The batch of 2015

Please welcome, the Vadams of Cupertino,  batch of 2015!

Don't know how many will actually graduate in a few days to storage.. 

Yet again, Simba is guarding them from the backyard critters.. have added a spade to convey the message "don't mess with this!"

The maavu was very yummy and that means we might eat a few "while they are drying"

Same process as before, but this year a twist. Made a second batch where half the Sago (tapioca) was still raw and mixed it in for the last 30 minutes of stirring. It gives the vadam the built in "beads"

Will have to wait and see how well they taste after frying or microwaving!

This year, I really want to try and make Koozhu vadam, using San's grandma's recipe. It involves fermenting a rice paste over a three day period and then making vadam. Will have to wait a few weeks before trying that out. We have to preserve these recipes and pass it on. 

Someday, maybe the kids will show their kids this blog and make some vadam's. It seems highly unlikely, but then again, if you would have asked my grandma "who and where do you think your vadam recipe will still be tried out in the family?"... Cupertino would have been the least likely answer. 

Taro (சேப்பங்கிழங்கு) Curry - Do it yourself Videoblog

The traditional way of making Taro (சேப்பங்கிழங்கு) curry that my mother taught me is by staring to boil them whole.

We used a pressure cooker to boil the root (irrespective of how ugly and muddy it was) and then remove the skin after putting it in cold water (thermal shocking the skin!). 

It would still not peel off easily like a potato and needed some delicate care during the peeling process. Otherwise most of the stuff would be thrown away with the skin. Also it was not a nice experience peeling the skin off pressure cooker boiled Taro as it was very slimy and slippery to touch. The curry was usually made with large pieces and the end product would roast on select areas but for the most part would be mushy.

Recently a  us Taro, but potato curry style. It was crisp and not goopy! The secret? Peel it like a potato and almost fry it! Had to give this a try, but this method is very very labor intensive. It takes more time to get the thing cut than to actually make the curry.

The kids and San were out of the house for an hour and that gave me a chance to try this. Given I am still moping around with the antibioitics and no painkillers, this was a good idea to take my mind off things and do something I like! 

Here is a valuable tip. Pick the Taro carefully at the Indian store. Pick well rounded large size Taro without too many cuts and crevices as it makes this approach easier. Pick ones with the highest volume for a lowest surface area.. ie., pick nice round ones! 

The end result was yummy and crispy. Hope you have fun trying this at home.. when you have a lot of time on your hands! 

ps. The same procedure pretty much applies to Okra curry (you don't have to put it in turmeric water after cutting).. and to Plantain curry (there you put the cut vegetable in water with some tamarind paste.. aka tartaric acid to prevent it from going black and sticking together). 

Kitchen fun

Getting back in the kitchen more often these days, just on a whim!

Made some "Adai" with the little one for company. 

Adai : ~18 % protein (batter made from rice and lentils)

It is good to be back!

What does China have to do with Thachchi Mammu!

After almost a year, bought a book! Yes, this is a big deal now for a guy who used to buy books while going on walks near Pondy Bazaar or Luz Corner in Madras or Rittenhouse square in Philadelphia.. 

The book is "The China Study" and it was a recommended read from at least 12 of my friends who saw my rants on corn syrup, the difficulty in projecting the value of what good food is to our kids and my occasional fights with San where we have basic disagreements that typically goes like this..

I come back from Yoga class wearing a small shorts (dubbed Jigina Jetty by the little one and Jr.) and the little one says "Appa, your legs and hands look like horsies appa!"

Me : (on cloud nine) Really! See Sangeetha, while I don't have much body fat and cannot adapt to cold weather these days, the kids can see that I am all toned muscles now!

San : Naalukku naal nee skeletonaa aayindu vare! (day by day you are becoming a skeleton). You should be eating more protein. You come take 3 hour naps in the afternoon on weekends. all you do is Yoga and sleep these days.  etc. etc. etc. 

There were a lot of protein recommendations from friends as well and most of them also recommended that this book be read, ASAP!

Have finished only 64 pages so far and the summary seems to be .. 

1. Protein in excess of 12% in diet is bad

2. Milk based Casein protein is the worst offender

3. Vegetable based protein like Soy and fruits/veggies is okay 

4. Meat is totally off the table 

In order of badness Meat >>> Milk >>Plants

Now the last three weeks has been a study in Labels for typical foods that we eat. This is not easy because most of the lentils etc. we buy from Indian store just have a small sticker on them which show weight and price. With some more internet research have found the following % for stuff we eat most of the time:

Dal (lentils we eat with rice) 23% , Milk (20%), Buttermilk (20%), occasional ensure milshake for breakfast (19%), Sago (0% if label is to be believed), Sona Masoori rice (7%), Atta from which we make Roti (12%), Almonds which I eat raw almost every day (40%), eggo waffles (6%), popcorn (4%), Aunt Jemima Original Syrup (0% if the label is to be believed), Zico Coconut water (0% if the label is to be believed), Dry roasted Edamame which we buy from Costco and use as a time pass snack at work (40%), Potato as a sample vegetable? (9%).. Most of the green vegetables are ~5% if you compare by grams and if you compare ratio of Protein calories to total calories a lot of these numbers change. Maggi Noodles, which is part of the staple diet comes in at 9%!

Now, going by this book, a few things are obvious :

1. I am already getting way too much protein compared to what is required even with the original diet (without the extra lentils)

2. The good news is most of this is from Vegetable sources (given Lentils, Edamame and Almonds go in this category)

3. The bad news is I drink two glasses of Chai a day (50% milk) and eat lots of Rice with Yogurt (Thachchi mammu). That is all 20% milk protein. Don't know if cutting that back is even an option.

4. Corn is not a bad deal w.r.t. protein intake. 

All this only after first few chapters. Will keep reading to see what the authors say..

My feeling tired could simply be a combination of exercise and work or travel pressures and have nothing to do with Protein intake. 

Have not yet read the part about the Study in China.

One interesting thing that keeps coming up in my mind. These studies were all done with milk from American cows that are not exactly vegetarian holy cows that are fed better than the humans that feed them. The American cows are fed ground meat as part of their diet. 

Would a study of milk protein derived from Holy Indian vegetarian cows vs. Non Vegetarian body building American cows show a difference in instances of cancers? 

Just like all proteins are not equal, maybe all milk based proteins are not equal? 

I now have to go research if the Yogis in the Himalayas actually gave up Milk! The Yogis and the Shaolin Monks seem to have figured out all this stuff already?! Maybe all we had to do was listen to our elders instead of having to kill a few thousand rats to figure out the obvious?!

It has been an interesting read and it is not going to be easy to take recommendations that come in this book and put it to practice. Not because we are just fighting a food industry and its marketing dollars, but because we are trained on a diet from the time we are kids and those preconceived notions are hard to change!

Mor Milagai (மோர் மிளகாய்)

Most of you know that I am the Chairman of the Cupertino Thachchi Mammu Rasigar mandram. It is a known fact that the folks in our house can eat Thachchi mammu (rice with plain yogurt) 3x faster when using a deep fried hot chilli pepper as a side! 

Most of my non-desi colleagues at work have tasted the chilli and found it to be unbearably hot. We made some recently given the hot weather. 

Half dried..

Fully dried after 1 week! 

Every grandma has a slight variation on this recipe. This is San's Madras grandmas recipe. 

step 0 (this is being added as a correction! my apologies for missing this on the orginal post) : Soak a spoon of Fenugreek (methi) seeds in a small cup of water overnight.

Take long chillis (in our case I got them from the local Indian store. They were Thai chillies, for best results use the desi Chillies) and cut a slit in them along two sides.

Step 2 : Soak some tamarind in warm water(1/2 cup) for few hours and filter it. (you want the water).

Step 3 : Take soaked Fenugreek seeds and put it with the tamarind water and beat in mixie

Step 3 : Put this in plain buttermilk (you want the ones which dont have the yellow stuff in them) 1 cup

Step 4 : Soak the peppers in this for two days (keep indoors)

Step 5: Drain the liquid (dont toss it, save it) and spread the Chili in Sun to dry

Step 6 : at night put the half dried Chili back in the liquid and soak

Repeat steps 5 and 6 till you run out of liquid and then dry for a few more days till the Chili are completely brittle dry.

Deep fry in oil and you are ready to eat some Thachchi mammu!

Will update this later with my grandma's recipe..