Palm Jaggery

It is a type of jaggery(sugar) produced locally from a special type of palm, Palmyra Palm. Found abundant in Palakkad district in Kerala, made famous by O.V. Vijayan’s masterpiece novel ‘The Legends of Khasak’.
This sugar could be consumed by the diabetic and the kids with no side effects of white sugar, says folklore.

Small cuts are made into the head portion of the palm and the sap is collected. This is used as liquor and is heated and made into jaggery which is supposed to have medicinal qualities. Jaggery contains a lot of iron and other minerals.

I bought some from India. This type of sugar comes as solid blocks, so every time you need it, you would have to shave thin slices and then heat them which is time consuming.

So what I do is, pound them into pieces,


add 1 cup of water


for 1 kilo of sugar and boil it.



When every piece is dissolved, boil it for 5 more minutes stirring continuously in low flame until it becomes a caramel consistency. Do not forget to strain the liquid.

Store it in refrigerator. Add a teaspoon to black coffee. It is called karipetti kaappi. That's coffee with a whole new meaning.

My Lunchbox

I cook daily. That’s a big thing I have heard, especially if you are a working woman in U.S. I spend at least one hour or so in the kitchen daily. This actually relaxes me from the daily grind and I watch TV and news too during this time.

Here is what I do. I make one side dishes and one gravy for two days Sunday evening. I also make buttermilk alternate days. Then everyday during the weekdays I work, I make a single quick side dish or a gravy mostly vegetables, this way I always have a fresh dish. I am not a big fan of too many days refrigerated and frozen food. It makes a lot of difference to have the food fresh daily.

For lunch box, I take buttermilk (which I prepare the previous night) in a bottle to mix the rice with the side dishes. I also drink the rest of the buttermilk, which is a great cooling and also a good stimulant for digestion.

Though I make the side dish the previous night, I cook rice in the morning. I cannot even think of eating rice made the previous day and refrigerated. I am very particular about that. I cook rice in the pressure cooker along with the morning tea and by the time I am ready in half an hour or so, I get cooked rice hot and fresh.

I use the Indian casseroles (or food flasks) as lunch box, which keeps food hot. I heat the side dish and take the buttermilk and my lunch box is ready. This way I don’t have to microwave the food in the afternoons. I don’t like that too. :)

Now, butter milk is a life saver. Seriously! It won’t stink like the gravies if you take lunch to office. I don’t normally take gravies like sambar to office.

This is how to make buttermilk. Crush1 tsp of ginger, 1 sprig of curry leaves, 1 green chili. Then mix 1 cup of water to ¼ cup thick curd and mix with enough salt. Add the crushed ginger etc to this and leave it in the refrigerator the previous night.

That’s it. A sneak preview to my lunchbox.

Easy Tomato Rasam

I hated rasam. I tasted rasam for the first time when I went to Tamil Nadu one time and I just couldn’t understand what this dark water curry was? We ordered a thali and there it was in a small steel tumbler, some kind of brownish water. I poured it on the rice thinking it was some kind of sambar and I thought the hotel people were fooling us by giving colored water as curry.

I hated that water! First of all, I didn’t know I had to mix it only after the meal as a final lap. And it tastes delicious if you mix it with a little buttermilk. It is even better if you just drink it. All these rasam tricks, I had no clue.

Later, I took some liking to it when I knew about all those tricks.

But, how do you prepare it?

Dal water, Rasam powder, yada...yada...yada.

Oh! I am not going to take so much trouble to make a curry which is not even a curry.

So I never made rasam.

Wait, that is not the end of story. I was visiting a friend of mine in Dallas. She had unexpected guests and she made something quickly for dinner and what did she make? Rasam! No rasam powder, no dal water, nothing. But it tasted soooo good, better than any rasam I had ever had.Here is that recipe. All those rasam aficionados don’t be shocked at this version. Try it and you will love it.

5 ripe tomatoes cut into 4
2 tsp whole peppercorns
½ tsp cumin
2 tsp coriander seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp red chili powder
6 cloves of garlic
3inch tamarind soaked in warm water for some time, squeezed and strained to get the tamarind liquid.
1 tsp sambar powder – optional

Blend all this in a mixer adding ½ cup water.

Heat 1 tsp oil, splutter mustard seeds, pour this mixture and when it starts to boil, simmer for 5 minutes. That’s it. Tomato Rasam is ready! Easy as a breeze isn’t it?A must for any rasam, I have understood is fresh coriander leaves. Garnish with coriander leaves and have it with rice.

My India, My Country

When idea-girl Indira came up with the theme of Independence, I wanted to write about some food that would be equally pleasing to North, South, East and West. Nah! I was not at all successful. I think we might agree on Kashmir some day, but not on a common food likeable by all of us.

The thought of food made me think of a great man who fasted seventeen times for all of us. Without him we Indians cannot mention the word freedom. Without his non-violence and leadership our freedom would have been a lot more bloody and our country would have turned a hell. Without his guidance and willpower, our leaders would have been lost with a huge country with so many different languages and cultures.

When British left us, we were robbed to the last penny. Famine and violence were everywhere.When they left us, they wished, we ‘uncivilized’ Indians would fight among ourselves and would disperse and they could laugh at that.

We might be a little poor, we might be a little corrupt, and we might have lot of follies of a nation celebrating only the 60th Independence Day.

Yet, we are surviving…beautifully! We are having the last laugh.

India has gained respect in the eyes of others. We didn’t do that by bombing another nation or demeaning another country. We did it with our passion and internal strength. For that, I am a lot thankful.

Thinking of fasting, it occurred to me that Gandhiji ended his fasting with nimbu pani. Yes, a simple sweet lemon juice.So, I made lemon juice…in a different way. It is called bonji in Trivandrum, Kerala. The fun part is equal amount of sugar and salt is added. It gives the lemon juice a very special taste. It is mainly available in small shack teashops. Since sugar is beaten well to dissolve with a steel spoon against the steel glass and it makes a taka taka noise and this process is called bonji adikkal which translates somewhat to beating bonji :-)

To celebrate our hard-earned freedom we need something sweet. Distributing sweets to near and dear is our common way of celebrating any happy occasion across India.

So, I made payasam. Kerala's own 'Pal Payasam'. God's own Country's special!
This sweet dessert is made with matta red rice.
Bring 3 cups of milk to a boil. Add ½ cup of sugar. Add 1 cup of washed rice. Let the rice cook in this. Add 1 tsp of cardamom powder.Heat 1/8 cup of ghee. Sauté 2 tbs of raw cashew nuts and 2 tbs of raisins. Add to the payasam.Serve as a dessert.

Freedom is sweet. Wishing and hoping every child on this earth would enjoy freedom!

Watermelon Splash

Sweltering summer heat, sizzling football heat * -- countered by rosy fresh and frothy Watermelon juice!

Blend together 6 cups of Watermelon chunks with seeds picked out, a tight fistful of fresh pepper mint leaves, one fresh lime squeezed and 1/4 cup sugar. I crush 1 cup of ice also.

Cut big yellow lemons into slices and add to the serving jar. Serve cold.

* To me, too many handsome men running across the television set ;)

Food of the Gods

Some people claim, Chocolate is the Food of the Gods.
I object, my Lord. It is, Tender Coconut! (Known as karikku in Malayalam)
Fresh Tender Coconut has life restoring capacity and it is so pure, it can be
substituted for I.V fluid. When you have it, have it fresh in normal room temperature. Not refrigerated. Even an hour or so refrigeration will cause its taste to disappear.Tender coconuts, as the name implies are coconuts plucked before they turn mature. They are 90% water.Kerala, which simply means ‘the land of coconuts’, is abundant with this ‘Food of the Gods’. Every home, even the smallest one will have one or two coconut trees.

My dad would pluck 6 tender coconuts for all of us in the evening when he comes home from work, and after drinking the pure water inside, we would eat the soft flesh with jaggery. Drinking this pure and sweet water is like taking a shower under a natural waterfall. So soothing! So refreshing! There is nothing cooler than this, especially on a warm summer day.Yet, when you are easily provided with such natural nectar, people go dumb and go after products like coke and pepsi, which to me, is like slow poison if consumed daily. In Kerala too, these products started to slowly poison people’s drinking habits, but a controversy gave us the much needed jolt and in protest, now we have Tender Coconut Stalls all over Kerala.
Excerpt: In fact, more and more doctors now recommend tender coconut drink for many of their patients. It is found to be effective in urinary ailments and also recommended as a very go,od substitute for saline glucose. This drink helps to keep the body cool and applying it on the skin helps prevent boils during the prickly heat of the summer. It is also used to help remove the rashes caused by small pox, chicken pox and measles. It is also considered a close substitute for blood plasma since it is sterile, cool, easily absorbed by the body and does not destroy red blood cells. To quote Morton Satin, Chief of Food and Agricultural Organisation's Agricultural Industries and Post Harvest Management Service: "It is a natural isotonic beverage with the same level of electrolytic balance as we have in our blood. It is the fluid of life, so to speak."It is so delicate, attempts to package it has failed miserably. Though you get tender coconut in packages, it is never ever the same. I would rather have a frooti instead.

You cut the top portion of the tender coconut,put a straw and slurp up the water or you pour the water in to a cup and drink it. Then you cut open the tender coconut into two. Then scoop out the flesh with a spoon.While ordering for tender coconut, ask for the ones with a little flesh. It is not sweet, if it is complete water and with no flesh. Also, you lose the taste and the quantity of water, if the flesh is hard too.pic : soft flesh of tender coconut (this is the right softness) So, order one next time you see a vendor , on a bicycle with a load full of coconuts and enjoy Life!

Dry ginger coffee (chukku kaappi)

Please raise your hand, if you have never ever had chukku kappi or dry ginger coffee.
(I hope I don’t see any raised hands, since you have missed out something great in your life. :-))

I have a sore throat and nothing, let me tell you no over-the-counter medicines can even come near this one.You can buy dry ginger powder here in U.S Indian stores. Or you can get dry ginger (rarely seen) from a store here or can bring it from India. Dry ginger is called chukku in Malayalam. Fresh Ginger is sun dried to make chukku. Read about God's own coffee.

It has been raining here since morning, it stops to drizzle for an hour and then again it starts to rain heavily...and chukku kaapi is the best when rain plays hide-and-seek!

Recipe: (for one sore throat)
Dry ginger - 1/2 inch piece nicely ground or crushed Or 1/2 tsp of dry ginger powderWhole Peppercorns - 2Coffee powder (Instant also will do)Boil 1.5 cups of water, then add dry ginger and crushed peppercorn. Boil it again for 4-5 minutes. Take off from heat, add instant coffee powder and jaggery (Or can add sugar, usually back home instead of jaggery, 'karippetti' -- another form of jaggery, is added). Add good amount of sugar, since the coffee is spicy-hot.Hmm...Nice good medicinal coffee! And there…it has started to rain again....I think I am being transported back to good old Kerala. Try this during rainy season, if you want to visit Kerala without the tickets ;-)
I don’t know at what stage of cane sugar making process, this 'karipetti' is formed. If someone knows please let me know.