Other day I told my DH(Dear Husband) to get some butter milk. Since Dad is visiting us from India, he prefers butter milk over yogurt and I always tend to keep a quart (about 1L) of butter milk at home. Without realizing that I already had 1 quart in the refrigerator, DH brings home 3 more quarts of butter milk. Now I am refrigerator full of butter milk!!!! I had to quickly find a way to use it and decided to make majjige huli (Buttermilk based sauce with vegetables)
Vegetable: You can use most of the gourds (Pumpkin, Squash etc) Okra or eggplant. Tomatillos also goes very well with this recipe
Coconut: 2-3 Tsp (Either freshly grated or frozen)
Green chilies 2-4
Uncooked rice: 1 tsp
Channa Dal: 2 tsp
Mustard seeds: 10-15 seeds
Butter milk: 2-3 cups
Salt to taste
Turmeric
The pre-preparation is to soak channadal, rice and mustard seeds in 1/4 cup of water for couple of hours. You can use hot water and cut the time to 30 min. Another way is to use rice flour and Bessan (Chickpea flour) and skip the soaking step.
Preparation method:
If you are using Okra or Eggplant or Tamotillos, saute them in little bit oil till the vegetables turn light brown. In case of Okra, the aim is to remove all the gumminess. For other vegetable such as Pumpkin or coyote squash (Seme Badne Kayi), you can cut the vegetables and boil in water till soft.
Grind soaked channa dal, rice, coconut, mustard seeds, green chilies and turmeric with little bit of buttermilk in the blender to make it to a smooth paste. If you are looking for low fat recipe, then skip adding coconut.
Heat oil in small pot and add mustard seeds and let seeds the splutter. Add curry leaves and the ground paste(From step 2) . Add cooked vegetables and remaining butter milk and cook till the mix gets little thick (2-3 min). Add salt to taste and simmer.
This creamy and rich recipe goes very well with Rice.
Science of Butter milk: Traditionally buttermilk is what is left over after the butter is churned out of the milk and usually slightly sour in taste. If you look at any ayurvedic book or talk to old timers, they will say there are 4 kinds of butter milk (The differences are in terms of amount of fat and water and if the butter is removed or not). But the basic principle of making the butter milk is the same. Ferment the milk with the right kind of bacteria to make curds/ yogurt and churn the curds/yogurt to buttermilk with or without addition of water. In US, most grocery stores have cultured buttermilk which is done in the similar way by adding active cultures.
Benefits of Buttermilk:
Buttermilk is known to have lot of health benefits especially related to digestion.
- It is beverage of choice in summer months as it is considered a good coolant.
· For indigestion and upset stomach (Now I sound like Pepto Bismol ad :-) ), buttermilk is supposed to help to reduce the pain and symptoms
· Few seeds of Fenugreek (methi seeds) with a spoonful of buttermilk helps with indigestion
To understand the health benefits of buttermilk, let us talk about microbiology.
The first step of buttermilk making process is to ferment milk. This is achieved by using the yogurt from day before (What mom used) or using starter cultures (what industry uses). In both methods what we are doing is adding live bacteria known as Lactic acid Bacteria (LAB ). The most commonly used bacteria for yogurt/ buttermilk fermentation are Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus and/or Lactococcus lactis. These bacteria are known as the Lactic acid bacteria as they convert the milk sugar Lactose into lactic acid which gives the sour taste to the yogurt/buttermilk.
Human gastrointestinal tract has number of bacteria mainly belonging to Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteir species. These organisms play a vital role in our existence as they produce some of the vitamins (B and K), enzymes such as Lactase and acts as competition with pathogenic (bad bacteria) for the colonization in our gut . These organisms are also known to produce anti-bacterial and fungal substances to protect against pathogenic fungus and bacteria, production of anti-carcinogenic substances and help with the development of immune system.
When the balance of the natural gut flora is affected due to antibiotics or infection/ illness, resulting in Diarrhea and other related issues, it has been shown that eating yogurt/ buttermilk or other probiotic (Literally means "For life") containing foods restores the natural microbial balance.
Lactose intolerance and cultured milk products: If you suffer from Lactose intolerance, yogurt/buttermilk is considered better for you. Lactose intolerance happens in people who lack the Lactase enzyme that breaks down the Lactose sugar in the milk to its constituents: Glucose and Galactose which are then absorbed by the intestinal walls. If your system lacks the Lactase enzyme, the Lactose can not pass through the intestinal wall (too big to go through) and will be attacked by the gut microbes producing gas. Your body tires to get rid of the gas by contraction (hence the abdominal pain) and flushing with water (Diarrhea). Since in the cultured milk products, the microbes have already done the breaking down of the Lactose into lactic acid, when you consume the cultured diary product the chain reaction that leads to the abdominal discomfort.
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