Aval Nanachathu- Brown rice Flakes sweetened with jaggery and grated coconut

Saturday Morning: After roaming around the local farmers market - picking fresh produce and marveling how tender and ‘realistic’ the carrots looked , compared to the chemical injected and genetically engineered ones that refuse to lose its firmness even after lying in the refrigerator for more than a month - we decided to visit the Asian store to grab some more stuff in the shopping list.

On reaching the store, my eyes caught the sight of a bunch of baby bananas, in a pretty yellow colour with a touch of pale green hue on its tips, and looking at those petite beauties, I could hear a loud voice in my brain saying “cheru pazham”, a variety of baby bananas available back home in Kerala. I picked up a bunch draped neatly in a plastic wrap, and kept it back. On a second thought, I picked it up again and then I saw CJJ shaking his head and pursing his lips …I could clearly read his face and I was certain he was referring to an incident in the past where we bought some baby bananas amazed by the stark similarity with the variety available in Kerala, only to disappoint ourselves in the end. I stood there for another 30 seconds contemplating and finally proceeded to the check-out carrying a bunch of baby bananas.

Saturday Afternoon: After lunch, we threw ourselves on the couch and started our movie-matinee. An hour into the movie, I heard CJJ asking:

“ …anything to munch on..? “

Me: hmm….nuts……cherries….banana , I replied knowing very well that he wouldn’t be interested in any of these but to my surprise , I saw him going for the box of roasted peanuts.

20-30 minutes passed and again I saw him a bit disturbed and heard him asking:

“ is there any snacks…?”

Me: welll…..……there was a quarter loaf of blueberry bread……

CJJ: aww….wow….I forgot about it completely….( all excited and about to jump off of his seat..)

Me: Yeah…true…..since you forgot, some fungus attacked ‘em and I trashed it two days back…

CJJ: ( on hearing the unexpected) …ohh…..shoooottttt!!

After 15 minutes, I was in a mood to have some fruits and grabbed the bunch of baby bananas. The moment I had my first bite, I was pleasantly surprised….it was sweet….I had one more bite , it was really tasty….and

I heard myself, “ wow….this is sweeettt…….nammude nattile taste…”, ( …….wow….it tastes like the ones we get back home). At that , I saw CJJ sneaking a look through the corner of his left eye , with a tinge of disbelief on his face and I offered him one………. and what followed was an expression where his tiny eyes popped out and his round face brightened with a big smile. In less than 1 minute, I found a big pile of banana peels on our coffee table and noticed that the plucking and peeling action from his side was much faster than that of mine and seeing that I feared that the whole bunch would be finished in another minute…. so I gently reminded him:

“ orennam naalathekku maati vechekkane….” , ( keep one banana for tomorrow_”

“ enthina…..” ( for what?) , asked CJJ , chewing a mouth full of baby banana.

“ enikku avalu nanachathinte koode kozhachu kazhikkana…..” , ( I want to have ‘em mashed with sweetened beaten rice) I said plucking another one from the bunch.

“…..eeeww…..thaniye kazhicha mathee….enikku vendatto..”, ( U may have it all alone, don’t force me) said CJJ with that constant gaze of disdain he usually has whenever I suggest making something that does not belong to the category of non-veg.

Considering the growing pile of banana peels, he himself got up from the couch and placed the rest of the bunch back to the kitchen counter.

Another 40-45 mts passed…..and I saw CJJ getting disturbed again with his hunger pangs and my stomach was also grumbling. At that point, the thought of brown rice flakes dampened with the freshness of grated coconut and sweetened with jaggery and infused with a sprinkle of cardamom and ghee was dancing on my palate . Suddenly, I announced my plan to make sweetened beaten rice and saw myself hitting the kitchen and once more to my surprise, I didn’t hear any note of disapproval from his side this time. He even helped me grate the jaggery and once I finished everything, I handed over him the plate and watched him eating in small spoonfuls.

I plucked a banana and on a second thought, knowing this guy well for all these years, I plucked one more and asked him if he wanted one and I got one more headshake, confirming a big NO. I placed a banana on his plate , and told him:

“ …onnu slice cheythittu …athinte koode kazhichu nokku…” ( slice ‘em and have along with a spoonful)

He sliced the banana and had one spoonful and thennnnnn……… I saw him trying to mash the sliced ones with the back of the spoon. At that point, I was in all smiles and grabbed his plate and mashed the banana with my hands, into the sweetened rice flakes and watched him enjoying that humble snack……

….and I couldn’t stop myself from saying , “gathi kettaal …………..” and he completed the sentence with a private joke :) :)

**

“gathi kettaal puli pullum thinnum “ is an old adage in our mother tongue which roughly translated means, the tiger would eat even the grass, if he has no other go, to satisfy his hunger! I know I killed both the language there but couldn’t come up with an equivalent of that saying.

Well, Aval Nanachathu is a simple and humble evening snack that requires no cooking at all. Beaten/Flattened rice aka brown rice flakes is dampened with freshly grated coconut and sweetened with jaggery, and flavored with a touch of crushed cardamom and ghee. Perfect snack to make on a hot summer evening!

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ to 1 ¾ cups cup thin brown rice flakes/Aval (chemba/Matta aval)/beaten rice
• 1 cup freshly grated coconut
• ½ cup tightly packed jaggery/sharkkara, grated (or to taste)
• 3 pods of green cardamom, crushed
• 1 tsp ghee/clarified butter

Directions:

• In a plate/mixing bowl, blend grated coconut, jaggery and crushed cardamom pods by mixing with hands. To this add half of the beaten rice/brown rice flakes/aval and start crushing and squishing with your hands, to combine everything as well as to release the moisture/juice from grated coconut and jaggery. When you find the first batch of beaten rice/brown rice flakes/aval almost wet and a bit soaked and plump, add the rest of the beaten rice/aval and continue to crush and squish with hands, until everything comes together as a wet and plump mixture. Check if you require more sweetness and adjust accordingly and finally pour the ghee on top and blend once again with your hands. The whole mixing process will take about only 3-5 minutes depending on the quality and freshness of grated coconut.
• Serve with a glass of tea/coffee/milk. You may also serve this with sliced bananas on the side. If you want to go one step further, mash the bananas with a fork or hand and mix to the sweetened beaten rice; that’s just like how we have at home :)

Note: There is no need to add water or milk or any other liquid to make it wet and plump. The wetness comes from the moisture content in jaggery and mainly from the juice ( coconut milk) produced by the freshly grated coconut when squished with hands. If the grated coconut lacks freshness and moisture, then it is difficult to get the desired wetness. The end product is not soggy; it’s just wet, soft and plump , with a bit of bite here and there.

Related Posts:

For more, Go to Complete Recipe Index.

Luv

Shn

No part of the content ( articles, photographs, recipes) of this blog may be reproduced without my written permission.Copyright © 2007-2010 Kitchenmishmash.blogspot.com. All rights reserved.

Does this look like Orappam ? Want to learn more about this snack from YOU !

Orappam...An attempt out of curiosity!

I know that would have been a more appropriate title for this post but my curiosity and desire to learn more about this old world snack from Kerala, got me into thinking that I might be able to catch the attention of some experts out there who would enlighten me with some info about this snack, we have never heard of or tasted in our lives.

The moment I read the name it sounded magical and I was sure, it’s something from the old world. Sarah’s words painted a nostalgic and realistic picture of her grand mom making it for her in her childhood and drew me closer to it and tickled my curiosity, ever since I spotted this recipe in her blog, along with the raisin pickle I tried sometime back.

Finally I decided to give my favourite companion laziness a break and satisfy Ms. Curiosity atleast for once ! Though it took only 10 months to really shake me off of my laziness, I finally made it !

I halved the measurements and followed Sarah’s recipe blindly. As we sank our teeth into it and the taste buds got acquainted, we started telling each other, “ …….mm……a taste very familiar yet unknown……a taste of childhood yet vague……..a taste and smell recognizable from our mothers and grandmother’s kitchens yet new …..”

As one of her readers has rightly commented , it truly captures that quintessential taste and smell of Kerala’s traditional snacks and for some reason, I felt it is a distant relative of Vattayappam made with jaggery. I had strong temptations to substitute brown sugar with sharkkara or sharkkara paani ( jaggery/melted jaggery) but without having any prior point of reference for the level of sweetness or the consistency of batter or even a picture to refer to, I decided to stick to the recipe this time. Soon I realised that even with substitutions, Sarah was successful in developing that recipe and still bring out the traditional taste predominant in Kerala snacks.

Thanks Sarah for such delicious treats from your blog!

Did I tickle your curiosity? Go ahead and give it a try ? :) If you re like us, you can’t just stop with one slice!!

I would love to know more about this snack……

Is the ones in the pictures close to the real deal?

Did I get the texture and colour right?

Is it a specialty of any particular region?

Is it made during any particular festival time or a regular evening snack?

Have you made this at home? If so, I would like to hear your stories, memories and ofcourse, how you make it at home.

If you can throw some light on this, please take a moment to drop a line here in the comment section or mail me . I really appreciate your time and effort.

Thanks in advance!

Shn

No part of the content ( articles, photographs, recipes) of this blog may be reproduced without my written permission.Copyright © 2007-2010 Kitchenmishmash.blogspot.com. All rights reserved.

Erachi Olathiyathu – Sautéed Chicken Fry

“…oru kozhi-kku….randu savala…’oru pidi’ thakkali arinjathu….’korachu’ malli-podi…..’ethiri’ kurumulaku podi……………ellam kazhinju avasanam ‘kurachu’ andi-parippu arachu chertha nalla ruchi kittum….”

That’s pretty much how my mother gave me the recipe for a chicken curry when I was newly married and had the intense urge to impress CJJ by serving the dish he had relished a lot from my mother’s kitchen. For someone like me who always wondered how the curried chicken got its brown color just by adding in some powdered spices, attempting to make a chicken curry with just two weeks of experience in kitchen was a challenge in itself. For someone of that range, translating a recipe by “ a handful”, “ a little bit of that…” or “ a pinch of this..” or atleast balancing the proportion of ingredients for a very subjective term like “ one chicken” which can be anywhere from 1kg to 3kg was as stupid or funny as asking an illiterate to translate something from Greek or Latin or for that matter, something from his own mother tongue to writing!!!!

I t-r-i-e-d to translate……….. and the result was an unfortunate chicken that got mutilated, tortured and humiliated in my kitchen , which finally rested on our dining table with a heart breaking and embarrassed look. Yet, CJJ ate that dish and when asked how it tasted, with great difficulty, he uttered, “m….mm….Oo….kkkk…ei” and later revealed that it was not only horrible but uncooked too!!!! An unforgettable chicken curry in our life and an unlucky chicken which am sure literally cursed its fate and prayed for a rebirth as a worm or broomstick or something else.

Over the years, I learned to decode her culinary language into something that I can relate to, in terms of the nature of ingredients and utensils lying around in my kitchen but recently I am faced with a different challenge. Now that she knows that her daughter has gained the common sense to balance the ingredients, she shares the recipes with an element of ‘scope of learning’, as I would like to call the new phenomenon. About 6-8 months back, when I had an overdose of chicken and fish curry in pursuit of satisfying the “gravy lover” husband, I approached my mother with a request for some “dry” preparation which I could have with a side of Pulisseri/ Moru Kachiyathu or any other simple yogurt based curries and there came the answer for a simple Erachi Olathiyathu, a spicy and aromatic dry preparation with meat. After explaining the basic recipe, she went on to add stuff , as follows:

“ …..if you re lazy to dry roast the powdered spices, u may add them directly to the herb mix and cook in mild heat for 15 minutes……but dry roasting makes it more tasty.. OR if you don’t have time, you can skip marinating the chicken and add the spices directly ….but I suggest marinating…….OR if you want to save time, you can pressure cook the chicken and later add it to spices and herbs and combine everything till it is dry but I recommend the other method……OR……..” She would continue to give three or four more variations of the same dish, with the same set of ingredients and a different cooking process and by the end of such calls, I am always left with a confused mind! Though I noted down this preparation long back , I got around to trying it only last week and this morning when I showed her the picture, she commented, “……….I think adding some roasted coconut to this dish would be a good idea too”. !!!!!! Versatility in kitchen, huh?

Well, dear readers, you re free to try any of those combinations suggested by my mother. The one noted below is how I prepared it , to suit our taste buds. CJJ , though a lover of gravy based dishes welcomed the changed pleasantly and suggested to make it again. For this chicken preparation, my mother uses the regular spices and herbs available in the kitchen but the predominant difference is by the addition of semi-caramelised onions towards the end of the cooking process which brings in a distinct flavour to an otherwise humble and ordinary dish. That way, the taste of the caramelised onions doesn’t get lost in the sea of spices and other herbs.

Ingredients:

For marinating the meat:

• 1.25 lb ( around ½ kg) chicken cut into small pieces with bones, thoroughly washed
• 2 ½ to 3 tbsp coriander powder, lightly roasted
• 2 tsp red chilly powder, lightly roasted ( as per taste)
• ½ to ¾ tsp black pepper powder, freshly ground
• ¼ tsp turmeric powder
• Salt to taste

For Sautéing:

• 3-4 tbsp coconut oil
• 2 to 2 ½ cups big onion, thinly sliced ( 1 really large size big onion)
• 2 sprigs of curry leaves
• ¼ cup ginger, minced
• ¼ cup garlic , minced
• 4 Indian green chillies, minced
• 1 tsp + ¼ tsp homemade masala powder/garam masala

Directions:

• Marinate the chicken pieces with the ingredients listed in the first section and leave it on the kitchen counter for 30 minutes. (Note: I dry roast a very small batch of chilly powder and coriander powder and store them separately in an airtight bottle, to avoid roasting each and every time and to speed up the cooking. A tip I learned from our friend R whom I met after coming to US.)
• Meanwhile, heat oil in a large pan and sauté thinly sliced big onions, in low-medium heat, till it reaches a golden brown shade and starts getting that caramelised smell. At this stage , throw in leaves from 1 sprig of curry leaves and fry along with the caramelised onion for a minute and remove everything with a slotted spoon and keep it aside in a plate. (Note:-This is a slow process taking extra care not to burn the onion , so will take about 20 minutes depending on the heat. I start at a low heat till they turn very soft and then increase the heat a bit for mild browning, that way the process does not consume much oil.)
• To the same pan, in the remaining oil, add minced garlic , ginger and green chillies and cook till soft and begin to turn golden. Now add the marinated chicken and combine thoroughly with the rest of the ingredients in the cooking pot. If there is some leftover marinade in the bowl, use 1-2 tbsp water and wipe out the spice mixture and add to the pan. In medium heat, cook the chicken covered for about 20-25 minutes, by the end of which chicken would have produced some water and fat from its bones/flesh. (Note: If using boneless meat, add ¼ cup water , along with chicken to get some gravy initially, else it might stick to the bottom). To this boiling mixture, add leaves from 1 sprig of curry leaf and 1 tsp homemade masala powder/garam masala and blend everything well and adjust salt; cover with a lid, reduce the heat to low-medium and let the slow cooking process begin. Continue slow cooking till chicken is ‘almost’ cooked (about ¾th cooked, the phase before the fully cooked stage) and at this stage, add the sautéed and semi-caramelised onions and curry leaves kept aside and blend gently with rest of the dish. The fragrance from the caramelised onion blending into the dish is really enticing. Keep stirring often to avoid the meat sticking to the bottom of the pan. Cook till chicken is cooked to perfection and spice and herb mixture is well coated on the meat. Now, remove the lid, sprinkle ¼ tsp homemade masala powder/garam masala , gently stir into the dish without breaking the chicken pieces and by this time the gravy/sauce produced earlier would have reduced/dried up and coated well on the meat, if not, cook uncovered till dried , in very low heat, until the masala is dried up and sticks to the meat thoroughly.
• Let it rest for atleast 15-20 minutes before serving with rice or flat breads. It tastes better with rice and mildly spiced yogurt based gravies.

Note: This dish had a bit more dark brown colour but because of too much of brightness, it lost its original colour in the photo. Please keep that in mind while trying out this recipe.

Related Posts :

For more check the complete recipe index

On a different note, with so much of talks and reviews floating around the blog world, we had to watch Julie & Julia, especially with a plot revolving around food and food blog. I am someone who watch a movie with a non-critical attitude and I found the movie very pleasant but couldn’t help noticing that it was a bit slow/dragging for my taste and some of the location settings looked a bit artificial too. No doubt, Meryl Streep steals the show! She is a pure joy to watch as Julia Child. The character of Amy Adams as a blogger realistically portrays the obsessions and meltdowns a food blogger goes through and the ecstasy of the getting that very first comment . I must say the movie also throws light into the plus and downside of food bloggers’ spouses in general :P

Definitely a light movie to watch on a weekend and though a typical chick-flick, your spouse might enjoy the movie if he is a foodie or a fan of either of these women and my only problem was CJJ got intrigued by French Cuisine and as we were walking to the parking lot, I heard him saying, “…I want to taste beef bour……gi…….nn…nnon” !! I was expecting to hear that somewhere in the middle of the movie itself :)

Luv

Shn

No part of the content ( articles, photographs, recipes) of this blog may be reproduced without my written permission.Copyright © 2007-2010 Kitchenmishmash.blogspot.com. All rights reserved.

Puttu Uppumavu – Breakfast Puttu gets makeover at the teatime!

There’s an image etched in my memories, woven into my life in past and present, by god’s grace ….the sight of my parents casually sitting in our sit-out, either sipping evening tea or just relaxing and having a chit-chat……a sight that is part of my childhood, school and college days and I don’t remember the innumerable times I have asked them this particular question those days, “ what do you have so much to talk even after 20-25 years of marriage…?? “ as this was a routine repeated in their morning newspaper session, evening tea, pre dinner and post dinner and if it was a weekend, pre lunch and post lunch too!!!! I would consider myself “ blessed” if CJJ and I can have the same when we reach that phase in life.

And I detested the thought of not seeing them there when I returned from school as I never liked the idea of going to my uncle’s house in the neighbourhood to get the keys, opening the doors and letting myself in and having my evening snacks all alone, especially if they re store -bought. That’s how much one can get spoilt, if you have a stay-at home mom who makes sure that she serves homemade evening snacks all 5 days of the week coz her husband, especially her daughter, a rebellious and thankless teenager need something homemade to munch on when they return home in the evening !! Well, the regulars here probably have an idea by now how spoilt I was and how I was tamed eventually!

Unlike my brother who could be satisfied even with a bowl of store-bought spicy Kerala mixture, so he could run to his friends place, play cricket or ride his BSA Champ, I always wanted something simple, filling yet fresh and homemade snacks for teatime. Somehow my mother managed to satisfy me playing around with certain main ingredients like ripe plantain, beaten rice, rice flour or all –purpose flour etc. At times some of the items she made always triggered some tension between me and my father as those were our hot favourites and we could never get enough of them….like Neyyil varattiya pazham /ripe plantains caramelised in ghee/clarified butter and sprinkled with sugar granules…….Poruthal ada/Orotti, the country style rustic flat bread roasted in a clay pot lined with banana leaves and then soaked in sweetened coconut milk ……the grainy Avalose podi, sweetened with sugar and mashed with Poovan-pazham, a variety of ripe banana……Kappa Puzhungiyathu/boiled cassava with Ulli Mulaku chammanthi, a relish with pearl onions and green chillies and coconut oil……and then some of the leftover preparations like Puttu Uppumavu and Idiappam Uppumaavu………if it was any of these snacks, the gluttonous me always wanted a share from my father’s plate too and the latter never showed any overly fatherly love when it comes to sharing such things and was quite possessive about his share…...hope he doesn’t read this :P

I wanted not only a share from his plate, but a share from his tea too, as me and my brother were never encouraged to have tea/coffee while growing up. As a compromise deal, sometimes they gave us just a gulp before they finished their tea. That one gulp of the hot beverage with a plate of spicy Puttu Uppumavu or Idiappam Uppumaavu , with a note of heat from the green chillies and ginger was my all time favourite and a lively and colourlful thread in my memories…….

All these visuals were dancing in my head from the time I saw Tina’s post around two months back I guess and wanted to have some Puttu Uppumavu very badly but due to several reasons, Puttu never appeared in our menu all these weeks. Finally, last Friday I happened to make some Puttu for dinner and deliberately made some extra to get leftovers and satisfied my cravings the next day and relived some of those cherished moments. Thank you, Tina for for helping me take a dive back to my treasured days :)

Puttu Uppumavu is nothing but a leftover evening snack whipped up in a hurry in most of the Kerala homes and is made with our classic breakfast, Puttu, a steamed cake with rice flour and coconut flakes. By the tea time, Puttu gets a spicy makeover with some green chillies, ginger , onion and curry leaves seasoned with fragrant coconut oil and mustard seeds. I have given the ingredient list and method to make the classic version of Puttu at the how-to section of my post on Erachi/Meat Puttu which is a variation from the original. Please check that if you re totally new to Puttu, before proceeding to make this dish.

Here’s how we make this evening snack at home:

Ingredients

• 1 ½ tbsp coconut oil
• ¾ tsp mustard seeds
• ¼ tsp Uzhunnu parippu/black gram
• 2 dry red chillies, broken
• ½ cup finely chopped big onion
• 3 finely chopped Indian green chillies or to taste
• 1 tsp finely chopped ginger
• 1-2 sprigs of curry leaves
• 1 ½ to 1 ¾ cups steam cooked puttu, crushed well
• Salt (Optional)
• 1 tsp ghee/clarified butter

Directions

• Heat oil in shallow pan; splutter mustard seeds , followed by black gram and dry red chilllies. Throw in the chopped onion and sauté till they turn transparent. Now add green chillies and ginger and when everything turn soft, add the curry leaves and coarsely crushed and already steam cooked Puttu; blend everything well and stir until Puttu is reheated and combined thoroughly with the rest of the ingredients. Do a taste test and add salt only if required. Before turning off the stove, make a small well in the centre of the mixture and pour ghee and immediately stir well and combine everything. Serve hot with tea/coffee.

Notes:

• If you re using refrigerated leftover Puttu, I suggest drizzling some water on top and microwaving (reheating) the Puttu before adding it to the pan as it helps to get a soft and moist texture.
• Variation : You can replace Puttu with Idiappam or Idli and make equally yummy snacks though the one with Idiappam is more appealing.

Related Posts:

Luv

Shn

No part of the content ( articles, photographs, recipes) of this blog may be reproduced without my written permission.Copyright © 2007-2010 Kitchenmishmash.blogspot.com. All rights reserved.

Aval Payasam – Dessert of Gods! Indian Milk Pudding with Brown Rice Flakes.

At times, some people we come across at various phases in life leave a long lasting impression on us, no matter how short the span of interaction was….it could be just a one time meeting or a day’s interaction or for a season or more…..they touch our lives and leave their handprints and become part of our life and memory.

This post is about one such person and her mother who are part of my college life and still holds a special place in my heart…….because that mother once served me one of the tastiest and yet simplest payasam/milk pudding for the first time in my life…..from then onwards , that particular dessert competed for the first place in my list of favourites, along with Paalada Pradhaman and Parippu Pradhaman, though I was never fortunate to taste it one more time. Another thing that stuck with me was the grace on that mother’s face…… a beautiful woman,fair complexioned with black curly locks of hair and a small red dot on her forehead ! And then there is her daughter, my firend, Anj - a chubby bubbly girl who was/is in love with music with a serious crush on the singer, Unnikrishnan those days…..and we used every opportunity to tease her :)

Often times when CJJ and I refresh our college days and exchange stories of the bygone era, I always notice a recurring phenomenon in my thought process and that is, Anj’s mom’s Aval Payasam and one more episode often gets pulled back into my active memory shelf and each time whenever I mention that episode , I see CJJ chuckling and that’s something precious as he is someone who believes that I crack jokes only once a year and he keeps count on any addition of my yearly quota!!!

Well, the only thing I remember about that episode is a close friend of ours telling me, trying to control her laughter badly, “ you know what….our Anj got into an empty bus last evening and she tried to get the best seat and finally ended up standing till her stop !! “ Whenever I try to visualise that episode , I always burst into laughter and after more than a decade, I happened to get back in touch with Anj through one of the social networking sites and on one of the mails, I forced to narrate the story in her own words and here’s an an excerpt from the mail:

“……Ah..ha S…….i still remember the day as if it were yesterday..am surprised u have forgotten….anyways…”I was the hapless victim”..so maybe that’s why I remember it more..that day we already had gone to ann’s during the lunch break..we waited in those ann’s steps for 1 hour but we didn’t get our fav’rite chocolate donuts so we(me, A and S) went back again in the evening and bought donuts from ann’s …A bought those cream puffs..which we both never liked..was tooooooooo creamy…anyway..i remember this because my hands were full…donuts plus all those M&B’s from library which I used to read like mad(esp.during Sr. B’s class…)…..when we finally reached the bus stop we were so tired we allowed atleast 5-6 buses to pass..for an empty bus..and then came our “eagle” :) :)….I was the first one to get inside the bus…I sat on one seat..then decided that was not good enough(cos it was just opp the driver.).then I got up and went to another seat..that one was the aisle seat..and I wanted a window one…I got up…and went to another seat..but somebody pushed me aside..so tried another one..again was pushed by someone..finally…I was the only one standing in the bus..everyone else got a seat x-cept me…by that time all were laughing their heads off…that was o.k…but there was this one lady who kept looking at me ..and then laughing..so hard ..she was actually crying.. and that too at regular intervals..till we reached the stop….i swear even the bus driver and’ killi’ were laughing at me…I never got inside that “eagle” bus again…and I doubt whether I’ll ever tell this story to my daughter…but u know what..those donuts got crushed…:( :(.. “

:)

A week back, I was watching TV and they were airing Seinfeld’s Subway episode and to me , the scene where Kramer travels in train seemed to be the sitcom representation of this episode I was referring to . Watch the scene HERE.

Anyway, on my request Anj gave me the recipe for Aval Payasam too.This is what she mailed me:”…. Hey! Here’s the recipe u asked “ For 1/2 a litre of milk….take 1 big handful of brown aval(not white)…amma said “oru valliya pidi “aval…wash and drain the aval(this process should be really fast..aval should not be soaking wet).Now fry this in about 1 tbsp of ghee…till u get a nice smell…add this to the boiled milk…add about 1 –heaped glass of sugar (our typical steel glass)..and continue cooking in a nice thick uruli till the payasam gets condensed and becomes a rich pink colour…u have to keep stirring in between,…this payasam does not reqire any garnishings like cashew,kismis or elakka..in fact that spoils the taste..it should just have that “vattiya” taste,,and the taste of the brown aval…”

Here’s how I translated her mother’s instructions into cup and spoon measurements :

Ingredients:

• ½ cup brown rice flakes/Aval (chemba aval)/beaten rice
• 1 tbsp ghee/clarified butter
• 2 1/3 cup milk
• ½ cup sugar or to taste

Directions:

• In a thick bottom vessel or Uruli, a wide mouthed bell metal vessel, heat milk and bring to a boil.
• While milk is heating up, give brown rice flakes/Aval a quick rinse in cold water and dry immediately with a kitchen napkin. Heat ghee/clarified butter in a shallow pan, and fry brown rice flakes/Aval for a minute, till ghee is coated well and a nice aroma comes.
• When milk comes to a boil, add the ghee-fried brown rice flakes/Aval and stir well in medium heat. Now, add sugar and stir well until it dissolves into the milk. At this stage, reduce heat and let it simmer for a while, about 20-30 minutes, until it thickens to the consistency of a Payasam.

Verdict: This serves two adults but if you have a spouse like mine - who does not miss any single opportunity to dissuade me from making payasam, relished major portion of it and left some, may be less than a quarter portion, feeling guilty that he should not do such a thing to me - it is better to increase the proportions and this happened not just once, but twice. I guess that says how divine tasting it is .

Now that I used the word divine tasting , let me share one more line from my friend’s mail, “…a speciality ‘nevidhyam’ for sree Krishna…amma usually makes this payasam for sree Krishna jayanthi..for the little Krishna…according to the hindu mythology is a big fan of both aval and paal payasam and with this dish he gets the best of both!!!!”

I know this has been a really long post for a simple recipe but as I started pouring my thoughts on the same, I lost sense of the length of the post……

Related Posts:

Luv

Shn

No part of the content ( articles, photographs, recipes) of this blog may be reproduced without my written permission.Copyright © 2007-2010 Kitchenmishmash.blogspot.com. All rights reserved.

Pappadam Thalichathu…..Pappadam gets a makeover!

For a young girl who grew up sitting on the steps of her mother’s kitchen , gazing at the coconut palm fronds swaying in the morning breeze while her mother refilled the plate with laced Paalappam hot off the Appachatti with a side of warm and creamy potato stew, it was literally an eye-popping and jaw- dropping moment when she got a plate of some mushy pile of rice with some tiny specks of yellow here and there, drenched in a pool of coconut chutney for breakfast on her first day at the hostel. She walked back to her room, holding the plate carefully without letting the chutney flow out of her rimless plate . She stared at the food in front for a while and started taking small spoonfuls and after three or four , she realised it could be a distant relative of the tasty Pongal she had relished at one of her classmate’s marriage at Nagercoil. There at that moment, she started missing HOME badly but didn’t realise that it was only the first scoop of reality shock in the many more to come.

She went back to the hostel mess to fill her lunch box and instead of plain white rice, what she found there was another soggy mix of rice mixed with curd and a bowl of lemon pickle. Though the idea of mixed rice was hard to stomach, she filled up the box and by the lunch time at the office, the curd rice had become ice cold and she stopped eating after a couple spoonfuls. By evening her stomach started grumbling and all she could do was run to the bakery at the ground floor of that office building and buy some chicken puffs which strangely had an orange colored filling , quite different from her favourite spicy chicken puffs she was used to, from the famous Best Bakers near her home. But she sank her teeth into it as though she had not seen food for last one week.

Back at the hostel, it was time for dinner , and she grabbed her plate and glass to hit the mess ( pun intended) one more time and there her eyes widened and face beamed at the sight of plain steamed rice……. but all that joy was short lived when she noticed the curry of greens, overcooked and soggy in a pale green water and a yellow side dish of some unknown vegetable mixed with lentils, again in a liquid base. For someone who grew up eating her greens as a dry stirfry with a touch of grated coconut and mustard seeds, the sight of those dishes were quite unappetizing. She served some rice and curd on to her plate and picked a couple of deep fried flat round discs, that looked somewhat similar to the Pappadam from her mother’s kitchen and ate her dinner with a heavy heart and welled up eyes, thinking of her home, parents and the innumerable times she rejected the tastiest food her mother cooked for her with all that love and care!!!!!

That was one of my first experience in the web of real life learnings outside the coziness and comforts of my home ……the experiences that taught me the meaning of thoughtfully crafted home cooked meals and the value of staying with parents……slowly I learned to adjust to my new surroundings, wash my own clothes,tidy up the room and bath and eat whatever food that was available, as long as it was edible and free of worms !! Literally, 2 ½ years of ‘taming’ ( yes, I meant it) that gave me the foundation to start a family and run a house without the luxury of a maid !!

I survived those days with frequent visits to my cousin’s and local guardian’s homes for some home cooked meals and they were kind enough to take me as a refugee. At one point of time, I was so used to that bland hostel food that my stomach resisted badly whenever my aunt fed me all those familiar dishes cooked in coconut oil!! And those days whenever I had a sudden urge to eat some simple meal, I went to the nearby restaurant and ordered just plain steamed rice, curd and a spicy fish fry….the only combo that gave me a break from the soggy mess at the hostel-mess.

Knowing my plight, my mother utilised every opportunity to courier some of her tasty creations whenever any of my cousins travelled via the city I lived and they passed on that classic shopping bag in jute-‘Big Shopper’, stuffed with boxes of fish fry, chicken fry, the tastiest yet simple Moru kachiyathu ( a yogurt based sauce) in an old Horlicks bottle and a huge plastic bottle filled with my life saver, Pappadam Thalichathu. On such days me and my other two roommates from Kerala, my best roomies ever, waited to get back from work and literally ‘attack’ the big shopper like barbarians (or a class below) ! The tantalising aroma of non veg food cooked in coconut oil with spices and curry leaves was so unbearable for our hostel warden that she scooted from Room No: 7B on her routine checks….poor lady, little did she know what she was missing ;-P

We always saved that big bottle of Pappadam Thalichathu for later as it could be easily stored for 3-4 weeks. We were quite stingy with the portions each one got to make sure that we get a whiff of curry leaves fried in coconut oil with a bite of mustard seeds and fried onions along with those crispy diamond shaped Pappadam everynight for dinner and for me , it was the taste and smell of home… the taste and smell I longed for!!!

Here’s the recipe for Pappadam Thalichathu that holds a special place in my taste memories.

Ingredients:

• 12 medium size Pappadam/Indian wafers (buy the ones from Kerala)

• 1 -2 tbsp coconut oil plus more for deep frying Pappadam

• 1 tsp mustard seeds

• 2-3 small red pearl onions, thinly sliced

• 1 small sprig of curry leaves

• ½ tsp red chilly powder

Directions

• Cut Pappadam into diamond shapes. You may tightly roll 2-3 Pappadam at a time, into a tube, and then cut them into small pieces using a scissor or knife. Deep fry Pappadam- diamonds until it is crisp and puffed up well; drain them and leave them on a plate.
• Heat 1-2 tablespoon coconut oil in a large wok/cheenachatti/kadai and splutter mustard seeds and add thinly sliced onions and curry leaves. Sauté onions until they turn brown. Switch off the flame and ( to avoid burning the chilly powder) remove wok from the burner; add chilly powder and mix well with seasoned onions and curry leaves and transfer all the fried pappadam to the wok and coat thoroughly with the spices and herbs.
• This can be stored in an airtight container for weeks (provided you have fried/browned small onions well). • Serve with rice.

Luv

Shn

No part of the content ( articles, photographs, recipes) of this blog may be reproduced without my written permission.Copyright © 2007-2010 Kitchenmishmash.blogspot.com. All rights reserved.

Peach & Plum Jam – A melody in fruit and spices….

Two weeks back, I woke up one morning telling myself, “ I am going to start blogging from today!! “ and curled up under the cover thinking about the peach and plum jam I made the previous night , the fruity fragnrance of which had invaded the dark passages of my nostrils and found its way to my clogged up brain. The intoxicating smell of the fruits cooking in the pot , with a subtle note of the spices filled up our kitchen and living room, awakening all my senses as well as reviving the spirits of the blogger in me . Though I had paired the fruits out of a random brainwave,the temptation to blog grew stronger when CJJ, entrusted with the responsibility of taste –test as the fruits were coming to a rolling boil, made an unexpected remark that “I have a gut feeling that this jam is going to be awesome…”!!!

Days passed by and nothing happened…..and whenever I logged into my blog account , the picture of that muringakka/Drumstick curry stared back at me. Towards the end of that week, I saw CJJ spreading some of that jam on a slice of bread and heard him saying, “ hmm…wow” . Again I told myself , “Todayyy …I have to take a picture and write this down before I forget the recipe” .

One more week passed and nothing happened…..and last weekend, CJJ offered me a slice of bread slathered with some of that jam and as I digged my teeth into it, once again , I felt the same urge and today I saw myself rummaging my closets for the bag of camera and its accessories and also spent a good amount of time searching for the camera manual as I realised I had completely lost touch with the basics of photography itself. I know it will take some time to get back to my grooves again but atleast I am glad that I am making an attempt.

As much as am inspired to write about this simple concoction from my kitchen and make a come back to the blog world, I see myself sharing the thoughts of that school kid who lived in my body two decades ago. She always had some strange inhibitions to go back to school after a week of absence due to fever or some other sickness, wondering if she would still have a place among her friends. As I write this I have the same feelings , same doubts……though the number of supporting mails and comments I received from dear blogger friends and readers, over the last few months, is enough to convince me that I have a place there in your hearts!!! Thanks a ton for all those thoughtful messages and reassuring mails :)

Well, though that was a long prelude for a simple Peach & Plum Jam, I really don’t have any exact measurements to write down a detailed recipe. I will just note down what I threw in and hopefully, that would give you a canvas to make your own creation.

I started by chopping 4 ripe peaches and 6-8 dark plums ( as big as a lemon and not the small ‘cherry size’ variety I have seen in India during my childhood) into small chunks and discard the fruit pits. Squeeze one orange and pour the juice to a medium size sauce pot , along with fruit chunks and 3 ½ to 4 cups of sugar ( varies depending on the natural sweetness of the fruits); throw in 5 whole cloves and 5 pices of flat cinnamon with around 1 inch length. Bring everything to a rolling boil and skim off the foam that accumulates on top. Continue this process in medium heat, stirring every now and then , until the the foam is reduced, fruits are cooked well and start to thicken a bit. At this stage start mashing the fruit chunks with a potato masher or with the back of a wooden spoon; for the latter you need to use some of your elbow grease. The whole process of simmering and thickening will take about 40-60 minutes and towards the end, add 1-2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice and simmer for another 5 minutes and turn off the stove. In case, the taste of lemon juice is over powering, you may add a drizzle of honey and stir for another 1-2 minutes before turning off the stove (I did). Before ladling the warm jam into sterized jars, remove the whole spices with a fork . I noticed that the jam thickens as it cools, so stop at a consistency where the mixture is still a bit loose in texture. Store in an airtight jar and refrigerate.

Will I make it again? Sure! Perhaps during the next season!

Thanks again for being patient with me and for keeping this place alive by your occasional visits :) I will try to keep this page active though the frequency of the posts might not be the same as earlier!

Luv

Shn

No part of the content ( articles, photographs, recipes) of this blog may be reproduced without my written permission.Copyright © 2007-2010 Kitchenmishmash.blogspot.com. All rights reserved.