Here's how Chennai's classical singer is reviving forgotten traditional recipes

From tangy kozhambu to peppery rasam, a classical singer from Chennai is tapping into her roots to showcase forgotten TamBrahm recipes, using YouTube

Music runs in the family of Yogambal Sundar, a trained classical singer from Chennai. Her mother is a bhajan composer, while her sisters are artistes at All India Radio. “It just felt right for me to toe the line,” she says. Post marriage, her husband, R Sundar, an avid foodie, inspired her to explore traditional Tamilian Brahmin cuisine. “Over the years, he helped diversify my interests, and encouraged me to cook and refine my skills.”

Marundhu kozhambu is a flavourful south Indian rice accompaniment. It is also a healthy post-partum recipe

Today, Sundar has a hyphenated identity as singer and chef. Her YouTube channel has more than 375K subscribers and her food series, Rusikalam Vanga, on Pudhu Yugam TV, is gaining fans for showcasing little-known recipes from Tamil Nadu. “After he [husband] passed away, there was a void. My son and daughter egged me to share my culinary knowledge with rookie chefs and those who are new to the tradition of cooking Brahmin cuisine.” Using the digital medium,  she has been working towards reviving forgotten traditional recipes. What makes these recipes unique is that they are usually circulated only within the joint family set up and handed down generations. “Ancient Tamil people followed the principle of unave marundhu, marundhe unavu, which means food is medicine, medicine is food. The dishes they cooked were healthy and made with herbs, spices, sprouts and vegetables.” She believes the recipes, although nutritious, have lost out to modernisation. “Non-availability of ingredients and the lost processes once employed are contributing factors. Also, in the olden days, recipes weren’t documented.”

An immunity boosting drink made using tulsi, ginger, turmeric, cumin, pepper, betel leaves and ajwain

Presently, over 400 recipes are available on the channel. What dish makes the cut depends on seasonality, availability of ingredients and whether a festival is around the corner. One of her popular videos is about the kandan thippili rasam (long pepper rasam). Loaded with medicinal herbs, it is a potion to alleviate cold and body pain. “Once common, this rasam has fallen out of favour in the last 60 years. Long pepper, black pepper and jeera are known to aid digestion, as well as treat stomach ache, heartburn, indigestion, intestinal gas.” The angaya podi, on the other hand, is a nutritious powder made with spices and herbs, and is given to lactating mothers post-delivery. “Dry turkey berry helps in reducing gastritis and can be taken by people of all age groups. Manathakkali vathal also called dry black night shade helps as a coolant and is used in treating mouth ulcers and gastritis. Dry neem flowers expel worms from digestive system and are also good for skin.” The tangy Narthangai kozhambu  helps fight nausea. “Narthangai is the Tamil word for kaffir limes. It is cured in salt and given to pregnant women and people who have gastric ailments. Narthangai is also a citron that helps to prevent cancer, lowers blood pressure, and boosts the immune system.”

Funnily, her first video was about an instant peda recipe. She calls it a fun experiment that fetched her decent hits. “It took a while, but when we hit the critical milestones I felt even more motivated to offer something unique.” In her videos, she follows the original method to the T, no matter how tedious. “Our traditional food culture is built on two pillars: wellness and sustainability. I believe you should not tamper with it.”

Kandanthipilli rasam (Long pepper rasam)
Ingredients

For two persons
4-5 Kandathipilli sticks /long pepper sticks
1 tsp toor dal
1 tsp dhania or coriander seeds
1/2 tsp black pepper 
1 red chili
Tamarind (gooseberry sized ball)
1/2 jeera
Salt to taste 

For tempering
1 tsp ghee
1/2 tsp asafoetida
1/2 tsp mustard
Curry leaves

Method
>> Roast all of the ingredients mentioned in Point A. Note that the stove can be turned off once the toor dal turns golden-brown
>> At the same time, boil one cup of tamarind juice with required salt and a pinch of turmeric
>> Let the roasted ingredients cool down and then grind it coarsely in a mortar 
>> Tomatoes are normally used for rasam but for this rasam, we do not add tomatoes. Because the medicinal value gets reduced when added 
>> Boil the tamarind juice for 5 mins. The quantity will get reduced while it boils. Add the roasted mixture to the boiling juice and let it boil for 2 mins 
>> While it’s boiling, add the exact one cup of water to the juice. Let it further boil. When you see the froth like formation, turn off the stove
>> Finally, for tempering, follow the ingredients mentioned in Point B. Add the tempering to the juice and close the vessel with a lid. Serve hot

Follow: Yogambal Sundar on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG3B5UDD0rgEgKrpn1hZz3w

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