Bhakshanam

The other day I saw a flyer pinned up  on our apartment notice board.  A helpful handy option for working, non-working but lazy, non-working but busy moms.  A place where they can take order for lunch boxes of school children.  And menu was what exactly “new kids”  loves to gobble everyday.  Sandwiches, burgers and finger chips.  The charge was quite reasonable and affordable.

Long ago, my mom who is not so busy or lazy, had invented a better and healthy menu for quick lunch boxes.  Though it was not very popular but worked well once in a week. It was curd rice and the best liked pickle. The “new kids”, are very selective and fussy with their taste, are not ready to even give a  try to this food.  The reason being “burger kids” just have too many options to list out for their lunch boxes.  We parents, also do not want to see the unfinished boxes.

Okay, still there goes some taste buds that nibbles anything for the pickle.  The list goes on with pickle as main dish for them, and sides go with chapathi, curd rice, dosas, rotis, only rice and ghee.  As for me, pickle and curd rice, the taste rediscovered, when we made mango pickle.  That might trigger the taste buds of our “Burger kids”.

And here is how we cut heaps of raw mangoes at home and pickled to perfection.

You need:

Raw Mangoes – 1 Kilo, squarely chopped

Pickle powder – 100 gm (Easter pickle powder)

Oil – 4tbsp

Mustard – 1 tsp

Green chilies – 1/2 cup, chopped

Ginger – 2″  finely chopped

Curry leaves – a handful

Fenugreek – 1 Tbsp, roasted and powdered

Asafoetida – 1/4 tsp, powder

Salt to taste

How to pickle:

• Cut the raw mangoes into small pieces along with the skin. Mix with salt and keep it aside for half hour.
• Toss raw mangoes with the pickle powder to a semi liquid consistency. Do not add water.
• Heat the oil, crackle the mustard seeds, add up green chillies, ginger and curry leaves. Lightly saute it.
• Roast fenugreek till brown and finely powder and add to the above ingredients. Sprinkle Asafoetida.
• Mix all the above ingredients along with mangoes and stir well for 30 seconds.
• Allow it to settle.
• Once settled and cooled, fill it in a glass jar or Bharani.
• Heat up little oil and pour it over the stored  pickle so that it should not get exposed to the air.
• Close it air tight. You can use a cling film along with tight lid.
• Ready to use it after 3-4 days.

Note :

Do not cook the mangoes. But mix it with hands.

Refrigerate the pickle if you are not using it for months since there is no preservative is added.

Preparing curd rice:  There is a method to make curd rice taste like curd rice.  Add up simple tadka with mustard seeds, curry leaves, urad dal, ginger and green chilies to the cooked rice.  Mix the rice with a table spoon of curd, salt and fill up as much milk as you want. Keep the rice closed.  You can use the curd rice after 4 -5 hours.

Sadya – festive food

Eenthapazham – Date fruit – Khajoor

Achar – pickle

What is the fond memory of beetroot that is common to every woman during their childhood?   -  a dash of Magenta on the lips when mommas used to chop beetroot for some dish.  I see these days, two year olds also licking on mom’s lipstick.  Personally, i never liked the taste of beetroot, but, I always liked cutting, with all that bright purple color smearing the hand.

Till i attended my sister in law’s wedding at our house in kannur, all i knew with beetroot is some dry fry – palya and some soup though never tried. In wedding lunch,  I could barely make out this licking sensation sitting in the corner of plantain leaf, with all those 12 – 14 variety of dishes that usually covers up the leaf leaving behind no gaps in between them, except the combined taste that goes as tradition in any wedding sadya in kerala. To a meager eater the set up on the leaf looks belly full even before starting the meal.  But this achar once t(a)ested has to be hint of every bite you take from that leaf till you complete the sadya.

The preparation of pickles happens almost a week before the sadya and stored to get ‘that’ taste that goes along with every bite. Of course any taste changes if prepared in large quantity.  Here goes the smaller version of Eenthapazham- beetroot achar.

What do you need

Date fruit – 250 gms de-seeded and chopped lengthwise

Beetroot – 1 cup grated long (~ 200 gms)

Ginger – 1tbsp grated

Garlic – one small bulb – slit into halves

Green chilies – 4 long ones – 1tsp – chopped

Curry leaves – 1 big string

Vinegar – 150 ml

Pickle masala powder – 3 tbsp ( I prefer Eastern pickle powder)

Salt – adjust to the taste

Sugar – 2tsp

Method:

Mix all the Ingredients mentioned above nicely, preferably with the help of a masher, so that all the ingredients blend with each other.  The main part of preparation is adjusting the taste.  The tanginess or the saltiness  can be varied by the addition of salt and vinegar depending on the taste that is liked.

This can be stored for a month. Color of the pickle changes as it gets older but the taste almost remains the same.  Make sure to store it in a clean and dry bottle.

while chopping Date fruit, smear the knife with little bit of oil so that it does not get sticky.