Kathirikai Rasavangi, a heritage dish from Thanjavur

Chennai

He has acted with popular television actresses like Raadhika Sarathkumar, Vijayalakshmi, Malavika Avinash, Sreeja and Kanya Bharathi. Sairam has appeared in some well-known television serials such Chellamay, Paava Mannippu, Vikramadithyan and Anu Pallavi and in every shoot of his, he has a precious food memory tucked away somewhere in his mind. He says he got to taste the most unusual food and the best he believes is Indian, especially, South Indian. Having travelled all over the world with his theatre group, he has tasted cuisine from everywhere, but nothing came close to Indian food and that too homemade Indian food.

Sairam recollects his grandmother’s cooking on a woodfire, and the aroma which wafted out of the kitchen made them hang out close to the kitchen.

Sairam feels that food was a major part of his growing up and adolescent days which made him like homecooked food. In fact, all his favourite memories revolve around food, whether it was a brahmin mess, which he visited when his older brother was posted in Vellore or a place in a village near Papanasam where his maternal grandmother lived.

The food in the Vellore Palakkad mess was so good that Sairam’s brother married the owner’s daughter and got the best of Palakkad brahmin food every day. As they say, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.

As a child, Sairam’s favourite memory was his grandmother Chellama making them sit in a circle at lunchtime, mixing curd rice and vatha kuzhambu in a silver bowl and feeding the children with her hands while telling them stories. He feels that food is more important to him than anything else and claims to be a slave for good, tasty home-cooked food. While growing up, whenever he was tired, his mother took him to the garden and feed him dal rice with homemade ghee. Love mixed with food is what energised all of them, he says. They grew up with strong family values, which involved compulsory dinner together every day.

Everyone had to rush back home at 8 pm for dinner together. Sairam got to taste the best of two states’ dishes, as his mother was a Thanjavur brahmin and father hailed from Konkan. The food cooked by his mother Durga had so much variety and love that his exposure to food made him an avid foodie.

Walking down memory lane, the actor recollects that on every full moon day, his father took his whole family — his four siblings, mother, grandmother, uncles and aunts — to the Besant Nagar beach for a picnic.

Armed with spreads, cushions, thermos flasks filled with hot badam milk, tamarind rice, tomato rice, curd rice and badam halwa, they used to have the most enchanting full moon picnic. His mother-in-law bestowed her love through food, as he says everyone knows he is a slave to good quality food. She makes endless amounts of stuffed parathas and send them to his shoot, much to the joy of his co-actors. Whether it was Delhi Ganesh and Radhika who always waited for his lunch box. The dish which captivated him the most is a south Indian heritage dish called kathirikai rasavangi.

There is a brief history behind the origin of rasavangi. Thanjavur was ruled by the Marathas for a few years. Marathi cuisine was cooked in the Thanjavur kingdom using the locally available ingredients like substituting tamarind for kokum, toor dal for moth beans, etc. The brahmin cook in the royal kitchen created a dish using these ingredients and it became very popular. The dish created was called rasavangi. Rasa in Marathi means gravy and vangi means brinjal. Though this dish is made using brinjal, ash gourd rasavangi is equally popular.

PREP TIME: 15 mins
COOK TIME: 25 mins
SERVES: 4 pax
CALORIES PER SERVE: 195 per serve

INGREDIENTS
Small or medium brinjals: 8
Chana dal: ¼ cup
Toor dal: ¼ cup
Tamarind pulp: 11/2 tsp
Turmeric: ¼ tsp
Salt: as required
Groundnut oil: 1 tbsp
Jaggery: ¼ tsp powdered

FOR THE MASALA
Groundnut oil: 1 tbsp
Dry red chilli: 5
Fenugreek seeds: ¼ tsp
Chana dal: 1 tbsp
Coriander seeds: 1 tbsp
Asafoetida: 1/8 tsp
Fresh coconut grated: ½ cup

FOR SEASONING
Mustard seeds: ¼ tsp
Ghee: 1 tsp
Urad dal: 1 tsp
Curry leaves: 1 sprig

METHOD

*Soak chana dal/toor dal for one hour. Pressure cook for four whistles on medium flame

*Make thick extract out of tamarind till it is pulpy, remove seeds

*Make four cuts on the whole brinjal, coat it with turmeric, salt and chilli powder and keep aside

*Heat oil in kadai, add fenugreek seeds, asafoetida, red chilli, chana dal and coriander seeds in order.

*Roast evenly until dal turns golden. Transfer to a plate.

*Roast the coconut in the same kadai until it is dry

*Cool it down and grind adding a little water to make a paste

*Pour a little more oil in the kadai and saute the brinjals till crispy, take out and keep aside

*Take a mud pot or stone vessel or big kadai, add the tamarind paste, a little turmeric, jaggery and salt

*Let the tamarind cook, add the jaggery

*Now add whole brinjals and cooked dal

*Add the masala paste and let it all simmer on low fire for 4 mins

*Temper the mustard seeds, curry leaves, urad dal in pure ghee and add to the ready rasavangi


SAIRAM’S KITCHEN TIPS

*Food should be cooked with divinity, that’s why the prasad in temples tastes so good.

*You can use pumpkin or sweet potato for the rasavangi

*The size, texture and colour of brinjals are important

*Make sure rasavangi is thick and not watery