#What can I use instead of sambar powder

[harik999]

Delicious Sambar Masala Recipe with Suhana Sambar Masala 

Do you know about the origins of Sambar? This lentil-based stew prepared with vegetables, tamarind, and spices was introduced in Tamil Nadu during the Marathi reign in Tanjore and can be found throughout South India. Having a tangy and savoury taste, sambar goes well with rice, dosa, idli, upma, vada, etc. It’s rich in protein, and you can have it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, making you feel satiated. You can make an authentic sambar with the right spices at home. If you can’t, here’s an easy way to make sambar – through Suhana Masala. Here’s how you can make traditional South Indian sambar at home easily!  

How do you make a sambar using the traditional South Indian method? 

List of the ingredients needed for making authentic sambar  

Here’s what you need to make sambar:  

Toor dal – 1 cup   

Vegetables of your choice – shallots, drumstick, potato, capsicum, broad beans, ladies finger, cut into broad pieces (you can add any one of these with shallots to make sambar)  

Tamarind pulp – 1 cup (soak a lemon-sized tamarind in hot water and extract the pulp)  

Suhana sambar masala – 2 tablespoons  

Oil, mustard seeds, hing, dry red chillies, and curry leaves for tempering.   

Water and salt as required  

Jaggery – 1 tablespoon (optional)  

Coriander leaves (optional)  

Step-by-step sambar recipe with Suhana sambar masala   

Add toor dal and vegetables of your choice to a pressure cooker and cook for four to five whistles.   

Meanwhile, peel the shallots. In a kadhai, add oil and fry the shallots. Once cooked, add the tamarind pulp and let it cook for some time until the shallots become soft. Ensure to cook this on simmer mode. If you do this on high flame, the tamarind pulp may become thick in no time, and it might affect the taste of your sambar.   

Once your toor dal and vegetables are cooked, add the mashed lentils and vegetables to the tamarind pulp and shallots mix, with Suhana sambar powder and jaggery, with salt and let it boil for 10 minutes.   

You can also cook the vegetables directly in the tamarind pulp, but this may take a while. So, if you are on a time crunch, just use a pressure cooker!  

Add water if your sambar is thick. If not, add oil and mustard seeds in a small frying pan. After they splutter, add hing, curry leaves and dry red chilly. Add this to your sambar and turn the stove off.   

Authentic South Indian sambar is ready with a Suhana mix in no time!   

Serving Suggestions   

Serve it hot with rice, idli, or dosa. If eaten with rice, adding ghee or sesame oil may enhance the sambar taste! You can garnish with coriander leaves before serving. However, it’s entirely your choice, as the taste does not alter with coriander, but this will give off a wafting aroma!   

Health benefits of spices and herbs used in Suhana sambar masala  

Suhana sambar masala has no added preservatives or MSG, making it completely safe to consume. Turmeric in the masala acts against inflammation in the body and reduces infections and allergic reactions. Cumin and fenugreek aid in digestion, regulate blood sugar levels and promote healthy blood circulation. You can add sambar to your daily diet, and it’s highly nutritional. Protein-packed lentils and vegetables like shallots will help your body cool down during summer!   

Here’s to making delicious sambar at home with Suhana! You can get this from our website.   

FAQs  

Can I use other types of lentils instead of toor dal?  

You can also add moong dal to sambar, but this may alter the taste of sambar a bit. Or you can use both, depending on your choice!  

Is it necessary to use tamarind pulp, or can I substitute it with something else?  

Tamarind pulp is necessary to make sambar. If you don’t use tamarind, add local tomatoes instead of apple tomatoes for a tangy flavour.   

What vegetables can I add to the sambar?  

To your sambar, add potato, drumstick, raw mango, broad beans, carrot, capsicum, radish, pumpkin (white and red), and shallots.   

[rudrjobdesk]

परफेक्‍ट सांभर बनाने के लिए इस्‍तेमाल में लाएं ये स्‍पेशल होममेड मसाला, इस तरह बनाएं

परफेक्‍ट सांभर बनाने के लिए इस्‍तेमाल में लाएं ये स्‍पेशल होममेड मसाला, इस तरह बनाएं

दक्षिण भारतीय खाने में सांभर एक प्रचलित रेसिपी है जिसे लगभर हर खाने के साथ पड़ोसा जाता है. यह खाने के जायके को जितना बढ़ाता है, हेल्‍थ के लिए भी ये काफी अच्‍छा माना जाता है. इसी खासियत की वजह से देश ही नहीं, दुनियाभर में दक्षिण भारतीय खाने को खाना लोग काफी पसंद करते है. इसे आप आसानी से घर पर भी बना सकते हैं और ब्रेकफास्‍ट और लंच में इड़ली, राइस या डोसा के साथ सर्व कर सकते हैं. हालांकि कई लोगों की…

[curutquit]

Samo masala dosa with vrat ki chutney. Your Vrat Masala Dosa With Coconut. Hi Viewers, Welcome to kitchen of manna. Today in our channel we going to masala dosa red chutney recipe.

Lahsun Ki Chutney (Red Garlic Chutney) , as required. To begin making the Soft Masala Dosa With Red Chutney Recipe, we will first make the potato masala filling. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan; add mustard seeds.

Hello everybody, hope you're having an incredible day today. Today, I'm gonna show you how to prepare a distinctive dish, samo masala dosa with vrat ki chutney. It is one of my favorites food recipes. For mine, I'm gonna make it a little bit unique. This is gonna smell and look delicious.

Samo masala dosa with vrat ki chutney is one of the most well liked of current trending meals on earth. It is appreciated by millions daily. It is easy, it is fast, it tastes yummy. They're nice and they look wonderful. Samo masala dosa with vrat ki chutney is something which I've loved my entire life.

Your Vrat Masala Dosa With Coconut. Hi Viewers, Welcome to kitchen of manna. Today in our channel we going to masala dosa red chutney recipe.

To get started with this recipe, we must prepare a few ingredients. You can cook samo masala dosa with vrat ki chutney using 19 ingredients and 6 steps. Here is how you cook it.

The ingredients needed to make Samo masala dosa with vrat ki chutney:

{Make ready of For dosa - samo rice powder.

{Make ready of sabudana.

{Get of coriander levels finely chopped.

{Get of grated ginger.

{Get of sendha namak.

{Get of Water.

{Make ready of For potato masala stuffing -.

{Prepare of Boiled potato.

{Take of cumin seeds.

{Take of green chilles finely chopped.

{Take of grated ginger.

{Get of peanut.

{Take of clarified butter or ghee.

{Get of Chutney.

{Prepare of coriander leaves.

{Prepare of sendha salt.

{Get of tomatoes finely chopped.

{Take of green chilli.

{Take of Clarified butter for cooking.

Masala Dosa recipe, is the special homemade masala dosa that tastes very different from the usual restaurant dosas. Take a look at what is the secret ingredient that makes it Enjoy the hot and crispy dosa with pudina chutney or ginger chutney instead of coconut chutney and sambar for a change. Mysore masala dosa, crispy from outside and soft inside, layered with spicy chutney is one the famous street food. Piping hot and crispy Mysore masala dosa is ready.

Instructions to make Samo masala dosa with vrat ki chutney:

First in a grinder take, sabudana. Grind it well and make fine powder..

Now in a bowl take,samo rice powder and sabudana powder. Add salt coriander leaves,ginger and sendha salt. Mix well. Add 2 cup of water and make thin batter.batter is ready.Keep it aside..

For Potato stuffing - in a pan take 1 tsp clarified butter. Add cumin seeds,green chillies and ginger. Add peanuts,saute it. Add mashed boiled potatoes. Then add sendha namak. Mix well. Stuffing is ready..

For chutney - In a grinder,take coriander leaves,green chilli,tomato and sendha salt. Grind it well.chutney is ready..

Now for dosa making - take a dosa tawa,grease it well. Pour 1 big spoon of dosa batter. Cook from both sides by using clarified butter. Put 1 tbsp potato stuffing on it. Samo rice masala dosa is ready..

Serve it with vrat chutney..

Serve Mysore masala dosa with tomato chutney, peanut chutney or coconut chutney and relish eating. Put ghee on top of dosa. Serve with potato masala and coconut chutney. Masala dosa is a renowned South Indian tiffin snack, not only famous in India but also elsewhere. Many North Indian restaurants are also on the menu list When cooked, place the potato mixture in the center of the dosa and fold it on both sides—the potato mixture.

So that's going to wrap it up for this exceptional food samo masala dosa with vrat ki chutney recipe. Thank you very much for reading. I am confident you will make this at home. There's gonna be interesting food in home recipes coming up. Don't forget to bookmark this page on your browser, and share it to your family, colleague and friends. Thank you for reading. Go on get cooking!

[easyfoodnetwork]

Pattani sadam, masala pattani sadam

Pattani sadam with masalas that make it so flavorful that will linger in your hands. Quick video, step by step detailed post.

Whenever I make recipes with masala items like this, it’s a welcome change, both in taste as well as preparation in my kitchen. Since making sambar, dal and kuzhambu is common at my home, I always love the day when variety rice is made. I feel it saves time too as these are one pot meals. There’s no  need to worry about curry/ poriyal/ kootu. No multiple times of keeping pressure cooker over stove, cooking dal, rice and no tamarind extraction (Yes all matters to me as it is so monotonous, still stick to the menu as it is universal at home). Just one chopping process and you are done. Saves lot of time, energy, vessels too just one cooker to wash (ofcourse there will be curd rice vessel, still )

I remember once I had this pattani sadam in SIA during one of our flights to Chennai. The way they write everything in tamil itself is so tempting and indeed it was so south Indianish. Mainly because of soambu (fennel seeds). Craved for it yesterday and wanted to make it for lunch. Somehow convinced Aj and Vj. Had south Indian dal and cauliflower curry for Aj as stand by, just in case. But as I was cooking, Aj told he will have this rice itself as he loved the flavour. What I really craved for is fennel flavour but Vj just throws out when he eats fennel seeds. So  I used fennel powder instead as he is fine with the flavour, just that he doesnt like it to bite in his mouth while eating.

Why I say Tamil nadu style pattani sadam and not pattani biryani (peas biryani). Because I have used curry leaves, crushed ginger garlic and fennel seeds while tadka, with sambar powder (the universal curry powder) along with other masalas makes it so south Indian flavour. So I thought better I would call it sadam instead of biryani. I have used seeraga samba to suit best for this recipe too.

Can I make it with dried peas? Yes definitely you can. Soak it over night and measure 3/4 cup after soaking. No need to cook separately, just proceed with the same method.

Print Pin

0 from 0 votes

Pattani sadam

Pattani sadam with masalas that make it so flavorful that will linger in your hands. Quick video, step by step detailed post.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Servings 3

Equipments (Amazon Affiliate links)

pressure cooker

Cup measurements

Ingredients

3/4 cup pattani/ peas I used frozen peas

1 cup seeraga samba rice heaped

1 onion sliced

1 to mato small

1 green chilli slit

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1/2 tsp coriander seeds powder

1/2 tsp sambar powder

1/4 tsp garam masala powder

1/4 tsp biryani masala

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 cup mint + coriander leaves

4 garlic flakes big variety crushed

1 inch ginger crushed

1/2 tsp ghee

To temper

3 tbsp oil

1 inch cinnamon

1 cardamom

1 clove

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp kal pasi/ stone flower optional

Instructions

Prep: First wash and soak rice.  Slice onion, keep mint, coriander, curry leaves ready. Chop tomato, slit green chilli. Keep peas ready. Gather all other ingredients.

Cooking: Heat oil in pressure cooker. Add cardamom, clove, cinnamon, fennel, kal pasi. Give it a stir. Add sliced onion.

In goes slit green chilli and fry till onion turns trasparent.

Chopped tomatoes is next, along with all the masala powders.(1/2 tsp each red chilli, coriander, sambar powders, 1/4 tsp garam masala, biryani masala, turmeric powders)

Add salt, coriander, mint leaves. Mix until oil separates.

In goes peas and rice drained completely from water.

Mix well and add 1 & 3/4 cups water, adjust salt & drizzle ghee. Bring to boil and continue to boil for a minute.

Lower the flame to minimum and cook covered for 14 mins.

Once done, fluff and give 10 mins standing time covered.

Video

Notes

Basmati rice can also be used. Use just 1 & 1/2 cup water in that case.

If you feel there is lot of masala powders in there, that's the specialty of the flavour in this recipe. But if you dont want to add all those, just add red chilli powder accordingly, dhaniya powder and garam masala or biryani powder alone.

Thin coconut milk can also be used in place of water. Reduce oil content as coconut milk has enough fat.

You can also add 2 cups water and pressure cook for 2 whistles at step 8.

Pattani sadam method:

Prep: First wash and soak rice.  Slice onion, keep mint, coriander, curry leaves ready. Chop tomato, slit green chilli. Keep peas ready. Gather all other ingredients.

Cooking: Heat oil in pressure cooker. Add cardamom, clove, cinnamon, fennel, kal pasi. Give it a stir. Add sliced onion.

In goes slit green chilli and fry till onion turns transparent. Add the crushed ginger garlic, just give it a stir.

Chopped tomatoes is next, along with all the masala powders.(1/2 tsp each red chilli, coriander, sambar powders, 1/4 tsp garam masala, biryani masala, turmeric powders)

Add salt, coriander, mint leaves. Mix until oil separates.

In goes peas and rice drained completely from water.

Mix well and add 1 & 3/4 cups water, adjust salt & drizzle ghee. Bring to boil and continue to boil for a minute.

Lower the flame to minimum and cook covered for 14 mins. Once done, fluff and give 10 mins standing time covered.

Serve with onion raita and some fryums.

The post Pattani sadam, masala pattani sadam appeared first on Raks Kitchen.

from Rak's Kitchen https://ift.tt/3dSmv5a https://ift.tt/2wg4tsI

Pattani sadam with masalas that make it so flavorful that will linger in your hands. Quick video, step by step detailed post.

Whenever I make recipes with masala items like this, it’s a welcome change, both in taste as well as preparation in my kitchen. Since making sambar, dal and kuzhambu is common at my home, I always love the day when variety rice is made. I feel it saves time too as these are one pot meals. There’s no  need to worry about curry/ poriyal/ kootu. No multiple times of keeping pressure cooker over stove, cooking dal, rice and no tamarind extraction (Yes all matters to me as it is so monotonous, still stick to the menu as it is universal at home). Just one chopping process and you are done. Saves lot of time, energy, vessels too just one cooker to wash (ofcourse there will be curd rice vessel, still )

I remember once I had this pattani sadam in SIA during one of our flights to Chennai. The way they write everything in tamil itself is so tempting and indeed it was so south Indianish. Mainly because of soambu (fennel seeds). Craved for it yesterday and wanted to make it for lunch. Somehow convinced Aj and Vj. Had south Indian dal and cauliflower curry for Aj as stand by, just in case. But as I was cooking, Aj told he will have this rice itself as he loved the flavour. What I really craved for is fennel flavour but Vj just throws out when he eats fennel seeds. So  I used fennel powder instead as he is fine with the flavour, just that he doesnt like it to bite in his mouth while eating.

Why I say Tamil nadu style pattani sadam and not pattani biryani (peas biryani). Because I have used curry leaves, crushed ginger garlic and fennel seeds while tadka, with sambar powder (the universal curry powder) along with other masalas makes it so south Indian flavour. So I thought better I would call it sadam instead of biryani. I have used seeraga samba to suit best for this recipe too.

Can I make it with dried peas? Yes definitely you can. Soak it over night and measure 3/4 cup after soaking. No need to cook separately, just proceed with the same method.

Print Pin

0 from 0 votes

Pattani sadam

Pattani sadam with masalas that make it so flavorful that will linger in your hands. Quick video, step by step detailed post.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Servings 3

Equipments (Amazon Affiliate links)

pressure cooker

Cup measurements

Ingredients

3/4 cup pattani/ peas I used frozen peas

1 cup seeraga samba rice heaped

1 onion sliced

1 to mato small

1 green chilli slit

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1/2 tsp coriander seeds powder

1/2 tsp sambar powder

1/4 tsp garam masala powder

1/4 tsp biryani masala

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 cup mint + coriander leaves

4 garlic flakes big variety crushed

1 inch ginger crushed

1/2 tsp ghee

To temper

3 tbsp oil

1 inch cinnamon

1 cardamom

1 clove

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp kal pasi/ stone flower optional

Instructions

Prep: First wash and soak rice.  Slice onion, keep mint, coriander, curry leaves ready. Chop tomato, slit green chilli. Keep peas ready. Gather all other ingredients.

Cooking: Heat oil in pressure cooker. Add cardamom, clove, cinnamon, fennel, kal pasi. Give it a stir. Add sliced onion.

In goes slit green chilli and fry till onion turns trasparent.

Chopped tomatoes is next, along with all the masala powders.(1/2 tsp each red chilli, coriander, sambar powders, 1/4 tsp garam masala, biryani masala, turmeric powders)

Add salt, coriander, mint leaves. Mix until oil separates.

In goes peas and rice drained completely from water.

Mix well and add 1 & 3/4 cups water, adjust salt & drizzle ghee. Bring to boil and continue to boil for a minute.

Lower the flame to minimum and cook covered for 14 mins.

Once done, fluff and give 10 mins standing time covered.

Video

Notes

Basmati rice can also be used. Use just 1 & 1/2 cup water in that case.

If you feel there is lot of masala powders in there, that's the specialty of the flavour in this recipe. But if you dont want to add all those, just add red chilli powder accordingly, dhaniya powder and garam masala or biryani powder alone.

Thin coconut milk can also be used in place of water. Reduce oil content as coconut milk has enough fat.

You can also add 2 cups water and pressure cook for 2 whistles at step 8.

Pattani sadam method:

Prep: First wash and soak rice.  Slice onion, keep mint, coriander, curry leaves ready. Chop tomato, slit green chilli. Keep peas ready. Gather all other ingredients.

Cooking: Heat oil in pressure cooker. Add cardamom, clove, cinnamon, fennel, kal pasi. Give it a stir. Add sliced onion.

In goes slit green chilli and fry till onion turns transparent. Add the crushed ginger garlic, just give it a stir.

Chopped tomatoes is next, along with all the masala powders.(1/2 tsp each red chilli, coriander, sambar powders, 1/4 tsp garam masala, biryani masala, turmeric powders)

Add salt, coriander, mint leaves. Mix until oil separates.

In goes peas and rice drained completely from water.

Mix well and add 1 & 3/4 cups water, adjust salt & drizzle ghee. Bring to boil and continue to boil for a minute.

Lower the flame to minimum and cook covered for 14 mins. Once done, fluff and give 10 mins standing time covered.

Serve with onion raita and some fryums.

The post Pattani sadam, masala pattani sadam appeared first on Raks Kitchen.

from Rak's Kitchen https://ift.tt/3dSmv5a via Blogger https://ift.tt/3aKyPT2

[killingthebuddha]

KOCHI, India — When I get to the goddess temple, the last thing I want is to meet a public relations officer.

I’ve traveled from Los Angeles to India to report on religion and politics in the country’s looming 2019 elections. A couple days into my short, university-funded trip, a country called the “land of stories” has produced nothing but dead ends.

At the 800-year-old Chottanikkara Devi Temple outside the city of Kochi, I expect to interview a government official. The state of Kerala uses temple management boards to oversee publicly owned Hindu worship centers. I need a high-ranking board member to comment on a religious controversy at another site. Instead, I get handed off to Meena Jayraj, a spokesperson.

She reminds me of a former boss when I produced P.R. videos several jobs ago. Jayraj is wise from years of experience and skilled with people. That’s what scares me. I worry she’ll mind-trick me into puff pieces, and I’m already losing confidence in the story I came to cover. It’s my own fault. Overly ambitious and underprepared, I’m struggling to find my way in Kerala, the one place in south India I don’t have any extended family.

Jayraj invites me to lunch in the dining hall. I don’t have time for this, but it’s bad luck to refuse prasad, temple food. The red matta rice and creamy sambar soup on my plate have already been offered before an image of the goddess, seeking her blessings. This meal is holy. And now my journalism is in conflict with my Hinduism.

Jayraj tells me the temple lore. I’m still on guard. But it becomes clear she believes every word she’s saying. Judging by the lines of devotees filing in and out of lunch, she doesn’t need my help to promote temple tourism.

In the legends of the Chottanikkara village, multiple images of the devi, or goddess, self-manifested where the temple now stands. At the large religious complex, stone walkways and wooden structures connect and mark these sacred spots. Depending on the time of day, temple-goers worship the central statue as Saraswathi, Lakshmi or Durga, three aspects of one supreme being, the female God in the Shakti branch of Hinduism.

Like the goddess with many names, the state of Kerala juggles its identities. With its secular politics and a public education system producing a 93 percent literacy rate, religion still thrives in the state. Reason and faith coexist here.

The appeal of the Chottanikkara temple has only grown in recent years. Visitors flock here from neighboring states and from the U.S., the U.K. and Australia, according to Jayraj and other temple authorities. Even non-Hindus, who aren’t allowed in the inner sanctum, can sit in the outer courtyard and pay the temple priests to perform the guruthi pooja. Why would they do this? The nightly ceremony is said to cure mental illnesses. When conventional medicine and therapy fail, some turn to the goddess.

Two minutes into lunch, Jayraj says something to make me stop chewing mid-mouthful. “Come back tonight,” she says. Through her glasses, her eyes are steady, her neck anchored toward me. “And all your negative thoughts will go away.”

I can’t decide if she means the generic “you,” as in anyone’s negative thoughts, or if she’s reading my mind. Does my face give away my frustrations as a reporter? As a 40-something grad student making a mid-career shift?

Depression, the main problem (along with schizophrenia) that’s treated at Chottanikkara, runs in my family. I think I’ve avoided that gene. I am discouraged, maybe, but not depressed.

If anything, I suffer, however mildly, from a half-remembered sadness common to Asian Americans, what Neo-Freudian cultural theorists call “racial melancholia.” Disconnected from the “motherland,” I feel like a guest in someone else’s house, wherever I am.

How can a temple fix that, except as a diversion?

I follow Jayraj to her office across from the main shrine and ask her how the devi helps people with mental health issues. She gives a recent example.

A few weeks ago, a twenty-year-old woman arrived from Bangalore with her mother and father. The parents told Jayraj their daughter was hearing voices and had stopped eating. Psychiatric treatment hadn’t helped, they said. The woman was about to drop out of medical school.

Five days in the temple changed everything, Jayraj says. On the priest’s orders, the woman woke at 3:30 every morning and followed a regimen of chanting, prayer and meditation, ending with the guruthi pooja each night. Now, she’s a “new person” and, most importantly to her Indian parents, back in college. They’ve called Jayraj twice to thank her, she says.

Over the course of the afternoon, I hear similar stories from temple priests and volunteers, but I have to see the guruthi pooja for myself.

“I’ll come back another night,” I tell Jayraj on my way out, still thinking I have better, more urgent leads to follow elsewhere.

*

Devotees gather in the evening after visiting Durga in the main temple. (Photo by Krishna Narayanamurti)

When I return, I wait in line to enter the inner sanctum. Adorned in a white sari, the golden statue of Durga waits at the end of the walkway. A warm smile runs across her sculpted face. I’m told this is her maternal form, blessing believers with her grace.

But as darkness falls, Durga has a fierce twin at the far end of the temple.

I descend a sloping staircase to a separate shrine for Bhadra Kali, an alter ego of the goddess, where the guruthi pooja will take place.

In myths, both Durga and Kali fight to defend heaven and earth. But Kali is the more violent and morally ambiguous warrior. She slays demons that the male gods cannot handle and demands blood sacrifices from her devotees.

Kali’s idol is smaller than Durga’s. A wide space in front is fenced off for tonight’s ceremony. Through the dim lamp light and the distance, I can’t see her face clearly. I think she’s scowling, but maybe I’m projecting my expectations onto her.

Every evening, the doorways to the shrines are opened so that the Durga and Kali statues can gaze at each other across the temple complex. A divine face-off, the two halves of the goddess balance their peaceful and warlike energies, according to devotees.

I sit cross-legged on the floor to the left of the Kali shrine. The families paying for the ceremony are front and center. At 8:30, the proceedings get underway, but only 40 of us are present. That number will grow to a couple hundred by the end of the evening. Even at sacred events, Indians like to show up late.

A man draped in a salmon-colored dhoti leads the audience in the “Lakshmi Narayana” hymn, a litany of the goddess’s nicknames. I find out later the singer’s name is Bhaskar. With no formal training, he sounds like a fusion of James Taylor and Stevie Wonder. The CDs of religious music sold at temples never sound this good. The singers never hit the mids and highs with this much range. Bhaskar needs his own record deal, or at least a booking agent.

After each verse, the crowd joins Bhaskar for the chorus:

“Amme Narayana, Devi Narayana, Lakshmi Narayana, Badre Narayana.”

These divine names pair the goddess with her husband Vishnu (“Narayana”) and praise her in four manifestations: Amme, the mother of all life; Devi, protector of the world; Lakshmi, provider of wealth and knowledge; and Badre, destroyer of the universe.

The call-and-response lasts a half-hour, while assistant priests set up a variety of tall and short deepas, pointy brass candle holders. They add ghee, or clarified  butter, to keep the flames at a steady blaze. A banana tree stands inside a square pit to the left of the platform. Behind the pit, an offering of coconuts, rice and small fruits rest on beds of banana leaves.

So far, the ceremony doesn’t feel that different from the typical Vedic rituals for the male gods—a lot of chanting, lighting lamps and offering flowers or food. For sure, the music relaxes and soothes me. But how does that help people with more serious, deep-rooted problems?

When the singing ends, the mood changes. I realize that we must be done worshipping the goddess in her “peaceful mother” form. It’s Kali’s turn.

Two men with beards running down to their chests walk out and sit by seven large copper pots, staggered on the ground in front of the shrine.

The head priest is the older and grayer of the two men. Lines of white ash and a red circle of kumkum powder mark his forehead. He looks like a mystic from an Indian comic book. He’s not messing around.

He begins to manipulate the items around the pot, snapping twigs in a fluid motion. In between, he washes his hands and ceremonial instruments with water from a large conch. Unlike the prayer services I’m used to, the priests say and chant nothing, or if they do, their lips don’t move.

The elder priest starts to offer the contents of the copper pots into the pit by his feet. Each vessel is filled with guruthi, a mixture of water, red dye, dirt and flowers, meant to mimic the flesh and blood of the animals that Kannappa, the medieval forest dweller believed to have founded the Chottanikkara village, would offer to Kali.

In one myth, Kannappa wants to sacrifice a baby doe, his daughter’s pet. The daughter asks him to stop killing animals and offers herself in the doe’s place. Kannappa relents, but soon after, both his daughter and the deer pass away mysteriously. Later, two stones representing the goddess Lakshmi and her husband Vishnu appear in the spot where the child and animal had died. Today, these stones are cordoned off and worshipped in a corner of the temple.

Bhaskar, the singer, may have disappeared, but the night’s music is far from done. A band of percussionists takes over. Three tabla drummers and a cymbalist begin a slow, staccato rhythm while the priest continues to stir and offer portions of the pot to the fire. It’s like experimental music, purposely disorienting, but I start to get into it. The elaborate performance of it all is new territory for me, but old for India; this is a Tantric ritual of conjuring and summoning.

From the crowd of people to my right, screams and cries of women pierce through the music. A young woman in a blue sari sways where she sits among the families who have sponsored the pooja. Near her, a middle-aged woman in purple stands up and thrashes her long, curly hair in a circle. Another woman dances with her eyes closed. Things are getting weird. Has Kali taken over, chasing the spirits out of these women?

On other trips to India, I’ve seen people in a trance, claiming possession by gods or goddesses. It was terrifying. I’m not close enough to these women to look in their eyes, to test their conviction, or my own.

The drumming accelerates to the point of frenzy.

My pulse is many beats behind. Somehow, all the excitement calms me down. My mind, normally restless, is locked into the music and the screams. The anxiety and pressure I began my trip with has moved outside of me.

Another thirty minutes pass. Two more performers come out and blow a pair of horns on bowstrings. The drumming comes to a crescendo as the priest’s surgical movements quicken. He empties the remaining pots with a fury, hurling the mud and red water into the pit until all the contents have been dumped out. A drop of red paste splatters on my leg. I taste it. No flavor.

The twirling, thrashing and screaming women have gone quiet. They’re hidden behind their families and the onlookers crowding around, anxious to get the prasad from the pooja. I don’t know if the women are “cured” or if they still have more work to do at the temple.

Across the way, I see a girl in white, maybe 11 or 12 years old. A spectator like me, she doesn’t stand with the people who sponsored the event. She is sobbing — howling really, like a coyote caught in a bear trap. Either she is traumatized, or she’s feeling the secondhand effects of the therapy, an emotional release.

Afterwards, Anil Namboodiri, one of the temple priests, tells me “you have to stay for five days” for the full experience.

I ask him if the pooja is only for women. Can boys and men benefit as well?

“Sure,” he says, “you can sit for it, if you’re having mental problems.“

I assume he’s teasing me. I say “OK” with a smirk.

He corrects me sharply. “Don’t laugh. You could have them.”

Like Meena Jayraj, he’s either a telepath or an exceptional marketer.

Negative thoughts can easily penetrate the subconscious, Namboodiri tells me. Most problems come from the outside, when we let other people manipulate us, he says.

In a “land of stories,” I know I should investigate and interrogate what I’m hearing, following the way of the Western academic, the way of the journalist. For a while, I leave it alone.

*

Later, I call up Seema Lal, a Kochi-based psychologist, looking for any science to supplement my Hindu faith. Lal suggests that, on the one hand, a lot of temples promote these cures now, and it can become a way to make money. On the other hand, many people have said the routine and ritual at Chottanikkara made them feel better, and the results matter more than their reasons. In a 2017 study, other psychologists have concluded that Chottanikkara’s methods can be an effective part of a holistic approach to mental health issues.

Praying and chanting “is not causing physical harm,” Lal says, “and it’s cheaper than medicine, so why not?”

I ask Lal about the women in a trance state. Was that real?

The external stimuli from the music and ritual action can bring about a catharsis in the patient, Lal explains. For women in very traditional, repressive families, it might be a chance to express themselves freely, since the goddess will take the credit (or the blame).

“Suddenly, you get this freedom to just be,” Lal says. “Some people find it very liberating.”

As a man who grew up in a laissez-faire house in suburban New Jersey, my experience of the ritual can’t test Lal’s theory. But that night I still felt the power of Kali-Durga, the balance of chaos and order, the longing and love from a community of believers in a doubtful present.

Maybe it was dumb luck that the political story that brought me to Chottanikkara never panned out. Maybe it was the goddess, calling me home.

[easyfoodnetwork]

Pattani sadam with masalas that make it so flavorful that will linger in your hands. Quick video, step by step detailed post. Whenever I make recipes with masala items like this, it’s a welcome change, both in taste as well as preparation in my kitchen. Since making sambar, dal and kuzhambu is common at my home, I always love the day when variety rice is made. I feel it saves time too as these are one pot meals. There’s no  need to worry about curry/ poriyal/ kootu. No multiple times of keeping pressure cooker over stove, cooking dal, rice and no tamarind extraction (Yes all matters to me as it is so monotonous, still stick to the menu as it is universal at home). Just one chopping process and you are done. Saves lot of time, energy, vessels too just one cooker to wash (ofcourse there will be curd rice vessel, still ) I remember once I had this pattani sadam in SIA during one of our flights to Chennai. The way they write everything in tamil itself is so tempting and indeed it was so south Indianish. Mainly because of soambu (fennel seeds). Craved for it yesterday and wanted to make it for lunch. Somehow convinced Aj and Vj. Had south Indian dal and cauliflower curry for Aj as stand by, just in case. But as I was cooking, Aj told he will have this rice itself as he loved the flavour. What I really craved for is fennel flavour but Vj just throws out when he eats fennel seeds. So  I used fennel powder instead as he is fine with the flavour, just that he doesnt like it to bite in his mouth while eating. Why I say Tamil nadu style pattani sadam and not pattani biryani (peas biryani). Because I have used curry leaves, crushed ginger garlic and fennel seeds while tadka, with sambar powder (the universal curry powder) along with other masalas makes it so south Indian flavour. So I thought better I would call it sadam instead of biryani. I have used seeraga samba to suit best for this recipe too. Can I make it with dried peas? Yes definitely you can. Soak it over night and measure 3/4 cup after soaking. No need to cook separately, just proceed with the same method. Print Pin 0 from 0 votes Pattani sadam Pattani sadam with masalas that make it so flavorful that will linger in your hands. Quick video, step by step detailed post. Prep Time 15 minutes Cook Time 20 minutes Servings 3 Equipments (Amazon Affiliate links) pressure cooker Cup measurements Ingredients 3/4 cup pattani/ peas I used frozen peas 1 cup seeraga samba rice heaped 1 onion sliced 1 to mato small 1 green chilli slit 1/2 tsp red chilli powder 1/2 tsp coriander seeds powder 1/2 tsp sambar powder 1/4 tsp garam masala powder 1/4 tsp biryani masala 1/4 tsp turmeric 1/4 cup mint + coriander leaves 4 garlic flakes big variety crushed 1 inch ginger crushed 1/2 tsp ghee To temper 3 tbsp oil 1 inch cinnamon 1 cardamom 1 clove 1/2 tsp fennel seeds 1 tsp kal pasi/ stone flower optional Instructions Prep: First wash and soak rice.  Slice onion, keep mint, coriander, curry leaves ready. Chop tomato, slit green chilli. Keep peas ready. Gather all other ingredients. Cooking: Heat oil in pressure cooker. Add cardamom, clove, cinnamon, fennel, kal pasi. Give it a stir. Add sliced onion. In goes slit green chilli and fry till onion turns trasparent. Chopped tomatoes is next, along with all the masala powders.(1/2 tsp each red chilli, coriander, sambar powders, 1/4 tsp garam masala, biryani masala, turmeric powders) Add salt, coriander, mint leaves. Mix until oil separates. In goes peas and rice drained completely from water. Mix well and add 1 & 3/4 cups water, adjust salt & drizzle ghee. Bring to boil and continue to boil for a minute. Lower the flame to minimum and cook covered for 14 mins. Once done, fluff and give 10 mins standing time covered. Video Notes Basmati rice can also be used. Use just 1 & 1/2 cup water in that case. If you feel there is lot of masala powders in there, that's the specialty of the flavour in this recipe. But if you dont want to add all those, just add red chilli powder accordingly, dhaniya powder and garam masala or biryani powder alone. Thin coconut milk can also be used in place of water. Reduce oil content as coconut milk has enough fat. You can also add 2 cups water and pressure cook for 2 whistles at step 8. Pattani sadam method: Prep: First wash and soak rice.  Slice onion, keep mint, coriander, curry leaves ready. Chop tomato, slit green chilli. Keep peas ready. Gather all other ingredients. Cooking: Heat oil in pressure cooker. Add cardamom, clove, cinnamon, fennel, kal pasi. Give it a stir. Add sliced onion. In goes slit green chilli and fry till onion turns transparent. Add the crushed ginger garlic, just give it a stir. Chopped tomatoes is next, along with all the masala powders.(1/2 tsp each red chilli, coriander, sambar powders, 1/4 tsp garam masala, biryani masala, turmeric powders) Add salt, coriander, mint leaves. Mix until oil separates. In goes peas and rice drained completely from water. Mix well and add 1 & 3/4 cups water, adjust salt & drizzle ghee. Bring to boil and continue to boil for a minute. Lower the flame to minimum and cook covered for 14 mins. Once done, fluff and give 10 mins standing time covered. Serve with onion raita and some fryums. The post Pattani sadam, masala pattani sadam appeared first on Raks Kitchen. from Rak's Kitchen https://ift.tt/3dSmv5a

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