ICE BIRIYANI ? Tamilan's enrich Morning Food

Neeragaram/Pazhayadhu/Pazhaya Soru

I am back from India after a long vacation. Blogging took a break too as there was so much to do and my only interaction with the computer was checking the mails, there were times I could not even reply….my apologies to all those who sent emails, queries and recipe requests. I am starting with how a simple long forgotten energetic healthy breakfast is made.

Neer + Aagaram in Tamil which translates as Water + Food, the fermented rice gruel that was the traditional drink of Tamil Nadu is a simple man's food, 
Our farmers and many villagers from Tamil Nadu have this diet in the morning which keeps them healthy, fit and energized for the whole day. It is a lovely sight to see them having a plate of Neeragaram/pazhayadhu/Pazhaya Soru (leftover soaked rice) biting the onion & green chillies as a side.  The authentic way is without buttermilk but to enhance the taste buttermilk is added. 

It is very good body cooling, energetic, simple, delicious and a healthy breakfast. In a predominantly agricultural society women folk worked at the fields and therefore preparation of breakfast was avoided since they had to start work early to avoid the scorching heat. The excess rice or left over rice is soaked in water overnight and well covered preferably in an earthen pot. The next day morning, the water is drained and rice is well mashed and mixed with buttermilk. Chinna vengayam/shallots and green chillies make a great side. 

Neeragaram is now forgotten by this convenient driven world due to many reasons. Since it was not suitable to carry it out they started using natural drinks like tender coconut, toddy, sugar cane juice etc. Coffee was introduced by the British and then came the packaged drinks that do more harm than good which displaced Neeragaram and it is rarely encountered today in Tamil Nadu. This pressed a need for me to post about it today. 
Neeragaram is best had during the summer months and you can tell the soothing cool effect it has when had in an empty stomach. Serve Neeragaram with shallots, green chillies, pickle or your favorite  fish curry .

Fermented Rice:  A neglected Vitamin store

 Pazhaya saadam - the word means "old rice". This is a Traditional wisdom of South India. A wonderful healthy eating life style now ignored in Modern India and ridiculed as a poor man's life-style food.

In olden days, all farmers and all laborers who did lot of physical work ate this fermented rice food for breakfast. This gives sustained energy with all natural nutritional supplements which comes from the fermenting bacteria in it. It is so soothing for the intestines and does not irritate it because the rice is fermented and digested by bacteria. Another plus point is these trillions of bacteria will produce copious amount of B complex Vitamins and d vitamin B12 ( a good source for vegetarians) and K vitamins and also add to the fiber in the stool preventing constipation.

Please click here to read the importance of gut bacteria.

Pradheep, in his personal experiments, lost almost 8 pounds by eating 10 days fermented rice and fermented barley with yogurt ( in USA , the temperature is generally less optimum for making fermented rice unlike in India).

I stopped water therapy and ate refined foods for a month and made my levels go to the upper side of normal. Then ate fermented rice and fermented barley using organic-whole-milk-yogurt for 10 days and checked my blood parameters before and after this regimen.

For lunch this fermented rice or barley along with a cup of cooked vegetables (each day a different one).

Pancha Bhoota Awareness Walking

Rice Fermented Rice:  A neglected Vitamin store  Pazhaya saadam - the word means "old rice". This is a Traditional wisdom of South India. A wonderful healthy eating life style now ignored in Modern India and ridiculed as  a poor man's life-style food. In olden days, all farmers and all laborers who did lot of physical work ate this fermented rice food for breakfast. This gives sustained energy with all natural nutritional supplements which comes from the fermenting bacteria in it. It is so soothing for the intestines and does not irritate it because the rice is fermented and digested by bacteria. Another plus point is these trillions of bacteria will produce copious amount of B complex Vitamins and d vitamin B12 ( a good source for vegetarians) and K vitamins and also add to the fiber in the stool preventing constipation. Please click here to read the importance of gut bacteria. Pradheep, in his personal experiments, lost almost 8 pounds by eating 10 days fermented rice and fermented barley with yogurt ( in USA , the temperature is generally less optimum for making fermented rice unlike in India). I stopped water therapy and ate refined foods for a month and made my levels go to the upper side of normal. Then ate fermented rice and fermented barley using organic-whole-milk-yogurt for 10 days and checked my blood parameters before and after this regimen. For lunch this fermented rice or barley along with a cup of cooked vegetables (each day a different one). Pancha Bhoota Awareness Walking Eating Fermented   Food Home checked Values Hospital checked Values Day-1 Day-10 Day 20 Fasting sugar (mg/dl) 92 71 2hrs after meal (mg/dl) 123 106 Cholesterol (mg/dl) 193 172 Triglycerides (mg/dl) 155 125 Weight (pounds) 152 144 Blood Pressure 123/80 101/70 99/71 I ate more carbohydrates (breakfast and Lunch) like brown-rice and hulled-barley and to contrary belief I get these values very low. At night I ate one plate full of well riped fruits like grapes, cherries, bananas, apples etc. I used organic radiance farm whole milk to make yogurt. That is rich in cream and lots of fat. These 10 days I did not do water therapy also.  Inspite of that my values were low. I used home-test kit for this evaluation. In another 10 days I will check in hospital how these values look. Brown rice or hulled-barley (dont use white pearl-barley) was soaked overnight and then cooked with excess water in pressure cooker. Then when in room temperature conditions, half a teacup of Indian curd (yogurt) was added to cooked rice or cooked barley and allowed to ferment overnight (kept in  oven in cold winters to give  warmth). Fermenting rice in Cold countries: Add yogurt to rice and ferment it overnight.  IN USA and commercial yogurt is made using  two bacteria: Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus. But the texture is not good, it is slimy and soury.  But in Indian curd or yogurt Lactobacillus casei is used.  The taste and texture is really good. You can also use butter milk, which is yogurt without the cream. To make home made yogurt, boil milk (quarter gallon)  and when it is luke warm add 2 or 3 ounces of yogurt. Allow it to ferment for overnight . What rice to use? Use brown rice for fermentation instead of white rice. click here to read about   processing of rice. Converted or parboiled rice has been treated with steam to force nutrients into the kernel before polishing takes place; it lies between brown and white rice in nutritional value. Refined rice is one of the cause of soaring diabetes in rice eating population.    Brown rice, which has undergone only enough milling to remove the indigestible outer hull, is the most nutritious form.  Further processing results in white rice, which has lost the bran and germ.  It cooks more quickly and is easier to store than whole grain brown) rice, but is much lower in protein and minerals. But soaking, makes brown rice very palatable. After cooking rice, then  ferment the  rice when it is slightly warm or completely cool. Hulled barley (not pearl white barley) can be used instead of rice for kidney problems and heat in the body. Why fermented rice? Known as gut microbiota,  the trillions of bacteria that populate the human gastrointestinal tract perform a variety of chores. These "friendly" microbes help extract calories from what we eat, help store these calories for later use, and provide energy and nutrients for the production of new bacteria to continue this work. So eating fermented rice we actually  introduce always healthy bacteria into our body. The stomach pH kills most of the bacteria in the fermented rice , but remember some of them manages to sneak into the intestines and produce a healthy bacterial colony that even relieves constipation, because they add as fiber to the stools. Misleading education. By numbers, the bacteria in our gut is more than the number of human cells. We can say even that we are just a human bag of bacteria.  Due to the discovery of penicillin we have been educated with a wrong notion that bacteria means bad. Lot of research now shows that "too clean" leads to many allergy diseases. We would like to alter and state that decreasing the healthy bacteria in our gut causes increased allergy problems. Modern research is now slowly understanding that the bacteria flora in the body is very very important that when it is disrupted can lead to many diseases and surprisingly obesity. This Study shows that changing The Bacteria In Your Digestive System Be An Obesity Treatment. This  articletells us the makeup of each person's gut microflora influences their health, and abnormalities in gut microbes have been linked to diseases such as diabetes and obesity. A specific population of bacteria present in our gut is crucial to our health. However, some treatments for cancer, particularly those that deplete the body's immune cells, have high potential to disrupt the natural balance between our bodies and these commensal microorganisms, causing  disease. This  Study shows that the result of total body irradiation in cancer treatment depends on the type of healthy intestinal bacteria. When mice had good healthy bacteria, the radiation was effective.   Conversely, a reduction in the number of host microorganisms by the use of antibiotics reduced the beneficial effects of TBI on tumor regression in these animals. Beware: This is a caution to everyone not to use antibiotics unless really needed. Most of the children and medications contain chemicals and anti-biotics that distrupts the gut bacteria and also make them vulnerable to more infections. We might use them for temporary relief of cold and fevers, but in the long run we are increasing the chances of other diseases because of disrupting the bacterial flora. Use only organic milk , because non-organic milk are from cows given  lots of antibiotics which gets into our human body through the milk. Lazy and ignorant modern mothers give their children these unhealthy milk to children even without boiling the milk. These antibiotics destroy the gut bacteria making the children grow and spread  unhealthy bacteria to everyone. It is common to hear from parents about their children bringing unhealthy infections after going to school. Little they do realize it all comes from unhealthy eating and life style of the children which everyone are responsible. This preparation is called Pazhaya saddam pazhankanji / kulutha choru and  Paaniwala chawal in hindi. Cook rice and soak in plain water over-night preferably in a clay vessel or porcelain container.  Keep in a warm place like making home made yogurt, so that you allow healthy bacteria to grow in it. Next  day morning mix with a small quantity of buttermilk (optional) , chopped shallots (pearl onions)  and salt. Eat (or drink as gruel) this highly nutritious vitamin B rich fermented food that will quench the acidity of the body.   The best part of it is that it supplies lots and lots of nutrients especially Vitamin B12, for vegetarians. This is the richest source of Vitamin B12 for vegetarians. It also restores healthy intestinal flora (bacteria) and relieves all diseases related to stomach and intestines, like dueodenal ulcers, infectious colitis, Ischemic colitis, Radiation colitis, Ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, Diverticular disease, Hemorrhoids, Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), celiac disease , candida infections etc. It is the bacteria cells that also contribute to the bulk of feces that when reduced is one of the factor for constipation.