whose food we eat, their song we sing

Here is our own post for the event Sukham Coolers Healing Foods. We start with a quote from our cookbook Sukham Ayu: “After meal drinks are known as ANUPANA in Ayurvedic texts. Buttermilk or takra, which is diluted and churned yogurt, is considered an ideal anupana after lunch. There is often a misconception that yogurt and buttermilk have similar properties. According to Ayurveda, yogurt which is hot and sour in essence, when churned into buttermilk, undergoes manthan samskara and becomes sweet after digestion, and exerts a cooling effect. The sutras proclaim: Just as nectar is for Gods, buttermilk is for humans. One who consumes buttermilk daily does not suffer from disease and diseases cured by it do not recur.”

Buttermilk…the Sukham cooler we have relished every summer, and here in Chennai through the year. This drink of diluted curd has many versions and many stories, and I take this moment to write about one my mother told me every year, on the eve of Shitalashtami or ‘thanda khaana’. A day when we keep cool, eating things that do not need to be cooked / heated that day. The stove is not lit nor is the geyser switched on. We eat food prepared the previous day, visit friends and relatives and keep cool. I wish we would use this day to imbibe some coolness in our hearts as well, letting go of intense heating emotions of love & hate, but that is a journey that takes more than a day.

As children when we were woken up before sunrise on Shitalashtami, rushed to have a head bath with cold water, dressed up and reached the temple in the wee hours of dawn, all our questions about the day had to wait until the pooja was completed. Before leaving the temple premises, we would sit in the temple courtyard for a short while and listen to the buttermilk legend rendered eloquently by my mother.

This is a story of two sisters, Shitala and Bodri, who wandered into a village. It was the peak of summer and they became hot and thirsty, and started looking for something cool to eat or drink. Many people offered them alms of exotic sweets and rich preparations, but their parched throats found no relief, not even in the king’s palace. By then their anger started mounting and they wished a curse upon the village. Finally they reached a hut at the outskirts of the village. An old lady greeted them and asked what she could do for them. They asked her for something cool and soothing to eat. She went into the hut and came back with some buttermilk and leftover rotis. She was poor and had nothing else. But this simple cold food was like nectar for the two sisters at the moment. They finished their meal and blessed the old lady saying that her house will always remain cool and happy.

As they departed from her house into the woods, the little village started burning. People ran helter and skelter trying to escape the fire, but nothing was spared, not even the palace. Only the little hut stood unscathed to everyone’s surprise. When the news reached the king, he rushed to the hut and asked the old lady why she had been spared. She said she was clueless but mentioned the two young women whom she had fed the stale rotis & buttermilk.

After much search, the two sisters were found resting under a tree in the deep woods. The king and the villagers prostrated at their feet and asked them who they were. The sisters replied that they had cursed the village and villagers since their thirst hadn’t been quenched but had spared the old lady. Thus to this day, we celebrate the 8th day of Chaitra month soon after the festival of Holi to appease these two Goddesses. Shitala as the name implies means ‘coolness’ and Bodri means ‘pox’. Thus these are the two Goddesses who protect us from the heat boils of small pox and chicken pox.

In Sukham Ayu, the introduction to buttermilk says: “BUTTERMILK kindles the digestive fire, bestows nourishment and is an aphrodisiac. Its light and water absorbent properties make it useful in controlling diarrhoea and dysentery. Its sour essence and warming potency, coupled with the fact that it is a good appetizer and digestive makes it soothing to vatas. Its astringent essence coupled with it being dry, light and quick to digest, calms kapha; and its sweet post-digestive effect keeps it from aggravating pitta.”

SPICED BUTTERMILK: A Recipe from Sukham Ayu
Fresh yogurt of cow’s milk 2 cups
Powdered rock salt to taste
Cow’s ghee 1 tsp
The paste
Cumin seeds ½ tsp
Black peppercorns 3-4
Spinach 6-8 large leaves
Fresh hibiscus petals (optional) 10
Fresh coconut 1 tbsp, grated
The tempering
Cumin seeds ½ tsp
Asafoetida powder a pinch
Curry leaves 4-5, chopped fine

1) Churn yogurt along with 1½ cups water to make buttermilk. Add salt and set aside.
2) For the paste, heat ½ tsp ghee in a wok. Add cumin and pepper and as they crackle, toss in the spinach and hibiscus and sauté for 1-2 minutes. Cool and grind into a fine paste along with the coconut and ¼ cup water. Strain this paste into the buttermilk.
3) For the tempering, heat ½ tsp ghee in the same wok. Add cumin and as it crackles, add the asafoetida and curry leaves. Immediately switch off flame and pour this tempering into the buttermilk.

Serve as a post lunch drink or as an accompaniment to steamed rice.