Halwa and Hummus

 Food from home:

There is a city called Thirunelveli in TamilNadu. Ask any Tamilian what comes to mind when we say Thirunelveli and the immediate reply would be halwa.

The city is renowned for its sweet dessert otherwise called "Thirunelveli Halwa". 

Halwa is a basically semi solid glossy dessert made with ghee and sugar and some basic ingredient like carrot, wheat flour or semolina.  The aforementioned one from Thirunelveli is made using wheat flour.

In Tamil weddings a commonly served sweet is the Ashoka halwa which is basically made using mashed yellow lentils(moong dal).

We even make halwa with vegetables like carrots or white pumpkin. 

The basic ingredient plus the sugar and ghee are cooked on a flame till the right consistency is reached. I recently saw a youtube video where someone transformed left over rice into yummy looking halwa! 

I recall a funny story that i read somewhere or saw on TV. There is some situation which warrants a guy to be silent or not give away some secret and so they  make halwa using glue and offer it him. He greedily gobbles it up and his mouth gets stuck. Ha ha!

 Image credit: Wikimedia commons

Food from other lands :

Hummus! I am yet to figure out the correct pronounciation for this lovely food item from the middle east. In one of my previous workplaces there was this coffee shop where I would often grab a quick breakfast. My favorite used to be whole meal bread sandwich with a hummus and kale filling. I have not tried making it at home as it needs some additional flavourings like tahini but its on my would-love-to-try list!

Food for thought:

For H its not a quote but a single word.

"HELLO" 

This has been incorporated into many a language in the world as its the standard greeting uttered at the beginning of a phone conversation. 

There would always be someone on our minds we wanted to get in touch with or reconnect or just talk to as its been a while.

Sometimes we keep pushing it to a corner of our minds dealing with daily mundane runs. We just click the button and make that call. They would be happy and so would we. 

A little care can bring about a lot of happiness!!

Ghee and green curry

One of the definite items in the monthly order I send to my grocer is a bottle of ghee, (nei in Tamil) or what is called clarified butter . 

Most Indian sweets are made with ghee and like sweets , ghee is more of a reflection of love. The more the affection, bigger is the size of the serving accessory used! Grandmothers are adept at picking the biggest size of spoons with a "To hell with your weight loss regime" outlook! Ha ha ...The more the ghee, the richer is the food.

My mother used to collect cream formed on the top layer of curd in a vessel in the fridge. Once a good amount was collected, she would whip it up to extract the butter and then melt it on a stove to extract the ghee. During this process, the kind of aroma that would fill the home - i have no words to describe - The one that would make you close your eyes, take in the smell and let out a delighted sigh with a gleam in your eyes. 

Every day we would add a bit of ghee to our rice before mixing it with the curry or the vegetable. A small serving of rice , a spoon of ghee and boiled yellow lentils is absolute comfort food. This one in a mashed version is the first solid food for the babies in most of our households.

Ghee is mainly added for flavour and is also said to have some health benefits like building strength in bones and providing the required calcium. In today's sedentary lifestyle , it can lead to build up of cholesterol though, if taken without moderation of quantity.

 

My dad had this habit while eating chapathis(flat bread made of wheat) . No matter how many tasty side dishes emerged from my mother's kitchen, he would reserve one last chapathi for his favorite accompaniment - sugar mixed with ghee! 

Food from other lands:

As a family we love Thai food and our favorite is Thai Green Curry  . My daughter especially is a big fan like me! With the coconut and spices it has a good amount of similarity with our traditional food. Staying in South Asia , we do get to taste the authentic versions. I have attempted making things like tom yum soup and green curry at home too and the results were not bad. I have read articles that pounding the spices in a mortar and pestle yields the best taste. A mix of shallots and vegetables cooked with coconut 

milk and blended with lemon grass and kafir lime leaves and lemon rind and other spices - woah!! I am typing this after a heavy dinner but the thought itself is mouth watering ! 

Food for thought:

What I have for G is more of a phrase than a quote in Tamil

Gundu chattiyil guthirai ottuvathu

Gundu chatti - fat  pot 

Guthirai - horse 

Ottuvathu - ride 

It literally translates to riding a horse inside a fat round pot - tough to visualize and does not make complete sense, i know! 

What it means is doing the same repetitive things in a restrictive or comfort space with no real progress or scope for growth . 

It can be applied to one s career or growth in a particular field. 

Falooda and Falafel

 Food from home:

The phonetic sound "fa" is very rare or technically non-existent in Tamil to my knowledge, especially at the beginning of a word. Hence its tough to find a  food item from traditional recipes at home that begin with 'fa'. 

Falooda is a dessert supposed to have entered India from Persian side of the world through the Mughal rulers. 

Its basically like a sundae. It has some noodle or vermicelli and some soaked basil seeds. Then there is thickened and sweetened milk, some rose syrup, some jelly bits, fruits of our choice and topped with icecream. 

It can be pretty filling though and so if its part of our meal plans we need to be vary of our pre-dessert servings.

Till my early teens we were in a place called Kozhikode in Kerala and I remember there was a Falooda place in the main shopping area. Compared to the typical single flavor monochrome icecream that we were used to, this was much more appealing.

These days I make falooda at home whenever we are in the mood for some , and the results are not bad, I must say. Its one of those food items where its not the cooking method but what goes into the mix that really matters. Also there is no hard and fast rule. You could be creative on additions and deletions.

Food from other lands:

Falafel is what comes to mind with not one but two 'F' s. I have had Falafel in wraps and I enjoyed them though i would not put falafel on top of my favorite snacks list. What is the best way to eat falafel? Any recommendations ?

Food for thought:

As I mentioned earlier its difficult finding words in my mother tongue with F leave alone quotes.

For a change today would be an English quote , one of my all time favourites from forwards. I have seen it in newspapers, email forwards, sms forwards,orkut, facebook, twitter and whatsapp! As we moved forwards from one medium to another. 

The quote is 

I cried because I have no shoes till I met a man with no feet

I am not aware of its origins but its one line that says it all. Look at the bright side of things! When you google it, and look at the images there is a myriad of sources mentioned from ancient Persia to Helen Keller. I don't know who said it but I love it ! 

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.