Hand of taste.

The only thing which linger in my mind after Diwali is the Ladoos .It happened all of a sudden, the planning and organizing a Diwali fest in our school, the interior decorations to do, the dishes to prepare. Yes, everything happened all of a sudden.We decided upon Badusha, samosas and Ladoos, of all three , words stammered when the word Ladoo was uttered, even the fingers trembled when we wrote Ladoo on the menu card. All this left us to have a food trial for Ladoo. I would rather call it a Ladoo trial.

Chef B, is very much confidant and revealed the secret recipe for Ladoo, its color and consistency.His excessive confidence words gave self assurance to everyone present in the kitchen, the result of the food trial - Excess sweet, poor color, and uneven size. Food trial is an experiment , perhaps there is always a chance to learn from the mistakes.

On the day of our school Diwali fest, the process went like this for preparing Ladoos. Bengal gram flour batter, deep fried into tiny boondis with a perforated spoon, the fried boondis went directly into warm sugar syrup, after twenty minutes the soaked boondis were spread out on a tray for shaping(Round shape). Unlike the food trial , the Ladoos turned out perfect, but I sensed some stammering when we uttered the word perfect.

A day after , its Ladoo again at Amaravishi place, the deep fried gram flour batter resulted in soft boondis , then the marriage between the boondies and the sugar syrup began by pounding it with a ladle, which lasted for twenty minutes, not to forget the fried nuts , the shaped ladoos were beyond perfect. There was a balance in everything, now you know the reason why only ladoos linger in my mind after the festival of lights.

I'm not comparing the three Ladoos, its picking the best among all. In future if I come accross any other ladoo, the Ladoo at Amaravishi's place remains the best. I do not want to research the reasons behind it, because I beleive something called Hand of taste in cooking, and it exists in great quantity at Amaravishi's kitchen.

Pancake, pancake & poppyseeds

Whats the name?
The customs of our community in nilgiris are myriad, and the food’s and our eating habits is also the same, there are many who visit our village just to Eat, Eat and Eat. More importance is given to quantity and no wonder many guest get tired, tasting the cup of tea in all our houses. Many from nilgiris know that our community is notable for its hospitality.

I still remember my early years in my village. Those raw plums we pluck, those huts we built with ferns, of all those early memories, and my favorite pancake and the pancake fest are just in front of my eyes. Those pancakes we prepare for the dead ones and cows, the name of the fest is Sakalathy. Star, moon, sun, snake and many things were depicted in front of our houses with ashes from the kitchen, in the center of the front yard a large brass plate with rice; udhaka (badagas gravy) and pancake were presented for the cow, which visit every house to taste, a sign of good luck.

After the cow, it’s the ghost’s turn; it is believed that the dead one’s from each family will eat the pancakes which we throw in to the green bush, and all the little boys join together with handful of pancakes walking towards the south side of village, where it is surrounded with GREEN trees and bushes. As soon as you reach the green, think of your dead grand parents and throw the pancakes in to the wild, I do not know what happens to the pancakes, because we are not suppose to turn back and look at our pancakes.

Today I hardly see any kids with pancakes and I do not see any green trees and bushes, the south parts of our village is crowded with buildings, buildings and buildings. Those were the years gone and it creates a nostalgia in me. The year was 1990 and the name of the village is MANJITHA


Note: the humble pancake contains, refined flour, salt, water, and cooking soda, the batter is then cooked on a griddle, both thin and thick versions are there, for thick pancakes along with abovementioned ingredients sugar, grated coconuts are added. Coconut milk with sugar and poppy seeds accompanies our badagas pancake.