Spiced Buttermilk

The Blogger system gave me nightmares in the last few days. They took the site down for maintenance, but did not return the system up.I couldn't log into my Blogger account for a few days. When it got restored, I've lost a few of my contents which made me upset. I just hope that such problems wouldn't occur in the future. Now onto the post about "buttermilk".

In old times, in a large earthen pot, yogurt was churned with a woodern churner. Yogurt is diluted to some degree using water. During churning, the butter will get deposited on to the wooden churner. The butter (fat) is removed and collected on another container. The remaining liquid portion of yogurt will become buttermilk (although the name is quite contradictory to this process).

The butter milk is turned into a fresh drink by adding fresh green peppers, ginger, curry leaves, coriander leaves, etc. and consumed in large amounts especially summers. Usually travellers and guests are served this drink during festivals (like panguni uththiram). Along the side of roads that lead to the temple, there will be tents (mor pandhals) with huge containers having buttermilk. Adding some spices and herbs give it an extra kick to its taste, according to some households.

Sometimes, I remove the butter with the help of a hand mixer and consume it. In NCR, packets like Amul Chach (छाछ meaning buttermilk in Hindi) and Amul Masti Spiced Buttermilk are available in grocery stores. Although I prefer home-made versions.

In this drink, I added minced mint, roasted and powdered cumin, chaat masala, black salt, salt, grated ginger and Kashmiri red chilli powder.

Posted in: Cooler