Thanks:Flickr
Palmyrah or Panai is very close to every Sri Lankan Tamil’s heart. We tend to use all parts of the tree. Northern Srilanka does not get much rainfall and Palmyrahs seem to flourish here. The scene above is how a typical village looks like from afar. I remember getting excited on seeing these trees when on long walks with my grandmother. Clusters of palmyrahs means human habitats and one can always request drinking water.
It’s been years since I left Sri Lanka. But, whenever I see a Palmyrah in India, I would be transported to Pungudutheevu, my home town. My family used to tease me a lot because I seem to remember more from the two years spent in Pungudutheevu compared to everything else - be it school lessons or even recent events.
Thanks:Flickr
As I said earlier, we tend to use all parts of the Palmyrah tree. The trunks are used as building materials. The Palmyrah has so many uses it’s practically impossible to list them all. To be truthful, I have even forgotten the different ways the Palmyrah was used back home. From what I remember the leaves were used mainly to make the sleeping mats. Narrow but lengthy coils of mats were also made. The mats were used when there are a lot of people in the house. These mats would be uncoiled and people would sit on them to be fed breakfast, lunch or dinner. Mats were also made to dry things on.
Containers of varying sizes would be made to store and transport goods both edible and not. One such container is called the ‘kadaham’ and it is so versatile. It could be used to transport paddy, rice, lentils or even cooked rice when there is a huge gathering to be fed. It could also be used to remove waste from the yard. We had 5-6 kadaham for different purposes. Puttu would be steamed in containers made just for this purpose. Well, being versatile, the same ‘puttu steamer’ would be used to drain water from washed rice and lentils. How long the ‘neethuppetti’ or ‘puttu steamer’ lasts depends on the usage. One household would have more than one and if more’s needed all one has to do is spend around 15 minutes to make a new one. Additional point in favour is that all these are bio-degradable and everything else is used as fuel.
Palmyrah tree has edible parts too. The mature fruit - ‘panam pazham’ could be roasted in fire and could be eaten just like that. Paniyaaram could be made from it and todate that remains my favourite snack. More on Panampazham and other countless uses of Panai or Palmyrah later. Another day, perhaps!
The reason for this post is ‘Panagatti’ ‘Karuppatti’, ‘Panai Vellam’ or Palm Sugar. The fruit when young and just forming would produce a sap that could use to produce ‘arrack’ - an alcohol. The same sap could be boiled to make Palm Sugar. The sap would be boiled and would be packaged in a container made from palmyrah leaves just for this.. You can see it in the photo above.
Palm Sugar - ‘Panangatti’ is used to make sweets. Unfortunately I dont know much about the recipes. [Time to call family, eh?;)] When young, we used to be given milk with a bit of palm sugar mixed in. It is our nightly ritual at home. I have recreated it here for Indira’s brainchild - Jihva For Ingredients. Kay of Towards a Better Tomorrow is hosting this month and the ingredient is Jaggery. With all my connection and passion to Palmyrah, how could I not participate. hmm?!
This is also my first time taking part in any online cooking event.
Hot milk infused with Palm Sugar
Recipe:
Milk: 1 cup
Palm Sugar: 1/2 tsp (or according to taste)
Boil milk. Add desired amount of Palm Sugar. Tastes very good on cold wintry nights.
Now to the non-regular recipe.
Caramelized apples with icecream
Recipe:
Apple: 1/2 apple
Palm Sugar: 1/2 tsp
Butter - 1/8 tsp
Peel, core and slice the apple. Add butter to the heated pan. Layer the pan with sliced apple. Cover and let it cook. Stir, once in a while. After about 2 minutes or once the apple is half cooked sprinkle the palm sugar. Cover and cook for a few more minutes.
On the serving dish, scoop out the icecreams and layer the caramelized apples.
In Tamil:
JFI:Jaggery - ?????????/??????????/??????????
for JFI-Jaggery hosted by Kay of ‘Towards A Better Tomorrow’
For more information on Palmyrah trees - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmyrah
Kitul Pani: There’s another variety of Jaggery available in Sri Lanka. It’s the staple of Sinhala people. It’s called Kitul Pani. here’s some more info.
