THALIR (TENDER)
Dearfriends, Today Ifound tender leaves are appearing in my Rumania mango tree branches whilewatering. Years before it was cut leaving bottom two feet due to ants eating and living in the leaves. Howeverfrom the smaller branches left, new branches appeared. Now the plant/tree is 4feet height. Sasthrikals from my nearby home would comeoccasionally, pluck leaves for Kalasam since it was very convenient to pluck. During my boyhood days I used to eat tender mangoleaves which had slight sour. I thought today my posting can be about Thalir (tender)items of leaves, flowers and fruits. Sincerely, GopalaKrishnan 15-5-2021 1. Thalir If we plucktender leaves from plant, within minutes the leaves would dry. We use tender orslightly more grown leaves of different plants in daily life. 2 Tender leaves of coconut (Palm) Tenderleaves of coconut trees are often used during festivals. It is calledKurutthola. Kurutthola thoranam is important for certain temple festivals. Kuruttholais also used to decorate deities by cutting and braiding sometimes. For sasthapooja in many places kurothola is used. For Theyyam kurutthola is used. Kuruthola Perunnal (Palm Sunday) is a festival of Christians 3 Tender leaves of mango tree Tenderleaves of mango are used in many salads in countries like Thailand. I am notsure whether tender leaves of plantain are also used in a similar manner. However tender plantain leavesare as delicious as tender mango leaves. In day today use of plantain leaves for taking food, we use grown up leaves because oftearing. Only well grown leaves withoutany tearing is used for srardha. 4 Yam and Pumpkin leaves In Keralatender leaves elephant foot yam was used to prepare thoran in olden days.Similarly of leaves of matthan (Pooshani)/pumpkin. Now tender leaves of pumkinare used for thoran in village areas. It is very delicious. 5 Beetroot and carrot Thetender leaves of beetroot and carrot are used in dishes when it is available.In hill station the items are available with leaves. The leaves are tastier than the tubers. 6. Cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, drumstick The mostcommon use by us is the leaves of cabbage and Cauliflower indifferent dishes. Tender will be more delicious. Normally while selling outerleaves are removed and with fresh leaves, they are weighed and given bymerchants. Theentire spinach is used in dishes except its root. I do not know except spinach, any other plant’s full stem is used for dishes nowadays. Theleaves of drum stick plants are often uses in dishes similar to spinach. 7 Curry leaves and coriander leaves. The corianderleaves are used with tender stem, remaining stem is discarded. Similarly curry leaves addedfor smell. Mostly, the curry leaves are taken out while eating food from thedishes. >From thisthere is a usage in Kerala- Similar to curry leaves. Many persons are >used for gettingdone certain works, but after wards they would not be cared. 8. Tender leaves of teakwood tree Thetender leaves of teak wood tree are plucked and added to the coconut oil aftercutting to small pieces and boiled. On cooling the leave bits are removed andthe red colour oil is applied to babies while bathing. Thetender leaves of teak wood plant is used to cut and add to oil and applied onwounds created by a disease called Chirangu. The disease is rare now. 9 Edible flowers Manyflowers we use in dishes. One example is neem flower in Tamilnadu. We cansee many hotels displaying boards during neem flowering season as “Veppampoo Pachhati”as a menu item for meals. Theflowers of drum stickplant are also used. Plantain flower isinvariably plucked out after full kula has come. Unless it is cut, plantain maynot grow nourished. Plantainflower is used to prepare thoran. Plantain flower is normally availablein vegetable shops in Chennai. 10 Use of some special Flowers Thoughnot used in dishes, the flower of coconut is a must (Thengin pookkula) for nair marriages. Inthe kathir mantapam, the pookula is spread to sides as well as to up in the Para filled withpaddy. Fromsomewhere pookkula would be arranged to and opened only in time. It is pricedvery high. 11 Tender fruits use When itis coming to fruits, mediumplantains are used for dishes. Vatu manga /Kannimangais about one week grown fruits. Tender coconut too isslightly grown coconut from flower. The waterof tender coconut is very sweet. However it is priced very high in Chennai. Nowthe tender coconut is priced above 50-00 When ithas slightly more grown the coconut will be tender and called Vetala. When thecoconut is almost grown, we use it for dishes. When itis more grown, water would not be there, it is called Kotta thenga” There isa variety of coconut tree called Gowripathram, the coconut would appear yellowish orangeexternally. This variety has more water as tender coconut and when mediumgrown, the coconut mostly have not taste. They are grown for tender coconut use. Medium grown coconut white meat is grated andground with chilly salt etc. and added in dishes. White meat is crushed to get Coconut milk to preparepayasam, dish olan etc. -- 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]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/413858795.487191.1621061024251%40mail.yahoo.com.
