#பாரம்பரிய உணவு

 

       Very late in life I realised that as an Iyengar my  food cravings should have  been for vaththakulambu and Puliyodharai while it was not so.. Probably the in laws usual grumble that I had been brought up ,upside down was true. 

       Married at 17 pushed into a Punjabi and Sikh world at the Meerut Cantonment, my mother was more familiar with aloo paranthas, tariwala sabji, dal makhani, kofta curries. 

         Getting ready for school in Madras we  children would each get 1 and 1/2 paranthas, with sabji,  usually  lady’s finger or potato  and  a dal. All sabji s would have onion. All dals would have ginger, a little garlic ,onion,  green chilli and tomato. No fancy masalas,  no obsession with green coriander.

          Sunday  would be stuffed parantha day.

          Again very late in life I realised that I should not open my mouth about my onion -garlic predilections.

           With a traditional old grand mother in law hemming me in , I could savour my childhood dishes only when I visited my parents .

           My time came when the grand lady passed away and my growing children on visits to their grandparents got a liking for the punjabi fare dished out there. 

           Yet the children are staunch Iyengars. First favourite always being Triplicane  Kovil Puliyodharai.

        I have made  most Punjabi dishes and pickles, all those bhel pooris, Pav bhajis , pani puri which are now pan Indian ,all  from scratch at home. At one time my son gleefully told his grandpa , “ Amma made even samosa at home”.

      I consider myself an expert in making stuffed paranthas. Aloo, mooli (that is radish), cauliflower , paneer or even leftover vegetables.

     Okay now for an easy cauliflower parantha recipe.

Take a cauliflower. Break it into a few big pieces. Drop those pieces in warm water. Drain out the water with those worms if any. Worms only when cauliflowers are out of season I find. Wipe out all  water completely . Now grate the pieces on a grater. Add salt to taste, little chilli powder or green chillis cut finely, fresh coriander washed and cut into fine pieces . ( a little  will do. ) Half a teaspoon of jeeragam. When you get more adventurous you can add grated paneer or grated Pizza cheese. 

      Now for the dough. Take a bandli that is bigger than the one you usually use for cooking.( I never use  that steel thambalam Amma  gave me for  just this) Take six fistful of atta (for 6 paranthas) add two table spoons of oil, little, salt a teaspoon of omam. Add water and make a stiff dough . If it is watery then just add some more atta. Anyway we are there to finish off any  leftovers. 

           Make six balls of the dough. Roll out only 4 edges of the ball till it looks like a dayam game or plus sign.  With a spoon put some cauliflower stuffing in the centre of the dayam game. Close the four sides tightly so  that no stuffing comes out. Pat it over dry atta. Using a very light hand roll out into a round shaped parantha .Okay don’t worry so much about the shape. Does it stick to the chappati stone? Then use your sharp  Dosai thiruppi  and lightly remove it and deposit on hot tava. Let both sides cook to brown colour . Add little oil. (Remember those 2 tablespoons you have already added). 

         After tasting your parantha with curd on which some rock / black salt is sprinkled, you can finish making the other five. Hope something is left for you to eat again at the end.

          For the nay sayers , this is   the பாரம்பரிய Punjabi dish of my childhood.😁😁