Akki Mavu Roti, a Karnataka special...

Akki Mavu Rotti

Akki Mavu Roti

Ever since my sister Nalini got married in 1979, we’ve spent a few days a year with her in Bangalore…oooppps Bengaluru. Now she is Radiation Oncologist Dr Nalini Rao with the Global Health Care and my brother-in-law is  Dr Ravi Shanker Rao, the very talented psychiatrist.

Rao Aunty _Ravi’s mother Vishalam -, used to take care of us very well—made us feel welcomed, went out of her way to make dishes that we’d like.A year or two after Nalini’s wedding, we’d even tell her what we wanted to eat, and even get things like green chillies stuffed, dunked in sour yoghurt and sun dried in the terrace, packed to take home. Sauted in oil till these dried chillies become dark brown, they are excellent side to a plain curd rice.

This Akkimavu roti—it is rice flour roti,  in Kannada-- was something Rao Aunty  introduced us to. She’s long gone, but our visits continue unchanged. So does the making of our favourite dishes—Ravi gets the cook, Taramma, trained by Aunty, to make them for us.

 Akki mavu roti is  another of  the hundreds of varieties of  breakfast dishes, made on the flat, now non-stick tawa.

Preparation time 5 minutes

Cooking time: 4 minutes each

Chopped onions,chillies and coriander

Ingredients (for six)

Fine ground rice flour-2 cups

Finely chopped onions-four big ones

Finely chopped green chillies-six or eight

Finely chopped coriander-a small bunch

Salt to taste

Water to knead

Oil—half a cup

Put  the chopped onions,green chilles and coriander into a wide mixing bowl or paraat.

Add rice flour and salt

Put the rice flour and salt on this .Hand mix them,sprinking water as you go, till you have a dough, which will seem brittle, not be pliable or smooth.

Knead to a gentle dough

Make this dough into six portions.

Place a portion on a tawa

Put one portion on a non-stick tawa, and using the palm and fingers of your right hand, tap it  out , fine  and flat roti, of uniform thinness.

Pat it out into a roti

Put a lid on it

Place the tawa on the gas,medium flame, and drizzle a teaspoon of oil along the edges of the roti,and put a lid on top.

Cook on medium flame

Flip it over

After two minutes, flip it gently, and without lid, let the other side turn golden—about two minutes.

Cook the other side too

Take it out ,sliding the spatula along the edges. Serve plain or with any chutney or pickle.

Ready to be plated or served

The pictures are what I feel sorry about.But I cannot ask Taramma to do a repeat. But when I make the akki mavu rotis at home, I will replace some of the pix. But the taste is something you should not miss.

Note: Taramma  kept the tawa under running water to cool it after making each roti, so that it is easy to hand make the  next akki mavu roti.

The joy of sharing ...food

Cheers to Sharing...

Cheers! To sharing, and caring, today and everyday

The  satisfaction  that comes after a hearty meal   is as much because of the taste, as one’s hunger . But it is that much the more  because of the joy of sharing. Who likes to eat alone? And who doesn't like to have company that is outside of the family, when sharing a fancy meal !(For want of  proper pix to go with them, I am uploading whatever is handy!)

We grew up polishing off whatever snacks –murukku, thattai and later cake – that Mom would have hidden away, to give to us at tea time. May be even to offer to guests who may drop in.  “Even if I keep it locked in my stomach, you will find it”, she would say, with feigned anger.

At The Church&State, LA

When I was much older, and my parents moved back to Chennai after Daddy retired from the army, a very dear family-friend turned family—Radhu Aunty—had many times mentioned, “Even if there was a small bit, Maami (meaning my mother) would cut it into four, and share it with everyone.”

The specific reference would be to that piece of green petha—ash gourd which the Tamil community use in Sambar, but was not usually sold cut in Chandigarh those days—or a few green , kucchha kelas, raw bananas. She would have the driver deliver them at other South  Indian friend’s homes, without feeling embarrassed about the small bit of petha or two measely kelas she was sending. And in retrospect, nobody at the receiving end seemed to mind the quantity, but only expressed joy at getting those vegetables.

A lot can happen over sharing...doesn't have to be coffee all the time!

I learnt the lesson less from my Mom than from Radhu aunty remarking about my mother’s habit of sharing, something she still does. As good and faithful daughters, my sisters and I tell her  the quantity is too small to be passed on. But can you change  what has been a lifelong habit?

Food is all about sharing. And sharing without partiality. A woman is not quite the mother, the aunt or even a decent human being if she were to save the major portion for her husband  because he is at work  and for her children because they love a particular dish, and place a measely little quantity before the visitor.

Cutting a cake..

 It is worse to serve a lot on the son’s plate because he likes X dish, and then let others help themselves –never mind that you are the host, and the guests know you have taken them to a fine dining restaurant where the bill will be more than on the street-side.

Not doing this—being fussy or particular about  feeding your family  at all times – will not make you less of a wife or mother. And the husband and children will not be starved of food, or even this particular Mediterranean or Chinese or Thai or simply restaurant food. They will enjoy having shared it impartially with others.

In fact I have seen children getting embarrassed at this show of motherly affecton! Worse is when they talk about it among their friends, beginning with, “I could have died  the other day when my mother…”

This sharing is the more important because being served the food at the table is now only done in teleserials. The lady serving ensures everyone gets more or less equal quantity, unless someone does not like a particular dish. In real world, whether at home or in a restaurant, it is all about helping yourself.

The talk of sharing brings to mind something my  mother has mentioned more than once.  It is about the days when ladies brought the food from the kitchen, and served to large families. When children or men asked for more of a tasty dish—say deep fried arbi (sheppankazhangu in tamil, colocasia in English)—they would bring it, even if there was none left for the women who have slogged in the kitchen, over smoking oil, in the old style kitchens of yore!

“Only Mani Athimber will  ask if  there is enough for us women”, she would say. Mani Athimber was my father’s sister Sita’s husband !

Fry in the air... not in oil

The air fryer

Fry in air, not oil.

That’s what Philips, the renowned consumer appliances giant  is telling you these days. They’ve launched a new kitchen appliance—the air fryer in India.

At a demo today, I saw the appliance in operation, and tasted the potato fries, potato cutlet and samosas made –ooops, fried in the air . All that the young people demonstrating the gadet did was take a brush, and apply a fine coat of oil on the McCain frozen fries, cutlets and samosas that they’d brought with them.

The cutlet or tikki, was very good. The samosas would have tasted good if they’d been fried the regular, conventional way—deep fried in oil, in a wok or frying pan. The fries were ok, just ok.

If I want to make the tikkis for visitors, I’d have to be sure the power does not go off. And that the visitors  have the time  and patience to wait for the snacks to be air fried and ready to be served.

So, what was right and what was wrong with the air fryer?

The concept was right. A heating element on top, with a fan near by , throwing hot air into the dish area, where the stuff to fry has been placed. Just the way  the hot air is circulated in the convection mode of a micro wave or a regular oven with a fan to circulate the air.It has a timer as well as a t temperature control. And while the place does begin to feel warm, it is smoke free.

But what was wrong, was the enormous time it took to fry a few tikkis or fries. About 18 to 20 minutes. On my gas, and with my frying pan, I should not take more than five to seven minutes!

With the power consumption being what it was, and the  high cost of energy—not to talk of the frequent power failures—something was missing to make it  a tempting buy. I’d sooner pay for power to run the air conditioner.

Particularly at that price. Almost Rs15000, Bata shoes price style.

I’d probably be able to get a similar effect at much shorter time, and less power consumption, if I greased the stuff in a ditto fashion, and pushed it into the gadget promoted to make  popcorns or other dry snacks. Except that because the food stuff moves, the tikkis and fries may go helter skelter!

And I’d probably be able to get the same effect at the same time, for much less power, if I greased the stuff and put them in my good old oven—even the Philips OTG.

And I’d probably get the best result if I deep fried the potato fingers or samosas or tikkis in a frying pan full of oil. The stuff I am frying will absorb, perhaps a wee , wee bit more than what the boys doing the demo , greased the food to air fry.

The rest of the oil is there in the frying pan, and does nothing to add inches to my waist or flab to my figure!

Not just I, even my young colleagues, who perhaps don’t spend that much of time in the kitchen, had figured that out in a jiffy!

But that is not to say there aren't people who'd like to fill potatoes or chicken or fish  into a gadget like this, put up their feet and read a book or watch TV, and not worry that the power  supply may go off any minute. And for them, this would be a boon, no less.

Also  if somebody wants to line up gadgets for display in the kitchen ...this one is good. Great design, neat contours, good grip.

I'd however think many times before buying this.

Sambar...for tongue,body and soul!

For craving or comfort, or plain hunger...

Sambar, spicy and sizzling

A book that is not about food, and has no pix..can that make you crave for a dish, enough to think of nothing else? Well that is just  the effect that a book I read recently   had on me. Titled “Chennaivaasi”, it is  a novel set in the backdrop of an orthodox Tam Brahm home in the throes of a painful transition, when an American Jew enters to live with the man she loves, till he gets his father’s nod for their marriage.

There are references to murungakkai(drum sticks—the variety that grows on trees, not the broiler type!) sambar and yezhukari kozhambu, the latter almost complete with the recipe as an aunt-in-law tells the foreign bahu-to-be.

I could not get murungakkai, but I made do with yellow pumpkin—parangikkai, and made it the varutta-arachcha style—meaning roasted and ground masala, instead of using the sambar powder.

It  turned out well in spite of the fact that I was getting into this after a long, long time.

Ingredients:

Arhar dal

Yellow pumpkin (or ash gourd,or drumstick or radish circles, or even capsicum and onions, or best, shallots)—a cup full

Tamrind—the size of a lemon

Arhar(Tovaram paruppu)- half a cup

Turmeric

Salt-to taste 

Cubed pumpkin  and tamarind

For the roasted sambar masala

Oil-two teaspoons

Dried red chillies -5

Mustard- half a teaspoon

Dhuli urad- two teaspoons

Chana dal-one teaspoon

Dhania (dry coriander) seeds-two teaspoons

Hing-a pinch

Fenugreek seeds- Quarter teaspoon

Onion chopped-one small size(instead of grated  fresh coconut, which  is the best, but tends to have very little shelf life given the extreme heat of North India, and my desire to save some for the dosai/idli two days later!)

Curry leaves – a few.

Roasting for the sambar masala

Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the red chillies and mustard. When mustard crackles, add the two dals , hing  and methi seeds. W hen the dals turn golden, add coriander seeds, stir for a minute, then add the chopped onion or grated coconut, and curry leaves. Roast for two minutes, switch off. When this cools, grind to a paste, not too fine, with a bit of water. This is the fresh and fragrant, authentic sambar ingredient.

Fresh sambar masala ground on the spot

For the garnish

Dry red chillies

Mustard seeds

Urad dal

Curry leaves

Coriander leaves

Soak the tamrind in water the first thing.

Wash and pressure cook the arhar dal with a pinch of turmeric. Keep aside.

Cooked lentils and tamrind soaked

Cut the  pumpkin into cubes, boil them in plain water till almost cooked. 

Now add the tamrind water, ensuring that seed/residual fibre etc are strained and discarded. 

Pumpkin cooking in tamarind water

Let this come to boil, and continue to boil for about ten minutes. The raw smell and taste of tamrind have to be banished!

Now add the cooked arhar dal. Let the two come to a boil.

Now add the sambar masala you have made, stir in well. Add salt. Let simmer for two or three minutes.

The cooked lentils and the masala gone in

Switch off, transfer to a serving bowl, garnish, and it is ready to be served. As part of lunch or dinner with rice, or to go with idlis, sambar.

Sambar, rice and potato curry

 In Punjab people love it just that way…they can go blurp blurp with a bowl full of sambar, thanks to what they have learnt  at the many  coffee houses run by the Indian Coffee Board employees’ cooperatives–which have almost vanished.

NOTE: Typically, a bit of rice flour made into a paste is added when the sambar is sizzling, just to thicken it. But I usually skip this, as I feel this is adulteration ! More so because people tend to use atta or besan or sometimes even cornflour to do this.

If one must thicken the sambar, the better option would be to grind a few grains of soaked uncooked rice, with the masala. This will thicken the sambar just as well.

Chocolate brownies..indulge without guilt

Lovely, dark and delicious

Chocolate, oats &walnuts brownie

Chocolate  baked in any manner tastes sinful. But the simple chocolate walnut brownies, an all time favourite with people of all ages, is even more so !

Dark chocolate has--happily for all of us--been found good for health. To cheer us up when we are feeling low! And to give us energy too.. and it is not really fattening..

But really, who cares if studies say otherwise?

 A chocolate--or a piece of chocolate brownie or cake or whatever...-- a day is the best self-prescription one can write.

I made a quick eggless one using a 9 inchx 9 inch square silicone baking dish that my sister Prema had gifted me—along with that silicone bundt in which I’d baked the carrot cake earlier. And I made it in my Microwave. To justify overeating, which was bound to happen, I threw in a good handful of Quaker’s oats!

There was a small hitch. The  square dish was a bit too big, and so  could not rotate in the MW. I decided to keep it going nevertheless, stopping at the end of every three minutes to turn the dish. It had got baked perfectly well, as you can see from the pictures.

Preparation time- 4 minutes

Baking time-11 minutes

Ingredients

Ingredients:

All purpose flour/Maida-1 cup

Oats- a handful/two heaped tablespoons full

Sugar-3/4 of a cup

Cocoa-1/2 cup(I used Morde pure cocoa)

Yoghurt-1 cup

Ghee/Clarified butter-1/4 cup

Vanilla essence-a few drops

Baking powder-1/2 teason

Cooking soda-1/2 teaspoon

Juice of  one lemon

Walnuts , broken- a hand full 

One pot affair

Put all the ingredients except the walnuts in a large bowl, and hand blend till smooth. 

I decided on the oats on the spot, so I threw in a handful when the batter was actually ready!

Oats too!

Then add the walnuts, and mix it very lightly, into the batter.

 Pour in the greased baking dish. 

Microwave for 11 minutes.

The Walnut Brownie cake

Turned it over in a hurry! But all that can be covered up..makes no difference to the fast!!

Sugary on the top.

Take it out after half an hour, turn it out on a sheet of foil, to cool.

 Dust it with superfine sugar,  before cutting it into squares.

 Now indulge!

Ready ..with or without a cup of  Darjeeling tea

Coconut Grove, Bangalore

Craving Kerala or Chettinad or Andhra style food?

The Coconut Grove

No outing is complete without eating out. It was on one of our frequent trips to Bangalore that has become Bengalooru. Having got out aimlessly, we decided we will explore some nice place and eat something different. Each one of us had a different menu and a different place in mind.

But as lady of the house,  it was my way or the highway ! And I wanted to eat Idiyappam and Kurma, the Malabar-Kerala specialty. For those who cannot take the trouble of making it at home--it is a bit tedious-- it is a special dish .

It is made a bit different in Tamil Nadu, where it is called sevai. In Sri Lanka, it goes by the name of string hoppers. In some parts of the world, it is rice noodles. The thickness of the fine strings of rice, that is ground fine and passed through fine presses to get the shape,and steamed again, varies from place to place. But the basic thing is, it is made of rice, soaked, ground and given a new shape--fine, stingy look, an emaciated version of noodles.

The other variation is  the garnish , or  the accompaniment.

Mahima , my daughter, took me to Coconut Grove on Church street, a place I fell in love with at first sight. It was a man-made coconut grove, with Malabar tile roofed structures, the breeze from fans mimicking  nature, almost deceptively, almost like a tree house.

The breeze from the palm trees!

 The lighting, décor, choice of cutlery, and even the menu, were all true to what a place with that kind of a name should have. The waiters in the ethnic dhoti were polite and helpful.

There was a lot to choose from –food from all over South, There was Chettinad, Andhra, and of course, Malabar food,  and most of the dishes using coconut.

Copper plates and tumblers, the banana leaves all added the ethnic touch

My idiyappam was soft, melted in my mouth all too quickly. And the  veg kurma –tenderly cooked vegetables in  light coconut milk with just the right kind and amount of spices --were as good as what I’ve had in Kerala, though one wished the helping had been a bit generous.

My daughter across had appam and stew. If I had been a bit more hungry, I would have given the avial a try.

Waiting for the food

Firni, the floral fruity dessert that's easy to make

Tired of custard? Try firni instead.

Phirni

Phirni or firni, with a lovely aroma of either kewra or rose, is the  of the most floral desserts I’ve come across. It does wonder to one's senses. In every way !And it is one I make when racing against time, which is pretty often.

It is a truly oriental dish, famous in many old towns, particularly those with walled cities. In Amritsar, as I am sure in Lucknow or Bhopal, it is served in a “kullar”—that environment friendly dessert bowl, made of clay, and emanating a lovely wet earth fragrance as it is taken out of a bucket of water. It is garnished with pistachios sometimes, and sometimes with rose petals. Dry fruits are optional.

What gives it that floral taste or fragrance is the essence  generally used. Either kewra—the botanical name is Pandanus fascicularis Lamk.—screw pine in English, and “thazhamboo” in Tamil. Or

rose, the  simple country rose that has a fruity fragrance.

Soak rice/broken rice for an hour

Here goes the receipe:

Broken rice(never mind if you have only whole rice)- 4 tablespoons full

Milk-Half a litre

Sugar-4 tablespoons

Essence- a few drops

Cardamom- two

Dry fruits optional —pista or almonds/raisins 

Fresh rose petals-- a handful

Grind in a blender with a bit of milk

Soak the rice in water for half an hour, grind it fine in a little bit of milk. Keep aside.

Boil M

Bring the milk to boil in a hard bottomed pan, reduce the flame to the minimum and add the ground rice, stirring continuously so that no lumps are formed. 

It will thicken to coat the spoon.

Five minutes later, take it off the stove, and add the sugar and the essence.

  

Once it cools, transfer it to serving bowl or dessert bowls—it will be great if you can find some “kullars”, and garnish, chill for six hours before serving.

Garnished with dry fruit and rose petals

As you can see, I have garnished it with rose petals which I have dried in shade, and stored in a glass jar.

But the fragrance , touch ,feel and taste of dew kissed deep punish red fresh petals, the desi roja, is quite something else. Uplifting!

Hope to update this with the firni in the earthen "kullars" whenever I lay hands on a few.

Adai and More Kozhambu, wholesome and nutritious..

If it's Sunday, it does not have to be Aaloo-Poori ...

Adai with butter,jaggery and 'more kozhambu' 

Adai is the more buxom and wholesome  cousin of dosai. It is also a more nutritious one, made of three varieties of lentils and rice .

The “side” or accompaniment can vary. In an average South Indian home, it is often had with  mulagaipodi—more famous as gunpowder and oil, for breakfast. On days that are leisurely for the mother making it, you will find a chutney, or “morekozhambu”—a South Indian version of karhi, made with sour buttermilk.

Children are  given a dollop of white home made butter and  some “gur” or “vellam”—jiggery. Perhaps because along with the rice and lentils, we soak a few dry red chillies and peppercorns.

Jaggery , vellam or gur

 At Udipi joints and restaurants serving it, the butter comes  in a neat little parcel made of bright green banana leaf. And the side dish is …hold your breath, avial, a variety of vegetables  in a gravy of coconut,jeera and green chillies, tempered with coconut oil.

That is the combination that the Sharavana Bhawan  serves it --- in Delhi only after 7 pm. I have waited there from 5.45 onwards, whiling away time over a cup of coffee or fresh lime, for them to serve my order of adai, almost 90 minutes later.

While it is the best option if one wants to have it desperately, home made adais, called kal adai – adai made on stone—is unmatched in taste. Restaurants tend to grind the soaked raw ingredients rather too fine!

Here goes the recipe

FOR THE ADAI

Arhar dal- 1 cup

Urad dhuli-1 cup

Chana dal-1 cup

Ordinary rice-3 cups

Dry red chillies—a few

Pepper corns –a few

Salt to tast

Curry leaves- a few

Oil—a little bit

Wash and soak  all the dals and rice, red chillies and pepper corns  TOGETHER for no more than an hour. Grind coarse, but in a way that it can spread on the tawa. Let in rest for about 15 minutes. Add curry leaves and salt.

Coarsely ground batter

Spread out a bit thick,see the "eye"

If you want, you can add finely chopped onions,grated carrots, finely chopped cabbage, to make it even more nutritious, and full of fibre. An aunt of mine used to grate Kraft cheese too!

Place a heavy tawa on the gas, and when it is hot, temper it by spraying some water. Pour two ladels of the batter, and in swife circular movements, spread them out. The “adai” should not be thin like a dosai, keep in mind.

Drizzle oil on the side. When it looks like it can safely be flipped over without it falling apart(about two minutes after you’ve spread it out), flip it. A minute later, transfer it to a plate, and serve with the side dish of your choice.

Flipped

I made the  “more khozhambu” because I did not have all the variety of vegetables it takes to make “avail”

"More Kozhambu"

MORE KOZHAMBU

Ingredients

Cubed Pumpkin or Ashgourd—Half a cup full

Cubed Carrots(they were lying handy)-Half a cup full

1.Boil the vegetables in some water, in  a heavy bootom pan, till they are cooked, adding a pinch of turmeric.

2.Grind together the following, in a  blender:

Sour yoghurt- Half a cup, 

Grated coconut- 3 tablespoons full

Green chillies-3 or 4

Arhar dal-half a teaspoon

Dhania seeds-half a teaspoon

Jeera –half a teaspoon

Rice—a quarter teaspoon

Water- One cup

3.Add the coconut –yoghurt mix to the boiled vegetables, and stirring continuously(otherwise it will split), let it come to the boil, and switch off the “more kozhambu”

4.For the tempering and garnish:

Coconut oil—2 teaspoons

Red chillies—one or two

Curry leaves—a few

Mustard seeds—a quarter teaspoon

Fenugreek seeds—a quarter teaspoon

When the coconut oil comes to a smoking point, add the red chillies, then the mustard seeds, then fenugreek seeds. Finally add the curry leaves,.

Top the “more kozhambu” with this, and it is ready to be served.

Sauted  lady’s finger—okra/bhindi—is also a good vegetable with which to make this dish.

Adai with vellum and butter, and more kozhambu