Hair Oil

When my cycle Soppu/Keerai vendor handed me an extra bunch of fresh curry leaves few days back, I was wondering how best to put it to use. Nowadays I sort of apply hair oil for the kids somewhat regularly. Therefore I was going to use the curry leaves to transform plain vanilla coconut hair oil into a herbal concoction. Most of us realize the benefits of applying oil and I regret not following this ritual for the last 10 years of my life. After some chiding by my ayurvedic doctor, I decided to get back in routine. I apply some kind of thailam prescribed by him to cool the scalp (nothing to do with hot weather, they talk about internal body heat) and keep the blood flow rates up. Children use the regular 100% pure coconut oil (parachute or meera) from the store shelves.

Now, the end product will only be as good as what goes into it. Be sure to use virgin coconut oil, fresh curry leaves and flowers for this oil recipe.

Pure coconut oil - 150 ml

Curry leaves - about 20 sprigs

Fenugreek seeds - 3 tsps

Shoe flower/Hibiscus - 5 of them

Make a paste of the curry leaves and fenugreek seeds in the blender - takes about 10 minutes of grinding to achieve a smooth paste. Add as less water as possible for grinding. Pour the oil in a sauce pan and let it warm up, add in the curry leaf paste and stir gently. Bubbles will start coming, turn down heat from medium to low. Next add the flowers and stir gently. Let the mixture stay on low flame for about 10-15 minutes. After this point the flowers start charring and I turned it off.

Leave this mixture aside in the sauce pan itself for 2 days for the elements soak well in oil over time. Then, strain the oil through a sieve/jalladai to get clean oil in a bottle or jar. What remains on the sieve can be used directly on the scalp as a pack and washed off with shampoo. Mask can be left for an hour and then washed. The colorless coconut oil now gets a yellowish green color and smells much like a lot of other ayurvedic oils.

Regrettably, I am unable to convey the aroma from this oil over the internet. But, P remarked that he felt he was in a spa after soaking himself in this oil. That is a complement good enough for me. The simple joys of life, make it worth trying to make things better around where ever we are. A zen moment for sure :)

Thumbuli - Karpoora Valli

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food". ~ Hippocrates

 

As an avid reader of health and nutrition literature, I am on the look for means to incorporate herbs and spices into the daily menu. P's mother sent some Karpoora Valli/Doddapathre/Omma Valli leaves to urge me to make a chutney out of it for coughs and colds. My mother also grows this aromatic herb at home and made me plant one here in the backyard. The leaves can be consumed as a chutney or crushed between the hands to extract a juice. I suppose the juice is much more potent. That is my mother's take atleast. I am more than glad to have another chutney under my sleeve to make breakfast more interesting. In any case, this recipe definitely needs to be documented for its medicinal value.

Thumbuzhi is the final name of the dish when the chutney is mixed in with yogurt/thick curd to get a thick raita type consistency. Mother in law asked me to mix the thumbuli with hot white rice and serve it first in the meal, before eating anything else. It absorbs best in empty stomach I infer. We ate it with idli as a chutney and rice as the thumbuli and loved it both ways.

Karpoora valli leaves - 1 packed cup

Fresh grated coconut - 1/2 cup

Jeera/Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Red Chillies - 1 or 2

Dry roast the jeera seed for less than a minute, just toast them. Set aside. Heat a spoon of ghee and let the red chilly crackle, add the leaves and fry for a minute. Next add the coconut and fry. Grind this mixture along with cumin seeds without adding water, to a smooth paste in the mixie. Chutney ready. This chutney keeps well for a whole week or 10 days in the fridge. Just before the meal, take the chutney and mix in curd to get the thumbuli for rice.

K -isms

K really looks up to her chitti for dressing up, fashion fundae and likewise.

She wears a polka dot heavy head band one evening, adjusts herself front of the mirror and remarks - "I look like Dhanu".

She encounters any good looking, well dressed girls when outside - she used to say "Is that Dhanu"? That was when she was much younger. Now she realizes she lives in Mysore and Dhanu is in Milwaukee.

Mamma is browsing Bollywood celebrity news and stardom pictures, an older wedding picture of Lara Datta and Mahesh Bhupathi comes up. K remarks "Is that Dhanu and Prem"? Now, Prem has also been added into the mix! You gotta live up to it guys.

Dad daughter

It's one of those mornings when a hurried mamma is rushing down to get K into her school van- K's bag in one hand and S perched on the hip. P is watching the scene from the balcony. K's van arrives, door opens and one of her van mates reaches out a hand for her and helps her into the van. I say thanks to the kid and admire his presence of mind to help this hands full mamma.

Van takes off with the kids, I get back home upstairs. P remarks "Who is that guy? Gives his hand out like a hero to K!". Did I see jealousy in someone's eyes? Possessiveness? Or just the father bird's protective instinct? I bet a little bit of all!

Coorg

Having decided that a little indulgence can go a long way, we reserved 2 nights at the Windflower resort (near Kushalnagar, Coorg about 75 kms west of Mysore) to get some time off from our daily routine. Living a stone’s throw away from the lovely Coorg district – it was about time we planned a visit; been in Mysore 5 months now. Morning of the trip K, who is notorious for falling sick on our little getaways – decided to get a tummy ache and throw up. We stayed strong and decided to not let that nor the dripping wet monsoon weather dilute our plans/spirits and left for the resort several hours late – missing lunch and most of the day light. 

Children slept through the car ride, and the driver proposed that we stop at a Tibetan Monastery- called the Namdroling or Golden Temple at Bylakuppe en route to Kushalnagar. This town is a Tibetan settlement, evident from their houses, restaurants, incense in shops and the way streets are adorned. We spent a well worth hour in the monastery, watching a cultural programme/dances performed by the monks (they were incidentally having one that day) and walking into the temple to a 40 ft high golden Buddha. I must have seen atleast a 1000 monks that day in the monastery quadrangle, owing to the cultural event. Never seen so many of them together at one time before. A different experience. Kids enjoyed the colorful temple art and lush landscaping, and did not mind the constant drizzle.

After the brief Golden Temple visit, in about half an hour we were taking an off road towards the Windflower resort, a bumpy 1.5 km ride on dirt roads eroded by the rain. So glad we had a taxi and a driver. While the resort is built on a 30 acre coffee plantation, owing to the season of the year it felt like being in a tropical rain forest – the type and timing of the rain, the green everywhere including coffee beans, slight humidity, the moist dark soil and just a mild chill. And when it wasn’t raining, we witnessed the clouds kissing the mountains, especially at Madikeri from Raja’s seat. The fog added a fuzzy and warm feeling in absence of rain. Besides basking in the glory of this weather, the resort had much to offer to soothe a tired soul. Clean and well maintained, polished and perfect – in short. The common areas are built around the concept of open spaces, to make you one with the nature around. The restaurant/dining area, recreation center, reception – all have open windows to let in fresh air 24x7 and provide sublime views. The 120 staff are working hard sprucing up the space for guests, round the clock. I should admit we spent about 50% of our time in the dining area, overlooking the blue swimming pool – immersed in the peace and quiet, children running around and exploring, all of us slowly savoring the four course meals served by the awesome chef and his team. They are quite hospitable, courteous and welcoming. The girls who help at serving are pleasant, well dressed, smile well and talk just the right amount. The only dominating sound you would hear midst the silence was the forks and spoons working on the plates. All the intagibles offered at the resort matter to me, when the goal is to unwind with quiet time. The buffet is well done, with a choice for every palate and quite kid friendly. They are ready to whip up anything for children- kichidis, dosas, pastas, sandwiches et all. Cut fruits and salads should have been my reach for the day, but what I reach for…steaming hot halwas and payasams. Thank God for the bite sized pastry portions.  The sous chef is outside ready at the stove, making aapams and dosas and parathas with a smile on his face. I love it when someone else makes my omlettes and exploited the sous chef well enough for the same. Alright, enough rant about the food.

 

The premises was walk friendly with stone pavements, trimmed plants and blossoming bushes. They have good lighting at night as well to keep us safe and maintain the wow effect. Constant humming of the insects and sound of rain drops create this white noise effect bringing calm into the heads. People remark that Coorg equates to Scotland of India, while I have never seen or been in Scotland – I can now imagine what it must feel like. The studio room we stayed in had the perfect matress and sheets, S was given a sturdy crib to sleep in with a comfortable duvet. The furnishings and colors were elegant and simple – modern, contemporary style…perfectly suited my taste. The double door bay windows opened up to a spacious patio overlooking the plantation. Perfect sit out for a hot coffee. There is a spa which we were unable to visit. We did not quite care for the resort activities like games or socials. K is not feeling her best remember. We also missed the coffee plantation walk on both days, thanks to the rain and the pain of lugging umbrellas and toddlers amidst leeches. We invested that time in hot showers in the open roof rain shower room of our studio reveling in the crisp morning air, blue sky and tall green trees. K was sure disappointed to take bath after coming home. Besides hanging out at the resort, all we did was an hour trip to Madikeri and the Sunday morning church run.

Windflower resorts appear to carry a Zen theme across the board. Living and breathing and looking at Zen elements all day long amidst bountiful nature = soul satisfaction. Minutes after we returned home, Mysore welcomed us with strong showers reminding us to carry Coorg in our hearts for at least another day. Soul satisfaction lingers.

My brother

My baby girl comes from school with this today, remarking that she needs to tie it for her thambi so he will be safe. She called it rakhi. The babies are growing up. I was distraught and my eyes almost swelled, in a very good way. One of those moments – bliss associated with children.

Adai

After much searching and contemplating, I decided to make Adai out of Sharmilee Jayaprakash’s recipe here, http://www.sharmispassions.com/2012/07/adai-recipe-adai-dosa-lentil-crepes.html. I liked her mix of ingredients, especially the idea of adding sombu/fennel seeds. I tweaked the rice proportion to give it a protein punch and upped the proportion of ingredients that favor digestion. Overall, the adais turned out fine.

Boiled Rice – 1 cup

Raw Rice – ½ cup

Urad Dal - 1/4 cup

Toor Dhal - 1/4 cup

Chana Dal - 1/4 cup

Moong Dhal – ¼ cup

Fennel seeds – 3 tsp

Salt – 1 tsp

Red Chillies – 3

Black pepper – a few, about 10 of them

Hing – 1/2 tsp

Ginger -  2 inch piece

Soak rice and dhals for couple of hours in water. Add the fennel seeds, salt, red chillies, black pepper, hing and chopped ginger to the dhals – grind to a smooth to mildly coarse consistency. Grind the rice to a fairly smooth consistency. Mix the batters and leave for about ½ hour before spreading into thin adais. I am not too keen on eating uttapam type adais or adding onions etc (the bells and frills); love the dosa type crispy ones, as in the picture. Next time, I have to substitute green moong dhal with masoor dhal and check the outcome.