It's not lunch time, but I'm hungry and hallucinating...
White rice, pressure-cooked and roughly mashed while still hot with cooked thoram paruppu in a chatti in which nei has been freshly made so that the brownish kasandu at the bottom of the chatti are mixed properly with the rice and dal; then mashed some more with spicy thick vattha kuzhambu made with marathakkali and sundakkai (not with vengayam or poondu or verkadalai, although those variations are acceptable in other circumstances), and served in a steaming hot mound on your plate along with keerai masiyal with karuvadam in it, and crisp alu curry...
That, my friends, is a little bit of Tambrahm heaven.
For those not in the know:
thoram paruppu = tuvar dal
chatti = Indian wok
kasandu = residual milk solids from clarifying butter to make ghee or nei
nei = ghee/clarified butter
vattha kuzhambu = tamarind gravy to mix with rice
marathakkali, sundakkai = dried bitter/sour berries used in South Indian cooking. Dont know what they're called in other languages
vengayam = onions
poondu = garlic
verkadalai = peanuts
keerai masiyal = boiled mashed spinach
karuvadam = Click here for photo and explanation
