Agathi Keerai - Sesbania grandiflora - Agastya

When ChaturmAs started, guruji gave us the list of allowed and not allowed food items. He said no leaves not even curry leaves or corriander leaves, but agastya leaves are allowed. Mom's b'day, so bro and I dropped by. Hence all this. From morning we had guests, 2 were invited (Adi month newly married couple - a satAbhishA and maham), 3 were atithis. The delightful part was a welcome opportunity for Go seva, for a cow came, while drawing kolam in the morning, which had a bit of agastya leaves as well. From morning till I finished serving bro close to 10 pm, it was cooking and serving time for me. In the last minute when mom came with 2 atithis, kept rice again and it was eating in turns, once rice got ready.

Even a lifetime can't make a rohini fast. Praying that should not be the case with bro eating non-veg. So decided not to impose my chaturmAs diet or shravan month ekbhukta naktavrat at home. Prepared everything without tasting. My only prayer is bro should become a vegetarian, eat at home instead of hotels and reduce his 120+kg frame. Everyone is scattered everywhere. Festivals are the only time, you meet your family.

Medicinal benefits 
for breaking fast, anti oxidant, antiageing - Venkateshwarlu et al
traditional indian medicine
ayurvedha consultants

Everything is a medicine when taken in right quantities at the right time, with a happy frame of mind. If you dislike something and eat, then even the most medicinal food will become poison. And if one does not have the right conduct, then ayurvedhic medicines don't work, as per charaka samhita, which am reading. My manager remarked that all healthy food don't taste good. While my take is, nothing can be healthy, if it is not tasty. Taste is the king and it is the best indicator of nutritious value of any food. And the best policy is to eat anything as god's prasad without making a fetish about health benefits, combinations, timings etc.

Agastya chutney with crisp wheat-rava dosa

This dosa agastya chutney was only for b'day mom, so sauted curry leaves, pudhina, agastya for 2-3 mins cows ghee to mask its bitterness. Roasted channa dal and green chillies and coconut also for her. Mom liked it and she said, there was no bitterness of agastya.

Agastya / agathi keerai leaves with pudhina leaves, curry leaves

Coconut with kadalai paruppu / channa dal

Agastya chutney with crisp wheat rava dosa

Agastya chutney for breakfast

Mom's B'Day Lunch Spread
Agreed, was in kitchen from 9 am, cooking for mom and bro. It was only 2 burners and just my two hands. Once in a while it is fine on spending so much time on cooking. Bro slept in train and instead of alighting in Trichy, he got down at Dindigul and came home close to 1:45 pm instead of 7 am. And you can imagine our plight in the morning, was glued to door, window and streets, with his mobile being unreachable. Prayed fervently and then at last his sms came, giving us some relief.

Agastya keerai kootu (ChaturmAs style)

 Sauted agastya keerai in ghee and grinded them. Added cooked moong dal and coconut cumin seed, pepper paste. Finally did a tadka with only mustard seeds, and no curry leaves. This agastya keerai kootu is not bitter either.

Nellika thayir pachadi

 Followed youtube video, on thayir pachadi, and instead of chaturmAs prohibited channadal added, roasted moong dal to thayir pachadi. The hot water in which amla was boiled for 2 minutes was left, so made lemon rasam with that amla water, adding lemon drops after rasam was at room temperature.

Semiya Jawarisi pal payasam, nei paruppu, kothavaranga parupu usili, kadai murukku, mango slices
Side dish L-> R soya-green peas masala, carrot poriyal, mango thokku, agathi keerai kootu, vaazhai poo thayir pachadi, nellika thayir pachadi
Mixing items L->R Fresh Curd, karamani puli kolambu, manga kathrika sambar, nellika lemon rasam

 Actually, had put the cut plantain flowers in curd and cooked them after squeezing curd and after preparation had put curd again to keep the kootu white. However, was disheartened to see it turn brown when i lifted the lid before serving, thankfully, it was only the top layer. Be it plantain pith or plantain flowers, curd is the best accompaniment to keep it from turning brown.

Dinner
Wanted to make paranthas (mooli and aloo) but bro said no. So mango milkshake (welcome drink), plain ghee rotis,  mutter paneer, mango thokku, semiya payasam, mangoes for guests while, agastya parantha, agastya keerai paneer with moong dal kicchadi for me. Wanted to eat at 7 pm, breaking my fast, while guests were not hungry even at 8 pm. So to my utter embarrassment, mom told them about my fast, set the table and insisted, everyone should join, so that i could break my fast. Ideally, no keerai at night, nor curd at night, yet i had agastya shAk and had nellika thayir pachadi.

Agastya parantha, agastya paneer, nellika thayir pachadi, moong dal kichadi, mango cube

Just mixed leaves to dough and prepared paranthas. For paneer, sauted agastya leaves in cows ghee and made a paste with pepper and cumin seeds. Finally added salt to taste and added paneer. This was a bit bitter unlike afternoon's ambrosial agastya moong dal kootu.

Necessity is the mother of invention - when the only vegetable you can eat is agathi keerai, mango and amla, then you get creative.

Pepper mango thokku, Moong dal with ghee, Mango, Agastya keerai dosa

 Mixed agastya keerai paste to normal dosa mavu and crisp agastya dosas were ready. To accompany it was tangy pepper thokku, ghee laced moong dal and sweet mango.