Author: anuchenji

Posted on

Of star struck mothers and how to “puttu kadalai!”

puttu kadalai
This thing about hero-worship tends to run in families, maybe, d’ya think?
Was looking at a picture of my daughter with Rahul Dravid – taken when she was about ten years old – and I can literally see the stars in her eyes! Well, maybe the flash was wrong, but still…
And then there was the occasion when Shashi Kapoor came to Chennai. The great actor was the brand ambassador for an NGO I do a bit  of work with and knowing just how star-struck I was, I was invited to a lunch with Mr Kapoor and seated right next to him – honest!
Initially I was too awestruck to talk much (yes, it’s been known to happen!) but he hasn’t been crowned Prince Charming for nothing! Pretty soon, I was telling him what a fan of his I was and reciting his dialogues back to him and getting so caught up with the image of SK in my mind that I quite failed to see the twinkle in his eye!
For almost the first time in my life, I was completely unconscious of what was on my plate – very little distracts me from food, you might have observed if you were looking very, very keenly ;)!
Well, the best things in life too have to end and so did that lunch…
Mr Kapoor shakes hands all around and finally comes to me – last because I am right next to him – smirk, smirk!
As starstruck as any teenager (I was about forty, I think!), I offer my hand. He grasps it in both his and looks around the room and in shuddh Bombaiya Hindi (if there is such a thing!), announces with bell-like clarity to the whole room (these actors don’t learn voice modulation for nothing!), “Kehti hai ki meri sabse badi fan hai lekin jab meri haath pakadthi hai, zor se squeeze thak nahin karti!” (She says she’s my biggest fan but when she shakes my hand, she doesn’t so much as squeeze it a little tighter!!”)
I haven’t turned that red since I was possibly sixteen! I thought of plenty to say later when I was falling asleep… but what I really would like to do is to serve him this…
PUTTU KADALA CURRY
FOR KADALA CURRY
  • 1 cup black chana – soaked overnight and pressure cooked till tender.
  • Sambar onions or shallots – chopped fine – 1/2 cup
  • Coconut grated – 1/2 cup
  • Ginger – minced – 1 tsp
  • Green chilies  minced – 2
  • Curry leaves – 2-3 sprigs
  • Turmeric – 1/4 tsp
  • Red chili powder – 1/2 tsp
  • Dhaniya/coriander pwd – 1 tsp
  • Masala powder- 1 tsp ( lightly roast and grind together 1/2 tsp saunf (aniseed), 2 -3 strands of mace, 1/2 tsp of nutmeg, 1″ piece cinnamon and 3-4 cloves)
  • 1/4 tsp pepper – cracked
  • Coconut oil – 1 tbsp
  • Salt
Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the mustard seeds and when they begin to splutter, add curry leaves and sambar onions. Fry till pale yellow. Add ginger and green chilies and saute for another minute.
Add everything else except the garam masala. Add the cooked black chana and bring to a boil. I prefer doing it directly in the pressure cooker and bringing it to one whistle.Switch off and add garam masala.
Serve with puttu – which is one amazing accompaniment and pazham (little yellow bananas) and papadum – it is truly a perfect balance of tastes and textures…
FOR PUTTU
  • Puttu rice flour (you could do the difficult thing and make it yourself but I highly recommend buying it in a packet!) – 2 cups 
  • Coconut grated-1/2 cup or more
  • Salt
  • Water
Mix the puttu flour with salt adding water a little at a time till you get a moist but crumbly texture – exactly like wet sand when you’re making sand castles on the beach?!
If you have a puttu kudam, you know what to do. If you don’t, never fear! Use a pressure cooker. Heat about 2 cups of water in the cooker with the lid on but no weight.
Fill the mould thusly:
About a tsp of coconut as the fisrt layer, then a generous handful of the rice mixture. Then one more tsp of coconut and so on till you fill it right up. Close and fix it on the little nozzle where the weight sits. Steam on high for 5-6 minutes. Open, run a knife around and release gently so the puttu doesn’t break apart.
Eat with kadala curry.
Then next time you meet your hero, you will be able to really puttu kadalai! (Putting kadalai is Tamil slang for hitting on someone! Sorry for pj’s – wink, wink!)
Pic courtesy Internet
Posted on

Of pockets that are always full!

pita pockets
Many thankings to our guest contributor today – Bindu Borle – who’s sent us yummy recipes and delightful stories earlier – thank you, Bindu!
– – –
We had moved from our cozy and comfortable home in Hyderabad, to Dubai in 2007. It was a surprise, rather a shock, to move, as we were really nervous, and were full of apprehension at the prospect of moving to a totally new, foreign land.
Though we had been moving around in India from place to place like nomads, this was a totally new shift. It was exciting yet scary – we didn’t have much of an idea about the place except from what we had seen in the movies, read in the papers and been told by people who’d visited this place. The initial year was really uncomfortable for sure, but as we spent more time here, we got to learn more about the fascinating composite and cosmopolitan culture that this city has.
For the first time had we seen such a place where the expatriates from EVERY corner of the globe drastically outnumber the local Emirati population; where the expatriates make up ~85% of the population! This gives Dubai a very cosmopolitan feel, and it seems that the whole world has come in this small city, no bigger than one of our small towns, back in India.
I am a vegetarian and though I love to try different cuisines, am always a bit apprehensive about what goes in there. I decide to eat the food based on its appearance and smell. My son laughs at me and always asks me, “Why do you behave like a sniffer dog?” My answer to him is usually this, “I can’t take a chance with my food, it has to reach my set parameters!”
Once here, we let our taste buds explore the big, big world of various cuisines. As we started to travel more from here (Dubai being the biggest airlines hub and connected to each and every part of the globe!), there was a desperate need for me to know more about vegetarian food available in the city where we were/are going to.
Interestingly, our family of four could never reach a consensus on where to go! My husband and my son love to eat non-vegetarian and would recommend really different places where there are less vegetarian choices, or of totally different cuisines. On the other hand, my daughter is a pakka desi and doesn’t like to experiment with her food. For her daal-chawal and paneer is the manna!
I usually get horribly stuck between these choices, and a typical conversation on a Thursday night, when we are about to go out to eat, is like this:
Amay: “Let’s eat Korean today. We always eat Indian food…!”
Ananya: “I hate Korean (without even having to taste it) I want to eat jeera rice and daal-makhani!’
Amay: “But this is what we eat at home also. Why can’t you try something different?”
Ananya (sulking): “You and papa will get more choices, what about mummy and me?” I don’t want to go!
This would be accompanied by rain of tears, thunderstorm of more arguments, followed by a reluctant settlement of going to an Italian restaurant (Ananya’s second favorite after Indian food).
Talk about giving options in an open forum!
Change of gears and coming back to my lane, where I was talking about trying different cuisines.
Khubz is a Levantine pita bread which is commonly eaten here. It is an integral part of the Middle Eastern cuisine. I got an opportunity to taste lovely vegetarian starters made from this bread.
One of the yummiest and easiest is to make pita pockets. This can be made in no time and is a great starter as well.
I like to use feta cheese for it and since I am a vegetarian, I look for one without animal rennet.
There is no sacrosanct stuff to make this; you can be creative and think of as many options as you can. The one I make is not only my favorite but loved by the family too.
PITA POCKETS (Serves 4)
Ingredients
4-6 pita rounds
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
I orange bell pepper
One medium sized onion
Freshly chopped coriander
2-3 green chillies
1/2 tsp black pepper powder (Optional)
Feta cheese
Method
Cut the pita bread into halves and keep them aside.
Finely chop all the vegetables, along with coriander and green chillies.
In a big mixing bowl, combine all the finely chopped vegetables and spice. Add the crumbled feta cheese. Mix it well to ensure even distribution of the ingredients.
Heat pita bread in oven or on skillet/tawa (optional). I prefer it untoasted.
Cut pita rounds in half and stuff each half with veggie/feta mixture. While cutting and stuffing, be careful as not to break the pita bread.
The pita pockets are ready to be served with or without dips.
Surprisingly, my fussy daughter loves these pockets and happily takes them to school to share with her friends.
Posted on

Of how to be grateful for small mercies!

Appam
I was approaching forty and nature was telling me (AND the whole world at the same time – indiscreet nature!) through the greying at the temples (other parts of the head too but temples are all I’m willing to acknowledge!) that it is winning! I decide to ignore it. I get an Indira Gandhi like streak. I am DETERMINED to ignore it!
In fact, I think (smirk, smirk), IT (streak), and by association, owner of IT, looks rather distinguished! People keep asking me why I don’t do anything about it. I shrug it off – they must be positively green that they do not share my distinguished-ness!
Then at a wedding, someone asks me why I look always tired! Having got my share of  ten hours beauty sleep, I am surprised! The next day, off we go – on a visit to the hairdresser! A couple of hours work at her hands and I am looking quite “new” as a two-year old nephew of mine remarked to his grandmom when asked if she looked old. His response was, “No, Ammamma, you look little old, little new!”
But the two hour trip convinced me of one thing – that I could NOT sit through another boring session like this one! And so I decided to try my hand at colouring at home. Not having a clear idea of how to do it, I enlisted reinforcements – in the forms of two daughters – one twelve and one eight years old. The pack of hair dye came with clear instructions but the manufacturers, not having gauged their market “correctly”, included only one pair of gloves.
Being well brought up kids (at that time at least), they had been taught how to share. So each had a glove and the other hand wrapped up in a plastic packet! Proceeding to divide up my head into “your half”  and “my half”, they have a ball – splashing it on – it’s not every day that you get a chance to wreak vengeance on the parents!
I protest. There’s goop on my neck, on my ears and on my shirt – I don’t want all these bits dyed! My eight-year old puts things in perspective by telling me very firmly, “Amma, be grateful we got 75% of it on your head!”
I shut up, mentally resolving to do it myself the next time. And I do, for many years, till today, when I ask daughter no.2  (now older and hopefully more skilled!) to do the deed as I’m too tired. She obliges… I am happy… yay, grown up daughter and all that. Then she remarks quietly the end, “There’s a little bit on your neck and maybe a littler bit on your ears… but it looks interesting… as though you have more hair!” Thank you very much.
On another occasion, my maid offers to apply it for me. Once bitten and so on… I ask if she knows how. “My husband is a painter, amma, and I’ve watched him at work, painting walls. How different can it be slathering it on your head?” Yeah, right!
All that talk of painting leads us to a dish from Kerala which is so fine and delicate texture that it’s almost painted on – to the pan! The unique
KERALA APPAM :
  • Raw rice – 2 cups
  • Parboiled rice – 1 cup
  • Poha/beaten rice – ½ cup- optional
  • Salt – 1 tsp –
  • Sugar – 2 tbsp
  • Yeast – ½ tsp
  • Coconut milk – 1 cup

Soak the “rices” together for 3-4 hours

Drain the soaked rice and grind along with all the other ingredients to a very fine batter, adding water as necessary to make a very smooth, flowing batter.
Cover and leave to ferment overnight till it almost doubles in volume.
Heat an aapa kadhai or a non-stick wok and sprinkle a few drops of oil. Smear the oil. Sprinkle a few drops of water on the hot pan. If it sizzles, the pan is hot enough.
Pour a ladleful of batter in the centre and swirl the pan around so it spreads into a thin, painted-on sheet! There will be a little more at the centre.
Cover and cook for a couple of minutes till you can see gold at the edges of the appam. The centre will be a soft, slightly thicker blob and the edges are lacy!
Gently remove and serve immediately.
Like my head being divvied up for “painting”, I am always torn between the two accompaniments which are my personal favourites for this – vegetable stew – “ishtu” and sweetened coconut milk – so most often, I end up having both!
For the sweetened coconut milk, add a couple of tsps of sugar and whole, slightly pounded cardamoms to 1.5 cups of coconut milk.
For the ishtu, please see my recipe in an earlier post – follow this link – http://anuchenji.com/blog/early-lessons-narayani-v-nayak-and-baser-instincts
You could also serve this with a kadala curry – black chana curry – look out for the recipe in future posts!
And please get two pairs of gloves if you’ve got two pairs of hands making heavy work!
Posted on

Of how NOT to plan weddings!

jeedipappu koora
“Paaam… paaam… pa… paaaaAAAMMMM,” goes the shehnai, rising to a crescendo as it signals the end of the wedding ceremony.  It is a really hot August day in Hyderabad and the silence comes as a blessing.
I heave a sigh of relief. It is two o’clock in the afternoon and I’ve been sitting, standing, bending, touching feet, generally doing various ritual things from six in the morning! Oh yes, I forgot to mention that it’s my own wedding!
I have come back from the hostel on a few days’ break to get married. When I had left home to pursue a postgrad course a couple of months previously, wedding preparations had just started and the understanding was that the guest list would be about 600 people – a reasonably medium-sized wedding by Indian standards! I came back a couple of days before the wedding to find that 1800 invitations have been distributed and my parents appeared to have gone completely berserk!
Obviously I ask who’s been invited and get to see the list.
Here’s a sample:
• The owner of the corner store where we buy groceries
• The owner of one more corner store (boodha shop) where we used to live earlier and where we bought groceries for years – after all, he’s seen me grow up and he’s helped with the growing up by keeping me supplied with chikkis (peanut candy – my fave!) for decades!
• Son of said corner store boodha (old man) – he’ll feel bad if we leave him out!
How could we not invite all these guys? You get the picture?
I am surprised the list is only 1800. And I am not wrong – finally we end up with 3000 guests! Talk about planning disasters! But my parents were completely nonchalant about the whole thing – their whole take on it was, “Ah, small glitches… but we’ve just found one way that things don’t work! And everyone was happy so it was fine!” Phew!
And so back to the afternoon when the wedding ceremony itself got over.  After many, many rituals over many hours on an empty stomach, mind you, the pujari finally says we can go. We look around. There are a few people – me, newly minted husband and five pujaris! C’est tout – that’s it! Everyone else has disappeared soon after the main rituals are done!
We’ve no clue what we’re supposed to do now… and we’ve a reception (our own!) to attend in a few hours time… we want food… we want nap, well, at least I want a nap!
Am dressed in much wedding finery so can’t even think of walking back home – though it’s barely a stone’s throw away. Plus, in the middle of all the rituals, my slippers seem to have gone a walkabout- I can’t walk barefoot on the road!
Hubby and family and friends have rooms in the hotel itself. So I say bye, see you in the evening and make my solitary way to the car park. Recognise one of the cars hired for the wedding and recruit the driver to take me home.
I reach home. Everyone has disappeared! Much puzzled, I ring the doorbell several times. Door is finally opened – by two of my uncles who have elected to (thankfully!) not go on a shopping trip with the rest of the family– parents, in-laws, cousins, aunts, uncles – the whole jimbang lot of them have traipsed off to Charminar! Having many flowery things braided into my hair, it’s difficult to figure out how to change. My two uncles, god bless them, cracking many jokes the whole time, sit and patiently pull several dozen pins and flowers out of my hair! I get my nap 🙂
That was a nutty Hyderabadi wedding – to the core!
Just like this devil-may-care-for-the-calories…
CASHEWNUT CURRY (recipe again courtesy Shreesha’s mom – she’s a treasure of unusual recipes!)
  • 1 cup cashew nuts – soaked for 3-4 hours – wash three times and squeeze dry lightly.
  • Onions – 2 large- chopped very fine
  • Green chilies – 3 chopped fine
  • Curry leaves – 2 sprigs
  • Tomatoes – 4 – chopped
  • Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbsp
  • Jeera/cumin seeds – ½ tsp
  • Turmeric – ¼ tsp
  • Red chili powder  – ½ tsp
  • Dhaniya powder – 1 tsp
  • Garam masala – ½ tsp
  • Salt
  • Drumsticks – 2 –cut into 2” pieces – optional – boil with a ½ tsp salt
  • Oil – 2 tbsp
Heat oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds and chopped green chili.
Add curry leaves and onions and fry till golden brown, adding ginger garlic paste halfway through.
Add turmeric, red chili powder and dhaniya powder. Saute.
Add  tomatoes and fry for 3-4 minutes.
Add cashewnuts and salt and pressure cook for 3-4 whistles. Switch off and add the drumsticks (if using) and garam masala and bring to boil again.
Serve with plain hot, steamed rice.
And please don’t plan a shopping expedition on the day your kids are busy getting married!
Posted on

Of yet to be developed technology!

coriander chutney

So we’ve got this spanking new car and are driving out of Chennai for a holiday. Before a car-lover decides to pillory me, by the way, let me add that I am of that breed which refers to cars by their colour. “I left my keys in the red car” or “I left my specs in the blue car” – the important thing being leaving something somewhere. I once had to get out of the car to check which car I was driving – the red one or the blue one because I couldn’t identify it from the inside! That is who we are and the car and gadget freak that hubby is, has had to lump it!

Sometimes this vagueness can go a little too far though. As it did on this occasion. So there we are, all happy – new car, new complicated music system and a blissfully, brilliantly cold a/c – the latter is all I care about really, in this hot city I’ve lived in for the best part of my life! The girls are in the backseat, hanging over to the front, examining every knob and button and scary looking array of gadgets with interest. (Note: How does anyone below the age of twenty automatically know these things? I have to practise several times before I remember that this knob does this and that button turns the other thing on – and even then don’t always get it right!) Thankfully I am still the better driver so I can occasionally take the high ground!

So back to today’s ride. “Amma, can you put on the John Fogerty album?” asks daughter A from the backseat.

I look for a CD or something I can recognise. Nada.

“Yes… but how? And where is it?” I query.

“See the pen drive there. We’ve loaded everything in it.”

Ah, I get it – this car does not even have a CD drive! Wow, technology – I’m impressed.

I look carefully at all the knobs and buttons. Nix. No port.

“So where do I put it in?” I am puzzled.

“See that square thing on top? Just press it. It’ll open and you can chuck it in”, comes the response.

Ah… aaahh – serious stuff – I am maha impressed!

I press the top of the square thing as instructed. A little door swings down. Technology is even more advanced than I thought. I duly “chuck it in” as instructed (we are obedient parents!), it lands in a corner of the cavity and I shut the door.

Shocked silence from the driver’s seat. Thundering silence from the back seat.

“What did you DO????” rise three voices in unison…

My turn to be puzzled – “Why, I chucked it in as you told me to,” I protest – none so indignant as the righteous who know they’ve followed instructions and if the dang thing doesn’t work, it’s not my fault!

“But… but… you’ve to insert it into the port – it’s inside the square thingummy!” in tones of how-can-anyone-be-so-dumb!

“Well, I thought this was a very advanced car and if I just chucked it in as you said, I thought there’d be a sensor or something,” I protest.

I am still living down that one, by the way! So much for technology!

Not much technology required to make this delicious chutney I had at the home of a dear friend in Hyderabad – Shreesha. Said friend being somewhat inept in the kitchen (I can hear the protests – so I will say this – she sure can make a mean chocolate cake!) I turn to her mother for the recipe.

Bringing you straight from deep Andhra, this yummy…

KOTHIMIRA CHUTNEY (Coriander leaf chutney)

  • 1 large bunch of fresh coriander – cleaned and roughly chopped
  • Urad dal – 3 tbsp
  • Jeera/cumin seeds – 1 tbsp
  • Green chilies – 4-5 or more
  • Tamarind paste – 1 tbsp
  • Jaggery – 1.5 tbsp
  • Salt
  • Sesame oil – 1 tbsp

Fry the urad dal, jeera and green chilies in the oil. Grind in the mixer. Then add everything else and grind again! Howzzat for simplicity? Easier than Apple??? Yummier too!