Milagai Thokku - Hostel-Life Nostalgia

Did I ever tell you that long ago, like around a decade ago, I joined Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, AKA "The Jail" for my Undergraduate College and ended up spending 4 years of my life there? It was the strictest place I had seen since birth. The professors were strict and tight-lipped about anything beyond the subjects, the wardens were strict about your sleeping-walking-talking-peeing habits, the janitors were strict about your hygiene, the watchmen were strict about your non-IST punctuality... honestly the list is never ending. But to be fair, I enjoyed ALMOST every bit of it. Almost, because, the hostel residents were subjected to three boring/ half-cooked/ tasteless meals every single day in a weekly cycle. The hostel mess was a place where metaphorical rock-idlies, rubber-rotis, noodle-glue and handkerchief-dosas ceased being metaphors and posed severe post-digestive nightmares instead. 

To me, almost every meal was my tongue's funeral. Again, almost because, there was the lunch menu on Tuesdays which somehow managed to jolt your gustatory organs from their coma-state. There was dal (with ghee), rice, some brilliant spinach kootu, more-milagai (fried-buttermilk-soaked-green-chilies) and this whacking milagai thokku! The thokku alone provided enough willpower to make it to the next Tuesday lunch.

The thokku was so awesome that it was the first item I missed after getting out of that place. My mom had no idea about the recipe, and at that time I didn't even know it was called milagai thokku. It was only three years ago, when I was flipping through a random Tamil magazine that I came across a photo of the very familiar dish (and learnt its name in the process). The recipe we are going to see today is what I noted down from that magazine (which I abandoned the next second as I dashed towards the kitchen!)

MILAGAI THOKKU (Serves 4 It's a pickle I say)
Set-up Time :  10 minutes

Experiment Run-Time : 20 minutes

The Shopping List

          Set 1: Spice Base
          Onion : 1 Small, finely chopped
          Tamarind Paste : 1 Tbsp, mixed with 1/2 cup of water
          Spicy Green Chilies : 10-12, slit length-wise

          Set 2: Seasonings

          Asafoetida : 1/4 tsp

          Mustard seeds : 1 tsp

          Curry Leaves : 4-5 leaves (optional)

          Chana Dal (Split ChickPeas) : 2 Tbsp

          Sesame Oil : 3-4 Tbsp (Don't cringe)
          Salt : To Taste

Methodology

1. Slit the chilies as said - along the length. You may deseed the chilies if you believe that you may have trouble sitting down tomorrow, but I must say, you would have missed the point of this dish.

2. In a small kadai or pan, heat the sesame oil and crackle up the mustard seeds. Follow it up with the asafoetida, Chana Dal and curry leaves.

3. When the Dal takes on a shiny golden hue, add the chilies and the onion. Sauté, sauté and sauté until the green chilies shrivel a little and the onions are shiny and translucent.

4. Add the tamarind water to the pan along with some salt. From now, it is just a matter of patience. Keep stirring until the liquid evaporates and oil starts oozing out from the sides. Switch off the stove.

5. Cool it down to room temperature and transfer to a clean glass bottle if you plan to keep it for sometime. With me it lasts no longer than a day.

Ready - Gobble at your own risk!

The thokku goes well with dal, sambhar, rasam and most obviously curd rice. The pleasure in rolling up a ball of thacchu mammam, dragging it through the thokku and dropping it in your mouth is indescribable. I sometimes eat it with dosas too and venn-pongal and rava idlies. All delicious. Like I said, it rarely lasts more than a day and I prepare it equally rarely (due to obvious pin-vilaivugal ;) ). But every time I make it, my mind passes through all that Mepco has given me - awesome friends, uncountable memories, a few awards and a great sense of independence. The thokku, in the truest sense, gives pleasure to the both my tongue and mind alike.