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Saturday, October 26, 2013

Uppittu and poornam

Uppittu and poornam
I am reminded of an old story of colonial times.. A mama (middle-aged man) was in the service of a British boss.. On the eve of Sradhdham for his father, he requested for a days leave. The boss was not pleased. The mama was at his persuasive best, and on the condition that he would produce the evidence for having performed the sradhdham ( whatever it was), the leave was granted. The next day, the mama, true to his promise, came to office and carried with him the evidence for Sradhdham in the shape of a packet containing a couple of UPPITTUS. full with poornam. Mama explained that the eatable he had brought was uppittu and it contained a sweet delicacy by name poornam. The englishman removed the wheatish covers of the uppittu and ate all the poornam. He was very much pleased. So he told his employee, the mama, " I am going to grant you two more days leave.. Take these two hundred rupees as advance. You do Sraadhdham for me, my wife, and my two sons and a daughter, and bring all the Uppittu containing lots of poornam two days later....

for your information...Sraadhdham is the annual memorial religious rite perfromed by a son in memory of his departed father or mother

Uppittu.. This is a food item, essential for Sraddham of tamil brahmins..
This is made by preparing two thin round chappathi like wheat pieces, keeping between  a delicious mixture made of ground coconut mixed with melted jaggery , and the  sweet material is called poornam. The two pieces of wheat cover the poornam and the sweet is fried is ghee or oil..

 It is a superb gastronomic pleasure indeed to taste well made uppittu with a lot of poornam. We cannot blame the Englishman ..

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