The Hammerhead worm and comprehension of my madness

For me the very best part of childhood was being surrounded by mysteries. The ability to be surprised and the inability to comprehend many things around me just added to the magic of childhood. As a child, from hearing the crocking of the frogs to discovering a new flower held as much joy as unwrapping a gift. I still remember my reaction to hearing of the solar system for the first time. I just didn't believe my father, I didn't say it to him, but for a very long time I thought he had been joking.

As we grow, we lose the ability to be amazed and with the keeping up of the pretension of knowing everything, we stop questioning and there stops the 'discovering'. It is like a child looking at a cuckoo clock and wondering where the cuckoo goes when he is not out signing, how does the cuckoo know the time and is never ever late to sing in the new hour. But the same cuckoo clock does not challenge our imagination anymore as we grow up.

In defense of the grown ups it wouldn't be wrong to say that because we don't discover new things everyday, our ability to imagine and our fancies soon settle down. But the things that interested one as a child continue to interest later in life, I still enjoy seeing a beautiful butterfly, love the song of the cuckoo. But now it doesn't quite hold the punch as seeing a butterfly for the very first time and wondering what it is, or hearing the cuckoo for the very first time, those first time experiences were soul felt and the later one's just heart felt.

So it was with very great pleasure that I saw a worm the other day for the first time in my life. Not in some remote place (like the huge palm sized moths I saw in Aizwal) or in some other country, (like the cross shaped centipede in the forest on Tioman islands, Malaysia- I couldn't find this fellow on Google, but am sure it was a centipede) I found this worm right at my door step.

I have lived within almost the same latitude all my life, geographically speaking. And yet there is this tiny species whose existence was a total surprise to me. The 2 inch worm was like an earthworm albeit of a much darker shade but as slimy looking. What was remarkable about him though was his head. It was shaped like a fan.

Google was gracious enough to process my search for a 'fan headed worm' and give me the entire bio-data of the fellow. He was a Land Planarian or a Flatworm or a Hammerhead worm. He feeds on earthworms and the way he goes about doing it is a ready-to-use-script for a horror film. There are videos and tried & tested sure-shot methods on how to kill these worms. Even if I had googled the worm before I gave him a lift to my garden, I still couldn't have brought myself to kill him. But I did say a silent prayer for the earthworms in my garden.

Discussing the worm (in all its gory detail) is not the intention of this post. But this tête-à-tête with the worm helped me understand myself. I finally understand why I am drawn to the heights of the mountains and the oceans. (I would like to say depths of the ocean, but I have never done anything other than snorkeling and sea-walking) I understand why I have to have to have an atlas in my bedroom and I understand why I picked up birding and why I love nature so much.

I long to rediscover the thrill of being able to be confounded, astounded and astonished by new places, new colours (am thinking of a maple forest in winter and underwater corals) new lives and different ways of living.

I now know why I can't make the short journey to the book closet to pick up the atlas. I need to have it within 'tolerable distance' for me to find the joy of seeing a place on the map as I read about it or see it on TV.

I now understand why I make long journeys to watch birds in their habitat and why I get so exited as I pass by ponds. I want to see the baby Purple Moorhens waltzing between mama's legs, I want to see once more the crested kingfisher dive bomb into the water to catch its meal. I want them to be a part of my life even if it is only for a few moments, the memories linger on for ever.

Some things in my life are an addiction not because I cannot do without them but my happiness depends on them and my existence defined by them.  

Holige, Obattu, Puran Poli

I definitely don't want this blog to be turning into a food blog, but after having relished this wonderful delicacy all my life, when I finally learnt to make it, I couldn't help putting it down as a post.

It is cooked primarily in the Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Its pretty much like a sweet cousin of stuffed paratha. It is called by different names in different places, made with different fillings and of different ingredients for the outer layer, served with varied accompaniments. And the taste does not just vary with the region or ingredients, it varies from preparer to preparer with the same ingredients.

At least in Karnataka, it isn't served as a typical dessert, after a meal, rather a meal begins with this. Logically makes sense as a dessert filled with calories is something you need to hold back on, but this is such a delight and made on occasions that it makes sense to have it first, satiate your taste buds, senses and tummy and then figure out what you would like to top it up with, in the tummy ofcourse.

Holige made of lentil, also has a by-product. Holige saaru or rasa, that literally matures like wine, the older the better.

Here's for the recipe.

For the filling:

Togari bele / Toor dal - 1 cup

Jaggery (work on jaggery with a knife, till you have shavings of it) - 1 cup

Kadle bele/chana dal - less than a quarter cup

Cardamom for taste

For the outer layer:

Maida/ Refined flour - Half cup

Chiroti rave / Fine Samolina - Half cup

Oil - Less than quarter cup

A pinch of salt

Filling:

 - Wash Toor and chana dal and cook it with sufficient water so that its entirely soaked. Boil this until the dal is soft. This should take about 10 minutes.

 

 - Strain the excess water into a bowl, also squeeze off the excess water as too much moisture will make the filling soggy. Keep this precious water and a little cooked dal aside to make rasa later.

 

 - To the cooked dal, add jaggery and a bit of cardamom powder and cook it for a while longer so that the jaggery and the daal come together.

 

 - Cool this mixture and grind it into a paste. It doesn't take too long to grind, as the mixture is already soft. The filling is now ready. At this point, it can be eaten as such.

Outer layer:

If the filling is made of all things nice, the outer layer is the evil. Wheat flour can be used instead of refined flour but am not sure of how the soft filling can be worked into a covering of wheat flour dough. But for the record, it can be done.

 - Mix the refined flour and 'fine semolina' together with a pinch of salt into a dough with water. Then add in generous amount of oil, so the oil floats a little at the edges.

 - Leave it to rest for a good 1 hour.

The coming together:

It is not so much 'coming together' as it is 'coaxing together'.

 

 - Take a couple of square plantain leaf cut-outs, wash it and slightly warm the inner side (the side on which food is served, or the smoother side) on a tava/flat pan, so it doesn't burn later when its put on the tava with the holige. 

 - Before you start this process, chuck your calorie-consciousness out of the window as you would be continuously using oil - dipping your fingers into it (so the dough doesn't stick to your hand), smearing oil onto the leaf before working on every holige, pouring a little on the tava before you put in every holige on the tava.

 

 - Take a little of the dough with your oiled fingers, it can be worked on either the palm or directly on the leaf so as to spread it into a thin layer. No rolling pin will work, instead you can place another oil smeared leaf on top of it and press on the dough over the leaf so the dough spreads out.

 

 - Take a little of the filling, work it into a round shape, place it on the spread and pull up the edges of the spread to cover the filling entirely. Turn it over (if possible, without damaging the shape too much), pat it with a little oil, put the other leaf on top, work with your fingers over the leaf to spread it. With so much oil, the leaf, the holige, fingers all work together without sticking. The holige should be around 5 mm thick, not thicker, but if you can work it thinner, then go ahead and pat your self with those oily fingers that worked the magic.

 

 - Remove the top leaf and pick up the leaf with the spread out holige on it and place the leaf holige side facing down on an oil treated pan.

 

 - Use a dosa stick to separate the holige from the leaf.  Drip a little oil over the holige and carefully turn it over once the side on the pan has cooked. Once the other side turns brown too, take the holige off the pan. The holige is ready to be eaten.

Serve it with just ghee/clarified butter. It is also eaten with milk poured on top of it, it makes it all mushy so I don't like it with milk. A mixture of gasgase/khus-khus/ground poppy seeds, grated coconut and jaggery ground together is also eaten with holige. But to me, holige by itself is such a complete food, I think the accompaniments are really redundant.

 

Now for the rasa or holige sambar.

 

You will need:

Cooked toor dal

Water from the cooked toor dal,

Couple of big spoons of freshly grated coconut

Shallow fried and ground onion, garlic, turmeric powder, whole coriander & cumin seeds. Add in tamarind to this while grinding it.

A little Jaggery

Sambar powder

Salt

 

Put all the above ingredients together and let it boil for a good while. Hold back on the salt you add to this, as every time its boiled it turns saltier. This is quite a mystery to me.