EASTER

Today is Easter.As usual i made Easter Appam,i call it KINNATHAPPAM. It's made in a bowl.Also made beef curry.I have been making this ever since i got married ,every year as a tradition that my father used to do for us.After lunch today Boss and i was talking about our childhood days for about 2 hours.I told him,how my father used to make Easter and Christmas, special for us. First of all,he did all the cooking all by himself. He would meassure and soak Pachari(white rice?)for a couple of hours.Then drain it.There would be a lady who comes to help,Sarada chechy.She will use the old method-ulakka and ural to powder the rice.It takes a long time.I remember watching her doing it.She would go out in between to use pan/vettila murukkan.Then she will roast the flour.My father would be nearby watching carefully to see that, it does not get over roasted.Then that lady would grind freshly grated coconut,that too in our old 'attukallu'.Then father would mix all this along with coconut water with yeast in it.He will cover it and put that on top of our arippetti:).Arippetti is a big wooden box ,where there is 3 big sessions(Each one could be of different shape and sizes).One to put Champavari/brown rice,one to put Pachari,another one to put Wheat.There is also a box inside that has 8 sections to keep dals and pepper etc.It's almost as big as a small dining table.Then the next day he would wake up early,before 5 am i guess.Would test the batter and add sugar and salt and powdered cardomom.Then he would fry cashew nuts and kissmiss.Sometimes he would put cherries too.Then he would grease a steel plate,fill about half a plate with this batter.Decorate this with cashews and kissmiss.Then steam it ,in Appachembu,that we use for making idlies,for 45 minutes.He is very particular about this 45 minutes time period:).After that he will take it out and let it cool.After that will change this in to a bigger plate.It would be a beautiful,perfect appam.Then he would make beef.He would wash and wash till the water runs clean:)He would say never use it with blood in it,his belief.I dont know how he does it even now.Then he would use a lot of garlic,ginger,ulli(small onion).Then in a seperate plate he would cut fresh coconuts in to uniform small pieces.I have to say all the pieces looked exactly the same.Then he would use the old fashion cooking method,aduppu.Use dried coconut leaves and all those things,logs etc to cook this.He would sit nearby this and once its cooked,he would stir it till it is dry.Atleast 2 hours i guess he would use.Then in the end he would season this beef fry with lots of curry leaves and also that cut coconut pieces.The result is the yummiest beef fry i ever tasted.It will be very hot,spicy hot i mean, that by the time you finish it ,your eyes will be watery and your head will be sweaty.I remeber this always.I try to make this for every Easter and Christmas.May be not half as good as what he used to make,but i know he would have been proud .I miss him so badly.I couldnt get the camera to work,i had to use the cell camera.but will post the pics as soon as i fIgure out how to post it:)