This is a typical scene at my residence at 7.30 am:

Me ---- always on heels to wrap my breakfast early n drive down fast to work. Like a typical girl of this century, I would flip down the cornflakes box upside down with a force into my bowl, hardly realizing that its gonna over fill it… then take a handful or more and then put that back into the box….(huh I create a huge mess in my breakfast table) add few apple slices, cold milk and a dash of nuts to it and sit with a newspaper in my living room. My granddad had been watching these kinda episodes for few weeks and every time he spares a cynical smile in his wrinkled handsome face,I look at him like “Forget it thatha.We both are from two different corners of the world”.

My grandfather calls this being “pseudo western” and considers this breakfast food too expensive and not so nutritious as his native ones. He doesn’t like us aping things just for the heck of it. He is too hooked up to the fact that age-old cooking/dishes is always better than the current microwave ones. It’s too difficult to argue with him.

He has been raised in a village near Chidambaram (a town in the Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu, India) and he later moved to Cuddalore for his living. He has always been living in a pollution-free and eco friendly environment; his beautiful native village smells of moist sand, pure air and breezy evenings, slowed paced lifestyle, neighbors exchanging warm smiles, afternoon chats with them in the verandah, economical foods, vegetable n fruits sans fertilizer smell, simple living, in short: it is a heaven on earth for him. Once he moved to Chennai to live with us, both my granddad n grandmom couldn’t survive here for long. Since then, they keep visiting us once in a while and they preferred to remain as guests.

Now about the post for today.

Last week, he suggested me to have Arisi Kanji (a Tamil term for rice porridge) for breakfast. I gave an expressionless look and wondered the reason he suggested that to me.

“Try it once. You wouldn’t get back to your cornflakes anymore” said my granddad in a very confident tone.

Believe me, he was right! I stopped buying cornflakes anymore. :-) (wink)

He shared the recipe with my mom and she dutifully bought the ingredients for it.This porridge has hand pounded rice and red rice in it. They have a very earthly simple taste. My mom and I renamed it as “B-complex porridge”. This porridge is rich in Vitamin B complex. Vitamin B complex group comprises many vitamins, which includes thiamine B1, niacin, riboflavin, pyridoxine B6, biotin, cyanocobalamine B12 and folate. Vitamins cannot be synthesized in the body in adequate amounts and therefore it should be supplied in food. Instead of opting for pills, it is healthier to eat vitamin rich foods, because vitamins are best absorbed in their natural state. They are necessary for the metabolic reactions of the body and its deficiency can lead to various illness.They are also present in whole grains, wheat germ, brown rice, nuts, beans, milk and milk products, eggs, fish, liver, raw green vegetables.

Ingredients

• 1 kg Hand pounded rice / Kaikuthal arisi
• 1 kg red rice
• 200 gm barley
• 100 gm horse gram
• 2 tsp shredded fresh coconut
• Salt to taste
• 3-4 cups water

Method

Clean the rice with running water and let it dry for a day.
Dry roast the barley and horse gram.
Grind them all together to a coarse powder-like form. The rice should have a broken look.

Note: They should not be ground into a fine powder.

Store them in a dry container and they could be used up to 4-6 months.

To prepare the porridge:

Boil the water in a vessel. Add about 1-1 1/2 tbs of the above made porridge mix to it. Gently mix them and let the rice cook. If you would like the porridge to be watery, add little more water. Add salt and shredded coconut to it.
Mix thoroughly and serve hot with mango/amla pickle / any thogaiyal.

Thanks "B" for the beautiful flowers and lovely words. You brought a huge smile in my face. I was really surprised girlie! hugs n muuuaaaaaaaaahhh!