SAMBAR

SAMBAR.

This is a dish which any“Madrasi’ (as the Mumbaiates call the South Indians ) would love to have in his daily eating menu whether for breakfast ,lunch or dinner.
This goes well with Vada, Idli or dosa and ofcourse with rice as well. In my house I can even have sambar with Chappathi also.
In Kerala this was mainly the dish for Brahmins and in fact in our school days Pattars ( Brahmins) were nicknamed as Sambar Kudikkum Pattars.
In the present days, this has become the national dish and it can be seen everywhere. The non Madrasis are seen to literally love it so much that they drink it with spoons.
Nobody seems to know the origin of this dish nor how the name sambar and its meaning,
During my browsing the net I came across a very nice justification of the origin of Samabar which I am reproducing below
Quote
The write up by Dr.Padmini Natarajan, which I quote Verbatim below: -
“South Indian food, people and culture are inexorably linked to a ubiquitous dish as in idli and sambhar, sambhar and rice and so on. Each state in the South prepares it with a typical variation, adapted to its taste and environment. The genesis of this dish has an interesting tale linked to it. The Marathas were ruling Tanjore. Sambhoji was a great cook (the male clan members to note) and very fond of his amti with a handful of the tart kokum thrown in. In a particular season the kokum that was imported from the Maratha homeland did not reach the bare larder of the king's kitchen. Sambhoji was cooking and the minions were shivering in their dhothis to tell
him that his favourite dish could not be made that day. A smart Vidushak, who had been elected sous chef for the day, decided to solve the problem. He whispered in the king's ears that the locals used very little tamarind pulp to gain a better sourness to the curry and that Sambhoji should experiment with this variation. Voila, the dish with the tuvar dal, vegetables, spices and the tamarind pulp was cooked and served by the king to his coterie. The court declared the dish an outstanding preparation (they had no choice with the king as Chef) and thus was born sambhoji's amti that in time became sambhar”
Thus the modern Sambar which we use is named after a king of Tanjore called Sambhaji. Due to distance from his native place and difficulty in getting Kokum, he used Tamarind and possibly added Toor dhal, which is mainly grown in Maharashtra and Gujarat. He might have added Pure Asafoetida which was used as a spice in Maharashtra. From then on lot of research must have gone in, in getting to the modern version of several types of Sambar.
Unquote
There are plenty of varieties of Sambar ,some of them I am giving below
Ulli Sambar ( small Onion)
Vendakkai Sambar ( Ladies Finger)
Muringakkai Sambar ( Drumstick)
Mulangi Sambar(radish)
Kerrai Sambar( spinach)
Mix. Veg Sambar
Capsicum Sambar and so on and so forth
This literally shows this dish can be made with any vegetables.
Every occasion whether it is Marriage ,Temple functions ,get to- gethers ,the one common dish will be the sambar. If you are in Karnataka or to be more specific Uduppi, sambar may have a slight sweet taste.
The Karnataka people have a unique concept. They make one dish with the coarsely ground paste of pepper, dhania and jeera seeds, red chilli, dal and coconut or copra and made into a vegetable stew. The curry is made quite watery and allowed to sit after cooking. The liquid that floats is laddled out and used as rasam and the thick bottom portion of the curry is eaten as sambhar. I understand this is typical of the Mandayam and Hebbar Iyengars. The sambhar that they cook otherwise has a dash of cinnamon and clove added that gives it the special flavour-it is used in their famous Bisi Bela Huli baath. Authentic Bisi bela has only tuvar dal, rice, puli, spices and onions. The addition of vegetables is a later development

The best sambar I have tasted is of course the one my mother makes, the recipe of which we are giving below.

INGREDIENTS

For Frying.

Channa dal 2kgs
Dhania seeds 2 kgs
Methi quarter tea spoon
Hing one teaspoon if powder or a mall piece
Whole red chillies 5 to 6
A few Baby onions, 4 to 5 curry leaves and two table spoon of grated coconut.

Other Ingredients.

Tamarind Lime size soaked and pulp removed One cup
Vegetables Baby onion one cup
Drum sticks 4 pieces
Capsicum One.
Cooked tur dal one cup
Salt, Haldi powder, mustard, oil dahnia leaves.

Method.

In a kadai add one tea spoon oil and roast the frying ingredients. Grind it with water to a fine paste. In the same kadai, fry the vegetables in a spoon of oil, pour the tamarind pulp on this ,add more water if necessary to cover the vegetables and let cook. Add haldi powder and salt to taste. When vegetables are cooked add the cooked dal and the ground masala, mix well and let boil well. Check for taste and consistency and add water if necessary. This sambar should not be very liquidy. Add one small piece of jaguarry to balance the taste. Temper in two table spoon oil, mustard seeds and garnish with dhania leaves.
Your sambar is ready.

I and my family always maintain that sambar like wine always tastes better as it ages.

CHENAI MASIYAL

After being in Palakkad for four months ,we started exploring the rich Palakkadan Cuisine which boasts of mouthwatering delicasies for foodies like us. The typical Iyer lunch generally consists of Moolagutal accompanied by Rasam , Pachadi and Thohayal. The food lover in us discovered a dish ,we call ,Chenai(YAM) masiyal which according to us is an ideal accompaniment for Molagutal especially Vazhathandu or Keerai varity. If made in a "KATCHATTI "the taste improves. We give below the recipe for everybody to try.

INGREDIENTS

Chenai ( Yam) quater kg cut into small cubes

Green chilly three to four

Haldi Powder and salt to taste

Tadka ingredients - One table spoon Channadal, half table spoon urad dal, one tea spoon mustard, Half teaspoon Hing powder.
Cuury leaves
Lime Half a piece



METHOD.

Boil Yam with enough water ,haldi powder and salt. When cooked add the green chillies, let boil for some time. Mash with a laddle to make a thick gravy . Add water if necessary. Do thadka in two tablespoons of Cocunut oil, adding the tadka ingredients and some cuury leaves. When the dals brown pour on to the already prepared gravy. Finally squeeze the lime.
Your tangy masiyal is ready to taste

KALPATHY

Kalpathy Heritage Village.
Kalpathy is one of the oldest Agraharams(Brahmin Settlements) in Palakkad. It was declared a Heritage Village by the Government of Kerala some years ago the purpose being to preserve the original culture, tradition & lifestyle. Kalpathy is located on the banks of the Kalpathy River, a tributary of the Bharathapuzha. Viswanatha swamy temple (Kundambalam) and the Mandakkara Maha Ganapathy temple are the two main temples situated on both the sides of the Agraharam.
The Viswanathaswamy temple, whose origin dates back to 1425, is a Tamilnadu style temple & the deities are Kasi Viswanathar & Visalakshi. Other subshrines inside the temple are of Vinayakar, Subramaniar, Kala Bhairavar. There is also the Kanaka Sabhai where dancing idol of Natarajar can be seen. This temple reminds of the setting at Kasi hence sometimes referred to as half-Kasi.The famous annual Kalpathy Ratholsavam (Temple car festival) takes place in November of every year here. Kalpathy Ratholsavam is a spectacular procession of beautifully decorated temple chariots drawn through the streets by thousands of devoteesIt is believed that the Manthakara Mahaganapathy temple was established by the residents of the New Kalpathy village in recent times (less than a hundred years ago) to ward off 'Sivadhristi'.
Other side of the Kalpathy Agraharam another Ganapathy Temple known as Shipra Ganapathy also is there.
Kalpathy Agraharam (Brahmin village) in the heart of Palakkad town is being notified as the first heritage village in the State. An area of 22.36 hectares of Old Kalpathy and New Kalpathy, constituting the famous Kalpathy Agraharam,was notified for preservation.
Kalpathy village is famous for its architecture and music and car festivals. The agraharams were established by migrant Brahmins from Thanjavur.The pressure of modern aspirations and altered lifestyle is taking its toll on the heritage value of Kalpathy. Old buildings are slowly yielding way to new concrete structures. To preserve whatever is left, the State Tourism Department had taken up the Kalpathy Heritage Walk scheme.
As we walk down this Heritage Village you can notice and experience many things. For me and Uma this is the main street for walking either to visit the temples in the street or for shopping .
During the monsoon ,mainly in the afternoon ,it was felt necessary to have hot bajji/ bonda and hence we used to walk down the street at 4 o clock and the vendor will sell you banana bhajji/bonda/Vada ,hot taken out from the boiling oil ,accompanied by onion chutney.
The Aiswarya Mess which was adjacent was closed for long and suddenly we found it open one day. This is the most prominent food counter in Kalpathy famous for his Sevai and other snacks. Promptly next day when we were walking we found him selling ada with avial and as this was a new combination we had to try,
For the persons who have a taste for north Indian snacks at the end of the Agraharam road there is a vendor selling Bhel puri and for a Chinese connoissier we have a manchurian selling Brahmin.
The internationally famous ratholsavam is slated to begin on Nov 12 th and we are waiting for that.
Another shop right in the middle of the Agraharam is Café Coffee Day selling coffee Powder spreading the wonderful aroma around so that you feel like having a nice cup of hot decation coffee in a stainless steel tumbler and davarah.
While on coffee let me reproduce what I picked up as I browse the internet, something written on the great south Indian coffee.
COFFEE
“Many of us are brought up in the tradition of sniffing and tasting aromatic Coffee early in the morning. In Northern parts of India and in Kerala, it is ‘chai’ or ‘chaya’. You also have the lighter version of tea – ‘vella chaya’. Old timers would proudly recall Pothan Joseph’s weekly pontification ‘Storm over the tea-cup’, in Rajaji’s Swarajya Magazine. Rajaji used to drink coffee really hot during his daily visit to Kalki Gardens. Dr.Johnson rose to fame in the Coffee Clubs of England in the eighteenth century. Oliver Goldsmith, James Boswell, drama actor Garrick, Admiral Nelson and every one of their ilk were the products of coffee club of the time in England. If late Shri V.K.Krishna Menon had survived only on 20 cups of tea a day even while delivering an eight hour non-stop extempore elegant speech on the Kashmir problem in the UN General Assembly, numerous Iyers and Iyengars in the south begin their day with reading ‘Hindu Paper” and a tumbler full of coffee to provide them focus and inspiration.

Unlike tea, which always absorbs a large quantity of sugar, coffee thrives when the sugar level is low. Coffee always leaves it flavour in the mouth for a long time and hence is served as a last item during snack sessions. If the first cup of coffee in the morning provides the impetus to start the day, the second one, generally an hour and a half later and much lighter, would show that one is in a relaxed mood, if not in laid back one. Puritans would always keep ‘chikri’ at a distance, though many would mix a small quantity of ‘chikri’ to coffee powder, to make the decoction look thicker. Marriage contractors brought about numerous innovations, but they dared not dispense with coffee lest their claims to culinary skills should be questioned.

A few decades back, instant coffee like Nescafe or Bru was unknown. Green coffee seeds would be brought from India Coffee House outlets, roasted at home till they turn golden brown. When the coffee seeds were being roasted, the entire Agraharam ( or gramam in Kerala) would reverberate with the smell. Roasted seeds would be powdered, in hand-held grinder, minutes before the coffee is prepared. Degree of Culture of a South Indian Family could be deciphered from the quality of coffee they offer and enjoy. Often the colour of the coffee had caused commotion in marriages. Coffee in "Kooja" (Flasks were yet to come), would make tedious travels enlivening. Any tiffin session would end, only with coffee. What more, coffee could also be a stand alone serve. If the coffee does not measure upto expectations, even the other serves had to suffer in silence. Rama Iyer’s Café at Kumbakonam boasted of softest idlies in the south and yet Rama Iyer had the temerity to refuse to serve the second plate of idli if one did’nt order coffee, as the coffee in this joint was an apology for a real one. “If every body takes only idli’ who would buy my coffee’, Rama Iyer used to justify his rationing of Idli.

Dignified brahminical families dared not offer tea or other substitutes (no disrespect meant). Offering coffee to "Adhithis" was cultivated as a rudimentary lesson in extending hospitality. If a prospective daughter-in- law's "Bhavyam" is gauged from the way she served coffee, her culinary skills were admeasured from the quality of her coffee. How she mixes sugar would determine whether she is aware of the merits of proportion. The families’ wealth level would be evaluated from the cutleries used. If tea is served in bone china cup and saucer, coffee has to be poured in dabara-tumbler only. Daring to serve coffee in a cup to a tufted Tanjorian is considered as diabolic. If tea is to be sipped, Coffee has to be poured, however hot it may be, without touching the lips, into the mouth and this is a dicta in orthodox families. Many of the Mamas and Atthimbers in South have written Bashyas on coffee, in the manner the great Sankara wrote on the Prasthanathrayee.

It is heartening to learn that today the teenagers and those in their twenties flock to Cafe Coffee Day as the earlier generation gossiped at Ambi's Cafes. We have 24 hours Coffee Houses in Star Hotels where sipping black coffee is the sign of one having 'arrived'. A few days back, tempted by the aroma of coffee and the perfectly sugared and flavoured biscuits they offered, (though costing a fortune), I dared to enter a Café Coffee Day outlet in a fashionable locality at Mumbai, along with a friend when pairs of eyes pierced us to pieces. We learnt to our dismay that we were the only two in the forty plus category. What more, in that heterosexual group, we looked the odd homosexual.

If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, a cup of coffee a day keeps head-aches, milder ailments and frowning faces away. Perhaps, coffee is the only 'hot' drink that doesn't cause but cleanse us of nausea in the morning. Cold coffee, like gay marriages, is an aberration. One may lend it legitimacy, but certainly not wide acceptability.

Coffee shall live as long as semblance of South Indian life in this earth continues. "

Kalpathy apart from being a heritage village has found its way to the latest Shankar Mahadevan hit song “PITCHAVACHA NAL MUTHAL” in Puthiyamugham which is the caller tune in mobils ,for many including me.

KALLRKULANGARA TEMPLE

Kallekulangara Temple.


As I had started reading Malayalam books and magazines, I bought a magazine called “Yatra”, by Mathrubhoomi publications. This turned out to be very good magazine giving plenty of thoughts about the locations in and out of Kerala. As we were browsing I found an article on Devi temples and one of the temples mentioned was Kallekulangara Emoor Bhagavati temple situated in Palalkad. This aroused my curiosity as I have never heard about this and was curious to see. As usual did some research and then went to visit on a rainy day,
This temple is about 8 kilometers from Palakkad town on the road to Malampuzha Dam. The temple also is called Emoor Bhagawathy temple or 'Kaipathi' Ambalam (temple of the hand) or also Hemambika temple. In this temple only the hands of the Bhagawathy are consecrated.
There are several legends about the origin of this temple. “On their regular trek through the dense Vadamala forest to worship at the valley shrine of Durga, one day Kurur and Kaimukku Nambudiris were granted a vision. The golden Goddess stood beside an elephant under a tree. When the aged Kurur was disheartened by his inability to undertake hazardous pilgrimages, the Goddess assured him in a dream that he would find her in the neighborhood. The next day he witnessed the emergence of her hands in the middle of a lake close by. When Kurur swam through to clasp them, the divine hands turned into stone. The lake was filled and a shrine erected by the local ruler, whose descendent remains in charge of temple administration.
Another story is like this. The goddess had once agreed to appear before a devotee on the condition that he would not disclose it to anyone. The excitement led the devotee to disclose the fact to others. When the goddess appeared before the devotee, she noticed many people along with him. The displeased goddess vanished suddenly. By that time the devotees had seen only her upraised hand and in the temple her upraised hand is worshipped. Another variation of this story is that the devotee saw the form of the Goddess rising from the middle of the huge tank and he was so frightened that he cried out and suddenly the Bhagavathy stopped her appearance except for her two hands. A temple with the two hands was consecrated here.
It is believed, the deity takes three forms a day – in the morning as Saraswathi, in the noon as Laxmi and in the evening as Durga. The rituals vary according to the form of the deity at the time of worship.
Emur Bhagavathy (Hemambika), the bestower of prosperity, boons and auspiciousness raised her divine hands in the middle of the blessed pond Kallekulam. In a paroxysm of devotion, her impatient priest jumped in to the pond and caught hold of those hands before she fully manifested. The Devi stopped appearing. The priest got only the Devi’s emerging hands. This is the great legend of the famous Hemambika Temple where the Devi’s hands are enshrined in the sanctum sanctorum.
This temple is unique with the idol of only " two hands ".It is widely believed that the "DEVI" the goddess emerged from the midst of pond to bless an ailing devotee, who out of excitement caught hold of two hands before it could come out.Then a temple was consecrated with those two hands as goddess. This beautiful temple is surrounded by 5 ponds and paddy field, a nature kissed environment
Another story or the belief behind this unique deity of two raised The Hands was that a girl (incarnation of the Goddess Parvathy), who escaped from molestation jumped into the river, holding her hands for help. And the story or belief goes that she was helped by the Lord Shiva, on seeing the hands floating above the river.
Daily pooja timings are 0500 hrs to 1130 in the morning and 1700 hrs to 2030 in the evening
This temple is the family deity of Palakkad kings. In fact the ariyittu Vazcha of the king (coronation) used to be conducted here. Main attraction is the nine day festival of shivratri. Thousands of devotees attend the festival with pomp and fanfare. The celebration ends at the Kalpathy River. Apart from this in the month of May every year a Laksharchana is conducted. The Navarathri festival also is celebrated in this temple.
There is the snippet about this temple. It seems the former Prime Minister of India; Indira Gandhi visited this temple after the Congress split along with Sri Karunakaran. She was impressed by the goddess and made the palm of the goddess as her election symbol.