Paanagam and Neer Mor

Today happens to be Lord Rama's birthday, or rather the day when his birth star has risen. My maternal grandfather's family happens to be ardent Rama devotees. They usually celebrate this day with a lot of pomp and fervor. Almost all of my maternal uncles' and cousins' names end with "Rama" or have some portion of their name attributed to the characters from the Ramayana. Such used to be the fervor. Of course, the devotion has lost its passion since some of its ardent devotees are  no more to carry on the tradition. But I have heard lovely stories of the grand manner in which the occasion used to be celebrated - beautiful flower arrangements, a zillion types of flowers handpicked to make garlands, a variety of delicacies to feast on, week-long prayers, bhajans, etc. Rama Navami is therefore seriously honored by my maternal family. 

Since I have no means to celebrate the occasion in a grand manner, I just prepared two simple drinks (one sweet and one savory, of course) to honor the day. These two drinks are specifically prepared on this day and are considered to be good offerings to Rama and his loyal aide, Hanuman. They are also wonderful to have on a hot summer's day. 

The sweet drink is called Paanagam. It is water sweetened with jaggery and spiced with some cardamom. That's it. But it's so delicious and soothing. Here's how I made it - I added 5-6 tablespoons of jaggery to 5-6 cups of water and let it dissolve at room temperature. It takes a few hours for the jaggery to completely dissolve and infuse the water with its flavor. Then, I stirred in 1 teaspoon of cardamom powder. If the jaggery has any grains/silt in it, filter the paanagam before drinking it. It's best when served chilled.

The savory drink is called Neer Mor (diluted buttermilk, literally). This is a great preparation to aid in digestion. Take 1 cup of buttermilk and add 1 cup of water (or 1/2 cup depending on how diluted the buttermilk is) and whisk well. Add 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon hing/asafoetida, a crushed or minced green chilly, 1/2 teaspoon grated ginger, 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds, some torn curry leaves and mix well. Serve chilled. A word of caution, remove the chilly if you are sensitive to heat.

They are simple to prepare, delicious to drink, and are great for the tummy. They are refreshing summer drinks that bring a lot of good memories.

Savory Karadai

Following the previous post on Nombu and Karadais, this is the savory version of Karadai known as Uppu Adai. Not surprisingly, I prefer this savory version to the sweet version.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup rice flour
2. 2 cups water
3. 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
4. 1.5 teaspoons split urad dhal / ullutham paruppu
5. 1 teaspoon minced ginger
6. 2-3 finely cut green chillies
7. 1/4 teaspoon hing / asafoetida
8. 2 teaspoons or 1/4 cup black-eyed beans (cooked)
9. 2 tablespoons + 1 tablespoon sesame oil 
10. 2 tablespoons grated coconut
11. 3/4 - 1 teaspoon salt
12. a few torn curry leaves

Preparation:

1.  If using uncooked, un-canned black-eyed beans, roast the beans slightly and cook them until almost done.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of sesame oil in a saucepan. Splutter mustard seeds. Then add the urad dhal, minced ginger and green chillies, hing, and curry leaves. Saute for a couple of minutes on medium heat. 
3. Add water to the above. Then, add salt and coconut gratings and stir well. Bring the water to a boil. 
4. To the boiling water, add the cooked (and drained) black-eyed beans. 
5. Next, add the rice-flour while stirring constantly to avoid lumps.
6. Continue stirring on medium-heat until the flour mixture comes together as a thickened mass of dough. Remove from heat. Let it cool to the touch. 
7. Similar to the sweet adai preparation, grease idli plates or a steamer with sesame oil. Make small balls of the prepared dough, flatten them slightly and make a hole in the middle. Grease your fingers/palm with some oil to handle the dough.
8. Cook / steam them for 12-15 minutes or until the adais are done.

Serve with butter!

Sweet Karadai

Hindu women of all communities have at least one special occasion to honor and pray for their husband's (or husband-to-be's) health and longevity. It entails different forms of worship of Goddess Lakshmi. Last week, the Tamil Brahmin women had such an occasion known as Nombu. This Nombu is known as Karadaiyam Nombu, named after the the kind of dishes that are prepared during the day. As is the case with all our festivals, there is one sweet and one savory dish that marks the special day. 

This is the recipe for the sweet Karadai, also known as Vella Adai that is offered to the Goddess.

Ingredients (serves around 8-10 adais):

1. 1 cup roasted rice flour (dry roast the flour on low-heat until it begins to brown slightly)
2. 1 cup powdered jaggery
3. 1/4 cup black-eyed beans (I like to add a little more beans than usual. You may reduce the quantity to 2 teaspoons if you're not a fan).
4. 2 - 2.5 cups water (depending on the kind of rice flour. 2.5 usually works)
5. 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
6. 2 tablespoons grated coconut
7. a few spoons of sesame oil

Preparation 

1.  If you're using uncooked, un-canned beans, roast the black-eyed beans for a few minutes and cook them until almost done.
2. Bring water to a boil in a saucepan. Add the powdered jaggery and stir (on low-medium heat) until it dissolves. The mixture should be boiling and bubbling a little at this point.
3. Add the coconut gratings and the cooked (and drained) beans.
4. Immediately add the roasted flour, stirring continuously to avoid lumps.
5. Keep stirring the flour mixture (on medium heat) lest it sticks to the bottom of the pan. When the mixture comes together as a thickened mass of dough, and it glistens a little (a sign that the flour is almost cooked), remove from heat.
6. Sprinkle with cardamom powder and mix well. Let the dough cool to touch.
7. Grease idli plates with a bit of sesame oil (or grease any steamer with a little bit oil). 
8. Make 1/2 - 1 inch balls of the prepared dough, flatten them slightly with your palm, make a little hole in the middle to ensure even cooking, and place on the steamer/idli plate.  Grease your fingers with oil to handle the dough.
9. Steam for 12-15 minutes on high heat or until the little adais are cooked. 

This is usually served with a generous slab of unsalted butter. A day of indulgence for the ladies!

The karadais will crack as they cook.

Multigrain Porridge (Kanji)

Kanji is a humble South-Indian breakfast porridge. Although it is made fun of as a poor-man’s breakfast, it is highly rich in proteins, fibre, and other useful nutrients such as essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals  to fire up enough energy to conquer the morning (and the day). Two glasses worth of Kanji used to be my breakfast every single day for 20 years. Since I’m not a morning person and I am such a snail when it comes to eating (and everything else), my mother decided this was the best way to get breakfast into me within 2 minutes. But as nutritious and pleasant-tasting as this grub is, 20 years of ingesting the same breakfast made me a little tired of Kanji. So, being away from home, I never bothered to make it - until recently.

Well, you start turning slightly wise as you age. You learn not to skip breakfast, for one. You also learn that being a vegetarian, you need to consciously think about ways of incorporating protein into your diet. You also learn that in this era of processed foods and too much awareness (or half-baked knowledge), every preservative, every synthetic derivative appears to cause or increase the risk of cancer and developmental disorders. And that rattles you. So, you hunt for the “organic” tags at the grocery store and realize that even a simple bag of “multigrain cereal” from a highbrow company is twice (if not more) the cost of the regular bag of cereal. Even the regular bag of cereal shows a steep increase in price if it has a handful of almonds thrown in. If it has almonds + another grain, it is even more expensive - and so, the geometric progression in prices bewilder you. You then think about the plain old Kanji. You ask your mom what goes into it, and you’re pleasantly impressed. So many grains and nuts? And so little cost?

Being an “organic” buff is now a cool lifestyle statement to advertise and flaunt. But, if I really wanted to eat “organic” food, then rather than make a statement with fancy-looking cereal boxes stacked in my kitchen, I decided I should just make the Kanji. It can’t get any more fresher, organic, healthier, and inexpensive. And it is not too labor intensive either.

So, here is my mother’s Kanji recipe.

Ingredients for the Kanji powder (results in perhaps 8-10 servings of porridge... I think)

1. Ragi (Finger millet) - 1 cup (if you can’t find the grains, you can use the powder; I could only find the powdered version in our Indian store, but I recommend using the grains - it will result in a fresher, healthier Kanji)
2. Samba Wheat grains, or regular cracked wheat grains, or whole wheat flour - 1 cup (I couldn’t find Samba wheat, so I settled for cracked wheat)
3. Par-boiled rice - ½ cup
4. Pottu Kadalai / Split roasted gram dhal - ½ cup
5. Peanuts - ¼ cup (100 grams)
6. Almonds (with the husk) - ½ cup
7. Cardamom (the whole pods with the husk) - about 14 (for flavor)

This is the basic mix. You can also add ½ cup of flax seeds or wheat germ (or both), ½ cup oats, different kinds of other nuts, etc.

Preparing the Kanji powder: 

1. Separately dry roast each grain, lentil, and nut until slightly brown.
2. Grind together (or separately) to a fine powder. Mix well. This is the Kanji powder. Store it in an air-tight container for almost 3 months.

Ingredients for the Porridge (for 2-3 cups)

1. 1 cup of the prepared Kanji powder
2. 2 cups of water
3. 1 cup of milk
4. some raisins (optional)
5. Sugar/brown sugar/jaggery/honey/agave nectar - as needed to sweeten the porridge to your liking

Preparing the porridge:

1. To prepare the porridge, mix 1 cup of the kanji powder with 2 cups of water until there are no lumps. Heat/cook it on medium heat, constantly stirring.
2. When the mixture starts to bubble and thicken (in 5-7 minutes), add the milk and stir continuously to incorporate everything and to avoid lumps. If you would like to add some sugar/jaggery/honey, add it now. Stir for about 7-10 minutes on medium heat.

 Remove from heat and serve with some raisins. You can adjust the consistency of the porridge by adding more milk or water. Some like to gulp it down, so would prefer a thinner consistency, while some may like it thicker. This proportion results in a porridge that is slightly thick and is better had in a bowl. 

 

Don't let the grey-brown color turn you away ;)

I also avoided adding any sugar to keep it healthy. But, truth be told, the porridge is much tastier when sweetened. Both of us are so used to having sweetened Kanji that it’s a little hard for us to have it unsweetened, but we are trying to habituate our taste-buds with the unsweetened version. I would recommend adding honey or even agave nectar instead of white sugar, if you would really much prefer it sweetened.

The only minor disadvantage is that as the porridge cools, it thickens, so it cannot be made ahead of time and stored. It needs to be reheated and diluted with water or milk.

Paneer Bhurji

Everybody loves paneer (Indian cottage cheese). Every non-Indian friend of mine considers it a delicacy and always expects to have it at every Indian meal. Since it’s so popular, there are dozens of different dishes that can be prepared with it. Bhurji is one such a simple, but tasty dish. The paneer is grated into the usual spice foundation consisting of onions, garlic, and tomatoes.

Ingredients:

1. A block of thawed paneer (about 7 ounces, or 200 gms), grated or crumbled.
2. 1 red onion, finely diced
3. 2 tomatoes, finely diced
4. a drizzle of tomato ketchup (optional)
5. 1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste (made from 4 garlic cloves and an inch block of fresh ginger)
6. 2 green chillies, minced
7. 2 tablespoons olive oil, or vegetable oil
8. 1 teaspoon cumin seeds / jeera
9. 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
10. 1 teaspoon coriander powder
11. 1.5 teaspoons garam masala
12. ¼ cup chopped coriander leaves / cilantro
13. juice of half a lemon
14. 1 teaspoon salt (as per your taste)

Preparation:

1. Heat the oil along with the cumin seeds, so that the cumin flavors slowly seep into the oil. When the cumin begins to sizzle, add the green chillies and chopped onion and satue on medium heat until the onions turn translucent.
2. Add the ginger garlic paste (it doesn’t have to be a fine paste. I usually crush the two together in a mortar and pestle). Saute with the onions for 1 minute. Do not let the garlic burn.
3. Add salt, turmeric powder, coriander powder, and garam masala. Mix well for about 30-40 seconds and let the spices combine and fry a bit with the onion and ginger-garlic.
4. Add the chopped tomatoes and mix well with the spices. Slightly reduce the heat and keep stirring the tomatoes now and then till they wilt and release their juices.
5. At this point, drizzle just a bit of tomato ketchup (optional) to give a little bit of volume to the curry. Cook for about 5 minutes.
6. Add the grated paneer to the masala and stir well to combine. Cook for another 5 minutes to allow the paneer to soak the spices.
7. Finally, remove from heat and garnish with a squeeze of lemon and lots of coriander leaves.

This is a great side-dish with roti and rice. 

Sambar Powder

Sambar is a classic lentil-based gravy that features in almost every meal in every South-Indian home. It should have been the second recipe on this blog, but I have been putting it off for a long time now. I'm preparing a fairly long and comprehensive post on sambar and its variant recipes, so I'll eventually finish it and have it up.

There is a certain mix of spices that give the sambar its classic flavor. This spice-mix is called the Sambar powder, and it is almost a treasured secret in every family's recipe book. Most of us South-Indians don't buy this powder from the store. Our grandmothers, aunts, and mothers prepare this every year (or every other year) and the recipe is handed down to us as almost a rite of passage. Since I've started to try out masala powders and spice mixes, I wanted to record sambar and rasam powder recipes on this space as well.

My mother-in-law gave me the sambar powder recipe that came from her family (and my father-in-law's). It's quite precious, so I thank her for sharing it with me!

Since the powder is usually made in huge quantities, note the proportions of the ingredients and try out a small batch - substitute the kilos with cups or tablespoon equivalents.

Ingredients:

1. 1/4 Kilo dry red chillies
2. 1/2 Kilo coriander seeds
3. 100 grams Thoor dhal / thuvaram paruppu
4. 100 grams Bengal gram dhal / kadala paruppu
5. 50 grams de-husked Urad dhal / ullatham paruppu
6. 25 grams fenugreek seeds
7. 25 grams black pepper corns
8. 25 grams turmeric (the actual dried root or powder)

Preparation:

1.  Dry roast each ingredient separately. Cool slightly
2. Grind together to a smooth powder.

The ingredients in the powder are pretty much the same across families and communities. But, I think the proportions vary slightly, and there might be a secret ingredient or two causing variations in this classic spice mix.

Mashed Potatoes

Even as a 10 year-old who had never heard of a dish called Mashed Potatoes, I used to bug my mom to set aside a few boiled potatoes before she fried the rest of them to make awesome, crispy potato curry. I would mash the few boiled potatoes with my fingers, add some salt and eat with a lot of relish (of course, along with my crispy curry). It was amusing to my family that I would take such a simple route to relish potatoes when a spicy, fried version was sitting in front of me. But I guess potatoes fire up anybody's instincts to have them cooked and mashed with just a little bit of simple seasoning. It's such a classic dish. 

When I came to know that the classic mashed potatoes has butter and milk to make them extra special, how could I resist? But, having grown up, this is a slightly healthier version. Instead of butter, there is buttermilk. 

Ingredients (serves 3-4)

1. 5-6 potatoes
2. 1 tablespoon butter (just a little, ok)
3. 1/2 cup milk (2% fine)
4. 1 cup buttermilk
5. 1 teaspoon salt
6. 1 teaspoon pepper
7. 2 teaspoons chopped chives

Preparation:

1. Peel the potatoes, dice them into chunks and boil them in salted water until they are fully cooked.
2. Heat the butter and milk on medium heat until the milk begins to steam. Do not boil. Remove from heat and let it cool slightly. 
3. Mash the potatoes. I used to mash them with my hands, then I heard about a potato-masher. But before I went ahead and purchased the masher, Ina mentioned that it's better to use a food mill to gently breakdown the potatoes to fine threads. So, I used a grater. Yes, a grater. I grated the cooked potatoes through the smaller-sized grater on the standard grating box. This is done to keep the potatoes light, instead of making them gummy by violently dispersing the starches.
4. Add the milk+butter mixture to the mashed potatoes and mix with a whisk. 
5. Add the buttermilk and continue to whisk until everything comes together as a smooth paste. Add more buttermilk if you like.
6. Season with salt, pepper, and chopped chives. 

Serve!