A foggy morning

Finally our prayers answered and yesterday night it rained. A LOT .Thank God. Today I woke up to a pleasant morning, chilly and misty and breezy - a welcome change to the morning heat we were enduring these days past. 

Today's morning climate brought me the memories of a foggy morning we had in late February.The previous night was just as usual,nothing different but the next morning we woke up to this blanket of fog.

Everything completely covered in a thick layer of fog making it difficult to see past even a couple of meter's distance. Of course I loved it...which will come as no surprise for those who know me.

The coconut trees in the nearby fields

I had come across such a foggy morning only once before in my lifetime when I was in higher secondary. I had an important exam that day and I had to travel in a bus to my school (thats 10 km away) and that morning we had a heavy fog which became so intense as the morning hours unfolded.With all the traffic driving in dead slow speed keeping safety in mind,we had a tough time reaching school on time. We were almost two hours late to school and so did my teachers and finally the exam was cancelled. We were elated and euphoric in class loudly thanking the weather Gods for the exam postponement.I thanked a dose extra as that was one of my loveliest trip to school enjoying the fog all through the bus journey.

The spotted dove kept cooing - maybe she was shivering as well.

Today's morning brought me the memories of both those wonderful mornings from the past. The plants loved the downpour too and all looked afresh. If only the clouds could keep it up and bring us some more rain... Eternal wish.. eh?

Zero shadow bunny

Okay, Nerd time ON.

Since the start of this year, I had been itching to get to zero shadow day. A simple google search would have told me when is the zero shadow day for where I live but I went the old school way and started monitoring my shadow whenever I was out in the sun starting from March and calculating the advent of zero shadow day on my own. This was in March.

And during this experiment,I was astonished to figure out that the Sun's path in the sky is not a straight line as I had imagined all these days but the Sun takes a path rather like this.

Picture from the internet

As April neared, it dawned on me how skilled our ancestors were in astronomy when they chose April 14 to celebrate the Tamil new year day. Yeah, the sun was only a few inches short of being right above us when April started.And on April 18,four days after the Tamil new year, it was zero shadow day in my place.I took this photo when my garden bunny hopped happily to pose for me to show the zero shadow that was cast. 

Now the first zero shadow day is crossed, there is one more that will occur in August. Hope I am able to take a picture on August 24 and share it.I learnt a lot with this little experiment of mine and I am content for this year,astronomy wise,even if I go this year without seeing a meteor shower.

Neer more

Another summer drink recipe and my last one for this year- Neer more. Neer more roughly translates to 'watered buttermilk' in English but some may also call it spiced Buttermilk.I would say,without doubt, Neer more is the King of all Summer drinks.My earliest memories of Neer more are associated with the thanneer panthals that pop up in late April during our Mariamman Kovil ther festival. 

Neer more is very easy to prepare. Churn the curd to get buttermilk.Remove the floating butter for later use on a toast or you can just discard it. Finely cut chilies,mango,ginger,coriander and curry leaves (all are a must for a best experience) and add it to the buttermilk and add in salt as per your taste. You can chill it or drink as is- but I bet you can't stop with just one glass of Neer more. Going seconds is almost a ritual in our household. We do not make tempered Neer more but you can easily do it by adding a tadka of mustard and urad dhal.

Summer afternoons and a glass of homemade Neer more - Perfect combination

I personally like Neer more that is prepared from slightly sour curd.This gives a slightly tangy flavour to Neer more and in my  opinion -is the perfect flavour to go with all the accompaniments added in the buttermilk.

Guava Lime Cooler

This is another bindass cooler that I have recently discovered from a cookery site. I was hesitant at first to try it as I hate pulpy drinks and also until tasting our homegrown ones,hated guavas too. But recently we had (what we could euphoriacally call) a glut in guava production in the garden and we were looking for ideas to use the fruit in other ways than the only way we know-as a sliced fruit.Sliced fruit was alright when we got just one or two fruits from the tree a day but when it started producing more(touchwood) something special was called in for.

I put all my hesitations aside and tried the cooler recipe and OH MY GOD! - what a marvel it was. Guava,lime and that little of teaspoon honey added together,gives a heavenly taste to this cooler and it was not pulpy at all.

It is very easy to make too --
1.Cut the guava fruit into quarters and grind it coursely so that the flesh is ground but not the seeds.Sieve the ground mix with water separating the seeds aside(you can add in water as much as you want;I hate pulpy juices so I added water liberally).
2.Add a whole lemon's juice,a teaspoon of honey, a spoon of sugar(as per your taste) and little pinch of salt and mix thoroughly.
3.Serve.

This is an absolutely delicious drink and if you have not tasted it until now, please do make an effort and try it the next time you have the opportunity to lay your hands on some guava. You will be ever grateful that you tried, just like me :) .

Panagam

It has been a long time since I posted anything food related so I will right that wrong right away :).

It is already very sunny here and it shudders to think how it would be as the days go on. To brave the summer afternoon, our go to remedy is the good old lemon juice. Quick and easy to make and you can make plenty and keep it in a pot and sip often.

Last week being Ram Navami, I decided to make Panagam a lemon based drink-specialty to South Indian cuisine. There are plenty of Panagam recipes online,I looked at few in detail and almost all of them were identical.The ingredient list too is very short.You only need very few things to make this drink (Jaggery,lemon,dry ginger powder,cardamom,pepper and water)and there is only one recipe instruction - mix all of them in the given proportions.I omitted some things like the dry ginger powder that I did not have but still the Panagam tasted awesome.

Do you know I hated Panagam until a year ago? Yes,I ardently hated this drink and those days during our C type ther festival  I would never go near the Panagam stall and beeline only in the buttermilk stalls. I was not able to pinpoint what made me hate the drink but it was almost 20 years after that I tasted it again last year. I liked it instantly and still wonder what made me hate it so much.

Now I like our homemade version still more and sure to make it often. It is very healthy too - said to balance the heat in the body and cool it.Colorful and aromatic too - the jaggery gives a wine like hue to the drink and lemon and cardamom amps up the aroma. It is so easy to make and one that I am sure to make often to quench these hot hot summer days.

A fresh start

A round around the OTG

It started last year when we took a couple of pots upstairs to help the plants escape a bug infestation.The terrace slowly started gathering more containers over the year and now we have what can be called a 'organic terrace garden'. So I will give a quick tour of some of the plants growing in our OTG..

Our very first attempt at growing red onions...we did not plan to grow them at all but a chance finding of three sprouted bulbs from the grocery shopping bag led us to plant them. I just inserted them as a whole into the soil with just the tip protruding out and they took off to a great start. One such bulb which has separated into five individual plants is shown below.Methi is giving company to these gorgeous bulbs.

A little experiment with spring onions inspired from the internet. Growing spring onion in a bottle is a very popular idea rounding the internet and I had wanted to try it for sometime now. So around new year planted some small bulbs and this is what they have become. Pretty cool,uh!! That is mustard micro greens at the top end of the bottle.

Harvests for every single day.. a proud moment really.We are not there yet but I can safely say we are half way there to sustainability w.r.t our produce from the garden.Most of these produce are from our OTG.

Brinjals.. finally. It has been three years and every year, we would plant a few brinjal seeds, one or two would come up and grow to a big plant and most will end up without producing even a single brinjal. It was hard to look at all the dried flowers falling off and the plant  (and us!) finally giving up.I swore this would be our last year attempting to grow our favorite vegetable and sowed some seeds last Diwali. We had six good plants and they are in three containers. After careful observation, we corrected many mistakes from our previous tryouts and this time voila, we have brinjals at home..finally.

Roses..I will confidently declare that I have finally learnt the art of growing roses(touchwood). I think the rose bushes like the terrace very much,there are record number of blooms this winter, the buds decidedly big compared to last years and the plants look leaps healthier.

Finally a peak at our guava tree performance.It grows in the ground but peeps into the terrace :).Our tree prolifically produces fruits twice per year.This years first season is underway and we are having a jolly time picking them up while roaming in our OTG :o).
I have a few more to show but not now..will add in them towards the end of the month.