How quickly we abandon age-old traditions in the practice of food, and succumb to the allure of convenience, short cuts and ready-made good-looking products. i’m talking about age Curd Or yogurt. in my grandmother’s house where I lived for the first 15 years of my life and even when we moved lock stock and tepeli where my parents built their new home, Curd Always made in the kitchen. It was a daily process. Every day the milk was boiled and cooled to room temperature. A medium-heavy bottom pot will be greased with the previous day’s pot. Curd, which acted like a bacterial yogurt starter, and boiled hot milk was added. A wet cloth envelops the milk as nature’s magic does, ferments the milk, adds surprisingly healthy probiotic characteristics, thickens it and sets it into yogurt. A typical hot, hot and humid day of Mumbai would take four to five hours, eight to 12 hours in a cold season, that’s it.
Sometimes we make curd twice a day, so that it can be fresh. There was also a kind of romantic uncertainty about how well the curd would freeze. Sometimes it may set loosely separating the water from the milk and sometimes it will be firm and silky. After all the milk was homogenized, standardized and bought not in cartons, but in a . was purchased from milkmanWhose honesty was always under question. So it is obvious that the better the milk, the better the curd. Milk pot with curd starter is always kept in a warm place and most importantly, it is left alone. An old lady’s story was that you could add green chilies along with its stem to help the curd set faster. Apparently, the stemmed pepper doesn’t impart any flavor, but it does contain certain bacteria that activate the milk to form a protein curd that rapidly turns the milk into curd. I had never actually seen this happen in any of our kitchens.
Read also | What the Fork: Khamang Kakdi and Kadhi are Kunal Vijaykar’s summer favorites to stay cool
it’s homemade Curd It was consumed in many ways. Of course, in itself, with added sugar. It was the best fake dessert, with a good crunch, if Curd Was placed in the fridge and the sugar crystals did not have time to melt into the curd. we drank Curd With fruit for breakfast, or as a ‘side’ Plate To reduce the effects of spicy curries, and always as a digestive after heavy meals.
Curd was used in Raita And KachumberSpecially Khamang Kakdi, a classic Maharashtrian salad made with a tempering of finely chopped crunchy cucumbers, roasted peanuts with mustard seeds, curry leaves and asafoetida, mixed with a few spoonfuls of yogurt and garnished with grated coconut and coriander. Curd was also churned and diluted in buttermilk and crushed as below ‘star’ either buttermilkwith the occasional addition of Cumin, or green chili or coriander or grated cucumber and garlic. Of course, I used thick yogurt to make my version of the dessert. LassiIn a blender with tons of ice and often added to my all-time favorite edible essence, vanilla.
construction Curd was mandatory during festivals because no Prayer was complete without ‘Panchamrit’a mixture of CurdSugar, milk, ghee and honey, as without festival food Shrikhand And Complete, And of course in those days no true Maharashtrian family bought Shrikhand from the shop, it was always made at home and Shrikhand also started with the construction of Curd, A pot of curd was fermented, set and then hung to collect the whey in a muslin cloth. Then when the moisture from the curd disappeared and the hung curd crumbled, sugar was added and added to the now-old contraption my grandmother used. It was a large metal mesh sieve bowl with a wooden mill ball attached to a handle. With vigorous circular motions, the hung curd and sugar will be completely juicy and wonderfully smooth. Shrikhand Will come out from under the strainer. To which my grandmother would lovingly put saffron strands soaked in milk and cardamom and nutmeg and finely chopped almonds and pistachios. the taste of it Shrikhand Still present in my mouth and mind after all these years.
Curd was also part of our chaat Habit. a. there is something about Dahi Batata Puri Which makes it less than North Indian chaat More Mumbai construction. puffed up Water pancake Stuffed and boiled with mashed potatoes moongSprinkle with tamarind sweet chutney, cumin, coriander and chilli powder and garnish with chopped coriander leaves and cover with really smooth and cool whipped curd. sit and eat Dahi Batata Puri Either on the sea-facing Hindu Gymkhana grounds or at Shetty’s Nana Chowk, or in the Mahalaxmi temple as the Shobha Hotel Bombay In form of bhel puri, as I was eating curd exampleat the prestigious Prakash Shakhri Gift Center in Shivaji Park. curd exampleI am sure, Mumbai had a way of balancing the intensity and response of chillies and spices with the coolness and consistency of curd, as opposed to the Kolhapuri and Nashik version of Angry Fire. example,
Curd Or curd is also one of those rare Indian foods, or may I say ingredients, which really combine the diverse eating habits and culinary choices of the north and south of our country. where is it chaat, Lassi, Raita, Bhallas, curd curdKebab, paneer- and curd marinated meat in Kashmir, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh or Gujarat. the south has its own fame Thayer Sadamo – Tadka with curd-rice spice – or classic peacock kuzambuA creamy traditional South Indian yogurt and coconut based curry or just green coconut and yogurt chutney which is the perfect accompaniment to a idli, dosa either medu vada,
As temperatures rise this season, I realize that we all have started eating more of the many forms of yogurt, or at least I have. It’s good for immunity, its probiotic properties benefit gut health, it helps people with high blood pressure and it’s really cool in summers. Unfortunately, what my kitchen has lost is making up Curd At home. The foolproof, perfectly set, unblemished panna cotta-like yogurt, now available in tubs, has kind of taken away the romance of making yogurt at home, but then can we resist the allure of convenience, short cuts and good looks? can product? I often can’t.
Kunal Vijaykar is a food writer based in Mumbai. He tweets @kunalvijayakar and can be followed on Instagram @kunalvijayakar. What is the name of his youtube channel? The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
read all Breaking News , today’s fresh news And IPL 2022 Live Updates Here.