VALSAN (ELAYADA) Dear friends,
I amreceiving a lot of responses with suggestion to write on topics like Valsan,kozhukkatta and similar snacks from members. I am happy many members fromdifferent groups relish and enjoy small postings on such topics from me in between serious topics by others. Sincerely, GopalaKrishnan 9-9-2010. Reposted on 23-12-2020 after editing and updating.R. Gopala Krishnan. 1. Valsan or Elayata Elayatais a very enjoying evening snack. In central Kerala among iyers it is told asValsan and among others as Elayata. In my home royal families, nampoothiriesand variers also used to make this snack. The plantain leaf cut to pieces ofabout 1’x1’ is used to prepare the snack. Probably from this name elayata wouldhave come to this snack. The name valsan would have come because most Brahminslike it? Normally it was a practice to distribute 6-7 pieces to other familiesalso when the snack is made in our families. It was a reciprocal practice. The twomain constituents for preparation are 1. Nicely grinded batter of raw rice 30%solid. 2. Semi fried (Varattiya) jaggery, grinded coconut in proportion, sometimessmall quantity of rice powder and elakka mixture. In the period of jack fruitseason chakkavaratti is used In place of jaggery mix. In Trivandrum sidejiggery, banana fruit cut is also used. The best one is using chakkavaratti, 2ndone with coconut mix and last one with plantains. The batteris poured on the warmed (Vattiya) plantain leaf to the size of a big papad andthe jaggery mixture is placed in the centre to the size of a lemon. Then theplantain leaf is folded from centrefirst slightly pressed and from sides to have the size of a semi hexagon. The batternow would cover the centre jaggery mix like a thick paper and leaf would holdit since warmed. It is placed in iddali cooker over the plates spread andcooked in steam. One more layer is placed over the first so that folded leavesare well pressed. After 3-4minutes the fragrant smell started to appear from the pot, it would be cooked well. Served hot, it isconsumed before minutes since our taste buds would have started functioningwell before. (Even diabetics like me are given exception to eat Valsan whenmade). Thecentre jaggery mixture is called Poonam. Normally it is customary to make 1%more poornam than the required. It is simple valsan. In my homethere was a Brahmin hotel called SK Lodge at Junction. They used to prepare thesnack in the evenings. They would keep it in a basin and take to tables anddistribute as we require. It was famous and used to get exhausted within 2hours. 2. Chithappa, kappi kudikkam Invariablyone server would ask tea or coffee. It would be another server distributingsnacks. In all probability while the bill was prepared cost of tea/ coffee wouldbe added. In the crowded hotel it was time consuming to get the bill corrected.So my brother’s children used to say – “Chithappa, we would take coffee too. Somehowit would come in bill”. On those days no item-wised bill, only total amount. 3. Jack fruit valsan and plantain valsan Thejackfruit valsan is made using jack fruit (Varikka Chakkachula) cut to piecesand added in poornam. In this case coconut in mixture may not be there much. During seasonalso chackka varatti is used as poornam instead ofchackka chula. These chackka valsan too used to be very tasty. For preparingchackka varatti Koozha chaccka is not good. InTrivandrum I have found plantain cut to pieces and used in poornam in a ricejaggery mix. However it do not qualify to even 2nd grade valsan. Itis just to satisfy the taste bud for Valsan eating. 4. Brahmin and Potti preparation InBrahmin and Potti hotels this item used to be available for evening snack, tillpreparation get exhausted. Theboiled edges of rice batter with 20% jaggery mixture are more relishing thanthe centre in taste. If the edges are thick with rice batter, many mayleave it aside and eat poornam area. I have rarely seen this item prepared inNair hotels and tea shops. 5. Pregnant women and valsan preparation Normallywhile valsan is prepared pregnant woman is not allowed to participate. There isa belief the ears of child born may get a fold more or slight cut. Thebelief that there should be more poornam is also for the reason, the pregnantwoman if any in the home, would give birth to male child. 6. Valsan as Neivedyam InKrishna temples valsan used to be a Neivedyam when ordered earlier, made in thetemple. In my local Krishna temple, this was ordered. 7. Therali Theraliis a close cousin of Elayada. Here the leaf used is from a tree called Vayana(cinnsmomum-bayleaf tree). This leaf has special smell and it increases when warmed whilemaking therali, only coconut jaggery elakka is used. As far as I know, it isnot normally prepared as snack. It is an offering mostly in the Devi temples. The preparationwill have special smell of Vayana. I have not seen this tree common inTamilnadu. Therali is also prepared for Neivedyam to sasthapooja where fire walk (Aazhi) is made. 8. Kozhikkode experience There isa good lodge cum marriage hall cum restaurant called Lekshmi café near Thalitemple in Calicut. Valsan used to be a preparation there on specific days. While I was in Calicut, I used to confirm thedays of preparation, go in advance to consume it. However many times they would not prepare them in theschedule days. 9. Elayada in Chennai I havenever seen any hotels or restaurants preparing elayada as snack. Unless it isprepared on compelling demands from children, it is not done in homes. Howeverwhile some relatives bring Chakkavaratti from Kerala, valsan will be a snackon table. Nowa- days chakka varatti is available in T Nagar in specified shopsrun by Keralites. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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