Fasting Days

Booma Paatti would fast 2 days a week. A thursday fasting for Guruvayoorappan and a general Saturday Fasting for Venkatachalapathy. She would insist everyone to fast for Guruvayoorappan and its because of her my mom started to fast on Thursdays. It think its because of her either my dad started to have a bonding for Guruvayoor and takes everyone to the temple whoever visits Eranakulam.

The general menu for these fastings are 'Arisi Uppuma' on thursdays and Idly/Dosa on Saturdays. We children eat them as evening snacks and have the regular Sathumathu mammu and thachi mammu for dinner.

Generally Arisi uppuma is prepared this way. It's kept on a Vengala Paanai on a very low heat with a little bowl of water, covering its mouth in order to prevent overheating. Since the upma has a  direct contact with the heat, the bottom portion of it will be overheated - Kaandhal. And many people dont like kanthal (except for me and my dad). But in most houses it is taken for granted that Arisi upma can be cooked with Kaandhal, because it takes quite a long time to cook, and its very difficult to stir throughout, especially when it comes to thickening stage. But this lady never gives up. She would sit on the stool and stir the upma completely till its cooked. And the side dish for this is Thengai Thogayal..... Yummy.... I would wait for Thursdays to come. Even today, every one in the family knows that my favourite tiffin is 'Arisi Uppuma'.

I wanted to  make such an upma here and brought vengala paanai also... But round bottoms dont work on cooking range. I am still craving to each such an upma....