"Raagi Halwa" A fond memory of one of the most favorite persons in my life

                                         Memories still fresh, I still cannot come to terms with my Grand Mother’s demise. It is always hard to let go of the sorrow you feel when a loved one passes on despite the hard fact that we all have to someday leave everything and everyone and that we are just another creature in the universe that is bound to leave its premises one day. And yet that time has come to bid her goodbye for ever.

                                          It only seems like yesterday that I used to pester her for stories, and more stories from her early life, her childhood, how many kids she had, why was it that my mom did not  have a sister, did she tie her hair into a "koppu" or did she wear a plait?  So many questions and she had answers to each one of them every time.Not one time would she be bored of repeating the same stories again and again, how my grand pa gifted her with a kilo of gold at the time of her wedding, how she foolishly gave her expensive waist belt to some one she really did not know to get it repaired, afraid to tell someone at home,  and so on. She was some one who would never differentiate between her own grand kids and not hers. She would still wake up in the middle of the night to accompany us to the rest room which would by the village rules be out side the house, with out ever showing the slightest frustration. And I look at myself now, how I react to my own kids' constant pestering. I am sure every one out there would definitely have a similar story to tell about their grandma. But it sure is a pleasure to keep reminding myself of what a wonderful childhood I had, and feel sad at the same time to know all the fun my kids are missing.
                                      And what a good cook she was, her " Baanam Buvva" AKA "Palannam" which she made with the freshest milk from the house cows, was to die for. How ever there is one dessert that she was a pro, and one probably most of you would have never heard of " RAAGI HALWA". One of the coolest, healthier, yummylicious dessert that would be forgotten just like other traditional dishes from the region. Raagi/ FInger Millet used to be one of the region's most grown crop. Back when rice was a luxury, Raagi was fed to infants as a Malt, to hungry workers as a cheap, filling yet wholesome food "Sangati". And "Raagi Halwa" is just one such heavenly dish made from the grain either by finely powdering it after soaking overnight, and drying it for couple of hours. Or being in the US you can go for the easier approach, soak the grains and grind it into a paste and filter through a muslin cloth. But beware this is no less arduous and time taking process, for you still have to soak, grind and then use your hand on the muslin cloth to filter the liquid.
                                   Hmm I will try to make the Halwa this week end and post the recipe with the pictures. And this will be another sweet memory of my loving grandmother

Happy Mother's Day to you dearest mom and to you all  my dear reader Mothers out there who are always there for their kids whether rain or shine !

                                                                                                          Sunitha

A very Happy Sankranthi/Pongal/Ellu Bella/Makara Vilakku to you all

Each one of us calls it by a different name, yet its significance is no different at all.  Harvest equals to happiness, and bounty and Sankranthi is everything about celebration. Thanks to renovations, my sweet home is a complete mess, and celebrations at home were not a possibility this time. Well, we can still visit the temple, and celebrate the rest of the festival. I hope you might have had a lot of fun this Sankranthi!

Spicy, Tangy, and heavenly Mamidikaya Chitrannam/Mango Pulihora

Most of you would have heard about Lemon Rice ( Chitrannam/ Nimmakaya pulihora), Tamarind rice (Pulihora), and even Mango Pulihora too. Chitrannam, or chitramaina annam, in english traslated as Amazing or Wonderful Rice. Very aptly named it is I feel. This particular Mamidikaya Chitrannam is favorite among the others because of its spicy, tangy and yet yummy taste.   In my regio back home, we add mustard seeds for that extra flavor. So here is the list of things you would need

Grated mango...aha my mouth is watering!

1. Raw mango, washed and grated. I donot peel the skin, like to see the different shades of green.
For the paste:
 2tbsps of coconut
10 green chillies
1tsp mustard seeds
some salt

Grind these ingredients into a fine paste without adding water.

Now boil rice in a separate cooker/vessel whatever you usually boil in. spread the rice in another mixing bowl to let dry a bit.

Meanwhile prepare for the popu/seasoning for the chitrannam mixture.
2tbspns vegetable oil
mustard seeds for seasoning
10-12 curryleaves
Raw peanuts
3-4 dry red chillies
Let the oil heat up add mustard seeds, followed by curryleaves, redchillies and then the coconut+chilli+mustard paste that we prepared earlier. Fry it for about 5 minutes until the raw smell is gone. Add a teaspoon of turmeric as you do for other chitrannam/pulihora. Just before you turn off the heat add the grated raw mango and give it a mix. Now mix the raw mango mixture to the rice well, and taste the chitrannam. If you have time make urlagadda talimpu/potato masala or just some pappu  or you can just eat it alone. Donot forget to eat curd with the chitrannam at the end.
I made it yesterday night as dear hubby is a big fan of chitrannam , and it turned out just like I wanted it to be. Delicious chitrannam with tomato pappu ( not many tomatoes, will tell you the recipe another time), fried majjiga mirapakayalu and fried saggubiyyam/sabudana papads made the dinner nothing less memorable.
 I believe the mustard paste gives an extra kick to the recipe. Bye now and I will see you with another interesting dessert that my both my grandmoms used to make, and ofcourse my mom always was in the line. It is called "RAGI HALWA". I am telling the name out just for my sake, because I have never tried making it myself until now. But of all the desserts out there I place it in the top of the list.  And I do want to challenge myself into making it (I speed up things when I say them out ) without any delays. Ciao people. By the way here are some more pics of the "Chitrannam".

Green chilli+Mustard+Coconut paste

The seasoned Mixture ready for the rice!

 

Happy New Year 2012 once again !

Wishing you all my dear readers, friends, and family a cheerful New Year 2012, contrary to what financial analysts, astrologists, and others say. I hope with all my heart that it will not be another Great Depression, like the UN says, rather let us wish that some miracle happens that will make things turn the other way around. OOh am I sounding like someone who has drunk a big bottle of optimism, too young to be a pessimist.  Resilience is human nature, and hopefully the inanimate market takes the same path too. Nonculinary things aside, let me give you the recipe for the new Year cake that I made.
Well to being with there is a brief history behind my madness towards learning to make this cake. Madness I say because, it is " The honey cake", guess the quotes made it already special. I donot know about you guys, but growing up I had this fascination for honey cake, the one that was sold at the bakeries. Ofcourse Mom's special Birthday cake was always special, but this was the fancy-shmancy pastry piece that could be bought. And guess what after all these years together, I got to know that dear hubby was and still is a big fan of "Da Cake". What was even more surprising was that there are a lot of fans for it. While I did make the cake the first time for my Christmas party at home by using a ready made yellow cake mix, and the honey syrup recipe I had searched for in a number of Indian cooking blogs (guess mostly south Indian), one caught my attention because of the details. Since I could not make the cake from scratch, I felt it would be not so special to post it. Well  New year's eve was the perfect occasion to make it one more time, this time all home made. And the result was an irresistible delicacy. Irresistible because, I love to cook, and bake but not eat on par with my food addict hubby. But this was an exception, I couldnot believe that I did complete justice (In my hubby's foodie language :-) ) to the cake, and finished it up by the next day.  Here is the recipe.

For the Cake

1.  6 large eggs. Separate the yolks as we will use only whites
2. 2 Cups all purpose flour
3. 1 1/2 cups sugar
4. 1 1/2 sticks butter
5. 2 tsp  Vanilla essence
6. 1/4 tsp kosher salt
7. 3/4 cup milk
8. 2 tsp baking powder
8. 13 X 9 inch pan for baking
While the eggs are still cold separate the whites from the yolk, and let them come to room temperature. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together into a mixing bowl. Mean while beat the sugar and butter which should be now at room temperature  until light and fluffy. When the eggs come to the room temperature mix the vanilla, milk into the whites and beat for about a minute.  Now mix the flour and the egg mixture and alternating with flour and eggs+milk so that you would end up with the flour at the end. Pour into the greased and floured pan and bake it in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for about 35-40 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean when inserted into the cake. Take it out and while it is warm pour the honey syrup onto it. This is what makes the cake exceptionally delicious.

" Da Syrup"

1. 1/2 cup sugar
2. 1/2 cup honey
3. 1/2 cup water
4. 1/2 cup finely shredded coconut ( dont use the sweetened one)
5. 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
Boil the water and sugar, and honey, coconut for about  15 minutes, take it off the heat and add the cardamom powder. Pour the syrup onto the baked cake while both are warm still. let the syrup seep into all the corners of the cake, and wait for a day if you can. Savour it the  next day you will be hit " da Spot" and if you can't wait you will still hit it. I chose to wait and relived my bakery memories from back home.  Here is the link to the blog that I visited to search for the syrup recipe. I added less water than mentioned in paru's blog. Thanks to Paru's

Well you guys tell me if you did hit "da spot". Are you annoyed by the indiscriminate usage of "da", well I have been watching ZNMD (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara) a zillion times, and one of the scenes where Abhay and Farhan call Hrithik  "da mentalist" is so funny that I want to use it wherever I can. An absolutely cool, still emotionally touching movie that will definitely strike a chord with everyone who has friends, and I guess that is every body.

A very Happy New Year to You all!

My delicious New Year Coconut topped White Honey Cake!

Wish you all a Very Happy New Year 2012, that will be a much cheerful, successful, sweet, spicy and tangy Year than the one that passed !

Merry Christmas to you all!

Our Christmas tree this year!

Happy Christmas from my family to yours! See you all in a day or so with delicious treats!

You Will always be in our hearts Dev Anand ji!

Rest In peace Dev saab! As my favorite artists pass away one by one every few months I can only bid them a tearful adieu, and listen, watch their performances one more time. But born are such great artists to be there in our hearts for ever and only to leave never. As a child I remember him as the most handsome hero of all the Rangoli songs that used to be played on Sundays. Be it Black and white movies, Eastman color and the rest no one could compete with him in the grace he showed. Even now the song " Abhi na jao chodkar ki Dil abhi bhara nahi" rings in my ears once every few days, whether I play it or not from the list.  My tribute to the unique and wonderful artist!

Today's Lunch Methi Rice with Cucumber, Onion raita

Hello all my dear readers! Although a little late to greet you all on the week's start, I thought just posting a new recipe would make my boredom and laziness flee, and I could take control of my usual routine sooner. Well it did do the magic, but not for long. But it is okay to be bored, and lazy, I say to myself, since for one  this being a Monday coming after a long weekend, another big enough reason being winter, short days and long nights and should I go on, the list can be endless. Bottom line, I just want to spend some days lazily he he he...
So an aromatic main course with a a very pleasant side dish was the result of today's laziness. If my husband were to read this line, he would definitely say "long live your laziness my dear". He is a food lover and a very lovely husband who rarely disapproves of anything I make. Good friends, and an understanding family is a seemingly simple, yet fortuitous boon to oneself, which I am lucky to have. Today's dish is from one such friend who has a good heart to share not just delicious dishes she makes but her recipes too!
                                                                                 And here is the recipe for the simple, but fragrant rice dish!                                                                        
Ingredients:
methi leaves a bunch
2 Tomatoes
8-9 Green chillies
Peas
Ginger garlic Paste - 1 tbspn
OOh and Basmati or Sonamasoori rice about 3 cups washed and soaked in about 5 cups water.
Seasoning:
Curryleaves
Jeera

In a deep vessel, add about 2 tbspoons oil wait till hot and add the curryleaves, then add jeera followed by ginger+garlic paste. saute the paste for about a minute. Then add the methi leaves, and peas, saute them ( I used frozen peas for the time being, you can use fresh peas if available ) for about 2-3 minutes. Add the roughly diced tomatoes and saute for another 2 minutes.Add a pinch of turmeric and enough salt to the mixture.  Add the fried ingredients to the soaked rice and cook in a rice cooker ( since it is a lazy day for me ). But if you have the time, you can add 5 cups water to the sauteed methi and other ingredients and cook in the same vessel. Meanwhile prepare raitha of your choice ( my choice for today was  onion and cucumber ) and wait for the rice to be done.  I bet your home will be filled with the flavorful fragrance of methi by then. I donot have words to describe the joy my heart was filled with while savouring the Rice with the Raitha.  There is one more dish that I love cooking and eating to my heart's content, Khichdi. But for today 2 thumbsup for my friend's Methi Rice with Raitha. I was halfway through my lunch when I remembered that I had forgotten to take a picture for my dear blog. So dont mind the not so aesthetically taken picture!! Bye now

Udikinchina Beans Karam

For those of you who still remember my post " Fresh Produce from farmers Market", I made an interesting dish with the Purple colored Beans bought from the Farmer's Market.  I am here with one more recipe from my region which is a Protein packed Curry. I will tell you why it is so. There are beans which are high in protein content, and Peanuts which need no introduction to their nutrition content. And added bonus are dried coconut, and garlic which has high medicinal value, and last but not least  everyone's favorite Potatoes ( this is optional although adding them just ups the flavor twice).

So would it be an exaggeration to say this is what I say it is? And, you can cook the same curry with spring beans, clustered beans(Mattikayalu/Gorchikkudu), the purple beans that are in the pictures. This is a regular back home that goes perfectly with Ragi Mudda  for the lunch and with chapathi for dinner. Okay so the precious ingredients for the curry are

1.  Beans about 1/2 lb broken into halves
2. 1 medium sized potato cubed
3. 2 medium sized tomatoes cut into big chunks
4. 13-14 green chillies ( Thai ones are good to use )
5. 1/2 cup fried peanuts
6. dried coconut 2tb spoons
7.  4 garlic cloves big ones
8. dhania powder 1 tbspn
9. 1/2 medium sized onion chopped roughly
10.Bunch of  Cilantro
salt to taste

Now  make a paste of the green chillies and salt. Keep it aside. Now grind peanuts, coconut, garlic, dhania powder into a not so fine powder. Take a deep bottomed vessel and add 1 tb spn of vegetable oil or any oil of your choice and wait until hot to add curryleaves, mustard. Once they start spluttering add onions, potatoes and beans and salt fry for a minute. Now add the green chilli paste and mix thoroughly into the veggies. Wait for a couple of minutes and then add a cup of water and let the mixture boil. This is the reason why the curry is called "Udikinchina Karam/Boiled karam". After about 5 minutes of boiling, add the powdered peanut+coconut mixture onto the boiling mixture. Donot stir immediately, after about a minute stir the peanut powder into the Karam, and then add the diced tomatoes along with the cilantro. Taste to see if salt is enough. Cook for about 10 more minutes until beans and potatoes are cooked but not over cooked. Take it off the heat and eat it with chapathi or hot rice or even better Ragi sangati.
The key to the success of this recipe is behind the green chilli paste well cooked into the vegetables, and just enough amount of the peanut powder. Too much of peanuts will make the curry milder and subdue its authenticity. Well there was one interesting recipe for you all.

Let us celebrate this auspicious day of Karthika Pournami by cleansing our innerselves and ridding ourselves of   questionable  but all pervasive thoughts of greed, anger, prejudice and resentment and welcome thoughts of love, compassion, contentment and good will.

Spicy Pandu Mirapayakaya karam for the cold season

Spicy but yummy!!

Albeit for a short period, this year's Indian festival season is almost coming to an end .  With all the sugary foods in sight I usually love to eat something spicy with my rice. This makes my appetite for sweets even more. Hmm very sinful but its okay to indulge once in a year or is it just all year long..As my dear hubby says eat eat and eat but burn it off the same way. That should balance the equation right. Well here is one very spicy chutney for the coming cold days. We call it " Pandumirapakaya Karam"/ripe red chilli karam. This can be stored for atleast a year, just like a pickle. But there will not be much left for storage anyway. Here is the recipe

Ingredients:
Plush ripe red chillies 1lb(  bought them fresh from the Farmer's market)
Tamarind about the size of 2 lemons
1 teaspn mustard
1/2 teaspoon methi seeds
Salt to taste

For the seasoning
1/2 cup of Oil ( Gingelly/Olive)
a bunch of curryleaves
Mustard seeds

Boil the red chillies in  water just enough to soak in a kadai/Bandli. Add about 2 teaspoons salt (Enough salt is the key a tasty pickle or chutney) to the chillies. When the skins of the  red chillies are soft add washed tamarind ( Donot add any water to soak the tamarind..just wash) and let both the ingredients cook for another 5 minutes. Keep aside and let it cool. Meanwhile fry the mustard and methi in a little bit of oil and powder them in a grinder. Now add the redchilli+tamarind and make it into a chunky paste in the grinder/mixer. Heat oil in a small kadai, add the mustard and curryleaves and wait till they splutter. Take it off the heat and let it cool. Add the seasoning oil to the redchilli chutney. Presto there is our spicy dish for our cold day. Fry some Vadiyams/Papads and the perfect lunch is there to drive the cold away from your body!
Hope you would try the recipe and feel the same as I do!
Will be back with another "Karam" next time it will be a curry karam which can be eaten with chapathi/Ragi Mudda.
Adios Amigos!! (nowadays my son's favorite phrase)

Fresh Produce from Farmer's Market

Raw Pumpkin for Pachhi Gummadikaya Pullakoora
Purple Beans for Beans talimpu
Fresh Peanuts for Peanuts and thotakoora Pappu.

Wow got some very tasty menu for tomorrow and the day after..!

Celebrating the Festival of LIghts!

I wish you all a colorful, flavorful Deepavali/Diwali that will fill your homes and lives with an abundance of happiness, and health! For myself, this year has been a mix of all sorts of emotions,  Some very special moments, special entries and some not so special incidents. Or would you say well who doesnot have all these. I believe the latter is right, and that is what life is supposed to be made of.  Well without delving too deep into realms of life's  philosophy let me wish you all once again a very joyful Diwali !! Will be back with my Diwali dishes shortly!. Here is the menu for today! Planning something very South Indian
Coconut Rice
Aviyal
Munakkaya Rasam
Dondakaya Fry
Curd/yogurt Rice
Badam Payasam/kheer


Love you all my friends for the constant support!

What makes a very simple dish special?

Bottle Gourd/Sorakaya pullakoora

So what makes a rather simple dish taste so special? Would you say it is the ingredients, or the hands that make the dish, the mood that we are in or something else? I personally feel it would be the passion that we cook the dish with, the love we cook the dish with....and last but not the least "SEASONING". Yes you read it right, seasoning with the right  ingredients, for the right amount of time on the right flame makes a ton of difference. I have always loved my mother's pappu/dal, be it the usual tomato pappu or very special thotakoora (amaranthus) Pappu. For so many years I wondered what was the big difference between both our ways. everything was the same except that Amma always seasoned dal on a high flame. She would wait until the oil is hot, then added mustard followed byred chilli and then curry leaves, and lastly not so finely diced onions and stirred only when they were about to be brown, and then finally poured the dal into the seasoning vessel not vice versa. Cut short the main story is of the Sorakaya Pullagoora recipe..and given a chance I will never have any end to talk about my mom's cooking. Its never anything other than "perfect".
Here is the ingredient list

1. Sorakaya/ bottle gourd
2.  One larg tomato
3. green chillies ( thai would be good for people like us living outside India) about 12-13
4. small lime sized tamarind
5. Roughly diced onions
6. Hand ful of coriander chopped

Seasoning
mustard seeds, curry leaves, Roughly diced onions (1/2 onion medium sized), dried red chillies.

Speaking about this particular recipe, growing up I never tasted Sorakaya at all believe it or not. Only after I met my dear husband I started loving many vegetables that I never got to taste. But Bottle gourd, hmm I never knew what I could make out of it other than using it in sambar until I ate something of Pullakoora sorts at one of my good friend A's home. It was a very mild version of pullakoora, cooked in a pressure cooker and fed to Kids.And kids loved  eating it with rice.  Later I thought this could be an absolutely fantastic idea to make a pullakoora out of Bottle gourd. And then there I was making it more often and liking it to the fullest extent. So here it is

The recipe
I particularly donot want to use pressure cooker for most dishes including dals, cooking it in a vessel other than pressure cooker gives it an authentic taste I feel. But people who are in short of time can use the cooker. So with a spoon of vegetable oil in a deep pan, add the green chillies and sorakaya pieces followed by tomato cut into rough chunks. Donot add water, instead add salt which lets out the water from the gourd, when almost done add the tamarind soaked in water cover with a lid and wait for 5 minutes. Take it off the heat, mash it with a Pappu gitta (special dal masher made of wood) and then mash it once again after coriander is added. Now in the same pan ( wipe off the water in the pan) add 2 tea spoons oil wait till hot add mustard seeds. When you hear the spluttering sounds add red chillies followed by curryleaves. Then add the entire mashed pulp into the seasoning vessel and turn off the heat.

There you go you have the most wonderful yet simple dish that gets its flavor because of seasoning. You can also do the same Pullakoora with the following other main ingredients
1. Thotakoora Pullakoora (Amaranthus)
2. Gongura/ Sorrel leaves
3. Fresh peanuts and Thotakoora/chukkakoora
4.Vankaya/Brinjal and any green leaves like thotakoora/chukkakoora/gongura

Follow the other steps of the procedure and you can make the most delicious dish on earth which goes well with ragi mudda/plain rice.

Bye now folks. OOh I am so happy today because I am back after a long time, it gives me a sort of fulfillment.

A hearty Welcome to you Fall!!

I took this picture a few minutes ago while I was just zoning out cuddled up in my favorite wicker couch. Sometimes it is so comforting to just stare into nothing and do nothing especially when there is unbelievable peace at home. But today there is more to the day, lovely drizzle, beautiful skies and ofcourse last but not the least peacefully sleeping kids. This is just when I realized it is already Fall even though the official date is yet to come.  A cup of tea is all I need now to complete the view and the aura of Fall! Happy Tea Time! Be back for sure with some interesting dishes for the festive season.

Chinta Charu/ Veru Senagginjala charu/ Peanut charu

This posting is for one of my friends who is a soon to be mom. Not being able to make her one of Ananthapur district's soul foods as and when she longed for it, I am trying to atleast make it easy for her to prepare it. A very special dish it is, easy to make, and above all you will love it to have it time and again. As the name suggests the main ingredient that gives the charu/soup its taste is Peanut/verusenagginjalu. Hmmm did I not tell you that people from this area donot waste an opportunity to add peanuts in every possible dish. And believe me, funny as it may sound, it is true to every word I said. So here is the recipe for the mouth watering dish.

Ingredients: 
Peanuts - fried handful
Green Chillies- 5-6
tamarind- medium lime size
One half medium size onion diced roughly into big chunks
Salt to taste
Jaggery about a tea spoon

Seasoning
Mustard seeds
Curryleaves

Grind the peanuts into fine powder, and keep it separately. Grind the green chillies into fine paste. Now soak the tamarind in 2 cups water, and extract the juice. Now add the peanut powder into the tamarind water, and also add the jaggery and salt according to taste (after adding the chilli paste you can add more salt if needed).
In a deep pan add 2 tea spoons of oil, when the oil heats up add the mustard seeds and curryleaves for seasoning. Now add the chilli paste and saute it for a minute or two to get rid of the raw taste. Later add the peanut, tamarind water and keep stirring so that the chili paste doesnot form lumps with the peanut powder. Let the charu boil, and then add the onions into it (remember the onions are not sauteed). Add salt if needed. Wait for 5 more minutes and garnish with cilantro before taking it off the heat.
That is all Chinta charu is ready to eat with rice.
Beware this could easily become your soul food too. In telugu " Inkenduku alasyam, lottalesukuntoo vedi vedi anam tho patu tinandi Chinta charuni"

Sree Rama Navami

"Sree Rama Ramethi Rame Rame Mano Rame
Sahasra Nama Tattulyam Rama Nama Varanane"

This Sri Rama Navami, I am here in my home town Madanapalle. It might have been a decade since I saw Rama Navami celebrations here. The Ramulavari Gudi (temple) was always a must visit for us before starting something new.
This year I tasted mother's Vadapappu also known as Panneram over here, and Panakam both the essential for the festival.
Will comeup with the pictures of Panakam soon.

Bangle Sellers- their lives still the same

"Colorful Bangles"

"Not so Colorful Life

First of all My Srikara nama samvatsara greetings to all of you and apologies for my late wishes.
My Sudden trip to India this time is giving me all kinds of experiences, some jerky, some sad and some sweet. Here is one of my sad experiences I encountered during my visit to my Ammamma's (Grandmother) village.  Life in India has stark contrasts. Just when we boast of a developing nation, life below the poverty line mocks back at us. This Bangle seller who walks bare foot  with his stacks of bangles all through the dusty villages around my village is one such glaring example of the growing difference between the Haves and Havenots. You might ask, did you visit India for the first time?  No, but every time I visit I notice that people in small towns and big cities spend lavishly, and I hear that Living Standards are much better in India now. But then nothing has changed with people like this Bangle Seller. His daily wages are meagre, about the price of a "Latte" or even lesser than that at a StarBucks or Coffee Day. But he says he is happy with his profession since he considers it auspicious. The simpleton wishes for a bus service that would make his life more easy. The little conversation that I had with him suddenly made me feel so petty. It was sad to hear his story but at the same time stoic. I learnt that contentment is something that needs constant reminding. Most of us might remember Indian nightingale Sarojini Naidu's " Bangle Sellers". Here is a stanza from the poem

Who will buy these delicate, bright
Rainbow-tinted circles of light?
Lustrous tokens of radiant lives,
For happy daughters and happy wives.

Majjiga pulusu

Majjigapulusu/buttermilk stew, dont know if I got the name right in English is usually not taken that serious a dish back home. For reasons known only to its despisers, this humble dish has gotten a not so grandiose reputation compared to its competitors. My mom used to say that her dad would simply loathe at dishes like Majjigapulusu, not that he liked any vegetarian dishes. "Majjigapulusu mohana kotta"  is the most hilarious yet sad usage for things not so nice. But for people who say "where did this come from? hmm I love Majjiagapulusu" I am with you. History aside, you can eat this with rice or the all healthy ragi mudda, and no surprise there I do love the second combination.  So here is the recipe for the delectful dish.
Ingredients
1. Buttermilk 1/2 a litre
2. salt to taste
3. coarsely diced 1/2 medium sized onion

For the paste:
7 green chillies if spicy ones more if not
3tbspns of rice soaked
1tspn of mustard seeds
4tbspns of fresh coconut shredded

For the seasoning
Curry leaves use generously
Mustard seeds
1-2 Dried red chillies
Oil ofcourse


Procedure
Now make a fine paste of the ingredients . Follow this order so that you can get a fine paste since all the ingredients are in small quantities it might be a bit hard to get a fine paste with the blender. First the mustard seeds go followed by rice, then chillies and finally coconut. You could add some water if needed to make a paste. For the buttermilk, you can either take 1 cup of yogurt beat it really well and then add the rest of water or just use plain store bought buttermilk. Now take 1-2 tbspn oil in a deep vessel, and then add the mustard seeds curryleaves folowed by red chillies to season. Saute the rice+mustard paste for a minute or two, add some water to make sure the rice hasn't formed any lumps, and then add the buttermilk. Add salt to your taste, and let it boil while covering with a lid. After about 10 minutes add the onions, you donot want the onions to over cook. The crunchiness adds to the taste.  wait another 5minutes and turn the heat off. There is your simple, home made fast food ready!
I know many of my friends who make this dish with besan/senagapindi, but try this one and tell me. Also for those who might get this question if it is okay to boil buttermilk it is perfectly okay as long as you make the mustard+rice paste fine. You will know why the fine paste when you make it.
I can say that majjigapulusu, can become your comfort food provided well made. May be sometime in the future I will give you another Seema favorite Chintacharu made from groundnuts. Hmm my mouth is watering already with the mention of that charu!
Bon appetite everybody!

p.s The number of adjectives used in this post will tell you how tasty this one can be (LOL)

The word is Mmmmmm Majjiga Pulusu