Masala Paal

Masaala Paal ( Masaala milk) is very famous amongst the road-side vendors specially during the night times. Milk is heated till some of the water content is evaporated then various spices like clove, cardamom are added and the milk is sweetened.

Warm milk is said to induce sleep. Thats why we drink a cup of warm milk just before bed time. YES !! Our ancestors are more intelligent than we all presume!!!! There is certainly SOME reason behind their practices and we are just naive not to understand the true meaning and to QUESTION those practices..

Ok. Back from my side-track about the masala paal. On days that my father has enough patience at home and peace in mind he used to prepare masala paal at home to drink just before sleeping. He would meticulously heat the pasumpaal ( Cow's milk which is bought from our neighbours who have cattle ) until it is thick. Then he will add strands of kashmir saffron, kalkandu ( sugar candy ), powdered cardamom and powdered badaam powder.

He will heat it until the sugar candies have dissolved and then he will cool it down by transferring the milk to and from a bigger vessel ( called aatharadhu in tamil ) and give me, my sister and my amma glassfuls of milk. The taste of the thick, rich, frothy, fragrant and sweet warm milk still lingers at the tip of my tongue.

We would be sooooo full of sleep that we will gulp down the milk with closed eyes. And my father will not stop there. He will get the emptied milk glasses from me (and sometimes from my elder sister) and then give us some water to gargle so that we dont have sweet sticking to our teeth ( lest we have tooth decay )..

No thanks nothing.. My sleep would be by that time further deepened by the milk. This months' JFI by Vineela is a tribute to all the pains taken by my father at the end of his busy day to nourish us with - Masaala Paal, Masala milk.