Remix

kozhukkattai(modak)
Kozhukkattai,a traditional dish which is made especially in tamilnad is steam cooked after an elaborate or laborious preparation.
It is offered to Lord Ganesha during vinayak chathurthi and many other funtions.

THE TRADITIONAL METHOD:
soak a cup of raw rice for half an hour.
filter it.
spread it over a newspaper or a cloth.
After half an hour remove it from the cloth and dry grind it.sift and remove the coarse part.
Take a kadai and roast it till it becomes light brown(may be for a minute.)
put this flour in a vessel and slowly mix water till you get the idli batter consistency.
Take a kadai and pour this batter keep stirring till becomes a thick lump.
PREPARE THE STUFFING(POORNAM)
sweet:
Make syrup out of jaggery.
Add grated coconut.Cook till it becomes thick
Dal:
soak urad dal for an hour.
grind it by adding green chillies and ginger.Add salt
PREPARING THE KOZHUKKATTAIS:
knead the flour with your hands with little oil.
Make small balls.
Take one ball.Pres your thumb in the middle.Then make a cup using other fingers.
put the stuffing and close it by covering it and pinch it at the top.
Do the rest and steam cook it as you do for idlis or put them in pressure cooker container and steam cook.
REMIX:
buy rice flour.
roast it till the raw smell leaves.
mix water and make a batter.
microwave it for 5 minutes.
PREPARING THE STUFFINGS;
1.you can make mixed vegetable curry.
2prepare urad dal and microwave for a minute
3 make sugar powder.grind roasted gram and mix it with sugar.
PREPARING THE KOZHUKKATTAI:
Take a microwavable plate.
grease it with butter.
spread the rice ball thin.
spread any of the stuffings.
cover it with another layer of flour.
Microwave.
you can slice it.
OR
grease the container of the pressure cooker
spread the dough with your fingers.
spread the stuffing
spread another layer of dough to cover it
steam cook for 10 to 15 minutes..
Note:Smear oil in your palm while preparing balls or spreading it so that it will not stick to your hands

Home maker a misnomer?

When I say Iam a home maker one can easily come to a conclusion that Iam not a career woman.Nobody can say what I do at home to call myself a home maker.Infact i have so many gadgets in my house that one may assume that I will be busy operating these,cleaning ,repairing and maintaining.
I have a coffee maker,electric cooker,electric grinder.blender,sandwitch toaster,microwave oven,.washing machine......
But after one or two usages I found them too difficult to clean.Washing machine is too huge for two people..My maid finds it easy to do hand washing..my husband refuses to eat sandwitches everyday....use the grinder and make dosa..he demands......so i buy ready wet dosa batter..With so many good brands of juices in the market....I dont use the juicer-blender.....What do I make at home....Atleast the children kept me busy for some years...after that.....?
Here I have to narrate the chores of a real home maker,my grand mother.This used to be her schedule.
Get up when the cock crows.Lihgt a lamp with a match stick.take it to the kitchen and light the fire wood.take a piece of wood and go to the bathroom and again light the firewood where a big vessel is kept to make hot water.
Draw water from the well and have bath.Draw water for other purposes and fill the big tank.
There used to be an iron coffee grinder fixed to the window.She will roast the coffee grains and powder it and then brew it in the filter.
Apart from cooking and other chores once a month she will make hair oil with methi,hibiscus,amla and other available stuff.She will pound betelnut powder by adding cardamom,lavang .She will make tooth powder with the charred coal used for cooking.Everyday grind masalas or prepare idli batter in the stone pestle and mortar......she will sit with the collected cream and make butter by churning it with the help of a rope tied to a stone pillar.After her bath,pluck flowers from the garden and make garlands for the pooja.preparing snacks and sweets was a very easy task for her.In the evening she will comb her hair neatly and keep jasmine.She was doing all these till she was eighty.But she was called an illiterate house wife....She did not go for jogging,gym,workouts. no.harsh diets....It was a way of life.

My mother and your mother are sisters

The title sounds silly.....yeah...but this is based on a true real life situation.This happened to my friend who had given an advertisement in a newspaper in matrimonial column seeking suitable alliance for her son .Let me give the tele-conversation between my friend A and a lady B in a dialogue form.
B:hello..my name is B.my husband is.....I saw an ad...seeking alliance for your son and my daughter is...
A:yes...my name is A...my husband is...We have been living in C for 30 years although our native place is D.
B:D?my moms native place is also D.my maternal grandpas brothers son E still lives there.He lives in F street.
A:What..E in F street? he is my moms brother....my uncle
B:Then is your mom G...My mom is H
A: How sad.. my mom and your mom are cousins and our children cant marry...
B:OK then......bye.
The temporarily revived relationship, instead of getting renewed ended abruptly.
Our children are being taught on communication skills and public relations..but I feel we have completely forgotten to teach them or introduce them the same skills within the family.
This reminds me of an article i had read.
A15 year old boy who had visited India for the first time to attend a function could not recognize his fathers sister.The author of the article who happens to be the grandma of the boy says that she made a family tree which included the paternal and maternal sides of 2 generations with their names,phone numbersand addresses.It took nearly 2 years for her to complete to locate the details.
Then to justify the title i imagined may be a day will come when the above mentioned conversation could be changed to " oh..then your mom and my mom are sisters."

all purpose powder and syrup

Old wine: Long long ago it was not so long ago,say about 30 years before our households use to perform shraadhdhaa ceremony on the paksha and thithi of the passing off the parents in a very elaborate manner.Even as children we were not allowed to eat anything before the completion .Food should be offered to the priests and then we would eat.On that day every single item should be cooked with freshly bought ingredients.Pepper,cumin seed,curry leaves,salt ,rice,green gram dal,ghee and jaggery were the permitted ingredients.Raw banana,snake gourd,cluster bean,bitter gourd and some other vegetable were known as naattu kai(permitted) others like cabbage,carrots were english kai.(not permitted)
The items spread on the plantain leaf would be amazing.More than that the method of preparation which i learnt later inspired me to write this.
Jaggery syrup:A simple jaggery syrup would be prepared.That would be mixed with dal and you get paayasam.Then mix some with boiled mango you get mango pachadi.Add the syrup to the freshly prepared rice flour,make a dough,flatten it and deep fry you get tasty adhirasam
All purpose powder known as curry maavu powder:
Heat a kadai and dry roast pepper,cumin,curry leaves,rice and powder this.
Mix it with cooked banana you get banana curry.
Mix it with cooked gourd,add cooked dal and you get koottu
Mix the powder with little dal and dilute it and you get rasam
with little tamarind,curry leaves,ginger and salt add this powder and grind by adding water,you get thugayal which is like pickle.Have a cup(made of plantain) of ghee without worrying about the cholestral as you are going to fast that evening.The ingredients were chosen carefully to help digestion.

New bottle:Dont you all agree that we can also use this curry maavu powder once a week?Enjoy the luxury of eating out and the next day cook a simple meal using this powder.Ofcourse we can use any vegetable we like.
Jaggery was used because it contains iron.