Friday, August 18, 2006

Amma Veshakunnu - Mom I'm hungry

Warning: This post has a lot of Malayalam in it.

Jaguu and Jiby tagged me this a while back to write about 10 Things I Miss Of Mom's Cooking. When I read his tag, I decided I'm gonna keep a list (me and my obsessions with lists) at work and home and when ever I think of a food I will it down. Today as I sit to compile these two lists together I have more than 20 dishes, so I'm going to put down 10 among those twenty.

  • Achapam - Mom is the queen of snacks, she would randomly make snacks. Achapam is something she used to make often and she would make loads of it too. Now all her snack making schedule coincides with Veena or my visit. So dad asks us to visit more because he only gets to eat these when we girls go home.
  • Adda - Adda is again very easy to make but requires bannana leaf that I have not managed to find it close to my place. Mom used to put little extra sugar in Veena's and mine and she would mark the banana leaf so we could spot ours.
  • Appam - Doesn't matter Pal appam or Velyappam, mom used to make these so regularly on Saturday morning. She used to make mutton or potatoes stew to go with this.
  • Beef - Don't get me started on mom's beef curry. I make beef curry too, it is no where close to what she makes. My beef curry's gravy is never enough to eat kappa, by pieces are usually bigger. Above all mine has an orange color and hers has a nice dark brown color.
  • Chakka Kuru mezhukupurrati* (Jack Fruit seeds)- This is something that she used to make it when we were in Kerala, due to abundance of chakka kuru. It takes lots of effort as there are really small and to individually peel them is very time consuming. Veena, mom and I would sit around a heap of chakka kurru and peel. Veena and mine combined heap of peeled chakka kurru would be always less than moms.
  • Kappa(Yucca/tapioca) - This is a favorite dish of everyone who has ever tasted it. It is not the fact that I don't know how to make kappa (yellow color, not the white one), but it never comes out the way mom makes. Sometimes it is over cooked and sometimes it is not even cooked well.
  • Koorka mezhukupurrati* (I don’t know the translation for koorka, I googled it and saw some references to Chinese potatoes) - This is also very similar to the above, very time consuming to peel. This was my favorite; even to this day I can just eat this as a meal. Now here in US we get frozen, peeled koorkas that one can buy. So when mom hears that I'm going to visit she gets 2 packets and makes this. 1 packet for me and 1 for rest of the family.
  • Parupu Vada - This is a snack, Uzhunnu vada is more famous and u get them in all eateries but only few offer parupu vada. It is little hard to make, because we have to get the right texture so that it stays together when it is dropped in oil. I made it last month and as I dropped it in oil and it disintegrated, I served them as mini and micro mini parupu vada.
  • Puttu and Kadala - (Kalada – Chole) Puttu is very easy to make and back when I used to stay at home I used to make it under mom's guidance. These days breakfast has changed to cereals, waffles and bagels, as I do not have time in the morning to make elaborate dishes. Mom says to make it in the evening, for which I reply who wants to eat puttu for dinner. My Kadala curry is good to be eaten with roti and not puttu
  • Upperi (Banana Chips – Should be called plantain chips) - This is a mixed effort from both my dad and mom. Dad is the one who slices all the plantain. When we were kids, the weekend before Onam dad and mom would be making upperi. Upperi has become a tradition (detailed post on it later) in our house now. Anytime when we visit or when my parents visit they bring upperi.


Other day I made some rasam and I told mom that it is not as good as hers for which she responded, "I have been cooking for more than 30 years and you for less than 2 years". She also added "when I started cooking my food never tasted as good as yours do now, so don't worry you will be just fine". She then says "Your cake and Ethyekka appam is so much better than mine."


* mezhukupurrati - The vegetable (in my case, both are starch and not vegetable) is Julian cut, then cooked in water (80 %), salt, turmeric, chilli powder. Then tava is heated with oil and the vegetable is sautéed. We cook almost all vegetables like this.

All the above links are just so that my non-mallu readers can get a rough idea about the dishes. These are not my mom recipe's.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

i love puttu!! :D :D

my mom used to make it when we were in trivandrum for a while.. :D

silverine said...

I love Koorka. My mom soaks it in water overnight and the skin peels off easily. Put it in a cloth and gently roll it. The skin will be out in minutes!!

Mouthwatering list :)

Neihal said...

ummmmmmmm....hmmmmmmmmm....the warning make lot of sense.
I have no idea about the dishes you are talking about, but its good see you back :)

quills said...

Wow.. I am missing home so much and my mom's cooking. I have to say some of our Kerala dishes are awesome.

Craving now for some adda, achappam, ethakkappam, and puttu. :)

Jiby said...

i realized that doing this post is dangerous...i just wanted to get home and be pampered!!!

i was on the train to tvm and from delhi itself thanks to mallu cooks in the pantry, i was feasting on ethakkappam which the hindi waiter called palampuri for pazhampori, parippuvada and uzhunnuvada!

Anonymous said...

MMMMmmmmmm..... just 2 more months and i can have most of these things from my Mom's Kitchen!! May be when we meet this year end i can bring U few tasters as well!!

The Kid said...

My mom is actually scared of me now because I started imitating every recipe she cooks for me...and so she has stopped teaching me all the tricks of the trade! ha ha! but when she visited me last week... I am soooo far away from the way she cooks! she still rocks!

Bittu's Mamma said...

Achappam?? Thats my mom's special snack too!
yummy list Thanu :)

mathew said...

lemme start by thanking you for sparing the pictures..its tough reading this while am hungry for lunch !!!..
Chakka kuru mezhukupuratti is like my all time fav chaar curry!!!

Chevar said...

hello,
Yendayalum ammayude kaikond undaakiya aa sadyayokke oru nalla kalamalle. Adine thinnaanum Bbhagyam venam.

Thanu said...

$viks..
Abi tak password nahi mila kya?

$silverine
Now we get peeled ready to use. But will keep that in mind.

$neihal
Tere liye hi links dali, go check each out.

$quills
Kerala dishes rock.

$Jiby
I know after the tag I was like I wanna go home.

$Jaguuu
Sure u r on.

$Pratap
Moms rock.

$Bittu's Mamma
Thank you. Little bit too yummu.. I wanna go home.

$mathew
I dunno y they do not sell chakka kuru.

$Alexis Leon
Yeah kappa and beef is on everyone's list I know.
Ivade all parupu inte price have gone up so no parupu vada for a while.

$Mahesh
Yes, athinnu bagyam venam, and I'm so glad I got to enjoy her cooking and also learn a few from the very best.

Bravecat said...

Great, Malayalam or not - that made me hungry!

:D

Unknown said...

Moms always remain special. And if they are great cooks... that's the icing on the cake.
Lovely post you reminded me of my childhood!THose were the days!

Rashmi.

Vinesh said...

I studied in a Malayalee school, so I remember this word from a Std VI poem, Bakthavaalsalyam by Ramavariapulavar.

ViseshangaL iniyum paranyukoLLum bandham vina
Veshakkannu namakkadhu sahichu kooda

Oops, the word Veshakkannu triggered that off! :-)

Anonymous said...

http://apunkadesh.blogspot.com/

Alex said...

Vazhaykka appam is my all time favourite!:)

div said...

i love puttu with banana ,adda, n' Upperi.. :)
and also the fish...

Thanuuuuu.... i am hungry now!!! ;)

Thanu said...

$Qatar Cat
Come on anytime and I can cook atleast 50% of what is listed here.

$RandomThoughts
Rashmi, moms are the best regardless of how they cook.

$Vinesh
Welcome here. If these kinds of food were available, I would be hungry all the time.

$alex
THey are all my favorite.

$div
I ate ada with jack fruit over the weekend.

Kusum Rohra said...

Hey Thanu, here is wishing you and your family a happy Onam :) hope you have lots of fun and yummy food :)

Shilpa said...

Yum...now I am feeling so hungry and miss my mom's food. If only I had seen this list while I was in India..!!

Arun R said...

Hi,

U missed Meenkari or is it not amongst ur favourites??

Di said...

hey i like all the veggie stuff too..except the koorkha!!!i think its awful!!! :O

Thanu said...

$Kusum
Thanks for the wishes, we did have a splendid onam.

$Appu
Welcome here appu. We still make most of the things on this list.


$Shilpa
That is why I added link on each of them, so u can also try to make them.

$C
Thanks C, welcome here. U actually get koorka here in Mallu indian stores, they sell them as frozen and are called Chinese Potatoes

$Arun R
Ilove meen curry, but I can make a decent one, so I don't miss moms

$Di
Oh u don't like koorka :(
Welcome here.

abhishek said...

Omg. I should not have read this. My keyboard keys are stu...aggagck , because I am drooling all them!