Another Athachamayam - missed !

Time for nostalgia again...It was 'Atham', the first day of the 10 days of Onam celebrations yesterday. Incidentally, it was also Vinayaka Chaturthi..a very auspicious day in many ways.

The best things about Onam in any Keralite household, is that everyone gets up, clean up, children rush out to pluck flowers.... though now-a-days, it is sad that there are not many flowers to be plucked off trees or bushes, rather as preplanned, the flower vendors bring them to our homes... and most neighborhoods have a Pookkalam (flower arranegment)competition.

For people in our place, Thripunithura, there is the added bonus of Athachamayam, a large procession of King maveli, dancing girls, various Theyyams, school bands, kathakali, tableaus on a lot of floats.. it is a sight to behold, and that I have sadly been missing for many-a-year...

I have a lot of memories of the many Athachamayams I did get to see, especially in the company of my two grandfathers. The whole streets would have many stalls with everything from fruits to clothes to household items and we never came home without our grandfathers buying enough to fill our hands.. I especially loved the sugarcanes that were available during this time. I even remember one year when I could not go to see the processions because of having measles, but my mom's second brother who had come home for his annual leave bought me a big box of beautifully life-like birds made of clay. They did not last very long with my very naughty brother around, and I never found those birds again... but my delight and colourful memories will remain with me always..

So for all of you, an Onam pookkalam, and a couple of snaps of Athachamayam, all browsed from the internet....!!

Kolams - 1

I have always admired the beautiful Kolams or designs made out of rice flour that our brahmin neighbors used to adorn their entrances. We had a neighbor called Manniamma, who used to put kolams for our homes during festival season and she used to do it so fast, and the designs so intricate, that it was never easy to figure out how she did them.

I remember once, whenI was about 10, she had left over a bit of the kolam powder at our home, and I tried my hand at drawing kolams... the result was a little less skin on three fingers of my right hand.. I just got carried away and the powder did not freely flow through my fingers and I rubbed my fingertips off on the concrete ...!!

Now I have a very sweet neighbour who was all too willing to show me some designs. I have been practising with just pencil on paper, since even the smallest designs are a bit intricate and really beautiful. Even if the modern colourful rangolis require a lot of skill and are really amazing, I have a weakness for the traditional kolams done in rice powder especially because they represent the presence of Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth and also the sentiment of providing food for the ants, birds etc....

The starting point of the above kolam is just 16 dots. 4 by 4, equidistant from each other. This was just my first effort and does not look quite right.

The right way to draw the kolam is given here.

Puzzling........

? ? ? ? ? ?

There are many many things that I find fairly puzzling in daily living, some of them I find answers to, a few others I ignore as not worth pondering about, and some make sense in due course... but there are still others that do not come under any of the above-mentioned criterion... I guess these will remain a mystery to me, but it just leaves me wondering......WHY?

There is this lady I meet most days because her daughter also attends the same playschool. Almost from the first day I met her, she has been raving about the school to which she wanted to enroll her child when it was time... the advantages she enumerated were numerous..proven track record, good faculty, great facilities... short distance from home... etc. etc....

Recently, the school had announced that it was accepting applications for the next academic year..when I met her, the lady was excited and told me her husband had gotten the admission forms for the school.. a week later, after the deadline was announced, I asked her if she had submitted the papers.. since she was in a hurry, all I got out of her was that she was not sending her daughter there..... !!!

So next time we met, I asked her if the school was having some problems, since she suddenly changed her decision.. she said she decided to send her daughter to another branch of the same school which was some distance from where we stay...

The reason.....???? ....... someone she knew, got an admission as soon as they submitted the forms..no interviews or tests...... so why send her daughter to a school which gives admissions away.. doesn't matter if everything else is perfect.......so now her child who won't even be 4 years old will have to travel an hour to and fro,instead of 1o minutes, just so that momma can have her sense of achievement !!!

Doesn't make any sense to me ....!!!

Pindi chammandi

This chammandi or chutney is made with vaazha pindi, that is the inner core of a banana tree.

The banana tree is one of the most versatile plants known to Keralites, second only to the beloved Coconut palms. We use the leaves in lieu of plates, to bake fish, make Adas(a sweet preparation), as disposable lunch packs ....

The raw bananas are ingredients in many delicious preparations like aviyal, kaalan, different mezhukku puratties and the banana chips are famous all over the world.
We also use the purple flowers to make many dishes. The tiny flowers nestled in between the purple petals yield lovely drops of nectar.

Ripe golden bananas are used to make amazing things like pazham pori, unniyappam, pradhamans etc and we all love them on anything from topping on cereals to banana splits..

And finally, even when a banana tree is cut down to make room for the young ones, they yield the smooth, ivory-like cores called 'pindi'. I have had pindi in many forms.. and though it is a bit tedious to clean, it is worth the effort. This chutney is a tasty addition to the numerous recipes we already have, and was passed on to me by Jayachitta, my dad's youngest sister, who is a superb cook.

Pindi - a piece about 6 -8 inches
Cut into rounds,about 1/2 cm thick, clean each side and remove the fibers, keep aside three pieces and chop up the rest.

Boil the three round pieces and keep aside to cool.

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Urad dal - 1 tbs (dry roast)
Dried red chillies - 2 to 3
Curry leaves - 2 stalks
Green chillies - 2
Ginger - a very small piece (about 1 cm cube)
Tamarind - a small piece
Salt to taste

In a blender, add all the ingredients, including the pindi and grind till the chutney is half-way between coarse and fine . Mix well till the taste is even. Very tasty side-dish for gruel or kanji.

My daughter's artistic endeavors...

For her birthday, we took our daughter to The Colour factory . She selected an Alladin's lamp and they provided the ceramic colours... she had a great time painting.. And we got back the fired and glossy 'lamp' after a week. She did almost all of it herself.. the only parts she missed were at the rim and a bit near the handle.. she was really proud of her work...

The last month, we picked up a painting kit for our daughter... the normal non-toxic paint cakes embedded in a plastic tray. So most evenings, it has been a demand for her colours and she would sit for atleast an hour and more, 'pienthing'....

Some times, I was asked to draw a picture for her to 'pienth', but it did not seem to matter after a while... her creativity really overflowed the boundaries......!!!

Her teachers also told me that she was very enthusiastic about colouring, but she did not like it when she was guided to stay within the lines.. at this age, all that matters to us is that she enjoys the activity...

This one was another gift for her birthday - a glass-painting kit for kids. She was concentrating on the squirrel alone, and layering one colour on top of another !!!

Banana and Chickoo milkshake

This is one of my favourite milkshakes. I love the combination of Banana and Chikoo(Sapota). My brother and I used to go to a place in Ernakulam where they served the best milk shakes in the area.. their Sharja shakes were amazing, but in those days I could barely finish half of those really thick shakes served in huge beer mugs. And when I make milkshakes at home, I prefer them to be a little less thick.

The quantity given is approximate and you may increase or decrease any to make them according to your taste.

Banana - 1 (peeled and cut into quarters)

Chickoos - 5 to 6 (Cut in half, deseed and scoop the flesh out with a spoon)

Sugar - 1 tbsp (I used a little less)

In a blender, add the fruits and sugar and pulse 3 times. Now add.

Ice cubes - 4 to 5

Milk - 1 and 1/2 glasses (Boil the milk and refrigerate)

Blend well till the drink is smooth.

If you feel like it, add a scoop of Vanilla ice cream with the milk. Gives it a creamier texture. Serve immediately.

Refreshing vegetable and pasta soup

I got the recipe for this from my friend Arundati's blog and tweaked it according to my taste. The original recipe is here.

I have always loved soup. It is always associated with our trips to be with our parents, and one recurring memory ... whenever we used to sit down to eat our soup, our little sister had to narrate the story of her first soup-making adventure in kindergarten ..."...I cut the carrots, Tamara and Bushara cut onions , Vineeta and Vinay cut the ....'blah..blah' ..and then Mrs.so and so put all the vegetables and made soup and we all ate it with fried bread...it was VERY tasty ....!!

It has been atleast 20 years since she left KG behind, but we all got to hear the 'Soup story ' so often, that I am sure my mom, dad, brother and atleast my dad's elder brother who was in Doha and had to bear a lot of her chatter, must remember some of it..!!!

So for my version of this very refreshing soup,

Boil a cup of pasta and keep aside. My friend used noodles, but I prefer pasta. If you dont mind the extra starch, you can cook the pasta with the veggies.

Onion - 1/2 cup (cut into cubes)

Tomato - 2 medium sized (cubed)

Veggies - cut into bite sized portions - 1 cup (I used carrots, cauliflower, capsicum and a potato)

Butter - 1 tsp

Oil - 1/2 tsp

Crushed pepper - 1/2 tsp

Garlic - 3 cloves (crushed and finely chopped)

Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp

Soy sauce - 5 to 6 drops

Dried thyme and chives - 1/2 tsp each (you may add fresh mint, parsley etc...)

Salt to taste.

In a pressure cooker, heat oil, add the butter, saute the onions till golden, add all the veggies and the rest of the ingredients (even the pasta).Hold the salt.

Add enough water , pressure cook to one whistle . Once the steam is gone, open and add the precooked pasta , a squirt of lemon juice and the salt.

It was so good, that I have already made it twice. Some garlic bread with the soup would make a good meal.