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. 

Doddapatre (Cuban Oregano)Tambuli - Cooling the body and the soul and some exciting chukbhuk news :-)

Last week has been such a rushed one what with amma complaining about a back pain that pretty much tied to her room and bed for a couple of days. She is the backbone of the family and when she is down, typically life seems down too :-(, Woman power in our household in not at all exaggerated. On that note, Happy Women's day everyone!

Then BH started coughing and sneezing and like always didn't go to the doctor until it brought him down royally during the midweek, makes me wonder if my 'nagging' abilities are kind of becoming diluted over time :-). Finally, when he couldn't sleep for 2 straight nights and also kept the rest of the house up & awake, realization dawned on and he came back from the doctor with a handful of antibiotics. He is on the mend, slow and sure recovery. I am hoping to not catch any bugs for a while but then they don't really listen to me, do they?

On a positive note, my Maddur vade post got published in Indian railways Railbandhu magazine. You write something that is close to your heart not even thinking about the audience it may reach and then someone from the other side of the world finds it and reaches out to you. It is exhilarating. I wasn't even aware that Indian railways had a magazine and when they contacted me in Jan stating they liked the post (not just the recipe but the write up about train journeys) and wanted to publish, I was more than happy to nod my head. The entire post is not on the magazine for lack of real estate, however it is an abridged version of my original post. If you are in India and travel in railways, look up the magazine if you have time. I received a pdf version of the monthly and here is a picture of the same. Happiee me..

I have a very simple, homely, almost rustic recipe today that won't be on the menu in any restaurants. You will have to knock on the doors of people who continue home cooking in Mysore region and ask them for a bowl of this delicious tambuli. Yep, that is the only way to get your hands on this ever green, soul happy dish. I have a couple of recipes for tambuli on the blog, here & here but what I have today is the queen (it could have been king I suppose but since I am writing the post on International Women's day :-)) of tambulis made with doddapatre (dodda~big, patre~leaf) or cuban oregano.

This is my favorite tambuli variety, nammamma always had this bush growing in the yard as far as I can remember and it used to be on the menu regularly and more frequently in summers. She would serve it as the first course on a hot afternoon and the taste & fragrance of the leaves just freshens you up. I have had it in pots for over 8 years now. The herb like the regular oregano is easy to grow and grows wild if allowed but pots seem to restrain the free growth. Some of my Tamil speaking friends have borrowed it to be used as medicine, I believe the leaves are crushed and the juice is applied on the forehead to get relief from common cold and congestion. It may not be easily available in your garden stores around the world but you can order it online. Growing it in the pot is easy, don't expose it to extreme temperatures and harvest the leaves regularly. DD loves it so much that she won't eat anything else on the days I make it for lunch.

My inlaws live on the outskirts of Bengaluru in a self contained educational campus filled with students but devoid of any of Bengaluru city's pollution (atleast thus far). The air is clean, mornings are filled with the music of birds & stray dogs, unadulterated cool breeze freely fills the surroundings. While staying so far away from the city has these advantages, it also becomes essential to be self sufficient. The surrounding villages have stepped up along with the college itself reserving land for farming. You get the fresh vegetables but also get the instant maggi noodles and the likes to satisfy the student population :-). I guess everyone thrives. The people who live on campus (other than students) are typically the teaching staff and management and the housing has developed in to a colony.

On our last India visit, DD & I were generally walking around on our last day in Bengaluru around the campus and came across a small park not far from the house. There is an elderly lady who lives right across and is a mega gardening enthusiast. She has plants all around her house and also have adopted this park to grow plants of all varieties, you will find vegetables, fruits, flowers which just makes the area so colorful and chirpy. She invited us to come see her park and we went with her. As I was admiring the pomegranates, guavas, chikkoos hanging from the branches, DD saw something that made her jaw drop and she quietly sat down. Curious, I went near her to see what she had found and burst out laughing.

There was the doddapatre plant creeping so generously all over the ground that she had never experienced the abundance in our restricted pot growing. The lady thought we didn't know what it was and started to explain the medicinal values, looking at DD's face I knew what I had to do and asked the lady if I could pick some leaves. As soon as she said yes, we went to her house to get a small bag and picked the leaves to our heart's content, here was the catch, we were heading back that night. So the leaves got all washed up as soon as we reached home, roasted in ghee and ground with coconut and yogurt. The freshness of the leaves still in our throats, we finished our 'head out' meal and made our way to the airport. BTW, this makes an excellent dip for maddur vade if you want to try them together :-)

I recently read an article about why Indian food is so tasty where the research says that Indian cooking seems to blend flavors that are vastly contradictory unlike others where things that complement each other are used in a recipe. I don't know all the science behind it but one statement caught my eye which read that typical Indian recipes are complicated medley of ingredients and usually have upwards of 6 ingredients. Here is my very humble, simple yet exotic in taste and medicinal value - Doddapatre tambuli for all of you to try with a small set of ingredients.

What do you need to make doddapatre tambuli? 
30-35 medium sized dodda patre (cuban oregano)
1 Tsp ghee (clarified butter)
1/2 Tsp black pepper corn
1/2 Tsp cumin seeds
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/2 cup grated/shredded coconut (fresh or frozen)
1 cup yogurt (home made and a day old preferred, or use plain yougurt from the store)

How do you make tambuli? 

• Wash the leaves under running water a couple of times and pick any stems that might have made their way. 
• Heat ghee in a thick pan on medium heat
• Add pepper & cumin seeds, let them sizzle (1-1.5 minutes)

• Roughly chop the cleaned leaves and add it to the pan. 
• Add salt and mix well. 

• Roast for 3-4 minutes until leaves turn into a mush and leave water.
• Switch off and let cool completely. 

• Grind the roasted mixture along with coconut into a smooth blend, use the water that is in the pan. 
• Add yogurt and run the mixer a couple of times to get a homogeneous mixture. 

• Serve it with piping hot rice and enjoy the unforgettable experience. 

Notes: 

• Slightly tangy yogurt brings out the best taste, if your yogurt is too plain, add a small piece of tamarind and grind. I have done this and DD was none the wiser so it is a great tip :-)
• Use ghee in this recipe instead of oil if you can, it really brings the taste. 

Jeerige kashaya - A sinusitis relief from the old world, spices lead the way all the way

Those of you that suffer from bouts of sinusitis, I am sure will empathize when I say it is one of the worst kind of pains. There was a period in my life I used to have cold, sniffles visiting me with such accurate periodicity that I could count my days of the month by it :-). For a perfectly healthy and active adolescent, this was a bane of existence. And then the seemingly normal cold & cough would turn into splitting head aches and completely blocked nasal passages, not a pretty picture, ha? First time akka told me it was sinusitis or an infection of the nasal passages, I was actually glad that there was an official medical term describing it. It used to be very disruptive and according to my Engineering school classmates, I lacked resistance and hence my nose needed to be fitted with a couple of mega ohms resistors from the electrical lab. I know, I know, Engineering students and their PJs, the brain is exhausted running semester marathons.

So once the diagnosis was made, I used to be on a course of antibiotics and tall glasses of this kashaya to make me feel better. I liked the kashaya better than the medication but I know Akka will say it was the latter that helped more :-).

I am not a doctor nor am I qualified to provide any authentic claims of health benefits from this kashaya but this post is all about my personal experience with the kashaya. Kashaya is a slightly sweetened herbal drink and uses different Indian spices. And there are many variations to the kashaya recipe depending on what it is trying to be a medicine for. Just search for the health benefits of each of the ingredients that go into the kashaya and you will get a lot of information and I will leave it to you to sieve the facts from fiction.

In many Indian homes, cumin/jeera/jeerige is the first 'go-to' spice after a heavy meal as it is meant to help in the digestion. BH promptly reaches out to a spoonful of cumin after a sumptuous meal, it is a habit from his grandmother. Alternatively, you can be prudent while eating and avoid over eating also :-).

Nammamma never uses white sugar in the kashaya, it is usually the kallu sakkare/kalkandu/rock candy, there are 2 versions you generally get in stores and the red/pink colored ones are considered better in medicinal drinks compared to the white ones. I got some saffron flavored rock candy a few weeks back from a Farsi friend and I used that. If you do not have access to rock candy, use jaggery or bella.

Over the years, my frequent cold/cough became infrequent and I am practically free of this nuisance, but when I do occasionally get it, I come down not just with a bang but a thud and them moan and bemoan some more until I can get all the attention and TLC from the family :-). So when I fell sick this past weekend with a jumbo cold, cough and infected sinus, poor BH was incharge of making sure that the World didn't come to a stand still. The man is full of good intentions, he promptly went, boiled a glass of milk, crushed some lot of pepper and put a big pinch of turmeric with some sugar and brought it to me. While that drink felt wonderful that afternoon, by evening the remaining portion had turned bitter with the turmeric. So, after I got up the next day, I made some kashaya and here it is promptly going on the blog so BH has a reference when the wife climbs the bed sniffling and coughing and generally looking pathetic. I love blogging for all these fringe benefits :-)

So if you have a blocked nose from cold, make this kashaya, keep a box of tissues handy, bend your face down and gulp the hot (not warm), soothing kashaya and mentally follow it as it passes through your tongue and throat. You will see your nose clearing up and your hand reaching out to that box of tissues. A couple of tall glasses of kashaya and you are good to go.

Tip: Adjust the pepper to a little higher than your normal tolerance level.

What do you need to make Jeerige kashaya? 
4 cups water
1 Tsp cumin
3/4 Tsp black pepper
small piece of ginger
1/2 Tsp coriander seeds
1/2 Tsp honey
1 inch piece of rock candy or kallu sakkare/jaggery
1/2 cup milk

How do you make Jeerige kashaya? 

• Take the pepper, cumin and coriander in a mortar & pestle and pound them lightly so they open up. Do not crush into fine powder.
• Wash, peel and cut ginger into thin julienne. 
• Add water in a big sauce pan, add all the spices into it and let it come to a boil.
• Simmer and let it boil for 5-7 minutes, let the spices show their magic. Water will reduce a little bit.

• Add the rock candy and honey and boil just until they dissolve. 

• Add the milk and let it continue to boil for another 2-3 minutes. 
• Switch off the stove. 
• Use a fine sieve and filter the kashaya into a glass and drink it hot. 

Notes: 

• Do not make a fine powder of the spices as it tends to add a bitterness to the kashaya. 
• The sweetness from the honey & candy sugar is to balance the spices but do not over do it. You can skip one of them if you choose to or increase the quantity slightly. 
• The color of the drink changes based on the ingredients used, if you use regular jaggery, you will get a much darker shade of brown. Since my sweeteners were light colored, the drink has just a light hue pushing it away from milky white. 
• I like to make a couple of servings of kashaya at a time to keep it fresh. You can reheat the sieved kashaya to make it hot. 
• There are other types of kashayas that use different herbs and spices, I will get to them sometime but this is my favorite one.

It was purely coincidental that I noticed a message on the FB about an event and I think my Jeerige Kashaya is a perfect entry to the Hearth & Soul blog hop.