Mahali kizhangu

Mahali kizhangu is a rhizome usually available in the market this season. It has medicinal properties and smells good. It is pickled with curd and is a good accompaniment for curdrice, rasam or for sambar rice. The elders in my family pickle this and unfortunately when i ask them for the exact measure of the ingredients, they say 'Ivvaluvu'( approximately) and show their hand measure. This comes by practice and is called 'kai thittam' or 'kan thittam' meaning approx. measure. I am roughly rounding the measure here.

The tubers brought from the market has to be immersed in water overnight. Next day morning, scrap the outer layer and then chop them to pieces. They have a thick stick like vein which should not be included. The cut pieces will oxidise on exposure to air, so advisable to put in water till pickling.

Ingredients:

chopped Mahali kizhangu --- 1 cup
salt ------------ 1 1/2 teaspoon
haldi ------------ 1 teaspoon
fresh thick curd ---- enough to coat the cup of mahali kizhangu
green chillies ---- 4-5 nos.


MEthod:

Mix haldi,salt, slit green chillies and fresh thick curd with the mahalikizhangu and allow it to marinate for two days.

After two days, the mixture will release water and the rhizome will soak in the flavours. At this stage,if required, you can add one more cup of curd and toss them well. This is now ready for use.

My mom's variation and speciality:
*you can even add 1 teaspoon of ground mustard to the above mixture.
*you can add chopped lemons, green pepper corns and manga inji(mango ginger)along with mahalikizhangu.

Store it in an air-tight jar.

Enjoy it with curdrice, rasam or sambar rice.

Deepavali marundhu/legiyam

This is a herbal concoction and signature dish specially done during diwali. It aids in digestion and keeps us away from all the tummy troubles that could arise on eating the various sweets and savories during diwali.

Ingredients:

Pepper - 2 teaspoon
jeera - 3 tea spoon
ajwain - 3 teas poon
coriander seeds - 1/2 cup
jaggery - 3/4 cup
ginger -100 gms
ghee - 2/3 tablespoon

Dry roast pepper, jeera, ajwain and coriander seeds and grind them together.
clean and grind the ginger to a paste. To this add the above ground pepper.

In a kadai, heat 2-3 table spoons of ghee and to this add the finely ground mixture and grated jaggery.

Keep stirring it till the jaggery dissolves in the mixture and it leaves the sides of the vessel.

When cool, tranfer it into an airtight bottle.

All the ingredients except ginger and jaggery are ground(dry) in a mixie jar

mixed with ginger and jaggery paste and boiled in ghee to thicken, generally made in a vengali uruli( bronze vessel) or kal chatti(stone vessel)

The end product ready to be taken before eating sweets and savories.