Where are my Carbon Credits?

Now that the southern Indian peninsula has started to warm up, it is that time of the year in Tamil Nadu and adjoining states / parts of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka to squeeze out and sun dry Rice Fryums, called ‘vadams’, to be stored and munched till next summer.

Now, I don’t know how much carbon emission takes place in the Western countries or in the developed Far-East while preparing such fryums and related munchies by utilizing heaters powered by electricity, gas or gasoline.  But surely they must count for sizeable amount?

If so, shouldn’t the GoI be pushing the US and other developed countries to credit the 4 southern Indian states with appropriate quantum of Carbon Credits as practically every home, including people residing in apartment complexes, squeeze out these munchies every year, in March-April.

Today early morning my mom forced me to squeeze out a kilogram of these rice fryums for her on our terrace.  Being the slouch that I am, I managed to squeeze a lot more of the rice patty into every fryum, making them bigger.  The logic behind was the larger they are, lesser will be the number of fryums, and thus lesser time for me to spend bent and stooped over to squeeze them out.
:-)

Not that I managed to fool my mother.  I pretended not to notice the dirty looks she kept giving me and thought the issue had been managed well.  What do I know?  BTW, a kilogram of rice paste should be enough for ~120 average sized vadams.  I managed to squeeze a mere 86 - yeah!  I did count.



On getting off the terrace, I asked for a cup of coffee, as a reward for all the ‘hard work’.  What I was handed was a cup of over sweetened coffee with too much of milk.  Added to the injury was the insult that, ‘heating up a coffee is bit of a strain, you know’.
:-(

Thus even if I lost out on my 2nd cuppa, there’s no reason not to try my hand for Personal Carbon Trading, isn’t it?  So instead of sitting on their fat backside in the Parliament and shouting at each other, will the dishonourable  Members of Parliament (not my words, just quoting Arun Kejriwal and Sushma Swaraj), start thinking about harvesting Carbon Credits and crediting my Personal Carbon account?

For the record, we normally squeeze out and sun dry about 2 kilograms of Rice fryums (vadams) and about 2 kilograms of Sago fryums, an year.

For those interested, here is the recipe for the Rice fryums:-
Ingredients:

• 1 kilo of Raw Rice finely ground;
• 15 to 20 numbers of green chilly;
• 4 to 6 lemons; and
• salt to taste - about 5 tablespoons full per kilo of flour.
• don’t forget to clean the squeezer!

Note:  the above are the basic ingredients.  People have their own ‘hands’ per their taste.  While onions are an eternal favourite, once in Delhi, overheard a Tamil family say they add coriander leaves and tomatoes to the chilly paste.  Once in Mumbai, overheard a Kerala family remark they add a bit of tamarind juice!  Last week at Chennai airport, overheard a group saying they have started to add chilli sauce, soya sauce and a sprinkle of vinegar!!

Preparation:

1. boil about 3 litres of water;
2. add the rice flour to the boiling water;
3. stir vigorously for a few minutes, and take the pot out of heat to cool down;
4. Mind you, the stirring *will* have to be vigorous as within seconds the rice flour will start to coagulate;
5. grind the green chillies with salt in the food processor, with ~50 ml of water;
6. by now either you must be sneezing or your eyes must be watering;
7. if not add some more chillies till you get the effect;
8. squeeze the lemons into the same chilly concoction;
9. pour the whole lot into the rice flour paste;
10. start kneading till the paste is smooth, the concoction is spread even, and there is no dry flour visible;
11. usually it takes about 10 minutes of kneading;
12. lick your fingers to taste the paste;
13. if it is too hot or too salty, heave the whole thing out!  Oops!  Sorry, just joking!  if too hot or salty, make some more paste, add and knead;
14. take the whole thing to the sunny terrace;
15. lay out the plastic sheet - a 4 x 4 feet plastic sheet should be enough for 1 kilogram of paste;
16. hope you’ve washed/cleaned/dried out the plastic sheet earlier;
17. start squeezing the paste out - oh yeah! you need an appropriate squeezer - sells for about Rs. 200/- (~ $4) in Chennai;
18. once in Delhi, heard that someone used a large lemon squeezer when she couldn’t find her vadam squeezer - though it is hard to believe;
19. instead of plastic sheet, old timers swear by the white dhotis of their husbands - its alright with me if you want to go that way - wish you lots of YUCK though;
20. allow it to dry till late afternoon and bring it in before it starts to cool; put it out again for 2 or more days till the wet flour really dries up and shrivels;

Here is the squeezer which engaged me for half an hour today morning.



Happy Squeezing!

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