Kavuni Arisi - Chettinad Special

50 th post. Hurrah.....Very very happy that I could spend time on my passion with all ur encouragements and my family support.

With my previous episodes (Pongal, Arch) you would have known how much I enjoyed my trip in Chettinad. If I don’t write an episode on the food, it is a total injustice done to the whole world. Yes, Chettinad cuisine is world popular. Most of the hotels have an array of Chettinad menu. But I doubt they are authentic as we get in the real Chettinad.

I actually thought of showcasing some of the food shots from Chettinad from my trip. But if I also include an authentic Chettinad recipe along with the pictures, that would be nice, isn’t it?

I noted few more recipes from the Chettinad chef at that house. Will try them and post for sure later.

Chettinad cuisine is basically very rich. They include lot of nuts in the food. Cashews, ground nuts etc. There is no 'Less oil' recipe applicable in this cuisine. :)

Kavuni arisi, a yummy sweet was served on the pongal day during breakfast. Everyone enjoyed it there and went for a second serve. That time itself I had blocked in my mind to post it here.

Ingredients:

·         Black rice – 1 cup

·         Water – 3 cups

·         Sugar – ½ cup

·         Grater coconut – 2-3 tbsp

·         Ghee – 2 tbsp

·         Cardamom powder – ¼ tsp

Preparation:

Wash and soak the black rice at least for 5 hrs. I soaked it overnight. The water will turn black. Discard the water.

Grate the coconut and keep it aside.

Method:

Cook the rice with pressure cooker for 30 mins in medium flame. 1:3 ratio of water.

Once the pressure is released, open it while it is still hot and drain the excess water.

Mash the rice with a ladle.

Add sugar, ghee, cardamom powder and mix well.

Serve it hot.

Note :

The main ingredient here is black rice, that’s the specialty. You should not replace this with any other variety here is my opinion. It is very glutinous in nature and healthy too. It costs more than the normal rice. ½ kg itself around Rs.90. You get the black rice in many super markets.

More shots from the trip.

(Don't tell anyone, its fish ;) )

Mutton Cola

Exotic menu getting ready

Appam

More Kozhambu Work in progress

Always hungry.. Home food at home :)

This is Milagu kozhambu to die for.. it thick and hot. 

This was for dinner.. variety wow. 

Next day pongal special break fast.

This wont fit in my kitchen cabinet

Kavuni Arisi Mass production

Chettinad

It was absolute pleasure to stay in one of the Chettinad houses. I noticed not alone the houses there are big, the people’s heart are even bigger.

Hospitality is premium.

Thrilled to share some of the pictures clicked there. If you had missed to see the Pongal celebration there, click here.

Look at the reflection of colored glass windows in the wall. 

The main door of the house will be really grand.

The Ceilings are grand.

 Big Pillars

Calm houses

Amazing wood works

Beautiful day light inside the house

I roamed around the street and clicked few similar houses from outside. Some houses are well maintained.  Few or not.

Chettinad Pongal

This year pongal was entirely different. We were invited to enjoy the pongal celebration by our rotary friend Valli at her inlaws place.

It’s a small village near sivagangai. The village looks much like other villages from outside. Once you enter into the villages, all are very huge chettinad houses. The architecture is awesome. Most houses are locked. But maintained properly.

I am posting the pongal celebrations in this post. Food and other posts to follow.

They made 2 types, one with mud pot another with brass. The one with mud pot is tedious process, so for the next generation they are making it with brass. Still the oldies follow the mud pot one.

First we will see how they prepare pongal with mud pot. 

The previous day they clean all the mud pot and keep it dry.

Then they draw kolams in the mud pot with arisi mavu. This needs lot of patience and interest. It took so much time for the achi to complete the kolam. They take a small stick and tie a piece of cotton cloth around it and use that for painting. Ur city brain may think, y cant we use the ear buds for doing it. When we use that it wont come as perfectly as this.

First they put kolam like shown below with olakkai.

Each family has 2 pots for pongal. One with sweet and another with salt. Apart from this there is a big pot separately for boiling milk alone.

Then heat the empty pongal pots.

At the same time they will  boil the milk (water and milk 1:1) separately and remove the cream (Adai / malai)  from that.

They check the pongal pots are ready by putting little salt in the pots. Immediately the salt should crack, which means the pot is hot enough.

Then one of the family member bring the pot with boiling milk and carefully pour the milk into the pongal pot. The milk rises immediately because of the high heat in the pot. They greet each other for that and sprinkle little water over it and reduce the heat. Now they add the rice and dal and cook it. Finally add the jaggery for sweet pongal and salt for the other pongal.

The brass method is simple. They pour milk and water into the brass pot. Once the milk boils and rises, they sprinkle water and add rice and dal. Once cooked, they add jaggery.

Then they serve it for god by keeping it in plantain leaf along with other vegetables prepared.

When you just wonder what is all these for? We boil milk daily. Most of the days we forget to switch off the stove and milk spills over the stove. So what is special about this in this occasion alone.

This I consider purely for the family unity. Each one has a work allocated and this pongal works only as a teamwork. One has to check the pot, one has to boil milk, one has to take care of children not to walk in between,  like this whole family is occupied and united. Coordination is so important in this. Suddenly I felt I was having an urge to see my family members and called inlaws and greeted them.

Festivals are time of the year, every one in the family must be together and enjoy together.

Happy pongal to all. 

PS: I am a s/w developer, I have experience only in writing technical documents. I have no clue how to write blogs. So kindly adjust.