Pongal

My mother often recounts a story from her childhood years, particularly ones that include her grandmother. One story she is fond of narrating is about how her grandmother used to undertake her own farming and not use machines or chemicals. My great-grandmother, who was the last farmer in our family lost her husband at a young age and raised her three children on her own. She had some paddy land and a small vegetable farm, which she managed to buy with her own earning. While she did hire farm labourers when needed, she did a lot of work on her field herself. Also, she raised cows and goats and undertook organic farming. Compost was made on her farm and used in her field. She had her land ploughed with a hand-plough and planted the paddy seeds. When the seeds started growing, just like any other small time farmer, she undertook the weeding together with the help of some hired hands.

The harvesting season was a special process and the cut grain stalks would be loaded onto bullock carts and brought home for the grains to be separated from the husks. By the time they were brought home, it would be night. As there was no electricity in their home at that time, three or four petromax lamps were lighted. My mother remembers that she was very much excited during those days and didn’t want to go to sleep but stay up and watch. It seemed like a carnival at her grandmother’s home, with the place lighted up and movement of people throughout the night.

A pole was planted in the middle of the yard and large woven mats placed around the pole. The cut stalks were spread on the mat. The buffaloes were tied to the pole and two or three hired help would walk the buffaloes around the pole. This was the old process to separate the grains from the husks. My mother remembers watching the men walk the buffaloes calling out, “poli.” The stalks were then picked up and thrashed onto the mat and the grains would separate out and fall. These were then packed up in sacks.

The first handfuls of grain were beaten in a stone or wood “ural” to separate the raw rice from the grain. This was made into the first pongal of the harvest. Everyone who helped would be invited for a meal and given bags of grains.

Family members who had died were also remembered on that day and a large variety of food was made. My mother mentions that a special offering was made that day, as part of the remembrance ritual, called the “puthir.” Her grandmother used to take some of the pongal made from the first rice from the harvest and spread it out on a large tray. Then, all types of available fruits were cut up and layered on top of the pongal. Honey was poured over the fruits. A sampling of all the vegetable curries that were made were also layered on top of the pongal-fruit-honey mix. Finally, ghee was poured over the tray of food and everything was mixed together. After the prayers were made, a little “puthir” was handed as “prasadham” (blessed offering) to everyone present.

Today, I will share the recipe of pongal that is made with the first harvest of the season by farmers and by non-farmers on festival days such as the Pongal festival in January, New Year in April and other celebrations.

Pongal

Cooking time: 30 to 40 mins

Serves 4 or 5

Ingredients:

Rice – 1 cup
Roasted split gram (without skin) – ¼ cup
Jaggery – 1 cup (grated)
Coconut – ½
Cardamom – 4 or 5, crushed
Cashew nuts – few, chopped
Raisins – 1 tbsp
Water

Method:

Wash the rice and gram and cook them in a pot with 2 ½ cups of water. Cook for around 15 to 20 mins, till the water dries up.
Grind and extract coconut milk by blending the freshly scraped half of a coconut with 1 cup of water.
Once the rice and gram is cooked, add the grated jaggery and mix.
Then, add the coconut milk and crushed cardamoms. Bring to a boil on high heat and cook for a few more minutes before reducing the heat.
Add the chopped cashew nuts. Cook until the pongal mixture starts coming together and starts to thicken.
Just before removing from heat, add the raisins and mix.
Remove from heat and cover.
Serve pongal with bananas.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Mushroom curry

My mother tells me that my grandmother was very fond of wild mushrooms and she liked picking them fresh. It seems that mushrooms sprout overnight after a heavy rainfall with a lot of thunder but they turn poisonous once the sun rises and they bloom. My grandmother used to go to her field just before dawn and pick the mushrooms, with its stalks, which grew under a particular huge tree. There were also snake holes around that tree where snakes did live but my grandmother was quite a fearless woman.

While her children and grandchildren no longer neither live near fields nor would we know how to identify good mushrooms and when we should pick them, my grandmother’s fondness for mushrooms has been transferred to everyone at home.

So, here’s my grandmother’s mushroom recipe as remembered and very often replicated at home by my mother.

Mushroom curry

Cooking time: 15 mins

Serves 4

Ingredients

Mushrooms (Button/Agaricus or Crimini) – 1 cup, sliced
Garlic – 3 or 4 cloves
Ginger – 1” piece
Curry leaves – 2 sprigs
Coconut milk – 1 cup (thin or ½ cup coconut milk mixed with ½ cup water) + ¼ cup thick (optional)
Curry powder – 1 tbsp
Mixed dry roasted spice powder – fennel, cardamom, cinnamon and clove (3C + fennel) – 1 tsp
Salt, to taste

Method

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and sauté the garlic, ginger and curry leaves.
When the aroma begins to waft about, add the sliced mushrooms and mix well.
Add 1 cup of thin coconut milk and add curry powder and salt. Cook for around 10 to 12 mins.
Add the mixed dry roasted spice powder together with ¼ cup milk, if the curry has dried up or if you prefer it with gravy, and let the curry simmer for a few minutes before removing from heat.
Serve hot with rice or rotis.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Mulai keerai aviyal

This is my grandmother’s recipe, as often cooked at home by my mother. Since I was on an Indian culinary journey last month, I realize that this recipe resembles a simpler variant of the Kerala avial, sans the curd.

Mulai keerai aviyal

Cooking time: 10 – 12 mins

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Amaranth greens/ mulai keerai/ thampala – 2½ cup, washed thoroughly and finely chopped
Carrot – ½ cup, sliced
Chilli – 1, chopped
Onion – 1 small, chopped
Garlic – 1 or 2 cloves, chopped
Salt to taste
Water
Scraped coconut – 1 tbsp

Method:

Put the washed and chopped vegetables in a pot with ½ cup of water and salt. Cook till the veggies are tender and the water dries up.
Add the scraped coconut, mix well and cook for another 2 mins.
Serve hot with rice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Paithangai Curry

Today is Aadi amaavasai or the New moon day during the month of Aadi, which generally falls between mid-July and mid-August of the global calendar. For Tamils, it is a remembrance day of fathers who have passed away. As both my grandfathers passed away at quite a young age, my parents have always observed this day for as long as I can remember. Lunch on this day is always kind of special – food that I associate with fasts and temples. One curry that is sure to be there on this day is Paithangai or yardlong beans.

I thought of posting the recipe for this dish today. My mother went one step ahead and not only did she give me the recipe for paithangai curry across three generations of my family, she actually prepared it in the three different styles so that I could take photos of them. Each of the recipe below takes about 20 – 25 mins to cook and serves 3 – 4 people.

So, here goes…

(1) Paithangai curry (early to mid 20th century recipe)

This is my great grandmother’s recipe, as remembered and replicated by my mother. As this is a dry curry recipe, it can be refrigerated and used over a few days without spoiling as opposed to curries that are cooked in coconut milk.

Ingredients

Yardlong beans – 200g
Curry powder – 1 tsp
Onion – ½ medium sized, chopped
Curry leaves
Salt to taste
Oil – 2 tbsp
Water – 2 cups

Method

Wash and cut the beans into 1 inch pieces.
Add the beans and chopped onions to a pot together with the curry leaves and curry powder. Add 2 cups of water. Cover and cook on medium heat.
When the water has almost dried up and the beans are cooked, add 2 tbsp of oil and mix well. Reduce heat and let the curry simmer for about 2 mins before removing from the heat.
Serve hot with rice.

(2) Paithangai curry (mid to late 20th century recipe)

This is my grandmother’s recipe, as remembered and replicated by my mother.

Ingredients

Yardlong beans – 200g
Carrot – 1
Curry powder – 2 tsp
Onion – ½ medium sized, chopped
Curry leaves – a sprig
Coconut milk – 2 cups of second milk and 2 tbsp of first milk
Salt to taste

Note: The first milk is the coconut milk obtained when blending freshly grated coconut with a little water. The second milk is the coconut milk obtained when blending the used grated coconut, after the first milk has been obtained, with about 2 cups of water. The second milk will be thinner in consistency to the first milk. My mother uses non-fat milk as a substitute for coconut milk for health reasons.

Method

Wash and cut the beans and carrots into 1 inch pieces.
Add the beans, carrots and chopped onions to a pot together with the curry leaves and curry powder. Add 2 cups of the second coconut milk. Cover and cook on medium heat.
When the milk has almost dried up and the beans are cooked, add 2 tbsp of the first coconut milk and mix well. Reduce heat and let the curry simmer for around 5 – 10 mins before removing from the heat.
Serve hot with rice.

(3) Paithangai curry – my mother’s recipe

Ingredients

Yardlong beans – 1 cup, finely chopped
Carrot – ½ cup, finely chopped
Cabbage and leeks – ½ cup, finely chopped
Onion – 1 medium-sized, finely chopped
Garlic – 2 cloves, finely chopped
Green chilli – 2 or capsicum – 1, finely chopped
Turmeric – ½ tsp
Pepper powder – ¼ tsp
Salt, to taste
Low fat Oil (Canola or Sunflower oil) – 2 tbsp
Water – ¼ cup

Method

Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the chopped garlic, onions and chillies.
Then, add the beans. Mix and fry for about 5 minutes.
Add the rest of the chopped vegetables and cook for another 5 – 10 mins.
Add ¼ cup of water, turmeric, pepper and salt to taste. Mix well. Cover and cook for 5 minutes or until the water dries up.
Remove from the heat and serve hot with rice.

Do post your feedback below, if you do try one of these recipes.

Aadi Kool

The first day of July in the Tamil calendar is called ‘Aadi’. It roughly corresponds to July 15 on the global calendar.

On this day called ‘Aadi pirappu’ or the birth of the month of Aadi, my mother makes a special dish usually for breakfast called the ‘Aadi Kool’.

Here’s my mother’s recipe for Aadi Kool:

Time taken: 45 minutes

Serves: 5 – 6

Ingredients

Dry roasted rice flour – 1 cup
Dry roasted green gram – ½ cup
Jaggery or brown sugar – ½ cup (can be adjusted as per your taste)
Chips of coconut – ½ cup
Coconut milk – 1 ½ cup
Water

Method

Boil the green gram, which has been previously dry roasted, in one litre of water in a pot.
Midway during the boiling, add the coconut chips (not grated but little pieces chipped off from a fresh coconut).
Take 2 or 3 tbsp of the roasted rice flour and add a little hot water to make a paste. Make tiny balls from this rice flour mixture and add it to the boiling pot.
After a few minutes of boiling, add the rest of the cup of rice flour into the boiling pot, slowly stirring it in.
When the mixture starts boiling, add the coconut milk and the grated jaggery and leave it to simmer for another 10 minutes.
Take the pot off the heat and serve the Kool in little bowls.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

The key ingredient of curries – the curry powder

The curry powder is a key ingredient of curries in Sri Lanka, similar to the sambhar powder, garam masala, dhansak masala etc. in India. Each home usually has their own version of what works for them.

So the very first recipe for this blog is my mother’s curry powder blend.

Amma’s special blend curry powder:

Ingredients

Dried red chillies – 100g
Coriander seeds(Kothumalli) – 100g
Cumin Seeds (Sinna seeraham/ Suduru) – 50g
Fennel seeds (Perunjhseeraham/ Maduru) – 50g
Fenugreek seeds (Venthayam) – 25g
Pepper – 10g
Curry leaves – ½ cup
Turmeric – 1 piece or 1 tsp (if powder is used)
Cinnamon – 2” piece
Cardamom – 4 or 5
Cloves – 4 or 5

Method

Chop up the dried red chillies and dry roast them. Keep aside.
Dry roast the curry leaves separately and keep aside.
Dry roast the balance ingredients together.
Combine all and grind them together to make the curry powder mix. Store in an airtight container to use when needed.
The ingredients can be scaled up for the desired quantity.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.