Mahanandi

A good many people seem to have a mental block against bottle gourd (= Sorakaya, Dudhi, Lauki). I too did have some time ago, but lately the availability of fresh looking and young vegetables at nominal price made me revisit the old classics as well as do little experimentation with bottle gourd.

The following recipe is one of many pappu (dal) arrows from my mother’s recipe quiver. If you do not like eating raw vegetables, then cook them with toor dal. That’s the common practice at my home, and also in many homes in Andhra Pradesh. It works perfectly. See, now I’m addicted to vegetable-dal combinations.

In this dal recipe, the slightly sweet bottle gourd is protein powered with toor dal, flavored with tamarind and chilli, and seasoned with tadka. Definitely, this will ease your way in any bottle gourd battle.

Bottle Gourd (Sorakaya, Dudhi, Lauki) and Toor Dal

Recipe:

¾ cup – toor dal (kandi pappu)
1½ to 2 cups – finely cubed bottle gourd (Sorakaya, Dudhi)
¼ cup – coarsely chopped onion
½ teaspoon each (or to taste)- red chilli powder and turmeric
Marble ball sized tamarind

For popu or tadka:
1 tablespoon ghee or peanut oil
6 each – curry leaves, crushed garlic
Pinch each – cumin, mustard seeds and hing (asafoetida)

Take toor dal in a pressure cooker. Rinse the dal with water. Add the bottle gourd cubes, onion, chilli powder, turmeric and tamarind. Add about one to two cups of water. Mix. Close the lid and steam-cook until toor dal reaches the fall-apart stage. Then add salt, and coarsely mash the ingredients together.

The dal benefits greatly from my daily vitamin dose, I call “popu or tadka“. Let’s heat ghee or oil in a vessel. Add the curry leaves and garlic. Toast them to pale brown, and then add the cumin, mustard seeds and hing. When the seeds start to pop, add the mashed dal to the vessel. Mix and serve the dal with rice or with chapati.

For a true Andhra experience, mix the dal with rice and ghee. Shape into small rounds like shown below. Dip them in pickle or podi. Enjoy.

Sona Masuri Rice mixed with Sorakaya Pappu, and Shaped to a Round ~ A Bharath Experience

– Indira

“Not feeling hungry today?
I will make a cup of sonti tea for the appetite.”

“Ate too much food at the party?
Would you want me to prepare sonti kashayam for better digestion?”

“Food was not good yesterday at the restaurant. My stomach is upset
Have a cup of sonti tea to calm the over working stomach.”

“I am tired and feeling little bit nauseous after the long day of shopping.
You sit there and rest. I will bring a hot cup of sonti coffee for you.”

“My head is hurting with this cold and cough.
There, there, have this cup of hot sonti tea. By tomorrow, you will be like a daisy.”

Sonti Powder, Dried Ginger (Sonti), and Fresh Ginger

For everything and anything, sonti is the treatment at my home. Sonti tea, Sonti coffee and Sonti kashayam are prescribed to cure and to relieve almost all types small ailments from stomach upsets to cold and cough. Most of the time, they work fine.

Sonti, the dried form of ginger root is equally given importance along with fresh ginger in Ayurveda for its healing properties. Though sonti looks mild and all dried out, it has all the fresh ginger potency and some. When added in small doses, the strong sonti flavor and aroma makes the food energizing and interesting. At our home, if you go back to one generation before us, they’ would start and end their day with a cup of sonti drink. For small ailments, whether one believes in capsules pushed on by multimillion dollar ad blitzes or in ancient medicine, what matters is the trust that the stuff we would put in our bodies could comfort and relieve the symptoms. For us, the magic cure-all potion still hasn’t lost its magic.

Recipe :

From just a pinch to a tablespoon of sonti powder is added to a cup of tea. The amount varies on individual preference and tolerance. We like to add a teaspoon of sonti powder to a cup. Not too much, not too little, you would definitely notice the sonti taste.

To powder sonti, take sonti pieces in a mortar and pound them to smooth powder. We usually prepare powder for one month’s worth and store it in a tight lid box.

To prepare sonti tea and coffee: start the coffee/tea preparation like you normally do. And at the end, add the sonti powder. Simmer or heat few seconds. Pour to a cup and enjoy the tea enriched with sonti powder.

Sonti is available at Indian grocery shops.
Sonti Recipes: Sonti Coffee, Sonti Kashayam and Chukkuvellam

Photo Purchase Keyword: Semiya, Payasam
(Please don’t photosteal. Make a photo purchase to digital download and to print.)

From hearing the Purandaradasa’s spiritual keerthana “Rama nama payasakke“, we will know that the semiya payasam we prepare at home has at least 500+ years of history. The recipe ingredients and the method have remained unchanged all these years. That is the greatness and as well as the simplicity of this recipe. What has changed is our attitude and regard towards such honest and soulful food. But that is a topic for another time. For now, continuing the 500 plus year old tradition, here is how I prepared the semiya payasam at my home for Neivedyam.

Semiya, Sugar, Ghee, Milk, Cashews and Draksha ~ Ingredients for Payasam

Recipe:

4 cups whole milk
½ cup cane sugar, ( or to taste)
Fine semiya, one bunch, about the size that fits baby’s fist (10″ long)
2 tablespoon of ghee, melted
16 cashews and 16 golden raisins
4 cardamom pods, seeds powdered

Heat ghee in a wide pot. Add and toast golden raisins to pink balloons first, and then cashews to pale gold color. Remove them in to a plate.

In the same pot, add and toast the semiya for one to two minutes. (This is to remove the raw wheat smell of semiya and I usually do it, but this is optional.) Take the toasted semiya to a plate and keep aside.

In the same pot, add the milk and stir in sugar. Bring the milk to a rolling boil. Reduce the heat and add the semiya. Also the cashews, golden raisins and cardamom powder. Simmer on slow heat for ten minutes. The fine semiya floats like water lily stems in a pond of sweetened milk. That is the consistency we want in semiya payasam.

Serve warm or cold, and enjoy this fine, honest dessert in the name of tradition.

A Sweet 500+ year old tradition ~ Semiya Payasam

Note:
Semiya, the fine wheat noodles are a speciality of India. They are prepared with durum wheat flour and water. Semiya is egg free, and that is the major difference between western egg-laden vermicelli and Indian semiya. (Semiya is available at Indian grocery shops).

Bhukthi means nourishment. While nutritious food is needed to sustain us for everyday activities and the maintenance of this physical body, a different kind of Bhukthi is necessary to satisfy our cravings to realize the true happiness in ourselves. Constant indulgence in the name of God (Bhakthi) provides the nourishment to realize the bliss of boundless divinity in the ego-limited humans.

This relation between Bhakthi and Bhukthi thus goes deep and this concept is brought to the people in beautiful poetry and song by many saint musicians of India.

Saint Purandara Dasa, the father of Carnatic music has created song and music the way to achieve the happiness which we all seek. He has composed innumerable songs called keerthana’s, full of wisdom and devotion eternalized in the hearts of people. His message of morals is handed out in easily understandable form, woven together with stories from the epics, along with beautiful expressions and analogies. No wonder his songs have pleased, inspired and guided people since more than four hundred years.

Stamp Commemorating Sri Purandara Dasa

God is the source for infinite happiness and he has infinite names, infinite forms and is ubiquitous. For Purandara Dasa, God is Purandara Vittala in whose form he saw all other manifestations or avatars of God like Rama, Krishna, Shiva and Hanuma.

The spiritual song “Rama nama payasakke” is quite popular and sung by many in their own versions. It was written in the beautiful south Indian language of Kannada which is said to be as enchanting as the fragrance of kasturi. Saint Purandara Dasa elicits the great bliss in chanting the name of the God Vittala in “Rama Nama Payasakke“.

The keerthana explains with an easy analogy on how to obtain the spiritual bliss or Ananda with a recipe to make payasam.

The keerthana goes like this:

Pallavi: rAma nAma pAyasakke krSNa nAma sakkare viTTala nAma tuppava kalasi bAya capparisiro
Charana1: ommAna gOdiya tandu vairAgya kallali bIsi summane sajjige tegadu kammana shAvige hosedu
Charana2: hrdayavembo maDikeyalli bhAvavembo esaraniTTu buddhiyinda pAka mADi harivANake baDisikoNDu
Charana3: Ananda Anandavembo tEgu bandidu kaNIrO Ananda mUruti namma purandara viTTalana neneyiro

Purandara Dasa sings, “O people, indulge in the lip-smacking-good payasam called Rama nama, which is made sweet with the sugar called Krishna nama and is richly folded with the ghee called Vittala nama”.

Then he describes the meticulous details needed to make this special payasam from the scratch.

First obtain wheat flour of honor. Grind it in the mill of detachment. Make the dough called simplicity and draw thin semiya noodles from it.

In the pot called your heart, boil the noodles with the milk of feelings. Cook it then with the wisdom of worship.

Add the sweetness of Krishna’s name as sugar, and the nourishing richness of Vittala’s name as the ghee and lo you have your lip-smacking-delicious payasam.

Purandara Dasa even describes the proper method to enjoy the delicious payasam. He beckons us to serve it on a large platter and enjoy it. When burps emanate out of fulfillment, he asks us to remember the name of God Vittala who is the embodiment of immeasurable happiness and ecstasy.

Through this keerthana, purandara dasa gave us a recipe to live an ideal life. To live our life with honor, come through the grinds of materialistic attachments with austerity, and obtain the raw material for happiness using the simple method of devotion. Allow the feelings of joy and love boil in our heart wisely, and celebrate every moment of our life bit by bit contemplating God’s grace with gratitude. That is the ultimate sweet bliss!

Makara Sankranthi Shubhakankshalu!

Semiya, Sugar, Ghee, Milk, Cashews and Draksha ~ Ingredients for Payasam

Rakthi Raga for Bhukthi ~ Semiya Payasam

Article Contributed by Madhuri Akkenepalli (Friend of Mahanandi)
Photos by Indira Singari
Previously on Rakthi Raga for Bhukthi:
Of Being and Becoming ~ Ragi Idlies by Janani Srinivasan

Links:
Saint Purandara Dasa on Wiki.
Audio Links to “Rama Nama Payasakke”:
by Sreemathi Sudha Raghunathan and Vijayalakshmi Subrahmaniam

Chakkara Achchulu (Sugar Art of India)

Mother and Baby Pheasants in Early Morning Mist
(Panchadaara Chilakalu)

Baby Peacock Exploring the Countryside

Baby Peacock and Baby Elephant at a Water Pool

The beautiful sugar figurines of India are prepared for Sankranthi and during Dasera-Deepavali festival season. They are Pooja ornaments, and also sweeten the saare (gifts) in functions like marriages and baby-shower etc. These delightful, melt in mouth treats are prepared by pouring the pure and concentrated sugar syrup into carved wooden molds. Little bit of care and patience, viola, the tiny decorative candy items are ready to enjoy.

The sugar figurines photographed here came all the way from India… survived the tiresome travel conditions halfway across the globe. Thank you dear Janani for sending these delectable delicate delights for us.

Sugar Figurines that Holds Sweet Memories ~ Photo Essay
Sugar-Khoya Figurines for Rukhwat

Indira

(Pumpkin Subzi with Winter Melon from Nandyala)

Pumpkin kura sweetened with jaggery is a Sankranthi tradition at Nandyala and in many parts of Andhra, Bharath. Pumpkin is a winter vegetable, and jaggery is made fresh from sugarcane during this season. So on Bhogi, the first day of three day festival Sankranthi, we cook these two together as part of harvest celebration. The pumpkin cubes coated with jaggery-spice mixture glisten like an early morning Sunshine on wintry day in this curry. Usually we serve it with Sajja Rotte (Millet Roti) on Bhogi.

The white fleshed pumpkin is called boodida gummadi in Telugu. Here in US, it is sold as ash gourd or winter melon, often cut into small portions like shown in the image. Winter melon tastes like cucumber, mildly sweet and no smell whatsoever. If this variety is available in your area, do try this recipe. Sweet, aromatic and with ruchi, this curry is a hearwarming wintry delight and a must try for winter-melon fans.

Winter Melon, Coconut, Dalia and Jaggery

Recipe:
(for two, for two meals with roti)

Boodida Gummadi (Winter melon): Peel the skin, remove the seeds and cut the white part to bite-sized cubes : 4 cups

Jaggery-spice Paste:

Dalia (putnala pappulu, Bhuna Chana) – quarter cup
Jaggery, crushed to small pieces – 3 tablespoons
Coconut, fresh or dry, grated – 1 tablespoon
Dried red chilli – 4
Coriander seeds – half teaspoon
Take them all in a mixer, blend to fine consistency.

Kura Preparation:
In a pot, heat a teaspoon of peanut oil. Add and toast a sprig of curry leaves, pinch of cumin and mustard seeds. When mustard seeds start to pop, add the pumpkin cubes. Also the jaggery-spice paste along with a glass of water. Mix. Stir in a pinch of turmeric, and salt to taste. Mix, and simmer, covered for about 15 to 20 minutes, until the pumpkin pieces cook to tender.

Serve the teepi gummadi kura with chapati, sorghum roti or sajja roti. (This curry is not that good with rice.)

Teepi Gummadi Kura with Roti, and Boondhi Mixture

Recipe Source: Amma, Nandyala
This kura is also prepared with orange pumpkin. The recipe is same except the change in pumpkin.
Kura=Curry, Teepi=Sweet, Gummadi=Pumpkin, Ruchi=Flavor (from Telugu to English)

What could be a more delirious combination than a cashew encased in a sweet date. To my mind, nothing! Cashew-date is a pure, natural treat, and has particularly been a long tradition in Hyderabad region (Charminar area). A favorite at tens of small shops specializing in dates, dates with cashews is prepared by stuffing sweet, moist dates with fresh cashews. When you take a bite, first you would get the caramel like date and then the cashew, which balances and enhances the date experience. It’s a pleasant mini jugalbandi. Vijay and I, we both enjoy cashew-dates.

I think it would be refreshing to eat something uncooked, raw as it is given by the earth at the end of a meal before leaving the table. I believe that’s why fruit is served at the end of traditional meal. A date with cashew is another succulent way to conclude the meal with the sweet taste of Mother Earth.

A Date with Cashew ~ for Chandrika’s Date Event

Kandulu (Tuvar or Toor Beans)
Dried Beans, Rehydrated Beans and Cooked Beans
(Clockwise from the bottom. Notice the color change)

Kandula Kura with Potatoes ~ for Jihva

Aloo Kurma is a good thing. Add the earthy, tooth-some tuvar beans, you have something even better. A fantastic Kandula Kura substantial enough to nurture an Olympic trainer.

If you are a follower of my website, then you must be getting a vague sensation of being stalked with toor dal.:) My love for toor dal knows no boundaries and I tend to go little overboard on Mahanandi, when it comes to toor dal.

Looks like I have a company now.

Meet Linda, the fabulous food blogger from Michigan. Like me, Linda finds it impossible to resist the tantric tunes of tuvar.:) She is featuring, of all the ingredients in the world, the “Toor Dal” for Jihva December. And, on her latest post, she has written…

“Day and night, I couldn’t stop thinking about toor dal — ’till one morning I found myself wanting to toss some toor dal into a bowl of cottage cheese and sprinkle some sambhar powder, just to see how that would taste. I may be slightly obsessed.:)”

You are my toor dal dosth, dear Linda. 🙂

Here is another one for you. A curry with fresh tuvar and turai. Two fine Indian ingredients and one delightful dish. Perfect for chapatis, and for Jihva.

Fresh Tuvar (pacchi kandulu)

Recipe:

1 tablespoon peanut oil
Pinch each – cumin and mustard seeds, and a sprig of curry leaves
¼ cup – finely sliced onion or shallot (Erra gadda)
1 cup – fresh tuvar (Pacchi Kandulu)
2 cups – finely cut turai (ridge gourd or beerakaya)
2 tablespoons – fresh coconut, grated
1 teaspoon – finely ground green chilli
¼ teaspoon or to taste, – salt and turmeric

In a wide skillet, heat oil until a curry leaf tossed in it sizzles.
Add and toast curry leaves, cumin and mustard seeds.
Wait for the mustard seeds to splutter and then add onions and fresh tuvar.
Frequently stirring, saute them to tender.
Add the turai pieces. Sprinkle the coconut, green chilli, salt and turmeric.
Mix and cook covered for about 5-10 minutes, on medium-high, until the water leaked from turai evaporates. Serve hot with chapatis.

Tuvar and Turai Subji with Chapatis, Gulab Jamun and Coconut Water ~ for Jihva-Toor Dal

Notes:
Fresh Tuvar beans (frozen) are available at Indian grocery shops. 12 oz packets, priced at 2 or 3 dollars. Check the refrigerated section.
Turai or ridge gourd, and fresh coconut are available at Indian and also at Chinese grocery.

Gobi, Golden Raisins, Kasuri Methi

Recipe:

Skillet
Peanut oil, slivered garlic, cumin, and mustard seeds for tadka
Red onion, ripe tomatoes and fresh cauliflower
Kasuri methi, golden raisins, grated coconut, turmeric, chilli powder and salt
With puri, chapati or with rice.

Puri and Gobi Kasuri Methi ~ for Weekend Brunch

Feel free to size up the recipe, for a sweet tasting and serenely scented Gobi Kasuri methi.
From Hindi to English, Gobi=cauliflower, Kasuri Methi=Sundried Fenugreek Leaves

Fried Chickpeas ~ A Tasty Snack on a Cold, Rainy Day

It has been so dreary cold here lately. Soup like dal-rice combo has been my main meal most of the days. Worn-out of my routine tomato dal, I thought of dazzling it a bit. That started a craving for crispy, crunchy chickpeas. A cup of rehydrated chickpeas, 20 minutes in front of hot oil. Now, I remember why I don’t make these often.:) Next time I will simply buy or bake.

For those of you who would like to try the recipe, here we go:

Soak dried chickpeas in water to plump.
Drain and then pat them dry using a kitchen towel.
Deep-fry in batches, in hot peanut oil to crisp.
Prepare spice mixture: Heat a teaspoon of ghee. Add and toast curry leaves, chilli powder, amchur and salt to taste. Toss and coat the chickpeas in spice mixture.

The fried chickpeas are great to jazz up the dal and sambar rice. Also to munch on, and to add to salads.

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What’s This?

Chamakura Pappu (Arvi Daal):

The taro root I planted in May has now grown to a decorative type of plant with beautiful looking leaves. Growing taro at home turned out to be an easy process. I have planted small variety taro similar to what we see around Nandyala region, India (which is different from the elephant or giant type taro). I placed a healthy looking taro root in a container and loosely covered it with soil. Kept the container in patio where the sun shines and watered it daily. In just two months, around July, a young shoot appeared. Now the plant has six healthy looking leaves and thriving.

My taro growing fancy is mainly for taro leaves. The leaves are perfectly edible plus they are nutritious. We use only young leaves for cooking. With unique flavor and great taste, young taro leaves are easily likable. Back at home in Nandyala, my mother prepares two recipes with young taro leaves – a spinach style curry, where the blanched and finely chopped leaves are sautéed with onions and second is a flavorful dal where the taro leaves are steamed with toor dal. Dal has been invariably my favorite taro leaf preparation and is our meal today.

Taro Plant (Chama Dumpa Mokka, Arvi Plant) ~ for Green Blog Project

Recipe:

Toor dal – 1 cup
Young taro leaves – 4 (about the size of ping-pong paddle), finely chopped
1 small onion and 6 green chillies – coarsely chopped
Tamarind pod – about the size of a small finger, seeds removed
¼ teaspoon turmeric

Take them all in a pressure cooker. Add about two cups of water and cook until the dal reaches fall-apart stage. Once the valve pressure is released, remove the lid and add half teaspoon of salt to the cooked contents. Mix, and gently mash the dal to soft consistency with wood masher or immersion blender. Set aside.

Now do the tadka: In a small pot, heat a tablespoon of oil or ghee over a medium-hot burner. Add a teaspoon of minced garlic, a sprig of fresh curry leaves. Toast them to pale brown. Then add a pinch each – cumin, mustard seeds and asafoetida. Stir and wait for the mustard seeds to pop. This process is called tadka.

Add the mashed dal to the tadka contents and mix thoroughly. Serve the dal over rice or chapati with a teaspoon of ghee drizzled in for a scrumptious meal.

Taro Leaves Dal with Mirchi Bajji and Chickpea Guggullu ~ Meal Today

Recipe Source: Amma, Nandyala