the grahanams when we were growing up. Those days, grahanams were indeed days filled with lots of fun.
To start with, the whole village was in a relaxed mood during the time of eclipse as nobody was supposed to eat anything during the eclipse time. The last meal had to be had atleast 2 hours prior to the start of eclipse and the kitchens were closed till the end of eclipse. This meant that the womenfolk had no kitchen work and we could spend time with our mothers in relaxation. Otherwise, they would be always busy with preparing meals or other kitchen work. During the eclipse, nobody was supposed even to drink water. The stomach was to be free from work also, as digestive functions were also thought to be affected by the “rays emitted during eclipse.”

And then, there was a big congregation at the side of the stream to have a dip at the start of the eclipse along with some vedic chants to ward off the evil effects of the eclipse. (Most of the Kerala Iyer settlements were around a temple and there very often was a river, stream or pond on the banks of which there were some banyan trees. Many of these congregations took place under these trees. There was a platform built around the banyan tree which the men sat and discussed various matters from politics to everyday events). As it was rare to get the older women at the stream during the day time on the other days, we had swimming races with the daring seniors on such occasions. It was loads of fun to swim with Parvathi patti, Seshi patti and the likes, and observing them indulging in teasing each other and mock fighting. If the eclipse was for a short duration, the fun was much more, as we were all supposed to have another dip at the end of the eclipse. This meant all stayed back at the poolside until the eclipse ended and we never got out of the water. We were scolded when we reached home for being in water for so long “like buffaloes.” “What if you catch a cold,” we were asked. By then the mothers would get very busy anyway, as they had to prepare food for all from scratch, as they had emptied the kitchen for the eclipse. Not even dosa or idli batter would be kept aside for use after grahanam. The only item brought forward thru grahanam was curds in which a piece of dhurva grass was been placed to ward off evil effects.

During grahanam, various shanthi poojas were conducted in individual houses and also dhanams (alms) were given to brahmins, as it was believed that the people on whose birthstars the grahanam was falling, will have to suffer the ill effects of grahanam. They were also supposed to wear a pattam, a palm leaf on which some mantras were written to ward off evil effects. We would dance around the pattam wearers making fun of them. To my luck, I never had to wear a pattam when I was growing up, afterwards I never cared.

And how did we view the eclipse? We were sternly warned not to look at the sun directly. We did not have access to any special glasses/filters like the present day kids, we did not even have sunglasses, to view the eclipse. Our elders taught us to darken glass pieces with the soot from the oil lamp and view the sun thru this darkened glass. Another method was to look at the reflection of the eclispsed sun in a decanted solution of cowdung in water.

There was another important ritual to be observed by all pregnant women during the grahanam. They were advised to hide, literally, they were asked to stay inside a dark room, closing the doors and making sure that even a small hole or crack in a window or door was plugged. When I think of those days, I am surprised no one else kept conpany for these hiding ladies, atleast for small talk. They sat inside the room all alone during the period of grahanams. It was believed that pregnant women who did not hide during grahanam would deliver children with deformities. It is not clear to me whether this belief has any scientific backing, though we read often that many practices being observed blindly over generations on the advice of elders have sound scientific backing. I wonder what today’s young women do during grahanam and how many deformed children are born because of their not hiding. It is to be remembered here that today science has helped us to detect many deformities proir to the childbirth and corrective measures are taken immediately after the child is born and in some cases even in the foetus state itself. Such facilities were not available until toward the end of the 20th century. Today it is quite common to carry out many prenatal scans and tests.

There are people who advise the young generation to hide during grahanam today also, as was illustrated by our friend whose daughter had a child two days before this solar eclipse. He called us to give the good news and said, “see her luck, she does not have to hide during grahanam.”

Karadayan Nonbu

I just cannot believe that it is already one year since I wrote about Karadayan Nonbu. It cetainly doesn’t feel like that long. Time really flies. The usual question people ask us when we meet is, “ How do you spend your time”. I can only ask them in reply, “what time?” I can actually hear my sons saying, ”you will never get time.” It is true, I somehow manage to fill my time to the brim with the result that my only complaint always is that I don’t have enough time.

We are back to the malayalam month of Meena or Panguni in Tamil. As usual we observed Karadayan nonbu on the 1^st of Meena. This year, the sankrama was at 2.30am on the 15^th and hence the priest conveniently announced that 6.30-7.30pm on the 14^th would be the auspicious time to do the pooja. When I asked him why he advanced the time, he said, “Madam, nobody will get up at that hour and observe the puja. 6.30-7.30pm on the 14^th is auspicious for conducting any puja as per the Panchanga." The priests have to be very diplomatic these days. I can remember times when we would keep awake till 11.30pm to do the puja or would wake up at 1.00am and get ready to do the puja. I must admit, however, that I also did the puja at about 7.30pm on the 14^th this year. Our family priest has many fine qualities, but when it comes to mixing the practical with the spiritual, he excels himself.

An interesting point about this puja is that in our village (I don’t know about other places) and also in my husband’s village, jasmine or other types of flowers are not offered during this puja. The flowers offered are what are known as Arali in Malayalam which has a sweet frangrance. As in the past years we managed to get the flowers from a nearby garden this year also.


As usual, I prepared both vella adai and kara adai as per my tried and tested recipe. Some of my friends say, they use karamani or chickpeas in place of green gram dal. I feel green gram dal gives body to the adai and also makes it very soft.


Although, I had blogged about the recipe last year, I didn’t have the pictures for it then. Each of these pictures follows the various steps in making the adais: making the balls out of the dough, flattening them, placing them on the steamer and then finally the steamed adais.




After preparing the adais, I got ready for the puja. There is one place for each female member of the family, however small the girl is. Even if there is only one female member, usually we never have one neyvedyam kolam (rangoli). It is usually two. I offer the neyvedyam and charadu for the Tulsi plant.

After the kolam is made, the puja offering is prepared thus: A banana leaf is put on each kolam. One sweet adai, one kozhukkattai and butter, two bananas, betel leaves and nuts, two pieces of turmeric, arali flowers and the all important Nonbu Charadu.



After doing the puja, the charadu is tied around the neck and the neyvedyam is partaken by the offerers. (This is one of the few occasions that ladies get to eat before men). Though you can have any number of adais, it is only one adai and one kozhukkattai kept during the puja, The verses for the puja are

Urukkatha vennayum Oradayum notren
Orukalum en kanavan piriyathirukkanam

which can be translated as “I offer butter and one adai, let me and my husband be together always."

The Uppadai or the savoury adai is also not offered as neyvedyam. It is only to have as a savoury item after the sweet adais.

Sambandhi Sandai

Ever since I started writing about “Kerala Iyer Wedding”, many people have been asking me why I have not yet written about Sambandhi Sandai. So, here we go. Sambandhi Sandai is an event dreaded by the bride’s party and some fine entertainment that other visitors eagerly anticipate.

When I think of sambandhi sandai, my memories travel back some half a century in time to the fifties and sixties, to a society that considered demands for dowry, seeru, the way that the various rituals were conducted, etc as just and were dictated very strictly by the prospective in-laws of the bride. Such demands for dowry, seeru, etc were an integral part of any marriage and treated as important as the rituals. Many marriage proposals broke down on the issue of dowry. Also there were instances where the in-laws to be would get a goldsmith to test the quality and/or the weight of the gold or demand bills from reputed shops before the wedding functions started. Besides, there were always one or two close relatives of the groom who would have been disappointed in not having succeeded in getting their daughter or niece wedded to the groom, now seeking their revenge by having a go at the bride’s party. The interests of the latter people were only to create some mischief in the proceedings. It should also be borne in mind that those were the days when the present day event managers were absent and for the conduct of the function the bride’s parents depended heavily on the men and women folk, young and old, in the village with the attended shortcomings as well as lack of etiquette and experience. All these contributed to some friction here and there, unfortunately some were blown out of proportion resulting in verbal exchanges fanned by some unscrupulous relatives, often with their own agenda.

Sambandhi Sandai literally means a fight between the new relatives. In the Kerala Iyer weddings (actually in almost all Indian weddings), the bride’s parents are supposed to be responsible for the smooth conduct of the wedding, starting from the marriage pandal, nadaswaram, catering, entertaining the guests to bidding farewell to all the guests. The onus for the successful conduct of the wedding rested solely on the bride’s party. The bridegroom’s party are the honored guests, who need to be received at the entrance hall, made confortable, invited for each ritual of the marriage and for meals (with coconuts, plantain fruits, parippu thengai kutty as the occasion demands, accompanied by nadaswaram each time), in short, all their needs however small or big are to be met to their satisfaction. It was the bride’s party’s responsibility to see that they had no wants and were happily entertained.

In a big function like a marriage, when there are so many rituals to be completed and so many meals to be served and so many other arrangements to be made, involving so many people, young and old, it can always happen that there are one or two slip ups in any of the above. There are always people who could find fault with something or the other just to make an issue and blow it out of proportion and to humiliate the bride’s parents, as they are the event managers.

In the olden days, as the marriages were usually conducted in the bride’s residence, the guests were accomodated in a nearby house. So usually, the “sambandhi sandai” started with complaints of the inadequacies of the accomodation and other inconveneinces in the quarters allotted to them. More often than not, this came from the son-in-law of the bridegroom’s parents, as he is the most important guest of their family. Some inconvenience to their mappilai (son-in-law) was something nobody could ignore.

This continues even today, though in another form. These days, most of the weddings are arranged in wedding halls with equal number of rooms for both the bride’s and bridegroom’s parties. It often happens that the bridegroom’s party demands more rooms for their guests, leaving the bride’s party with very little room to accommodate their guests. I remember during my cousin’s daughter’s wedding, the bridegroom’s athai and athimbar (parternal aunt and uncle, who are the daughter and son-in-law of that family) demanded a separate room for them at 11.30 pm and my cousin had to actually vacate the room where his sister and family were put up and send them to a hotel about 5kms away.

Then, there were always the sandai for milk for the baby and again the VIP guests. In the olden days, the only source of milk was the neighbour who owned cows or from the nearby towns, during big occasions. There were no refrigerators to preserve the milk and hence after the guests have been served with coffee and the payasam made, the milk would be used for setting curds for the next day. Around 10 pm would come the demand for the milk and naturally there would be no milk available. A loud unleashing would follow and this was one demand that could never be fulfilled because there was no hope for procuring milk at that late hour in small places. My mother-in-law used to remember this story relating to the time of her marriage. Some guests demanded milk for a big group at 11 pm and one of her uncles decided to play a trick on the guests. He filled a big pot with water and added one glass of milk in it and gave it to the guests saying that was the only milk availbale at that hour. What followed, my astute and blessed mother-in-law could never remember. (She had many such stories up her sleeves. I only wish I had started on this blogging endeavour during her time.) It is very different today even in remote villages, where pasterurised milk is available and almost all households have refrigerators.

Other important issues during the olden days for sambandhi sandai was dowry (which has almost died out today), seer, the items for breakfast, lunch and dinner,etc. In general, issues as insignificant as who received the bridegroom’s mother at the entrance, to the size of ladoo could start a war of words. Usually, the bride’s parents would bend over backwards to pacify the “warmongers” and would even be prepared to fall at their feet and beg pardon for any unforeseen shortcomings, but the sandai reaches its full crescendo, when one of the guests from the bride’s side starts raising their voice against the shouting brigade. Usually, there is somebody on the bride’s side who do not want to give in for all their demands and the sandai becomes a real do or die and sometimes ends in a walkout by the groom’s party. There have been instances when people have walked out halfway through their dinner or halfway through the marriage functions. One can only imagine the agony of the parents of the bride, after all the care taken by them.

While I was writing this, one of my friends happened to read a preview of my post and asked me to elaborate on the scene, as she had never witnessed a sambandhi sandai.

The one sambandhi sandai I remember clearly was during a wedding in our village when I was a little girl of 9 or 10 years old.

The scene : The bridegroom’s party sitting for their evening tiffin. Bondas were being served as part of the tiffin. The boy who was serving the tiffin had reached the place where the mother of the groom was having her meal. Having come near the lady, the boy asked, “ Bonda, mami?” (i.e., “Would you like another bonda, aunty?”). The lady suddenly got up from her seat complaining in a loud voice and almost breaking down, “Look at the impropriety of the boy. Shouldn’t he know whom he is addressing. How dare he address me as ‘bonda mami’. Am I a bonda mami? Is this the way I should be insulted on my son’s wedding day? I cannot tolerate this. I am not going to have anything to do with any of the proceedings from this minute.” She went on and on and the boy who was serving bonda and all others were completely shocked at the turn of the events. It was a very common practice while serving to announce the dish he or she is serving like “bonda, mami” or “payasam, mama” and with no offence meant. Soon all the relatives of the groom surrounded the lady and some started blaming the boy and yet others started consoling the lady and in general a great commotion was created. The bride’s party was taken aback and did not know what to do. There were more rituals to be completed. The groom’s brother (who was just a boy of 20+) emerged and ordered the bride’s father, who was old enough to be his own father, to go and apologise to his mother, if he wanted his daughter’s wedding rituals to be completed. I can never forget this incident and the pain, agony and shame on the bride’s father’s face.

It is not for nothing that they say in Tamil, Veettai katti par, Kalyanam Panni Par meaning, construct a house or conduct marriage to know how difficult these tasks are.

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.