The Kobbari Mithai My Mother Made

Dear Geetha,
U have described every step in detail. It was lovely reading your post. I could relate the hiding part very well
For some reason, i kind of had tears in my eyes towards end of the snippet. I am sure, you would be missing your Mother very much and hence the post here Let her soul rest in peace.

Regards
SinAnt

 

really superb..mothers are very special. They do everything with love.

 

Really a heart touching one. If I were to be in your place may be I would have a stored it somewhere along with the vessel. I know the mithai is perishable but still..Thanks for sharing such a beautiful snippet. Vaangi baat is also my favourite. Keep posting.

Love
Teenu

 

I felt as though I am taking a piece of milkwhite coconut Burfi.Thank you for the wonderful snippet.

In those days there was no mixie.The grating had to be done with
equal pressure so that not even a single brown fibre is seen.We had 20 coconut trees in our back yard.Every month we had to supervise the coconut climber, allow him to pluck only ripe coconuts in addition to some 10 tender coconuts for distribution among children.It was a job for nearly two hours to bring all the coconuts inside and store them in a room and arrange them in a particular fashion as instructed by my parents.We used to do it by turns depending on how fit we are on that particular day.

As we had no regular income, we had to sell coconuts.Even when I was 10, I learnt to use the crowbar( kadappaarai) to remove the hard shell and we could not sell the coconut as such.
To plant and maintain coconut trees used to be a cumbersome yet interesting job.
The outer shells had to be dried in bright sun on the road in front of our house,store them once dried and use them for lighting mud oven for preparing hot water for a large family in a very big copper pot.
We could neither consume nor sell so many coconuts. Ripe , koppara coconuts had to be broken, cut into small pieces ,dried in open space on a sack.The pieces had to be taken to the mill, coconut oil extracted ,preserved in large tins,The consistency upto which coconuts could be dried was Amma's job.
The remnants after extracting oil was mixed with husks of various grains and used as food for the cows.
Another big job allotted to us during summer holidays was to prepare coconut leaf thatches to be used as roofing for our thatched village house.Every three years we had to change the roofing to protect it from rain and we needed around 3000 thatches.If we engage labourers we had to give 50% of the thatches to them as wages.As we could not afford to lose so much,Appa and Amma trained all the children to make 'keetru'( coconut thatches ourselves.During the holidays each had a quota of 200 thatches to get completed.Amma used to supervise and teach us how to overlap each sheath without leaving any gap. Later when plastic wire bag making became a fashion, it was a child's job for us.
Every part of coconut tree is very useful.
When I was 10, in 1952, there was a big storm.Four of the coconut trees got uprooted.Many suggested to cut off the trees.My father was a never giving-up person.As the trees were living with us for 40 years or more, he didn't want to destroy the yielding trees.Coconut tree is considered a kalpaka vriksham and was considered a great sin to cut them off totally.

He brought some six sturdy labourers.By using very thick coir ropes ( thaambu kayiru) they just raided the trees up, and fastened it to the adjucent coconut trees.They applied cowdung and husk mixture generously in the cut off area and bandaged with three or more old sarees and dhothis. After three months, the wounds healed, tissues started growing and we found fresh sheaths coming out.Yes, it came alive.Fresh life gad been injected.No more ropes needed.The tree stood on its own.It looked like inducing life to the dead comparable to the mouth breathing and Re suscitation exercises followed to save the life.

The burfi was no doubt sweet,but the rich experience we gained were sweeter.

Philosophically the pure white coconut is compared to the spotless parabrahmam, the attainment of which is comparable to the hard efforts to remove shell ,fibre etc

Dear Geeta,
thank you very much for kindling my village memories in association with our coconut sisters and bretheren.


jayasala 42

 

Beginning was mouth watering. Middle was quite tempting to try my hand in the kitchen with making of this Kobe mithai. Concluding part turned eyes moist. With tears jerking from eyes, I enjoyed grinding the burfi though a tad difficult to swallow.
Thanks a lot formouth watering. But you know in Chennai and perhaps in other parts of India Coconut is being sold on weightbasis. Today I bought a large coconut neither tough nor two young but containing good amount of sweet water costing ₹51/-.
I trust you would enjoy reading snippets. How about reading one recently posted titled "Son, Spouse & I off to London via Air India ....,.".
THUBA CHANNA GIDTHEY!!!!!
Regards. God Bless us All.

 

Must be a mom's pet. Oh you had made mouth watering by reminding of vathha kuzhmbu which is banned for my spouse and so to I. My mother used a stone container for making that. Thanks for nostalgia.
Regards.