KOCHI: For most, the special foods of Karkidakam mean bitter and sour dishes with ayurvedic and local recipes. Especially children will make a sour face when they are given a plateful of Karkidaka kanji. But there are also a few tasty desserts that are also healthy for your gut.
Laddu — healthy but tasty
Devi Nair, a home chef and baker, prepares Karkidaka marunnu unda every year. She calls it ayurveda laddu. “The special diets during Karkidakam and the monsoon have been in practice for decades. It has become a special ritual for my family. Marununda is made using fenugreek aka ‘uluva’. It has many healing and medicinal powers. The ayurveda laddu is also a good immunity booster.”.
According to her, the ingredients are measured intuitively, take a handful and start making the rounds. The ingredients for the dessert are red rice (matta ari), horse gram (muthira), njavara rice, black sesame seed (ellu), fenugreek seeds (uluva), jeera, cardamom, coconut and palm jaggery (karupatti).
The jaggery will give sweetness to the laddu, making it desirable for kids. Roast the ingredients separately, especially the kinds of rice and horse gram. Grind horse gram and rice into powdered form and keep it apart. Now, grind the roasted fenugreek, sesame seeds and jeera and add the powdered form into the rice mix created earlier. Roast the grated coconut in ghee and grind it too. Mix the finely powdered ingredients with jaggery syrup and roll as balls, similar to normal laddoos. Enjoy the ayurveda laddu with a glass of ‘chukku kappi’ or dry ginger tea, she says.
Ela ada with a twist
Ela ada is an easy recipe, says Devi. It can be enjoyed as a breakfast along with hot coffee or tea apart or as a sweet evening snack. Devi shares the quick preparation of the delicacy which is steamed in banana leaf. “It is similar to the other ela ada we make. The main dough spread is made of green gram. Take more green grams than ‘pachari’ or raw rice and soak them in water for some time. Later, grind it well with just a little bit of water in a mixer. In a banana leaf, spread the green gram-rice dough and top it with coconut and jaggery mix. Fold the leaves and steam them. Eat it warm to enjoy the taste,” explains Devi.
From the backyard
You can also use edible plants from your backyard to prepare snacks. Thrissur-native Shruti Tharayil, a self-taught herbalist and founder of Forgotten Greens, a social media platform that discusses and forages herbs and wild edibles, shares about one such Karkidakam snack. Indian Pennywort (mutthal or kodangal) can be used as a medicinal herb and for cooking. These are mostly found near wetlands. It can be used to make a sweet halwa to savour in this season.
“Having qualities to boost brainpower, heal skin-related issues and overall health of the body, this creeper can be savoured during Karkidakam too. For mutthal halwa, you need boiled rice and jaggery apart from the plant’s leaves. Grind the leaves into a fine paste. Pour a few teaspoons of ghee into a pan and add the cooked rice and jaggery to it. Add the leaf paste and saute with a spoon till it becomes a thick paste. The ingredients are rich with medicinal values and the green colour will lure the kids,” says Sruthi. According to her, the halwa has a shelf life of two days.
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