Neer + Aagaram = Water based Food.

This is the simple man’s food, now forgotten by this convenient driven world. In a Tropical country like India and especially South India…to beat the heat, people often practice all sorts of things. And food habits becomes a culture after considerable period! The availability of sources and weather conditions also play a significant role in it.

When a predominant society was in agriculture…which had tedious working hours. Early morning breakfast preparation is duly avoided. Since they have to work under the scorching sun, with parched throat during the day and get back home in the evening and fix something…they intentionally cooked more rice! Need not to say, paddy is their main produce! Well…also Tamil Nadu culture says, a women should cook more food than the family requires. Maybe this could be the reason…in a primitive society, cooking was a long procedure…no power stove, gas cylinders, microwave, fridge or electric rice cooker, pressure cooker….etc. Another point that could be added here is…primitive society didn’t have Eat areas, like restaurants, hotel, shops. And once again not even the processed or semi-processed food! So the culture of cooking in excess would have come into practice, to greet their sudden guests. Also to feed the infants.

Anyways…the excess rice is soaked in water, overnight and well covered. As a way to prevent wasting food & also a storage style! The next day morning, before the rice is actually fermented…they beat it to make a watery porridge like this. Well…if you allow it to ferment, this leads to something called ‘Tappa Kanji’! Well…this may not be a fancy breakfast, but sure it left them to fight hunger whole day long. And it is an excellent thirst quencher. As rice based starch and excess water gave a cooling effect, it would have been okay to work under the sun!

Caution: Make sure that you don’t ferment it. You know…its illegal to ferment your own drink(alcohol)like this. As we can’t predict what it had turned into…ethyl alcohol or methyl alcohol!

Method 

• Left over rice 1 cup
• Rock Salt
• Butter milk

Soak rice over night with water. Probably 1 cup of rice can be soaked with 2 cups of water. The next day morning, add rock salt and butter milk to this. Give a quick blend and chill it.