L'Escalade

A few days ago, D decided that we should celebrate L'Escalade. Just like that. And it gave me an excuse to make these adorable marzipan vegetables, while D made the chocolate pot which will hold these vegetables until we sit together and break the pot!

L'Escalade, or Fête de l'Escalade (from escalade, the act of scaling defensive walls) is an annual festival held in December in Geneva, Switzerland, celebrating the defeat of the surprise attack by troops sent by Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy during the night of 11–12 December 1602. The celebrations and other commemorative activities are usually held on 11 December or the closest weekend.

Celebrations include a large marmite (cauldron) made of chocolate filled with marzipan vegetables and candies wrapped in the Geneva colours of red and gold. It's customary for the eldest and youngest in the room to smash the marmite, while reciting, "Ainsi périssent les ennemis de la République! " (Thus perish the enemies of the Republic).
-- Wikipedia

Recipe is simple: either use almond paste with sugar, or premade marzipan, with appropriate added food colors to make the "vegetables" - we made some eggplant, corn, radish, peas, even some bitter gourds and snake gourds, some tomatoes, carrots, cauliflower, bell peppers, turnips and such - just let the imagination and creativity flow :)

D used dark chocolate to make the chocolate pot. There are a few methods on the web - like using an inflated balloon, or even using a chocolate mold... But I think he just lined a plastic container we have with layers of plastic wrap, and then brushed the inside with melted, tempered chocolate, using a clean pastry brush. When it cools, lift the bowl out by the plastic wrap that extended over the lid of the bowl. I think he allowed it to set in the freezer after cooling a bit at room temperature.

The pot was not a masterpiece, it did develop cracks and needed special handling, but, it held up well, with good structural integrity till D and Ana broke it on purpose while reciting, "Ainsi périssent les ennemis de la République!". Of course, Ana just squealed "sweet vejj-abus", "sweet eggplant" while D said the actual words and I fiddled with the camera to capture it in video.

Navarathri Chundal

The the 10-days 9-nights festival of navarathri brings back sweet memories... Friday the 12th through Sunday the 21st of October was the Navarathri festival this year.

Chundal ('ch' as in chair) as we called it at home (or Sundal as many others refer to it) is a staple item during Navarathri.

I was not particularly fond of chundal when I was growing up. It was just different types of protein-packed beans mildly spiced and mixed with grated coconut+chilies paste, usually. Nothing exotic. Nothing terribly inviting.

But, now that I have a toddler to make nutritionally balanced food for, chundals have come in very handy. During Navarathri time, traditionally, no garlic or onion or strong masala spices is added to flavor the chundal. However, at other times, I make several variations of the basic chundal just to see which flavor appeals to the discriminating toddler palate ;)

Chundal can be served as a snack on its own, or as a side to complement a meal. Lentils, grams, beans of all kinds can be used. My favorites have been chick peas - both dark and light varieties, black-eyed peas, lima beans, butter beans, fava beans, yellow split peas, brown lentils, navy beans, pinto beans, kidney beans and black beans.

Traditional method: Simply soak the beans overnight (or allow to sprout, if preferred), cook till tender but firm, not mushy. Add some salt and ground coconut+chilies paste^†, garnish with tempering and curry leaves.

^†combine dry grated coconut with some green or red chilies in a blender and grind to a powdery paste with very little water - amount of chilies depends on how hot you like it; and usually, for 2 cups of cooked beans, I use roughly ½ cup dry grated coconut

Alternately, I like to add raw green diced mango, or grated carrot, maybe some freshly grated ginger - just about anything to make it a little more interesting.

Suhiyan

Suhiyan is the only name I know this dish by and it is a traditional festival dish my mom makes, particularly for Saraswathi Pooja celebrated towards the end of the Navarathri.

Navarathri was one of my favorite times when growing up. We used to set up this elaborate display called "Bommai Kolu" where dolls of varying sizes are displayed in a gallery-like steps set up especially for this purpose.

The dolls are usually of mythological figures, Gods and Goddesses, made with anything from clay to wood to paper maché. I wish I had scanned some of the old photos - a picture would be worth a thousand words to describe the beautiful decorations my mom used to enthusiastically set up in those days.

Friends, family, neighbors are all invited, and there is a lot of exchange of visits all through the festival period. Every day of the ten days (nine nights) there is a special dish, mainly chundal ('ch' as in chair) aka sundal, which are usually made with any kind of beans (sprouted, if preferred) like chick peas, butter beans, broad beans, split green peas, Lima beans, black-eyes peas, peanuts, kidney beans and so on. Plus, vadai, payasam, appam and suhiyan towards the end around Saraswathi Pooja and Vijaya Dasami.

While my mom makes the suhiyan in the traditional way soaking the urad dal, rice flour etc., grinding them and making sure the Suhiyan comes out approximately round shaped, I am not that experienced, so, I use some short cuts and the suhiyan turns out oddly shaped, but, quite incredibly tasty nonetheless, if I may say so myself :)

Suiyan is basically a sweet filling (poornam) coated with a batter and deep fried. The filling can have a few variations. I make a simple poornam, just like for Poorna Kozhakattai, with brown sugar and dry grated coconut. The batter is the short-cut one where I mix some urad flour, rice flour, all purpose flour and some water to about oothappam batter or pancake batter consistency. I am not too finicky about measuring, so, the ingredients list below is approximate, bear with me.

Ingredients:
for the poornam:
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup dry grated coconut
some water (just about ¼ cup or less)

for the batter:
¼ cup all purpose flour
¼ cup urad flour
¼ cup rice flour
some water

oil for deep frying

Preparation

1. poornam: heat the water and brown sugar in a pan over medium low, when brown sugar dissolves and begins to bubble, add the grated coconut and stir till thick, but not rock solid; remove from heat when the mixture has come together and is not runny anymore; this step is mostly from experience and trial and error for me; roll into about 1-inch or 1½-inch round balls while still warm, allow to cool a little so it sets into shape
2. batter: mix the flours, add a little water at a time till the batter is about the consistency of thick pancake batter, or oothappam batter, or even thick idlee batter
3. suhiyan: heat oil for deep frying; dip each poornam ball in the batter, coat well (and uniformly if possible), deep fry till golden brown on the outside

This suhiyan recipe is my post for RCI: Regional Cuisine of India: Tamil Nadu Festival Foods hosted this month by Vcuisine

Poorna Kozhakattai

Among the few festivals I manage to celebrate to my satisfaction, Vinayaka Chathurthy is among the top, a few others being Gokula Ashtami, Navarathri, Deepavali, Arudra/Thiruvadirai, Karthigai, Karadayan Nonbu and, of course, Vishu - the New Year.

Apart from the symbolism and the rituals, each festival has its own special menu. The primary attraction I have is that most of the festivals we celebrate at our home are marked by mellow and subdued observances, solemn, meaningful and simple rituals, quite modest and unceremonious, yet, sincere and heart-warming.

The special menu item, offered as prasadam, that my mom usually makes for Vinayaka Chathurthi is this Poorna Kozhakattai aka Modakam pictured here. Today being Vinayaka Chathurthi, I was happy to make this poorna kozhakattai.

And, as with most of my recipes, this is probably not entirely traditional as I have adapted it to the ingredients handily available in my kitchen.

Kozhakattai, in general, is a steamed dumpling-like dish, which can be sweet or savory, with the stuffing inside making up the attractive part of the dish. Poornam is the term we used in my family to refer to a concoction of coconut+jaggery+water, (sometimes black sesame seeds+jaggery, instead of coconut) in proper proportion so it sets to a soft candy consistency. This poornam is usually encased in the dumpling shell made of rice flour+water, and then steamed to make this dish poorna kozhakattai.

The amount of dumpling dough and poornam can be varied, so, adjust the quantities as needed, while keeping the proportion of ingredients fairly the same. I usually make a small batch...

Ingredients

for the poornam:
¼ cup water (optional)
1/3 cup fresh or dry grated coconut or 1/3 cup toasted black sesame seeds
1/3 cup brown sugar* (plus a few Tbsp more, if preferred)
*jaggery if it is clean, else need to strain to remove mud and residue

for the kozhakattai dough:
½ cup water
2/3 cup fine rice flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp canola oil

Preparation

Kozhakattai: heat the water in a pan just to boiling, add the salt and oil, then gradually add the rice flour while stirring constantly till the dough just comes together; off heat, cover with a damp cloth till poornam is ready

Poornam: heat the water in a pan, add the brown sugar (jaggery if it is clean, else need to strain well to remove mud and residue), when it comes to a boil, add the coconut and keep stirring till it just thickens but not too long or it gets hard as a rock; off heat allow to cool for a few minutes, grease your palms and roll into 1" diameter balls while still hot. (Or any size you prefer, I like little ones...)

Shape a small portion (say 2" diameter ball) of the dough into a cup, add one poornam ball, and close it by gathering all sides and forming a cone-of-sorts at the top, all the while turning/rotating the dough cup so it seals tightly, and is shaped as in the picture.

Note: the dumpling can be oval or round, but traditionally, poorna kozhakattai is round as seen in picture.

Steaming: Place the prepared dumplings in a steamer or idlee cooker and steam them briefly - the dough turns a little translucent when done.

p.s: came across Yum Blog's Ganesha Chathurthi event on Ashaji's blog, and thought I must send this along...