Swings & Roundabouts

Kalakhand

Am back after a year long break. Apologies re the shoddy blogging!! Have tons of recipes so sit back and enjoy!

To kick-start, here’s a quick-n-easy sweet you can whip up in a jiff.

Things you need:

Ricotta cheese, 500 g

Condensed milk, 1 tin

Butter, 25 gm

Lemon juice, 1 tablespoon

Elaichi 2 pods, powdered

Heat the butter in a thick-bottomed pan, over a medium flame till it melts evenly. Now, add the cheese and keep stirring it till it becomes a smooth paste. Keep stirring whilst adding a tin of condensed milk until everything’s well mixed. After five minutes of this, add the lemon juice slowly without letting up stirring.

The mixture will curdle and slowly become thicker. As you continue to stir, you’ll notice it coming off the edges of the pan. The sweet is ready when it easily rolls into a ball as you stir.

Add powdered elaichi to it, mix well and transfer to a well greased plate.

Spread the mixture evenly, cut into squares / diamond shapes and allow it to cool. Transfer to an air-tight container.

Makes about 30 pieces.

[Yes it is that easy! And it is thanks to Cee Kay and Dottie that this recipe came into being.]

Today’s Val’s day – Feb 14 – yipeee! Cue hearts and cheesy music. Oh and red balloons, red roses, red chocs and anything else in red you can think of. Blech.

All this ‘lurve’ floating around is making my tummy turn (and no it ain’t cos I am pregnant!). What a load of palaver over a single day. I tell you who ends up happiest on this day – Hallmark’s. And other like minded people. Like M&S, Interflora, Le Senza, Clintons and the guy on A127 who’s selling roses from a bucket.

So when did this healthy disregard for love’s most venerated day start? Well, roughly around the time I entered college, I should think. Dang opposite my college building (Ethiraj College, if you wanna know) there used to be this hugely popular Archies Gallery. As it was air-conditioned, I used to meet my mates there and generally timepass till zero hour. But come January, the place will be full if idiots. Idiots, nitwits and nutters who should have never been released from the asylum.

Soon after people had finished shouting themselves hoarse ‘Happy New Year’, the chaps at Archies used to dust the red, glittery hearts and teddies and stuff the store silly with them and play Richard Marx and other cheesy ballads 24/7. And the nincompoops from my college and elsewhere in the 5 mile radius (but chiefly my college), used to wander about the joint in slow-mo, mouthing the words from the Cheesy Song of the Hour, with a goofy look on their faces. As the D-day neared, the number of such ninnies would dramatically multiply, till, on the day before, it will look like a scene from The Inmates Have Taken Over The Loony Bin.

Three years of this has seared the images into my brain and even after a decade, I am unable to walk into any card shop after New Year and not gag at the sea of hearts and moon-faced teddies. Hubby S, though not half the cynic that I am, can never cheese it up on Val’s day, thanks to (literally!) his lack of memory. When we were dating, he had to be prodded by well meaning friends to get a last minute card or chocolates.

Nowadays, I just see it as one more day I am licensed to some bling. Being a non-romantic sort, he threw in the towel fairly early on in the marriage game and just used to ask me straight out what I wanted. And I just said what. He got it. I generally remembered to wear it roughly around my birthday and all was well.

But then, I have heard some serious gasps of horror when I had narrated our careless attitude to this Holy Day and refusal to worship at the altar of St Valentine. I have even heard of some ultimate cases who choose THIS day as THE day to get married. That, as a concept, just blows me away. I mean, your wedding day is special cos it is YOUR wedding day, right? Isn’t that reason enough? Why would you want to link your lot to a marketing icon?

Oh well. Whatever floats your boat, hon. To all the believers, many happies and all that. To all the sane ones, may the Force be with you.

P’s school had the Nativity plays performances this week. Last year he was a narrator and had lines to say. This year, he was cast as a shepherd and didn’t have much to do other than walk about and sleep (or so he claimed). I was convinced he was going to be draped in old curtains with a pot holder on his head and the reality wasn’t too far off!

Having no lines to say, the ‘actors’ kept fidgeting away but none more so than my child. Everytime I tried to zoom in without the Headteacher finding out, he was either yawning or picking his nose! Also I was late going in so couldn’t get a nice spot from where I could hide the camera and film the proceedings. S had to be satisfied with just a few pix and couple of dodgy videos. Here’s one for your viewing pleasure.

I know I am a li’l late but what with North Indians celebrating it for most of last week, Tamils on Thursday and Telugus on Friday and us lot on Saturday as that is the day we get off, I decided to ‘celebrate’ it on my blog on an entirely new day. Loopy or what?

Anyways, I hope everyone had a lovely festival. Was it as good as your childhood ones? (no, course not!) Did you make merry? Did you eat / drink too much? Go on, dish the dirt. What is your best diwali memory? share, pls.

Now, how can I resist this?

Varalakshmi Vrata is one of the biggest festivals that are celebrated during the Tamil month of Aavani (August – September). This is celebrated mainly by Tamil Iyers as well as Telugu and Kannada speaking folk. Every year, this auspicious day falls on the friday before full moon.

Coming from a hybrid family like I do, I did not have any such festivals to deal with while growing up. But as S is from the Telugu Vysya community that celebrates this vrata regularly, I end up being a part of the celeb whenever I go home to Chennai in August. This year too was no exception. This being my third year of doing it (albeit playing a very minor role), I think I have grasped the nous of this deal.

So here’s how it goes: well before D-day, the pooja vessels are given a rigourous spit and polish so they sit gleaming by the umachi side. On D-1 day, a perfectly oval coconut is given a shave so its sides are smooth like a baby’s bottom. Then the said coconut is given a thorough rub-down with turmeric paste. This forms the main part of the kalasa. The main pooja sombu (pot) is filled with water and this coconut sits on top of it. On a bed of new rice, this kalasa is fixed. Next, an imprint of the Goddess (made of silver) is tied on to the front of the kalasa and this becomes the moorti of the Goddess. Then it is time for one’s creativity to break out – you can deck the kalasa in grand silk skirts, decorate it and the pooja area with flowers and put gold jewellery around the neck of the kalasa.

The next morn, poojas are done to Lord Ganesha and Goddess Lakshmi by the women of the household. Offerings of sweet pongal, kheer, vada and a panchamirdam (roughly, fruit salad) made of nine fruits are given to Lakshmi. Pooja and aarati are done in the evening as well as the morning and evening of the following day, before the whole show is packed up till the following year. The water from the kalasa is poured into the nearby well; the rice is cleaned and used in the day’s cooking and the coconut is cleaned off its turmeric and made into any delicious item that doesn’t involve cooking.

One of the main part of the Varalakshmi vrata pooja is the telling of how the vrata came to be celebrated. Of course, with the whole proceedings generally being conducted in Telugu, much of it is OHT. So this year, I decided to read up on this so I knew what the deal was. And the story*, as I found out, is thus:

Long, long ago, there lived a devotee of Lord Vishnu called King Bathrasiravas, who lived with his Queen Surachandrika and daughter Shyamabala. One day, long after she was married and living in her sasural, Shyamabala landed on her parents’ doorstep to spend some quality time with them.

Then, the good Goddess Mahalakshmi, the giver of wealth, took the form of a poor, bedraggled old lady and entered the Queen’s palace. The old lady told the Queen, who was by herself, to perform the Varalaksmi vrata pooja. But the Queen flew into a rage for having been approached thus by a beggar, slapped the lady and threw her out.

Her daughter saw this and followed the old woman and inquired about the pooja. Then, she performed the pooja with due pomp and ceremony. Thanks to the power of this vrata, more and more gold and money was showered on her. But what of her unfortunate parent, who had chased the Goddess of Wealth away? Just as she threw the old lady away, the Goddess too took leave of Queen Surachandrika and the King and Queen were reduced to being penniless paupers.

A distraught Shyamabala sent over a pot of gold coins to her parents; but the pot turned into ashes the moment they touched it. Upon hearing of this, Shyamabala advised her mother to perform the powerful Varalakshmi Vrata pooja. A humbled Queen Surachandrika did so and lo and behold! all her riches were returned to her and the King and Queen lived happily ever after.

And it is said that whoever performs this pooja with utmost devotion and piety will be blessed with all the wishes one could ask for. If that isn’t incentive enough, I don’t know what is!

* – this has been translated from Tamil, so pardon the mistakes!

To all of you celebrating Ugadi today on March 20, 2007, my heartiest wishes. This year, for the very first time, we are celebrating the festival too. S is Telugu and though I try my best to do a fair 50-50 of our customs for P, it is rather difficult to follow S’s family customs and traditions when we live miles and miles away from them for me to learn anything. The only Telugu festival I’ve ever been there for has been Varalakshmi pooja and I don’t do that by myself here as it involves a complicated procedure to ‘split’ the proceedings from the MIL and I don’t think I would be able to take a day off from work to do the needful. Plus, doing that all by myself, with no mates around to partake kind of takes the fun off the pooja. So I just say a special ‘hello’ to umachi that day.

This year though, thanks to folks like Indira of Mahanandi, I am learning more about Andhra culture than I ever learnt from the in-laws. After the initial query of Would you be able to do the neem pachadi and my resultant Eh? Wat? , the MIL sort of washed her hands off me! But thanks to the power of blogosphere and Indira’s lovely recipes and explanations, I am going to try and do my bit towards Ugadi this year.

Luckily, I bought couple of raw mangoes the last time I went to East Ham and can do justice to the mango dal and mango rice. The recipes are Indira’s so visit her website to pay homage to her. The pictures (when I eventualluy put them up!) are from my baby attempts. I shall post a codicil in the evening if S collapses after eating my attempts!

As I just made a monstrous vessel full of akkara adisal last week for Karadaiyan Nombu, I am going to give the dessert a miss and just go with these two dishes.

First, Indira’s recipe for Mango dal, with some tweaking and adjustments from my end.

Stuff you need are as follows:

1 green mango
1 medium sized red onion – sliced into big chunks
1 cup toor dal
4 green chillies, deseeded and sliced
a pinch of turmeric
salt to taste

Tadka
1 tsp oil
1 tsp of each – mustard seeds, cumin, urad dal, chana dal
2 dried red chilli pieces and curry leaves
a pinch of asafoetida

Once you’ve got these afore-mentioned items, pat yourself on the back and proceed as follows:

1. Wash green mango, dry it and cut into small chunks. Leave the skin on the mango as that generally leaves a punchy taste.
2. Take the toor dal, mango, onion, green chillies and turmeric in a pressure cooker. Add two cups of water and cook till the dal is cooked thoroughly.
3. Open the cooker once you can, add salt and mash the dal completely till it bears no resemblance to its original form.
4. In a mini kadai, heat some oil and add the tadka ingredients and let them splutter. I normally just bung the lot in it and hope for the best. But Indira actually suggested that one drops them in the fat in the order of dried red chilli pieces, chana dal, then urad dal, followed by curry leaves and as a grand finale, the jeera and mustard seeds. Makes sense, I suppose! In addition to her ingredients, I added a pinch of asafoetida.
5. Next step, add the tadka to the mashed gloop, mix well, adjust salt and serve hot with rice and vadaam.

I learnt from my mum that this is made in tambram households as well. She said in our house, green chillies are used instead of chilli powder and I diligently followed suit to excellent results.

Now for the mango flavoured rice she calls Mamadikaya Pulihara. (Jeez! At this rate, I might even pick up a few telugu words and impress the I-Ls!)

Gather around these:

1 cup Ponni raw rice
1 cup grated green mango
3-4 green chillies, deseeded and slit
¼ cup of cashews and peanuts combined (optional – gives a crunch)
1 tablespoon of chana dal
1 teaspoon of each – cumin and mustard seeds
Few curry leaves
2 small pieces of dried red chilli
a pinch of turmeric and of asafoetida
Salt to taste

Now,

Peel the skin and grate the raw mango.
Cook the rice to a udiri consistency, so that it doesn’t get too sticky. General rule of thumb for mixed rice dishes is 1:2 cups water plus 1/2 cup kosuru (??????). Once the rice is cooked, spread it out on a clean thin cotton towel or a big plate so that it becomes a bit more loose and dry.
In a saute pan, heat oil and saute the ingredients one by one till they turn golden. This is to ensure they each get cooked properly. Lastly, mix them up, along with some turmeric and asafoetida.
Now, add the grated mango to the pan. Stir to mix with other toasted contents in the pan. Cook for a few minutes, making sure the pan doesn’t get too hot or smokey and take off the heat.
Add the dry rice to the pan and mix all the ingredients well, checking the salt levels.
Serve hot.

March 14 2007, was kaaradaiyan nombu for the Nombu celebrating folks of Tamil Nadu. On this day, the women of the house fast till the appointed hour, when they pray to the Goddess Gowri for the good health and long life of their husbands and make yummy adais. After prayers, they tie a golden thread around their necks and sit down to break their fast by eating the salt and sweet adais, topped with a dollop of oothukuli butter. Hmmmm, heaven!

The young girls of the family also do this pooja – tho ‘doing the pooja’ is a loose term, considering all I did was wait till the whistle is blown and I can stuff my face with the adais. I love this festival as this is the one day when women get to eat before the men! Wahey! The next day at school, boys generally used to have a field day ragging us as us girls would be walking around with a yellow thread around our necks.

Every year on this day, the requisite ‘athiri bacha’, used to be told by various members of my family. This year, I cannot wait to tell it to my five year old!

Now for the adai recipes.

Salty adai

Things you need:
Rice flour – 2 cups
Water – 2 cups
Cooked black eyed beans – 3 tbsp
Dried red chillies – 2
Coconut, diced – 2 tbsp
Oil – 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – a handful, chopped
Asafoetida – a pinch
Salt – to taste

How to make them
Roast the rice flour in a kadai so it loses its raw smell but not so it turns colour. Transfer it onto a plate to cool. Now, heat some oil in the kadai, add some mustard seeds, asafoetida, dried red chillies and curry leaves and saute for a minute, till the seeds stop spluttering. Add the water to it next and let it come to a boil. Add coconut pieces, cooked black eyed beans, the roast rice flour and salt to taste and stir well so that lumps don’t form.
The resultant dough must be of a dry consistency; the more paste-y they become, the more time it takes to cook. I prefer the taste of the adai when the dough is slightly dry.
Make balls out of it, flatten the balls and cook in an idli steamer for about 10 minutes.

Serve with a generous dollop of butter.

Sweet adai

Things you need:
Rice Flour – 2 cups
Jaggery (powdered) – 1.5 cups
Water – ¾ cup
Black eyed beans – 1/2 cup
Coconut (cut into small cubes) – 2 tbsp
Ghee – 2 tbsp
Elaichi – 2-3

What next?
Soak the beans for around 3 hours, pressure cook and set aside.
Take a kadai, boil water till it begins to bubble and add the jaggery. Boil the mixture till the raw smell of jaggery disappears. Take it off the flame, let it cool a bit, filter the mixture and transfer it back to the kadai.
Add the rice flour, beans and mix the ingredients well.
Seperately, heat ghee in a kadai and fry the coconut pieces well. Add to the mixture, along with some powdered elaichi and mix well.
Allow it to cool.
Once it is cool enough to touch, make balls of the mixture and flatten it to round shapes.
Steam them in an idli cooker for 7 – 10 minutes. Serve with a generous dollop of butter.

Holi. The festival that heralds spring. Living in Chennai, it didn’t mean much to me. Life went on pretty much the same as always.

But whenever I think of Holi, I remember the gulmohar trees that dotted the grounds of the apartment block I grew up in. Red, yellow and orange coloured blossoms used to cover the green foliage and from the terraces, it used to look like the trees were on fire! Every spring, the trees would be full of the riotous colours and so will the ground around them. The fallen petals would deck the brown ground so that it looked like a beautiful carpet has been spread all around the area.

But, of course, growing up in India, you do hear and see images of how the rest of the country celebrated this rather rowdy-ish festival. Holi also brought to my mind, images of Amitabh Bachchan singing ‘Rang barse’, multi-coloured kurtas and general all-round mayhem. I remember wondering why the North Indians always wore white on Holi when they knew well that there would be folks chucking colour at them from all directions.

There were pockets of Madras that used to celebrate the festival. The streets of the Hindi areas of Sowcarpet, Vepery and the surrounding, would be chock-a-bloc with girls and boys of all ages running amok, covered from top to toe in the most lurid colours imaginable. If the day fell on a Sunday, Monday morning these girls would wander into college, still multi-coloured – partly because the colours were real fast and partly because they wanted to show-off.

Those were the times when I wished I lived in one of those ‘cool’er cities, where Holi was a definate day in the festival calender, where folks drank bhaang and sang drunken songs and danced in the streets. Alas! That never happened. I was stuck in staid Madras all my life. Now, sitting a gazillion miles away in staid-er England, I am wishing with all my heart that I can play Holi. I could toss colours at folks, folks would toss colour back at me, I would get gloriously drunk on bhaang and sing silly songs and dance in the streets. Oh, clad in whiter than white salwar-kameez, too! I want to wake up the next day with the colour still sticking to my skin.

Maybe I should sign up as an extra for the next Bollywood Holi number!