Our Breakfast - Old Wine in a New Bottle!

After getting an angioplasty done in 2011, and having stopped all medicines subsequently, I have been experimenting with various diets in order to have more quality time on earth! 

My life partner, Vasantha Unnikrishnan, is an active participant in these experiments, as she is also trying to control cholesterol and her longstanding Sjogren's syndrome.

During this process, we have unearthed a heirloom breakfast! Many senior members from the South Indian families may remember an age-old breakfast item called ‘Pazhankanji. It literally means ‘old-gruel’. It is actually the excess rice, cooked the previous day for lunch, kept soaked in water overnight at room temperature.

In the olden days, laborers and farmers, who did a lot of physical work, had this rice for breakfast, along with a side dish of raw onion or green chili. It gave them the energy, nutrition, and cooling effect needed for manual work outdoor.

When cooked rice is soaked in water overnight, it gets fermented and becomes rich in probiotics. Probiotics are live bacteria and enzymes that increases the health of our gut microbiome and digestive system, and enhances the immune system. Fermented rice quenches the acidity of the body and is also a rich source of Vitamin B12. It helps to control blood pressure, hypertension, and cholesterol.

Now, we have modified this old meal to make it even more nutritious and tasty. We add finely chopped seasonal vegetables (tomato, cucumber, carrot, small onion, gooseberry...) and herbs (ginger, green chili, coriander leaves...) to the rice and mix them well with a cup of yogurt, half-cup of pomegranate seeds, and a little salt to taste. Finally we garnish it as follows:

• Heat oil in a small tempering pan and add the mustard seeds.
• When they start to splutter, add curry leaves and dried red chilly.
• Add the tempering to the prepared rice mixture, mix well, and serve cold.
• Sprinkle some roasted peanuts on top while eating.

Use brown rice to prepare this meal as it is rich in proteins, thiamine, calcium, selenium, magnesium, manganese, fiber, and potassium.

From our experience, consuming 'pazhankanji' removes the body's craving for tea and coffee. Since we have our breakfast at 8 am, our first (and also the last!) tea / coffee of the day is at 10 am.

See comments on the original Facebook post.

In response to my friends' comments I provided the following additional information.

Pazhankanji 2.0

Friends, this is to address some of the comments I received:

• The main difference in the new version of ‘Pazhankanji’ I presented is that we add lot of green vegetables. Generally, we do not eat green salad with rice. By adding a good quantity of finely chopped veggies to the rice we are also reducing the volume of rice, and consequently the starch (carbohydrate), almost by half.

• If cleaning the vegetables and cutting them seem like boring chores to you @Kalyani John, I would recommend doing them the Zen way, as a form of meditation! Cooking and cleaning are two of the most exalted parts of a Zen monk’s day. This stress-busting morning ritual provides calmness, serenity, and peace, the importance of which I don’t have to tell you, a practicing psychiatrist!

• Since the cooking part of the meal is done the previous day, the labor required in the morning is comparatively less.

• Further research reveals that fermented rice played a big role in the lives of people not only in South India but in other parts of the country too, in spite of the varying culinary styles. "Pazhankanji" in Malayalam is called “Pazhaya saadam” in Tamil, “Paaniwaala Chawal” in Hindi, “Saddhi Annamu” in Telugu, "Pakhala Bhaat" in Odisha, "Panta Bhaat" in West Bengal.

• This widespread presence puts the distilled wisdom of our forefathers in stark contrast with the complete neglect and disdain we are showing today.

• In order to revive this excellent food habit I would request my readers to 'share' the post with your friends to take this recipe to a wider audience.