Madurai, my home.

Coming from school and eating a plateful of sambar rice with vazhakai varuval (raw banana spicy fry) is one which can never be forgotten. Our school had just two buses then and we were put in the second trip. But second trip in school bus had its own advantages. Need not hurry to catch the bus after the school hours, can have extra chat with friends, can loiter in other class rooms, can scribble in the class room black boards, can stealthily submit record notebooks in the staff room, can listen to the stories of the gardener, many and many such memories….

By the time we reach home, we will have good appetite. On reaching home, after the few minutes (yeah, FEW minutes) of prettiness-check in the mirror, we will realize the smell of sambar and vaalakai varuval getting reheated in the kitchen. Sitting in front of the TV while mom serves a plateful of sambar rice with a spoon of ghee on it and a cupful of vazhakai varuval….Hmmmmmmmm….. Heavenly memories.

Fritters out of Banana blossom - Vaazhaipoo vadai

Madurai, Gran’ ma’s home

When my mom runs out of tomatoes or curry leaves in her kitchen, she used to send me downstairs to my grandma’s house to get some. Being a kid, I run down so fast and when I ask for them to my grandma, she will ask me to take it myself from the fridge. We had a nice gorgeous fridge painted in white. But when I open the fridge, there will be a weird smell and somehow I figured out that it came from a fat, bullet-like, maroon vegetable in the vegetable box. I never had idea what was that maroon thing, or what was inside it, but was sure that it’s a vegetable since it was in the fridge’s vegetable box. I did not bother to ask my grandma what was that vegetable but was hurry fleeing from that not-so-nice smell. I noticed that my grandma’s fridge had this grumpy maroon vegetable at least once in twice a week and I hated its strange stinging smell.

How to clean Vazhaipoo - Banana Blossom - Banana flower

Banana blossom is maroon in color (some describe it as purple in color). The actual flowers are covered and protected inside this maroon layer. There will be several maroon layers, each layer sheltering 13-14 cute banana flowers – arranged in 2 rows of 6 or 7 flowers each.

Remove the maroon layer from top-down. When you do so, you’ll find the little banana flowers beautifully lined in two rows – 6 or 7 flowers in each row.

Banana Halwa - Vazhaipazham halwa

Those days we used to get nice sweet green bananas (pachai vaazhai pazham). Every day after work my dad buys a nice bunch of bananas to home. By the time appa reaches home, mostly I fall asleep. My share will always be there for me the next day. So the next day, I get up with the lovely thought that I have a nice long sweet banana to eat :D. I brush my teeth in a hurry. Grab a small bowl and a spoon from the kitchen. Peel the banana, put it in the bowl, mash it with the spoon, go to the terrace and enjoy the mushy-mushy banana myself…. After enjoying the banana and the birds in the morning I will climb down very happily to get ready for school. This was my affair with banana. But this affair did not last long.

Trichy, Grandmother’s home

I was introduced to puttu in my ammachi veedu (grandma’s house). She used to prepare huge-huge amount of arisi puttu for the whole family in several batches :D while my chithi used to scrap many coconut heads and my aunt used to steam them in mega size idli-steamer, mix with sugar, coconut, gingely oil and give them hot in plates. Mmmm… I used to enjoy eating them. But if I remember, I first had godhumai puttu from my amma’s kitchen. And after tasting it for the first time, I fell in love with it and almost forgot about arisi puttu :). Yeah. Falling in the aroma that spreads outside the balcony when my mother roasts the wheat flour… it’s like a sweet spell. In this post, we’ll see how to make whole-wheat steamed cake/kothumai puttu.