Elaneer and Eggplant Parmesan

This post is part of the April A to Z blogging challenge where we publish one post every day except Sundays.

In many parts of the world, summers are a welcome season of warmth after brutal cold winters. On the contrary,  in tropical zones like Southern India, summers are time for long school holidays and scorching ruthless heat. Every casual conversation will have a reference to the heatwaves. Compared to those whose jobs require them to be on the move on the roads, like salesmen or those involved in some form of labour like construction sector, the ones tucked away in the safety of offices or homes are more fortunate.

There are a few food items and drinks that are commonly seen in the summer months and offer the much needed respite from the smoldering heat. One such thing is a drink that nature delivers in a beautiful container - elaneer also called Tender coconut.

If we drive along the highways connecting cities in Tamilnadu , tender coconut sellers are a common roadside sight. They have them stacked up skillfully and its quite a sight to see how dextrously they hack away hard cover and then place a straw before handing it over to us.

Elaneer is supposed to have a lot of health benefits. The drink cools your body and is recommended to treat gastrointestinal problems and ailments like measles when the body needs cooling down.

The best part comes after we are done emptying the liquid inside. The vendor would crack open the shell into two, make a makebelieve spoon with a piece cut away from the side and scoop out the white fleshy layer inside. As a kid I used to look forward to this more than the drink.

Food from other lands: 

A dish that I was first introduced to in Italian restaurants is Eggplant parmesan. Layers of finely sliced eggplant coated with a lovely tomato based sauce and baked with a generous amount of cheese!! For someone who hates brinjal , this was a revelation. 

Food for thought: 

The quote i have for this letter is from a Tamil language movie of the 1960s... The lines go

Vetri Vendumaa Pottu Paaradaa Ethirneechal

Neechal is swimming and ethirneechal is swimming against the currents.

Vetri means success. Vendum means want.

 Meaning is pretty simple - If you want success you need to fight and swim against the currents. 

Nothing comes easy ! 

Like managing to publish a post every day in April..Phew! :D

Dosais and doughnuts

 Dosai is what would come to mind when I say tiffin varieties in Tamil cuisine. The word tiffin refers to having a light meal instead of a full fledged three course heavy lunch. To quote wikipedia - " tiffin is derived from "tiffing", an English colloquial term meaning to take a little drink" . Basically anything like idly , dosai , chapathi - light meals akin, to say a sandwich, is a tiffin item in Indian English.

Dosai is made using a batter made of rice and lentils. We use a utensil thats something like a skillet. Its traditionally made of iron though we call it a dosakkal (literally translates to dosa stone). A few years ago, i got quite a big one when I visited my home city of Chennai. This one as per the seller's instructions had to be soaked in starch water got from washing rice for two to three days to kind of get it ready for the stove. I am ignorant of the science behind it, though.

A typical Sunday evening in my kitchen would unfold like this. The skillet is placed on the stove, and then a splash of water on it to check if its hot enough, gives out a sizzling noise. A drop of oil is smeared for some lubrication. A ladel or two of batter is added and spread in circles into a dosa. Some oil is added along the border. 

The amount of oil added depends on which side of the tug of war you are on - taste/crispiness or health.  There are times if the skillet is too hot and the batter sticks to it , refusing to budge.. thats another tug of war any dosa maker would be familiar with! 

 Different types of ingredients like semolina (rava) , millet flour , rice flour , wheat flour or for that matter ground oatmeal can be mixed with water , some buttermilk , green chillies , corriander etc to make a batter and then made into crispy instant dosas. This version we can experiment with as we please . 

A permanent occupant of my kitchen shelf is what we call at home as the milagai podi - dosai chilli powder. A mix of lentils and red chillies are roasted in a bit of oil and then ground to a course powder. Whenever we make dosas, all we need is this powder mixed with some oil as an accompaniment.

Food from other lands:

Doughnut. For some time, the term had me imagining some distant cousin of almonds and cashews. Later i came to know of this sweet snack. The sight of the donuts with different dressings on the rack is so captivating, is it not ? 

Food for thought : 

This is actually a funny quote that I remembered. 

Its from a Tamil movie I saw long back and it goes.

Dilhi kku raaja naalum patti sollai thattaadha

Raaja as most may know means king.

Patti - grandmother

Sollai - (of) words

Thattaatha - dont disobey or disregard

Dilhi - Delhi 

Even if you are the king of Delhi , pay heed your grandmother's words. Ha ha ... Its a comedy movie but on serious thought , once we become adults we think we know it all. But we are all learning , always , every step we take in our lives. We need to remember that the seniors or elderly folks  have a lifetime of experience. More oft than not, they have simple solutions to the most baffling of our problems! 

Coconut chutney , chocolate

Coconut is a significant ingredient in South Indian cooking which is not surprising as we are coastal regions  with abundant supply. We grate it and add it to our vegetables, use it for flavoring and thickening  our curries, and use the oil for nourishing our hair and skin. Coconuts are placed as offering to our deities in temples.

During the weddings in my community, there is a  ritual where the bride and groom play a game rolling coconuts. Wonder if it symbolically means " ok! All set to drive each other nuts!" Lol !

 An accompaniment for most of the savoury items in Tamilnadu is the humble coconut chutney.

Humble because its a no-cook simple recipe that needs few ingredients and can be whipped up in a jiffy.

Add coconut, red or green chillies, salt and some fried gram to a blender and you get the basic version. Flavor can be enhanced with ginger, garlic, coriander or mint. There are no-coconut versions like onion chutney, tomato chutney and so on. I love experimenting with chutneys in my kitchen. We do carrot chutney , capsicum chutney , ground nut chutney and once i even tried using cabbage !

Food from other lands: 

I love chocolate. As a kid , any type of chocolate candy was an attraction.  Later i developed a liking for dark chocolate and now thats always my preference and i find the sweeter milk chocolate less appealing. Chocolate sauce, chocolate cake, chocolate icecream, chocolate gelato, almonds coated with chocolate name it and I love it. Period. 

I remember times in my college when if my day felt lousy, i would buy a whole bar , sit in my room and eat it. Sitting on my bed with a 'To hell with the world' feeling and focussing purely on the moment; on the joy the brown bar was giving me offered a good amount of self-help !

Have you tried it ? It works :D 

But chocolate is a dominant flavor that tends to suppress anything else that goes in. Recently I tried coconut icecream with chocolate sauce and that was one rare instance when i wished it were not there. The coconut was struggling to make its presence felt! 

Food for thought: 

There is a song from Tamil movie Roja that goes...

Chinna chinna Aasai

which means small small wishes.

Every person on earth will have some small wish tucked at the corner of his mind. Some may not be fulfilled due to lack of time or lack of opportunity or simply self boundaries set due to fear of embarassment or ridicule. It could be trying out jeans for some sweet lady who has always adorned sarees. It could be getting drenched in the rain. It could be going on a long bike ride ( oh yes , not all have the luxury) . It could be sporting a newhairstyle or look. It could be owning a pet.

Sometimes life is all about these small wishes that may seem trivial in the big scheme of things but they make life worth living ! What is a small wish that you have ?

Bagalabath and Baba Ghanoush

I have heard accounts from my mother about her growing up years in her village where every home would have a cow that provided the milk supply for the family.  Cows are revered in our communities due to their gentle nature and also for providing the nourishment the family needs.  Even now, if we visit my ancestral village , we can see these four-footed members in some homes.

Food from home:

Milk is an important part of our daily diet.  The very first thing we do in our kitchen is boiling the milk to make the morning coffee. The final activity before switching off the kitchen lights would be to warm up the left over milk and add a teaspoon of curd to it. When we open the vessel the next morning, we can find thick fermented curd with a thin layer of cream on top.

The term we used for this had always been curd though of late people have been using yoghurt instead. I am not very sure how industrially manufactured yoghurt is different.

Curd rice which is cooked rice mixed with curd is a sort of comfort food for us and its gentle on the stomach. I remember opening my lunch box in school to creamy curd rice with cut mango pickle.

Bagalabath is a decorated version of this humble curd rice.  Cooked rice is mixed with curd and some milk is added to prevent it from getting sour. A teaspoon of oil is heated  and tempered with mustard seeds, lentils and curry leaves and this is added to the mixture. A pinch of asafeloetida, some salt to taste , chopped corriander leaves, ginger and green chillies for the flavoring go in. One can add mango bits,  grated cucumber, grated carrot,  pomegranate or grapes or even roasted raisins and nuts for additional richness.

There would always be curd  and varities of pickles in our fridge. When one is too tired or lazy , some rice in the ricecooker is all one needs to whip up a meal. Rice, curd and some pickle on the side.  Happy stomach and happy us! 

                                     Photo credit: Unsplash by Sumeet

Food from other lands :

I recently got a chance to try BabaGhanoush at a mediterranean restaurant.  For someone who has quite a bit of dislike for brinjal or eggplant , this was a discovery. I really enjoyed it with pita bread .

Food for Thought : 

The Tamil word for a calf is kanru. Have you ever watched a calf run around when its tether is released ? He would run helter skelter in fun and frolic totally unperturbed by anything on his way with absolute zero caution .

The saying we have is Ilam Kanru Bayam Ariyaathu.

It literally means - a baby calf has no fear. What is to be inferred is that youth is a time when people are very active or daring and to an extent can tend to be a bit more reckless compared to the older folks. 

A - Akkaravadisal, Avocado and a quote for A

This is my first post as part of the A to Z blogging 2022.

I love to cook and I love to eat...so this year my posts are based on food and some food for thought at the end! 

 Food from home:

A family feast with a wide array of delicacies is part of most festivals across the globe and the ones in South India are no exception. I come from the coastal state of TamilNadu, where a full fledged meal served on a banana leaf is a cultural aspect that can still be seen in weddings and to a great extent in homes on festive days. We were using only these biodegradable use and throw free plates from Mother Nature till modernization gave way to metal  plates in most homes.

Akkara Adisal / Akkaravadisal:

I belong to a vegetarian community and our festive meals would not be complete without a sweet dessert. Akkara Adisal , is one of my favorites and supposedly translates to rice cooked in jaggery.

Rice is cooked with  yellow lentils , milk and sweetened with jaggery.  Flavoring with cardomom and garnishing with nuts and raisins roasted in ghee results in an aroma wafting from the kitchen that can elevate your senses and soul. The below was cooked by yours truly! 

Food from other lands - Avocado:

Avocados don't grow in India and so it was not a very commonly available fruit in my growing up years. My exposure was after I travelled outside of India.   In many of the juice shops here in Singapore I have tasted milkshakes made with Avocado and honey and they taste out of the world. I am a huge fan of Guacamole too. 

Quote and food for thought :

As i had mentioned in my theme reveal post,  am trying to find a quote in my mothertongue Tamil for every post. For A, it would be 

Aanaikkum Adi Sarukkum.

Aanai means elephant. It literally translates to Even an elephant could stumble or trip while walking.

No matter how strong a person is or how perfect a person is he may have his own weak moments when he fumbles or falters a bit. Basically a word of caution for overconfidence.

A to Z Blogging theme reveal

April is around the corner and its time for the annual A to Z blogging challenge.

My theme for this year is 

Food for me and food for thought! 

I would be taking each letter and writing about  food items  and some quotes that i love.  

I love to cook and love to eat and so , a part of the post would be straight from taste buds to key board. I love exploring different cuisines though i am a vegetarian. 

These quotes could be from movies , proverbs , literature and I am planning to stick as much as possible to my mothertongue Tamil which is supposed to be one of the oldest languages spoken by man. Only the quote would be Tamil but the translation , explanation and my views would be all in English. For some letters the quotes could be from English as well. 

I never learnt Tamil in school but i love the language. There are some quotes in English that have gotten me deeply thinking as well.

This is the plan for now...Lets see how it goes...

Looking forward to interacting with all the wonderful bloggers and writing more

 

Voltage drop and Load Shedding

Some mornings our thoughts move from one random thought to another albeit in a rhythmic fashion.  One set of my grey cells were busy communicating with my olfactory nerves about the fresh flavors of my herbal toothpaste. Their comrades were busy meandering into some nostalgic memories.

What was I thinking about ? Being blessed to have water as well as electricity running 24 hours!

We were lucky residing in the state of Kerala with plenty of rain, and a well within our premises that was always full and sufficient for our needs. But during my vacation trips to some of my relatives' places, I have been exposed to water scarcity. Water supply restricted to a few hours per day, or in worst cases, few hours on alternate days! There would be huge drums or barrels that would be filled up to be used till the next scheduled hour for the taps to start working again . My aunt lived in one such place, and was so skilled at the art of operating a kitchen with minimum water . Imagine washing a load of vessels with  just a pail of water.  Mind you, this person was adept at and particular about keeping things spic and span !

Though water was not a concern, we used to have voltage fluctuations and fixed periods of power interruptions for load shedding. As a 7 or 8 year old I had no clue what "load shedding" or "voltage drop" meant though they were added to my vocabulary and were used quite often in daily conversations. To me the former meant that all lights and fans went off while the latter caused fans to rotate slowly and tube lights to keep flickering in an annoying manner.

Electric appliances would usually be fitted with a voltage stabilizer then and one such brand was V Guard( I think they are still around). The 80s and 90s kids would be familiar with the catchy jingle that used to be played in the advertisement . It depicts a lady trying to set jelly in a mould in her refrigerator.  The jelly sets properly only after she fits the V guard stabilizer.

In fact the ad has three parts. I recollected the scenes of the lady with the fridge and the group of dancers whose music system gets interrupted. But I could not remember the first part. Anyways there's nothing that's not there on YouTube and I found it ! 

Had no idea that the jingle was composed by our  musical legend and Oscar Winner AR Rahman. 

Todays tune on my lips is " we got it right with the V Guard...."