Menasina/mensin saaru (Pepper Rasam) - you don't need to be under the weather to enjoy this

I grew up in a place that had 3 distinct seasons in a year - summer, winter and monsoon season tucked in between those two. There was no Autumn as I know here and both summers and winters were very mild in Mysuru. All we needed was a hand knit sweater to get us through the winter. But as with any place, when the seasons shifted, it was invariably accompanied by a sore throat, a sneeze or a head cold. It just wasn't called flu season :-) and instead of the preventative flu shots I have grown so accustomed to now, there were a number of home remedies. It feels to me like we as human beings are losing all of the natural defenses of the body as years go by and cannot repair any damages without the help of strong chemicals :-(, which is scary to say the least.

As a child, even with a sister studying to be a doctor, I remember a lot of simple home remedies. A sore throat was dealt with a hot kashaya, a cold was given its due with a spicy tasty mensin saaru, an upset stomach with a soothing yogurt+fenugreek+sugar mixture or better still advised to stay away from food for a more natural healing, a fever was administered bland food devoid of all spices (what a nightmare :-)). I continue this practice even now before reaching out to a bottle of tylanol or something stronger and it works for me.

Some of these home remedies are so delicious that we used to 'fake' sickness just to get nammamma to make a hot and yummy mensin saaru on chilly nights. This saaru is a natural comforter and healer for most weather related, minor illnesses. Even if it didn't cure anything, it was more psychological and I always felt that my sore throat had gotten better after downing a generous tumbler of mensin saaru :-) and would be ready to go on again. We all simply loved this special saaru that seemed to suit the cozy winter evenings so perfectly.

I went to Mysore when DD was born and was welcomed warmly and with much love by nammamma and anna who had become empty nesters by then with all the children having flown out of the nest. The extremely busy lives they had led until recently seemed to have had a break all of a sudden and they had so much time on their hands and were relearning to live their lives with just the two of them. It probably was the first time they were by themselves in any place in the nearly 5 decades of married life. The hurried pace was gone, replaced with a more mature, deliberate and synchronous pace that worked for both of them and the kitchen for the first time seemed to be almost inactive as she didn't have to cook much at all for the two of them. They were ecstatic to have me home for a few days before and after the baby came. While the pre-baby food was all fancy, spicy and exotic, the post-baby phase was focused entirely on nutrition and what was good for the little one :-). Suddenly the house seemed to come alive with family coming over to visit the expectant mom or the new mom & the infant. Just like that nammamma was back in her busy kitchen making all kinds of yummy food.

Nammamma had this saaru on the top of the list of 'allowed food' for women post a child birth. The combination of pepper, cumin and ghee is an accepted post delivery diet food :-). I didn't complain when she served me the mensin saaru day after day following the birth of my baby for an entire month. It was the time for hot steaming rice, warm mensin saaru and a big dollop of home made ghee specially reserved for the new mom but more than all that it meant two doting parents/grand parents sitting by watching me eat the food :-) while the infant made cooing sounds in the background. 3 generations of the family, sharing love and joy with each other! Nammamma would coax me to eat a little more even though I had had a full share of what I could eat :-) and would sit by the side cradling the baby in her arms. We would talk of all things from when she became a mom for the first time to when she became a grand mom for the first time and everything in between and around those time periods. Those couple of months of having my parents all to myself is one of the best memories I hold close to heart. She took extra effort to make sure, I had the freshest of the food and at the right times during the day. There was no stopping her as what I ate and how I felt was not only was affecting me but her new born grandchild as well :-). And I gave in willingly as well.

Mensin saaru continues to be a favorite saaru version even now. DD loves this and her unusual combination is to eat it with plain idlis :-). She likes to dip her idli in a slightly thick consistency mensin saaru and enjoy. We are currently under the weather :-) in every sense of the word. Rain is coming down steadily for the last couple of days and the temperatures have started their journey down south. In addition to the daily 1000mg of Vit-C and a preventative flu shot, I make the mensin saaru regularly. Some days, we drink it up as a soup and on some days, we use it as a side dish. Somehow magically it continues to have the ability to rid us of the annoying flu symptoms!!

This is how wet and gorgeous my neck of woods looks right now

Tip of the day: Use ghee in this recipe to roast the spices instead of oil. Ghee and pepper are known to be a match made in heaven and the difference in taste is miles apart. Our bodies have a better metabolism in winter than summer and you can easily jog/walk away the extra calories :-) but don't replace with a lower fat oil option please!!

Note: There is no tamarind or any kind of tangy agents in this saaru, tamarind is considered to be off limits during a head cold and this saaru tastes divine with the pepper, cumin and ghee.

What do you need to make mensina saaru? 
1/3 cup Toor dal (see notes for variations)
1/4 cup grated coconut
1 Tsp salt
1 Tsp ghee/clarified butter
2 Tbsp milk
To roast:
1 Tbsp urad dal
1/4 Tsp chana dal
1/2 Tbsp coriander seeds
1 Tsp cumin
1/2 Tsp black pepper
1 dry red chili
2-3 curry leaves

How do you make mensina saaru? 

• Wash, pick any dirt from the toor dal and pressure cook it with a pinch of turmeric and 1.5 cups of water. 
• Cook for about 15mins on low heat after the first whistle to get a really mashed up dal. 
• If you are cooking in an open vessel on stove top, I highly recommend soaking the dal for 30-60mins before cooking. 
• Heat ghee in a small pan, add all ingredients under 'to roast' and on a low flame, stirring frequently, roast until the dal turns golden hue (ಹೊಂಬಣ್ಣin Kannada)and you get a heady aroma of the pepper and cumin. 

• Switch off and let it cool
• Grind the roasted ingredients with coconut and 1/4 cup of water until it turns into a smooth paste. 

• Once the pressure subsides from the cooker, open the lid, mash the dal with a whisk and make it into a homogeneous mixture. 

• Add the ground masala paste to the dal along with salt and adjust water to get the right consistency. Remember the saaru thickens as it boils due to the urad dal in the paste. 
• Once it comes to a gentle boil, add milk and let it boil for another couple of minutes. 
• Switch off and let it rest for a few minutes. 

• Serve hot or warm and never cold :-). If you are mixing it with rice, add a dollop of ghee for extra flavor. 

Notes: 

• You can use either toor dal (split pigeon peas) or moong dal (split green gram) for this saaru. 
• The consistency of the saaru is entirely dependent on the intent of its usage. If you want it for drinking make it a thin, butter milk consistency. If you are using it to mix with hot, steamed rice, make it a little thicker. 
• The consistency is controlled two ways, one with water and the other with the amount of dal you add. 
• If you want it as a drink, reduce the amount of dal to about 1.5 Tbsp and add 1/2 cup more of water. 

Gorikaayi Huli (Cluster beans stew/sambar) - Comfort food at its best

We all have our comfort foods. How does one define 'comfort food'? For me, it is food that puts any queasiness in the stomach to rest, makes all real and imaginary discomfort go away, takes me right to that unconditionally happy state of mind. Tall order, you say? Think about it. Most of us, reach out for food as a means of comfort first, necessity later. It is true in my case and that is why I have a hard time controlling my eating :-).

I have multiple 'comfort' foods. Pongal/huggi/khichdi, mosaravalakki with pickle, steamed rice and saaru are some of the easy picks for me when someone asks me about my comfort food. The Karnataka Huli (known popularly as Sambar) is one of my favorite foods in the comfort category as well. This is easy to put together with the goodness of both proteins and vegetables, has the right amount of spices to tingle your taste buds and if made at the right consistency, not only can it be mixed with rice, served as a dip/side dish for rotis, or had straight out of a bowl as a stoup (Stew+soup) on a slightly chilly day.

Huli is a very basic, frequently spotted staple of the home style meal in Karnataka. The vegetables that go into it differ based on the season and accessibility and the lentil used is almost always toor dal or split pigeon peas. Nammamma made some kind of huli every 2-3 days as it was not only easier to make but also would eliminate the need to prepare multiple dishes. She used to have 'huli pudi' or sambar powder in large quantities and store them but always used to add to the freshness with grated coconut and cinnamon, cloves or raw onions depending on the vegetable she used that particular day. Here is how it works - Huli pudi + freshly roasted cinnamon & cloves + coconut for huli made with cabbage or radish, Huli pudi + raw onion+coconut for huli made with menthya soppu (fresh fenugreek greens) or eggplants. You get the idea, right? huli pudi and coconut would be the constants in the ever changing mixture to get the right balance of flavors between the spices and the vegetables. She could have mixed the huli pudi with the cooked dal + vegetable and called it done, it would have tasted good, delicious and no one would have complained. But the extra effort she took to make that every day dish somehow more special spoke volumes of her cooking with love. I don't know how she had figured it all, but every time she made huli, it just tasted divine.

The consistency of the huli varies by its intended usage as well. If you are planning to mix it with steamed rice, the gravy is slightly more liquidish and the lentil is cooked until it is mashed totally. If it is used as a side dish for rotti and rotis, the consistency is thicker. Lentil would be cooked to different degrees of 'softness' based on which vegetable was pairing with it. I love the dal to be holding shape when it is mixed with greens especially. It just makes it a better texture to the dish. Huli also makes an excellent lunch box item when mixed with rice and a little bit of twist, I will talk about it another day.

Nammamma always made huli with a single vegetable. Kootu is a different matter altogether where it is ok and infact required to mix and match the vegetables but Huli is always kept pure with a single vegetable. For me, her huli recipes always stayed at the top of the list of "World's ultimate comfort food" :-). I do not make huli pudi and store like she did because of our limited consumption but always follow nammamma's guidelines of the subtle nuances in the ingredients when I roast the spice mix in an effort to bring the same taste to my table.

Cluster beans - how many of you use this regularly? I see a lot of people scrunching their noses up at the mention of cluster beans. I get it, it is not one of the most popular vegetables. It has a unique flavor that has the potential to tip the balance of the dish if not handled carefully. I recommend to add this to your repertoire, give it a chance to be an 'acquired taste', with a little nudge this humble vegetable actually has the potential to grow on you:-). This is a seasonal vegetable and makes its way as the temperatures go down and once it is ready to harvest, it can really flood the market. Nammamma used to get it regularly and we also grew it in the backyard and harvested many, many baskets of the vegetable. I didn't care much for the stir fry she made with cluster beans but huli definitely is something you want to taste and enjoy.

This is my Day-2 recipe of the week as I let this staple dish from nammamma's kitchen make its way to the blog. My favorite way to eat this is to scoop warm ladle fulls in to a bowl and spoon the deliciousness slowly into the mouth. I don't need any carbs in the form of rice or roti to go with it either. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

What do you need to make Gorikaayi Huli?
20-25 (not too mature) cluster beans
1/2 cup toor dal/split pigeon peas
2 Tbsp black eyes beans (optional, I used it as I had soaked them for something else that day)
1 key lime size tamarind
1/4 Tsp crushed jaggery
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/4 Tsp turmeric powder
4-5 curry leaves
For the spice paste: 
1 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp chana dal/kadle bele
1/2 Tsp urad dal/uddina bele
1/4 Tsp fenugreek seeds/menthya
1 Tbsp coriander seeds
1/4 Tsp cumin
4 black pepper corns
1 inch piece cinnamon
4-5 dry red chilies (adjust based on the heat tolerance)
4-5 curry leaves (optional but recommended)
2 Tbsp grated coconut

For seasoning:
1/2 Tsp mustard seeds
1/8 Tsp fenugreek seeds
1/8 Tsp asafoetida
1 Tbsp oil

How do you make Gorikaayi Huli? 

• Wash, pick any dirt and drain water from the dal. 
• Soak it in 1 cup of water for atleast 30mins
• Wash the cluster beans, and chop tiny portions of the two ends from both sides.
• Chop into inch long pieces. 

• Soak tamarind in 1/4 cup of warm water for 20 minutes and extract the juice, discard any seeds & pith.
• In a pressure cooker, take the pre-soaked dal, pre-soaked black eyed peas (if using), chopped cluster beans, curry leaves, turmeric powder and 2 cups of water. 

• Pressure cook it on medium heat for 3-4 whistles, switch off and let the pressure subside. 
• Heat 1 Tbsp of oil, add all the ingredients listed under spice paste, except for coconut. Roast on medium heat until the spices are fragrant and the dals turn golden. Switch off. 
• Once cool, grind into a smooth paste along with coconut and 1/2 cup of water. Keep this aside until ready to use.

• Once the pressure subsides, open the cooker lid and either transfer the contents to another pot and continue using the pressure cooker as I did. 
• Switch on the stove, put the pot on it, add tamarind extract, jaggery, salt and the ground spice paste. 
• Give it a mix and adjust consistency by adding water as needed. 

• Let the mixture come to a good boil before switching it off. 
• Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a small pan, add all seasoning ingredients and let mustard pop. 
• Pour the sizzling seasoning on top of the huli, cover and let it rest for 15mins before serving.

Notes: 

• Notice how I said 'not too mature' cluster beans and not 'tender' cluster beans. For this recipe, you want slightly mature cluster beans so they have the flavor. If they are really tender, go ahead and make a palya/stir fry as it will not have the flavor to stand out with the huli masala. 
• Since I cooked dal and beans together, I pre-soaked the dal for 30mins to speed up the cooking process. Dal generally takes long time and you don't want the cluster beans to be all mushy. Alternatively, you can cook dal and cluster beans separately until they both reach the cooked consistency you desire. 
• This is one of the special huli recipes which is thicker in consistency compared to normal huli and the lentil is cooked until it is just breaking apart and not completely dissolved. 
• If you do not have a pressure cooker, use a heavy bottom vessel to cook the dal and vegetable but be prepared for atleast an hour of cook time. You can add the cluster beans half way through the process if you are cooking in an open vessel. Slow cooker works well too which doesn't need any baby sitting, you can dump all the ingredients and let it cook for 4-5 hours. 

A pictorial of food & my mother's day ode to the baby that made me a mom

Happy Mother’s day all! Hope all of you mothers and motherly figures had a special day with loved ones. Wishing you all unconditional love and joy in life.

I am not at home this weekend, BH & I flew out to meet DD at school as she finished up her final exams and graduated from a nervous, new-on-campus freshman kid to a confident, young lady ready to start her sophomore journey after a quick summer break. It still seems like yesterday when we dropped her off at the campus last summer, the year went by in the blink of an eye and here we are, moving her out of her dorm room for the summer. The long awaited summer break is here, I know she is going to be able to spend only part of the next 3 months at home while she continues to do the activities her heart is set on for the rest of the time. The baby I hold close to heart is spreading wings beyond what I could have imagined 17 years back. With her kindness and happy enthusiasm to everything around her, she is making me aware of life the way I never would have imagined. She is teaching me via her infectious laugh and never exhausting smile that life is so much more beautiful than I choose to accept sometimes with my adult brain. She is showing me that as long as one is passionate about something, one can make the days stretch beyond what the 'clock on the wall' tells you to get things done. She says things that are so mature and while I am wondering where the wisdom came from, she immediately turns around and giggles like a toddler brightening up my world both ways. I don’t know if I ever taught her any of these things, I wish I could take all the credit for it :-). But she is so much more than me, shaped by the loving, caring family that surrounds her, her teachers and mentors all these 17+ years that have helped silently sculpt the person she is, her circle of friends that support her endlessly. There are several mothers involved in the process of bringing up this child of mine, I am just glad I got to be the lucky one that is called as ‘mom’. When I see this baby I held in my arms not a long while ago and whom I hold in my heart always, for all this and much more, I am thankful for the gift of motherhood and proud of being  her amma. 

Social media is bursting at the seams with all the pictures, quotes, memories, tributes to moms and the one I liked best out of all I have seen so far is this: “Moms are the best because of each of us have the best one” J. Think about it, isn’t it true though?

Every mom, no matter whether she is educated or not, working or not, rich or not, is the best when it comes to the role of being a mother. Something in motherhood that takes away the blemishes of the person and makes her pure magic atleast for as long as she is in that role. Something in the motherhood elevates the person to go beyond what is ordinarily possible, it gives her the strength, the spirit to bring up her child and provide opportunities that never existed for anyone without the ‘mommy’ glasses on eyes.

Tired after all the packing, moving and storing of stuff and a little discouraged by the hot weather in the area, we are mostly staying in and as DD says, “we are lazying out at the hotel room”. While she has had a wonderful time in every other aspect at the campus, food is something she is still struggling to fall in love with or rather atleast like enough to survive on L. She is heading out with a volunteering group for a week long trip, and home food is still atleast 10days away from her. So when I asked her what she wanted to eat during the 4 days she was to stay with us in the hotel, she said, “Everything” with the exception of bread, cheese, pasta. She didn't want to go out (not for every meal atleast) and also wanted as much home food as was possible to make. Knowing that I couldn’t carry my kitchen on my shoulders (Delta airlines wouldn’t have taken kindly to an ordinary passenger like me trying to transport truck loads of stuff on the flight J),  I also had to consider the possibility of setting off alarms by my cooking in an usually closed room. I did the next best thing I could think of, made a plan for the meals and prepped the ingredients as far as I could for DD’s favorite dishes and brought them in my check in. So here we are, sitting in the middle of a city, surrounded by quite a few decent choices for Indian and non Indian food but cooking full fledged meals in a hotel room and enjoying every bit of it. Home made food cooked in the hotel, works for us.

So, I don’t have a recipe today but lots of pictures of what we are serving up these last 3 days, yep, a little showing off too. All these are cell phone quality pictures, not blog worthy for their quality but they have so much love in them which makes them perfect for the blog :-). Most of the ingredients were hand picked and prepped at home, some fresh produce brought here locally, aided by a packet of store bought rotis.  So enjoy the pictures and have a joyous Mother’s day and I will see you all next week with a yummy recipe when I return home.

Uppittu made from a mixture of roasted rave & semia, served with chutney pudi

Uppittu, chutney pudi and delicious tomato saaru

Menthya soppina bhaath, with MW roasted papad and salad

Delicious bhaath studded with golden roasted spuds

Tender cucumber, carrots, loads of cilantro and fresh lime juice

Yogurt rice with pickle, yummm!!!

2 kinds of roti, eggplant palya, dal, sweet mangoes and mosaravalakki in the background

Red lentils cooked with lemon cucumber and cilantro

Add caption

Broccoli stir fry a south Indian simple carrot palya

And we have a favorite restaurant here in town we have visited a couple times and go there for the yummy, mysore special akki rotti and the thick, golden roasted Mysore masala dose just like you crave for, makes your day :-)

Akki rottiiiiii, special only means extra coconut :-)

Not hotel oily mysuru masala dose

And then there is a beautiful temple in the town where you get the perfect temple prasada :-) along with divine darshana!

Idli, chutney & sambar, yes pickle too :-)

Full plate - vangi bhaath, mosaranna, mixture, kesari bhaath & pickle

Another combo plate - replace vangi bhaath with puliyogare

I am sure you can all see how we are surviving with our limited access to our favorite kinda food :-), I am sure all the eating and sitting in the room is making me go back home heavier than I came here 5 days back with. Not something Delta will notice but I sure will have to breathe in, jump a little to fit myself into office clothes come Wednesday morning.