Turmeric Latte, eh? Sometimes I add pana kalkandu (palm candy) and ground almonds to hot milk along with pepper and turmeric and a couple of strands of saffron too. Beat that, Turmeric Latte!
Many of us have grown up in households where the milagu manjal was whipped up if we as much as cleared our throats. Boil the milk, add a dash of turmeric and some freshly cracked pepper and no cough will dare linger. We have been drinking haldi dudh for hundreds of years. San Francisco has just woken up to it.
What will it be next? Margosa soup? For let me tell you, the vepam poo rasam works like magic if you are prone to nausea and headaches. I remember being laid low with a bilious headache. Sridevi Mami (god bless the Sridevi Mamis around the world) fried neem flowers in ghee till they were almost black, added them to the rasam and made me eat it with hot rice and more ghee. It was a revelation.
Home remedies that I scoffed at earlier as old wives’ tales seem increasingly appealing and tasty too. My son, who suffers frequently from mouth ulcers, is served manathakkali greens, rather sinisterly called Black Nightshade in English. His grandmothers persuade him to eat ghee, coconut and gulkand for the same reason. They are cooling and healing.
A few years ago, someone in the family began the practice of soaking methi seeds in water overnight and drinking it first thing in the morning. We still do it. Not sure how it helps, but it has certainly not harmed us. My mother puts generous amounts of methi when she grinds dosa batter. Paanch phoron, used by Bengalis, has methi in it. It’s not just about adding flavour, but, each of the five components has a health value.
“Vazhathandu (banana stem) has helped me with a problem of kidney stones,” says a friend. I remember drinking gallons of barley water because someone mentioned that, along with toxins, it also washed out fat, besides keeping me cool! I am convinced home remedies work. In any case, they score because using them means using fewer medicines. S. Ashok Kumar, a chef with a star hotel in Coimbatore, quotes Thirumular (one of the 63 Shaivaite saints). He said, “Eating fresh ginger in the morning, dry ginger in the afternoon, and senna in the afternoon for 48 days is enough to keep us healthy. Even an old man will throw away his walking stick.” Ginger and water decoction deals with menstrual cramps, better than any drug. And, there is absolutely no reason to pop pills for cold, cough and fever.
Instead, grow tulsi in your balcony, keep ginger in your refrigerator and get some good quality honey. Honey water infused with basil and stirred through with ginger extract is just the thing for you. It is just as good as Turmeric Latte.
In the kitchen cabinet
My friend Teena, tells me there is a useful book called Dadima Ke Nuske and another called Cure at Home that she refers to when in doubt. I have one written by Tarla Dalal too called Home Remedies . Then of course, there is always WhatsApp.
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Off the shelf
* Manathakkali/coconut/ghee/ turmeric for Mouth blisters
* Soaked raisins for constipation
* Holy basil and honey for the common cold
* Ajwain for stomach aches
* Neem flowers for pitham
The writer is a senior deputy editor at The Hindu
