Monday, July 17, 2006

My Mom's Cooking..

Kappa and Mulakupottichathu

Steaming cylindrical pieces of creamy white ‘Malabar’ kappa with crushed onion, crushed green chili /red chilly laced with coconut oil and salt..
Ooh..! My tongue burns in pleasure filled memories of those monsoon evenings as I soothed the spicy taste with hot coffee…watching the rain drops pattering down..

Ice cream
Milk, egg vanilla essence sugar.. Beaten and cooked over a water bath and poured into ice trays and chilled.. That was ice-cream for us.. Frozen and crunchy or smooth and soft.. We licked it up.. Greedily.. Like puppies..

Prawn fritters

Prawns marinated in spices dipped in corn flour paste and deep fried.. We gulped it down in dozens..

Pidi and chicken mulakuchar

The ultimate comfort food.. Globules of rice powder dough cooked in coconut milk and mild spices paired with very spicy chicken curry with fried and grounded red chilly.. Delicious.. Delectable. It is still my favorite dish..

Appam and mutton stew.
Soft lacy white appams with a bland ( she didn’t add much spices) mutton stew in thick coconut milk.. She prepared it for all those Christmas and Easter breakfasts.. Still do.. ( Appams are ordered these days)my sons pig out on them.. I too shamelessly..( That’s why she orders them these days I think..)
:))

Pal payasam
Just milk, rice, cardom, sugar.. I still don’t know how she managed to concoct that delicious semisolid stuff that filled us with heavenly sweetness

Inji kari and Manga kari

The steaming hot kanji, mangakari and inji Kari she made on Good Fridays.. Made us obsessively gulp down the lunch… our stomach growling after the breakfast that had been skipped..

Snehamoru
Light yellow bland buttermilk she made lovingly when our tiny bodies or minds were hurting. Along with plain rice it never failed to soothe out or troubled bodies, emotions or soul..

Cakes.
Rock cake, sponge cake, lazy daisy cake, lemon cake, chocolate cake,
I remember the aroma of the cakes baking in the oven filling our home … welcoming and tantalizing us.. on those long lost evenings as we walked into our garden after a hard day in the school..

Ribbon rice

The ultimate gourmet dish she prepared for special occasions.. Basmati rice, prawn with thick gravy, coriander chutney.. All these layered and baked.. To form a multicolored layered dish.


Bittu’s mamma tagged me.. Im supposed to write ten dishes that I miss from my moms cooking..and I enjoyed doing it..

Yes I miss my moms cooking…While I was a child she used to painstakingly try out new elaborate, exotic dishes while we waited in bated breath for the end product. Somehow she doesn’t do that now.

I enjoy cooking.. But I don’t have the patience to try out elaborate dishes.. I stick to simple yummy stuff.. 'Life is too short to stuff a mushroom’ That is my motto..

My mom is different.. Her ‘life’ is her family. She is so focused on cooking and caring for us..

My eyes are moist as I write this.. She injured her fingers in the grinder today while she was preparing breakfast.. Lacerated wound… two fingers with split nails.. Wound ha been sutured.. She is on antibiotics and painkillers.. She stays 200 km from me..I couldn’t go to her.. I just monitored everything over the phone. She should heal in a few days..

I can’t help thanking you mom.. For all the hours you sweated over the stove.. Stirring.. boiling.. frying and baking.. Burning your hands, cutting your fingers, scalding your cheeks. Eyes watering and sneezing over burning spices.. To quench our hunger.. Tickle our palates and make us grow…

people i wish would take up this tag..
silverine
alexis
geo
sarah
velu

23 comments:

esvee said...

I had kappa and mulaku pottichathu three days back. I love kappa.Lucky for me, we get kappa in KWT .By the way i made the mulaku pottichathu and it came out nice.second time lucky! ( hey did i hear someone say "big deal!"?)

By the way first to comment?

esvee said...

oops! forgot to mention " steaming kattan kappi"

Now i must have kappa today evening..look what you did Doc... :-)

hope and love said...

but malabar kappa, molakupottichathu kattan kappi.and monsoon is the ideal combination.. you dont get monsoon in kuwait na..?
:))

Anonymous said...

:))

LOL ... yeah right.. we sure have monsoon in Kuwait.. just that its more of dust strom then rain strom..lol...

I hope Amma recovers well & fast...I so so wish there was a way I can bear on myself others physical pain...and Doc I am ok Mentally.. well I certainly think so!! :P

Anonymous said...

Darn!!! OK I wish I could explain my spelling mistakes....

hope and love said...

jagguuu.. dont worry.. my spelling is horrible..
:))

Rose said...

Oh GOOOOOOOD!!!

I actually have water in my mouth..

Y? Y? Y?

Why are u killing me softly???

:D

..Me

esvee said...

@ hope and love ...i will keep the shower running,hear the sound of water falling,close my eyes and then have kappa...for additional effect i can always wet my face in the shower too...

@jaguu...my throat is still suffering from the last weeks dust storm....

Sarah said...

Pidi..Gosh after reading your blog, I remembered eating tht.. Ammachi used to make t for me, whenever I refused to eat puttu and kadala.. I don't remember it having a coconut milk sauce.. what I had was steamed pidi that I dipped in coconut milk..( chakki used to put extra sugar in the cocnut milk for me!!)

Hope Amma is feeling better!

Geo said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Scrumptious tag, I am going to like doing this one :)

p.s. blogspot is blocked in India by the authorities temporarily, pending some investigations into the mumbai blasts..so if you have trouble accessing your blog just type http://www.pkblogs.com/angel-doc to reach your posts :)

mathew said...

Lipsmacking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sigh!!!..only if had a magic wand to get all those delicacies!!

Movie Mazaa said...

more than the delicacies on display, which I'm sure, shud be absolutely delectable, i wud say that this post is one wonderful tribute to motherhood. way to go, doc!

and the tag on me?! its an honour.
:)

Geo said...

You should be banned from blogging :_(
This is not fair … come on!!!! Now you better prepare each of those dishes and send them to me asap :)

Too good description doc, too good. :)
Luv and care to your mom…

Anonymous said...

I miss my mom's cooking on the weekdays now. :(

Jo.

Sujit said...

wonderful dishes although i ate only 2 of those entire list of receipe.. hope your mom is getting better!..

silverine said...

Have done the tag :)

Hope your mom is alright now!

hope and love said...

txs alexis, and il do thata tag sooooooon..
:))
esvee.. i know i was spiteful.. u r very sweet..
:))
hope u had a great time..
iic, my mom added coccont mikk or grated cocconut..
txs silverine.. u really helped me with that advice..
mathew and velu.. txs a lot..
:))
geo.. nee ingu vaaaa... njan ondakki tharam
jo, u r welcome here..
:))
sujith.. hmmm true.. they all r mallu recipies..

Bittu's Mamma said...

:) Doc, Thanks a lot for doing the meme, so nice of you!I was on a short vacation so just now got the chance to read your post. Wow that whole list sounds so yummy and I wish I can meet your mom now :)
How is amma now? I hope she recovered well...

SeePearrl said...

I am hungryyy lolzzz!

Pradip Somasundaran said...

What an intellectual eternal smell and taste this very thought gives! Yes remind me of many many wonderful moments....

pophabhi said...

Awesome post, Doc. Its really triggered my appetite. Your mother must have been a great cook. Cheers to her.
Ok let me go to some Bangalore Kerala mess. At least that.

Anonymous said...

Frankly, what I see in ur blog is not what others see.
I like that last 2 paras than the descriptions of those yummy dishes!!


~P M