The Meenakshi Ammal Project

My husband Anand and I watched the popular movie Julie and Julia recently. I never expected Anand to be even remotely interested in it. But to my surprise, he not only watched the entire movie, he watched it with much interest! It also sparked an “idea” in him. The movie is based on this woman Julie Powell who resorts to cooking as a solace to her stressful life. Through cooking, she finds meaning, purpose, and contentment in her life. She takes on the project of executing and blogging about all the 524 recipes from the encyclopedic book on French cuisine written by the legendary chef Julia Child, who made French cooking accessible to the ordinary American housewife. Julie set a deadline - 365 days to execute and write about all 524 recipes. The experience taught her the rewards of perseverance, and the joy of focusing one’s energy on a constructive and fun project.

Upon seeing the movie, Anand encouraged me to kick-start a similar project to recreate all the hundreds of recipes documented by our South-Indian, Tam-Brahmn cooking legend, Meenakshi Ammal. At a time when cook books were unheard of, and it was uncommon for a timid Tam-Brahm woman to bravely venture out of her kitchen to even think of publishing her recipes, Meenakshi Ammal was a true pioneer. Almost every Tam-Brahm bride since the 1950s has been gifted a copy of her books to initiate into the ways of authentic South-Indian-Brahmin cooking. And I am no exception. My father-in-law gifted all three volumes of her books - “Samaithu Paar” (Cook and See, literally speaking). 

To be honest, I was never that interested in learning to cook the dishes of my specific Tam-Brahm community. I love the rasams and the curries, the dosais and the idlis, but took them mostly for granted. My palate wanted to explore other flavor combinations. I was eager to learn the mechanics of making a delightfully light and fluffy roti, the aromatic chole masala, the different flavorful sauces of Italian cuisine, and master the lusciously honeyed world of baking. But having dabbled in all of the above, I have come a full circle now as I desire to perfect the cooking traditions of my bustling community. My heart lies in my traditional food; as open as I am to other cuisines, I am most content with rasam rice. I also realize how inadequately trained I am in my own cooking traditions. I have been cobbling together my recollections of my mother’s ways and her dictated recipes, but have never invested time to learn them properly. I used to smugly skip an ingredient or two - such as curry leaves, or hing, which I thought were just minor garnishing entities, and would end up with a dish that would surely lack in its prime authentic taste. That’s when I understood the significance of every little ingredient, and the unique flavors and roles they play in our cooking. I find South-Indian cooking to be the most challenging in terms of precisely replicating the flavors and nuances of textures, perhaps because I’m more aware and tuned to its authentic taste. Most people can make sambar and rasam, but only some can nail the exact flavors.

There are also some people who believe South Indian food isn’t healthy or nutritious due to the excessive amounts of carbohydrates, the overcooked and few vegetables used per dish, the liberal amounts of mustard oil, coconut oil used, the lack of enough protein, and the cloying levels of ghee, sugar, and cream used in the heavenly saccharine sweets. Obviously, there is some truth to it. But these foods suited the lifestyle of our ancestors. And this was the very best the women could innovate given the limitations on the kinds of vegetables, fruits and grains that were available during different times of the year, not to mention the vagaries of monsoon and the financial atmosphere. Without the luxury of supermarkets that perennially offer a wide range of vegetables, fruits, and specialized ingredients from across the world, our great-grandmothers had to think out of the box to stretch a buck, or a cup of rice, to feed a dozen or more hungry mouths. Rice was the staple in the tropics for it grew abundantly. If rice is powdered or ground into a batter it helps to feed more mouths (4 cups of rice that go into making idli batter feed more people than if cooked). Living in the hot tropics, people didn’t even have refrigerators back in the day to preserve food. If there was extra milk, it had to be consumed or converted to curd, butter or ghee. And then the butter and ghee had to be used up. And so on... So although one can argue about nutritional concerns, I still deeply respect and laud the strategies and adaptions that went into our cooking traditions.

But in today’s age, there is always room for tuning the recipes to make them more nutritious without compromising on much of the taste. Indulging in a few sweets and savories on days of festivities is not going to cause a dent, or sudden bloating. Everything in moderation is safe and sane. Besides, I think one needs to try and honor the traditions of festivities as much as one can, for women like Meenakshi ammal dedicated their life to perfecting the unique sweets and savories. The least we can do is create a few pieces of the sweets and eat them while we still can!

Meenakshi Ammal’s measurements and ratios are precise to the tee. The books have been quite handy to refer and follow during the making of specialized sweets and savories. I have a lot of respect for this sweet old woman who braved life’s tragedies and emerged by immortalizing her name and skill. I definitely need to pay my tribute to her. So, I start my Meenakshi Ammal project. I will recreate all the (350+) recipes from her three books, and will write about my experiences and revelations. But much to Anand’s disappointment,  I’m setting no deadline, for I’m just being realistic :). I hope to finish all the recipes within my lifetime for sure. And I am glad that I already have prepared quite a few, so I can happily check those items off the list! (although, I don’t have photographic evidence for all of them).

I don't expect any fame, recognition, kudos, books, or movies through this attempt of mine. It’s just a simple, straight-forward tribute, which also serves a practical purpose - I get to feed myself and Anand! I suspect that's the reason why Anand has been egging and imploring me to do this ;). He is a very willing recipe tester, and a merciless, honest critic with a very sophisticated Tam-Brahm-Kumbakonam-trained tongue :). So, if I honestly gloat about a successful dish, believe me, that is indeed a golden dish worthy enough to be served to the toughest Kumbakonam maama!