Necessity is the mother of all inventions. Thus spake a wise
man, not me! (Then why did so many unnecessary things get invented spake another
wise man, not me again, but we will let it pass!)
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| Vinayagar, Ganapathi, Ganesh |
The Story began on a Vinayagar
Chaturthi day eons ago. As the Thoranam
were tied, Maavelai adornded the
doors, the shouts of ‘Ganapati Bappa
Morya’ rang the air, the fruits, thengai,
vetthalai-paakku were bought and
ready, the welcome ceremony of the remover of all obstacles, the Elephant
Headed Vinayagar was still incomplete. It patiently awaited the arrival of that
one item in the menu which is supposedly the favourite of Ganpati. There can be never a Sri
Ganesh of Sri Ganesh without kozhukkattai spake a wise man, me too among
many others. (Kozhukkattai. Dear
North Indians: Don’t please do to Kozhukkattai what you did to Azhagiri or Kanimozhi
or Tamizh. Kindly don’t massacre it by calling it कोज़्हुककट्टई, खोयाकट्टाई,
कोईकट्टा! The closest I can
permit you is कोयाकट्टाई. Else please stick to Modak which is the ‘naarth Indian’ equivalent of it. Welcome!)
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| Kozhukkattai/Modak |
Kozhakkattai
is essentially Coconut+Jaggery mixed together, placed inside a rice cake and
steam cooked. @Sporty_Baba informs me that some friend of his called
Kozhakkattai/Modak a meetha momos.
However sacrilegious he, and me might have found it, I think the description is
fairly spot on! But then I digress.
The star
of the story, (Your mother, wife or Jiggs Kalra or whoever started making
Kozhukkattais) came to a major hitch. It was invariably found that the stuffing
called pooran/pooranam and the rice
dough were never made in the right balance. Either of it was more in quantity.
The frequent remaking of either the dough or the pooranam was proving to be
futile in balancing the quantity. The Lady in question came out with a way
around the difficulty. Once the pooranam was over, she came up with another
pooranam which was salty, dhal and salt replacing jaggery in the concoction.
And Uppu Kozhukkatai was born to
give Vellam Kozhukkattai company.
(It is not known whether Ganapathiji liked this too as no reference was found
in the shastras but given that he
was the world’s first foodie, we can assume, he liked this development too.)
If you
thought that aal izz well from this point onwards, read on. The problem only
increased manifold. In the earlier case one had a mismatch of pooranam and maavu, it now graduated to mismatch of
two types of pooranam and maavu! Back to square one you ask? No! The by now
wiser lady didn’t fall for the ring-around-the-rosy routine. Instead she rolled
the left over maavu into small balls, fried it over a medium glow along with
seasoning. LO AND BEHOLD! The new marvel! Ammini Kozhukkattai! The often
ignored and taken for granted delicacy. Making innovation work for you. The necessity
giving way to another mighty invention! We have, yet again no clue if Vinayagar
liked this newest addition to the Kozhukkattai family, but given the fact that
he was the world’s first foodie, we are sure he likes it. As does my junior; nay he loves it. As
do I. And as will you. So will @sporty_baba when he tastes it. Sooner hopefully
that later!
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| Ammini!!!!! |
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PS: Just
said Happy birthday to Krishna (Uppu Seedai, Vella Seedai, Murukku, Thenkozhal,
Adirasam, Puttu and Payasam. Just said Happy Birthday Vinayagar with
Kozhukkattais of the above mentioned variety. Next up is Onam, when we welcome
Mahabali with sadhya and Paladapradhaman. Then Navratri. Then Dipawali. As a
wise man, me, once said, the path to nirvana is through the stomach!
Glossary:
Pooranam :
Stuffing inside Kozhukkattai
Uppu :
Salt
Maavu :
Dough
Vellam : Jaggery
Meetha : Sweet
Shastras : Hindu Holy scriptures
Sri Ganesh : Also a euphemism for auspicious beginning!
Maavilai Thoranam:
Thengai : Coconut
Vettahalai-Pakku : Betel Leaf and nuts
