Akki tambittu (sweet treat with rice) - a very simple offering on Shivaratri

:-), ok even I have to flinch at my own (un)timeliness about blogging. It has been over 2 weeks since Shivaratri and I am finally waking up from my slumber to post about what I made. While debating whether to post this recipe here today or not, I told myself that it would be a wonderful recipe for next year's Shivaratri, you can all just search on the blog and make it. Also this is such an easy peasy recipe that you can make it anytime not waiting for the festival to come around next time. Unlike many Indian desserts, there is no syrup and consistency you need watch hawk eyed making this a totally beginner recipe.

Shivaratri is a festival usually in early February that almost brings with it the warm winds of summer in India. Though there is no formal distinction of Spring & Summer in India, the early months (late Feb - Apr) are mild and very spring like. The vast country it is, the seasons differ in their intensity from region to region but in my southern home town, these were always the pleasant months. Everything around you would start sprouting new leaves and the tender green mangoes would start to make a show. The anticipation of the upcoming summer holidays and the anxiety of final exam series always competed with each other.

Shivaratri unlike most Indian festivals is less about food and more about going inward in an almost meditative mode. I grew up watching nammamma and anna fasting the entire day even if it was a working day and then have a little portion of food in the evening only once that day. Even in that subdued food scene, there were definitely some Shiva favorites that were always made on the day and one of them is this tambittu. This version is made with rice and jaggery.

On a side note, when I read about the now almost craze ketogenic diets I always think of the fasting where people went without food for days and simply called it 'giving the body a rest' :-). I don't do extended fasting anytime. So I came back home in the evening and made this tambittu for the festival. Pictures are all taken on a hungry stomach and in dim WA winter lights :-). They don't do justice to the delectable dish this is. I will update pictures next time I make tambittu (and remember to take good pictures), until then..

BH & I have developed this habit of popping something sweet in the mouth after meals especially during weekends. Tambittu made a perfect post meal dessert for over 2 weeks for us. There are several variations of tambittu, some people make it entirely with the fried gram without rice flour but this is the recipe I ate when I was little. Nammamma added a small quantity of roasted gram as it helps to bind.

NOTE: Roasted gram/hurikadle is not the same as split bengal gram/chana dal. The former needs no cooking, it is used as a snack and for giving volume in chutneys. The latter needs to be cooked before consuming.

Also this weekend, bidding adieu to a wonderful artist, an actress whose comic timing was par excellence, a heroine who didn't get enough opportunities to give her acting abilities the due they deserved, a mom & wife that met an untimely end. Rest in peace Sridevi Kapoor. 

Ye lamhe ye pal hum, barson yaad karenge,
ye mausam chale gae to hum fariyad karenge

What do you need to make tambittu? 
1 cup rice (any short grain rice, I used sona masoori)
2 Tbsp roasted gram (hurikadle - used to make chutney)
3/4 cup crushed jaggery
1/4 cup water
3-4 green cardamoms
1 Tsp khus-khus (poppy seeds)
1 Tsp white sesame seeds
1 Tbsp dry coconut (kobbari) - I used grated this time, you can chop it into small pieces if you like that texture
1 Tbsp ghee (clarified butter)

How do you make tambittu? 

• Wash rice twice in running water, drain the water and spread it on a thin cloth and let it dry for a couple of hours (This is all done indoors, no drying in the sun)
• When the rice is dry, roast it until lightly pink, and plump up slightly. Switch off and let cool.  
• Once it is cool, take it to the blender jar along with cardamom, roasted gram and grind it into a fine powder. 
• I sieve the powder with a fine sieve and return any coarse powder back to the jar for further grinding and repeat the sieving process until you have a fine powder of all of the rice. 

• Soak jaggery in water for 15 mins so it softens and dissolves. 
• Heat pan, roast poppy seeds, sesame seeds separately until they both turn fragrant. It takes 1.5-2 mins for the quantity here. Take them out onto a plate.
• Roast grated coconut until it turns light pink and toasty, remove it to the plate. 
• Add ghee and roast cashew nuts until they turn light pink, remove them onto the plate. 
• Mix the ground powder with all the ingredients in the mixing bowl. 
• Return the pan to the stove and pour in the soaked jaggery and bring it to a boil on medium heat. It takes about 4-6 mins and becomes thicker. 

• Pour this on top of the dry mixture and bring everything together with a spoon. 
• Wait for a few minutes until the mixture can be handled, pinch off golf ball sized mixture (or any size you prefer), make a ball and make a dip on the top. -> This shape is how nammamma made tambittu, not necessary you should stick to this shape :-). I have seen perfectly round tambittu also. It is your preference. 

• Enjoy the sweet tambittu, stays fresh for about 2 weeks if refrigerated. 

Notes: 

• Do not use sticky rice, basmati and parboiled rice in this recipe. 
• For quick version, you can make this with ready made rice flour, make sure to roast it on low heat until it is fragrant.
• You can use roasted, de-skinned peanuts in place of cashews. 
• You can add cardamom powder instead of grinding them with rice but I prefer the fresh fragrances.
• Tambittu is moist and soft when made but firms up after a rest time. 
• Remove the jaggery syrup before any thread consistency is achieved, getting to a thread consistency makes tambittu hard & chewy. 
• The syrup is enough to make a mixture that can be shaped into balls but if it is a little crumbly/dry (sometimes jaggery variety makes the difference and Indian cooking is not precise :-)), add a spoon of warm milk and bind. 

Vankayai allam koora - a koora (side dish) that brings home the freshness of earth

Just when I was losing faith in the Groundhogs' abilities to predict weather accurately, they returned with a bang on Feb 2nd and declared we were going to have winter for another 6 weeks. How would you contest such accurate prediction :-)? What would we do without these lovable creatures? Though that wasn't the greatest of news, I admire their accuracy, they are way better than most of our weathermen in TV channels. Now that they are done with their one important task of the year (is there anything else they do other than hibernating and popping up once a year?) and met expectations (don't you think the bar is pretty low here!!) and returned underground to continue whatever they were doing, I am left here to stay warm and wait patiently for the onset of warm weather. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about winter but I don't mind seeing the mercury go a little higher on the scale. Whether it is Spring yet or not, I am itching to bring Spring into my kitchen. Today's recipe is one such that brings that whiff of Spring and freshness with ginger.

Spring is somehow wired in my brain as the same as clean, fresh and crisp air and flavors. While there are many herbs and spices that make this happen in the kitchen, ginger definitely tops the list. Combined with the sharpness from green chilies, this masala really elevates fresh vegetables. No powdered spices in this koora, just some tender eggplants sauteed with freshly crushed ginger and chilies and seasoned with a few crunchy dals and mustard, simple enough? This koora works perfectly with rotis or rice.

My advice is to use fresh ginger, take them to a mortar & pestle or another device that lets you crush it. The flavors of ground ginger Vs grated ginger Vs crushed ginger is very different and this recipe definitely loves the crushed version. If you were thinking of using that store bought (or even home made a couple of weeks ago and refrigerated) ginger-green chili paste, please do not do it. There is nothing complicated about this recipe so spend a little time on using freshly crushed ginger.

I have written many posts about eggplant recipes and have also talked about my late blooming love for them. If you are in the mood for reading my eggplant musings just hit the search button and look up other eggplant recipes. My family (except for DD) is of the group where they will give anything for a well made eggplant dish and do not complain if this humble vegetable made its way to their plates every day :-). So our eggplant recipe repertoire is pretty vast as you can probably imagine.

This is a heirloom recipe that is found commonly in most East Godavari Telugu homes. Crushed ginger and green chilies make a really fresh tasting dishes. I add curry leaves because they are one of my favorite flavoring agents in the kitchen. You can replace eggplants with potatoes, and then who doesn't love the spuds?

When I prepared this koora for the first time on my own, I went and looked for the smallest green brinjals thinking that they would be the tenderest ones and hence tastiest too. BH remarked that it had to have some seeds and not be really tiny. He is the expert and I accept my mistakes generously. So the next time I brought home slightly bigger ones and the koora was definitely tastier. So here is my tip to all of you newbies. The tiny ones are picked before they can develop any flavor and they also shed jackets (or skin) as they cook which is not a great experience while eating. The medium sized ones (about a big lime) are the best suited for this koora as they give a meaty texture to it. Pick eggplants that look fresh, are green without any black spots or tiny holes on the skin.

If you noticed, I used both terms - brinjal & eggplant, in Indian cooking there is no difference between the two as they belong to the same general family :-). Local languages distinguish each variety by size and color as pedda vankaya (big eggplant), tella vankaya (the green ones with white interfaces used in this recipe), nalla vankaya or gutti vankaya (usually the small, round purple). I hope the pictures in the post help.

NOTE: Pictures are from 2 different days, the lighter colored one does not have turmeric powder (I do forget sometimes :-)) and also has a Tbsp grated coconut added to it. The original recipe does not have coconut and the dish really doesn't need coconut, but some of you regular readers here already know about my weakness with coconut :-)

What do you need to make vankaya koora? 
8-10 small green brinjal/eggplants
1.5 inch fresh ginger
3-4 green chilies (adjust to your spice tolerance)
6-8 tender curry leaves
2 Tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
Seasoning: 
1 Tsp oil
1/2 Tsp mustard
1/2 Tsp chana dal
1/2 Tsp urad dal
1-2 pieces of dry red chilies (optional)
1/8 Tsp asafoetida/hing

How do you make vankaya koora? 

• Wash the eggplants, remove the stalk end and chop into cubes (really tiny ones are just made into half, medium sized ones chopped into quarters)
• Immediately immerse chopped eggplants into a fresh bowl of water. 

• Heat a wide pan and add 2Tbsp of oil. 
• Strain the water and separate the eggplant pieces. 
• Add the eggplant into the hot oil and stir once so the pieces get coated with oil. 
• Reduce the heat to medium, add salt and turmeric powder, mix once.

• Cover and cook for 5-6 mins on low heat or until the pieces become fork tender.
• Wash, peel and cut ginger into small pieces.
• Take ginger pieces, roughly torn curry leaves and green chilies to a mortar & pestle and crush them into a coarse paste. 

• Once the eggplants are tender, add the ginger-chili paste and give it a good mix. 
• Cover and continue to cook for 2 mins until the flavors mingle well. 

• Switch off and transfer to a serving bowl. 
• Heat the oil for seasoning, add mustard, dals, red chilies (if using) and asafoetida. 
• Let mustard pop and dals turn light pink. 
• Switch off and pour the seasoning over the koora. 

• I prefer to mix the seasoning just before serving as they retain the crunch. 

Notes: 

• Select tender and bright green eggplants. The ideal size is typically a big lime size. 
• Crush the ginger- chili fresh, do not use stored paste for this recipe. 
• We like the ginger flavor, play with the amount of ginger and green chilies you want to use in this recipe as spice tolerances vary.