ERIVUM PULIPPUM-HOT AND SOUR ERIVU is the word in Tamil and Malayalam for the taste hotness. We get taste hotness mainly from Chilli, ginger andpepper. Pepper and ginger are used from earlier times. Chilli cultivation started later broughtto India by people from other countries. Chilli origin is from Mexico
Iread from a response by Sri Sithamalli Balasubramoniam that on thisaccount chilli was not used during srardha in earlier days. Now most cooking mammies usechilly and for sasthra prepare one dish with pepper. Thereare many species of ginger and chilli. Regarding PEPPER I have noted only two varieties- Pepperfrom hill areas are Larger in size comparing to one grown in planes. Pepper isplucked from the creeping plant when it is hot while eating. In the beginning pepper would be greenish in colour. When fully ripen pepperturns dark green and then read. I have eaten the red skin- Itis very sweet. Greenpepper pickles are now common. After drying pepper become dark. Pepper powder is prepared grinding it, andcomes in small jars in the dining table. Masalaadded with limited pepper is very tasty while eating poori. Pepper is very costly. Pepperrasam is prepared and given when fever is there for some person. Nowadays pepper rasam is a weekly item in manyBrahmin homes. Some take pepper water. Because of hotness quantity taken has tobe limited. Forsrardha items are/were cooked usingpepper. Pepper is Milaku in Tamil and Kurumulagu (Mulaku like a seed) inMalayalam. A very mischievous child is compared topepper. Regarding GINGER there is a less hot and smelling variety – Maanga inchi. One of thespecial and preferred items for iyers. I didnot know about this variety till I came to Chennai. I am not sure in Palghatarea it is available. In Trivandrum I could not get it in Chalai market. Ginger has to be used after removing external skin. Any snacks orTiffin added with limited ginger is tasty- From uppuma, Pongal, chatni, vadaietc. Gingerpaste is compulsorily served in srardha. Pickle when more added with gingerpieces it is Inchipuli and when tamarind is more, it is Puli inchi. Lemonpickle added with green chilli will have plenty of ginger pieces added. Addedwith red chilli will have only large lemon pieces. Two preparations added with ginger is CHENAKKATI. Another is kitchati. For stomach pain aglass of semi liquid curd added with ginger extract with little salt is theBEST medicine. For me nothing else would be effective than this. Ginger cut added incurd with little salt is a tasty side dish with dosai and iddali. InTamilnadu INCHIRASAMis also prepared. Inchi is also added in Thairvadai. Adish with inchi equals one thousand dishes. Alegend about ginger. Once through the hill section a person was coming down tosell ginger in a basket. He kept the basket down to have a cup of tea from away side shop. A monkey was watching the basket from a tree. It jumped downtook a big piece of ginger and in a hurry ate it fully. Monkeyobserved it is hot and sat a little to cool. The person found bits of ginger onthe ground and monkey on the parapet wall with an angry irritated face. Fromthis originated the saying- INCHITHINNA KURANGU- Themonkey ate the ginger to mean a hot and irritated person… Driedinchi would appear externally slightlywhitish and added in appam, coffee etc after grinding . Dried ginger is called CHUKKU. Thereis a usage- Enikku oru chukkmillameans I am least bothered of the consequences of an action by others or him. usageis Chukkuillathakazhayamilla (There is no Kashayam without chukku). Chukku is such anessential item. Oncethere was a person egoistic of his knowledge studied very less. A person fromhis family fell ill and Kaniyan vaidyar wrote the prescription- CHKKU MULAGU THIPPALI.The patient could not read it. The egoistic came. Thissmall line not able to read? - He read- chkuumo- Lakuthi- Pali ad wrote it clearly to taketo the shop for purchase!!! RegardingCHILLIES there aremany species from small kanthari to capsicum. ACTUALLY THE SEEDS HAVE HOTNESS AND NOT THE SKIN. Thegreen skin is having special smell andit contains proteins and vitamins. Thered chilli is obtained by drying the ripen chilli orange or red in colour. Greenchilli is plucked while it is just getting ripen. There is a place called VEMBAKOTTAI near Sivakasi - ahot area where we can see fields of green chilly cultivations for hundreds ofacres. To see the red carpet of chillies I had been to the place once. Chillyis sliced and added in chutni, thoran etc. Instead of pickle many use lengthychilly piece from them, add little salt as side dish with rice and curd. Thehotness of chilli is absorbed in todishes while boiling. Some chillies are so hot that even a bit of 1/4thof it is sufficient to give hotness of the preparation. KARANAMPOTTI is almost round, and extremely hot. KANTHARIis delicious and hot. Some soft variety is used to prepare bajji and finally aboutcapsicum- one may doubt whether it isspecies of chilli- so soft. Greenchilly socked in curd and salt mix and dried is thair mulaka fried and used asside dish with rice and curd. An item preferredby iyers. Sometypes of red chilly gives more colour than hotness. Dried chilli is added inmasalas. Chilly should not be kept within the reach of children. Chilli powderis a defence item with young women. Kashmiri red chilli is available in Chennai,used fot colour preparations. Whereasginger grow in special soils chilli grows in all soils. The plant’s life periodis less. About Puli- Though we express the sourtaste of an item by the word Puli inTamil and Malayalam, Tamarind tree itself is called Puli in both languages.Probably tamarind tree would have been the first source to produce the sourtaste. Thoughthere is no bar in having or growing a tamarind tree in a home, it can bebrought up only in large areas like road side, and homes having largecompounds. In my home we had two tamarind trees; nothing would grow in the shading area of the tree. Tamarindis somehow forbidden in the preparation of srardha items. Thesour taste is natural in Lemon, tomato, mango. Ampazhanga,some varieties oforange etc. For fermenting some add to the warm milk a piece of tomato or lemonjuice. Whenthings get fermented the sourness also appears. But we cannot use all fermenteditems. One example is the water obtained by washing rice called Kati, if keptfor days it would have foul smell andsour taste due to fermenting. From this the origin of word Pulichha kati- Something to throwaway. Thereare varieties of tamarind- some varieties are having sweetness with sourness. The fruitobtained from tamarind tree is sometimes called also as Valampulibecause of the size . Whenfully ripen, it is plucked from tree, external skin is removed, the seedsremoved, dried , added with little salt and pressed and kept in cylindricalform. Now tamarind comes in small palm leaves packs in rectangular size inshops. Kodumpuli is a fruit about the size of an orange and yellowish dark from a tree.As it gets dried up it becomes more dark. For Non vegetarian preparationsKodumpuli is used for special taste. InKerala we have a small tree having fruits in external appearance like that ofkovakka Very sour. Imiss name of the tree. We used to prepare pickle with it, but restricted use. Itis told it can be used with non-veg preparations. Whensour taste is more in rasam, often one used to ask- Is it Pulivellam?... Recently Iread somewhere in internet the tamarind in limited quantity is good to reduceblood glucose levels. AsValampuli age a little it is called Pazhampuli. Just like Old rice, old tamarind is also preferred fordishes. New tamarind smell many not be pleasing. Now we get in supermarketsprocessed tamarind extract also. Very easy to use similar to Nestle’s coconutmilk… Ifone does not relish more sourness in sambar adding tomato cut pieces issufficient. Butter milk if more fermented cannot be used to prepare fresh curd.There is a limit of fermentation. The seemantham of iyers is Pulikuti forNayers. I am not sure it has anythingto do with tamarind juice, once conducted with pomp, now it is with in familymembers among nayars. Thereis a place called Puliyangudinear Tenkasi. Most of the street newspaper and scrap collectors in Chennai belong toPuliyangudi… There is a place called Pulinkeez near Tiruvalla. There is a sugarfactory there, from my boyhood days, still functioning with modern machines Thereis a saying- Pitichalumpotikkanam Pulimkompil pitikkanam. If one is going to hold, it should beon the branch of tamarind tree- branch will not come off unless cut. A verystrong tree . It means, if help is sought it should be from a person who couldreally help. Manytimes smart looking men from below middle class used to wed girls not sobeautiful and not so studied but wealthy. Peopleused to comment- He has hold on a tamarind tree branch. Icchiri Pulikkum is a usage meaning you cannot get a thing donethrough a particular person who is very tough and straightforward . Manypreparations are there with prominence for Puli. One is Puli inchi- Puliproportion is more. There is also apreparation in Tamilnadu called Pulikuzhampu. Puliyodarai is a nivedyam inPerumal temples. Thakkali sadam, isanother preparation. Notonly in curd, but in preparation like kitchadi puli has more prominence. If a hotel serves meals without curd orbuttermilk, there will be no satisfaction of the meals. Pulimootta and uppumootta are games where one takes another on back- preferablychildren. -- 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/111287903.209680.1628244268833%40mail.yahoo.com.
