October 10, 2008

Love Letters../Mutta kuzhalappam /Madukku San...

Oct 10th was the first day of our college life.I wonder if any of my old hostel mates and friends remember that. My hostel days were best enjoyed at the evening tea time... we get back from a hard day (:))!!!)at the college, tired and hungry and rush to the mess. A cup of tea with the snack of the day and we all sat down on the steps trading gossip and news about co-hostelers, classmates, teachers..no one was spared. A lot of laughter and leg pulling punctuated our nonstop talking.

The steps were a important element in the Hostel's layout. The hostel's plan was a large octagon encircling a courtyard. There were only two diagonal points of entry stepping into the courtyard..one at the entrance and one on the other side of the courtyard...critically located just outside the TV room, en route to the mess(cafeteria). To reach any room, you could either cut across through the courtyard or take the long route around inside the walls.

Sitting at the steps opening into the courtyard was the final rung in the hierarchy of the senior -junior relationships. The freshers at the beginning of a year would skitter away from the steps, walking briskly, almost hugging the walls, trying not to meet any one's eyes to escape the senior's questioning, taking the longest possible route to get back to their dorms. But by the end of the year, most of them would be leisurely sharing a laugh with the same seniors and awaiting the next batch of freshers with relish.

The rush to the mess was to get the tea as hot as possible and to test our luck with the snacks. The mess was (is?) ruled by the three top (iron) chefs, "chechis"/ladies who could only be called "prosperous" to be politically correct. Looking at them , you could understand why the hostel inmates always looked hungry..(as the guys used to tease us saying we get only kanchi-payar in our cafeteria).

The snacks ranged from Uzhunnu Vada, which was pretty good to sukiyan, which I never endeared to, to dried up tea cakes wrapped in old parchment. Sometimes the snacks were so horrible that you just wanted to trade them away and sometimes they were the only redeeming feature of the whole day's menu.


Love letters, as the mess cooks called it, was something that had a taste and resembled good food reworked into mass quantities. It was a thin layer of a crepe like soft roll filled with coconut and sugar that oozed out when you bit into it. I tolerated it at first but over the years there, slowly got a fondness for it. We did wonder why they called it "love letters" though. Probably due to its scroll like design.

Mishmash and Ian gave me two other commons names for these crepes, Mutta kuzhalappam and Madukku San which is what you must be familiar with so I have added that to the title now.

This is one versatile pancake or crepe or love letters, whatever you want to call it. Just like crepes but much easier and lighter in preparation, they are a bland backdrop to any filling that can flavor it..sweet or spicy.


You Will Need:For about 8-10 crepes
All Purpose Flour/Maida: 1 1/2 cup
Egg -1
Milk -About 2 to 1 1/2 cups
Salt - a pinch

Preparation:
Lightly beat the egg and then add to the flour with salt and milk. You could replace 1/3 of the milk with water with no taste difference. Whisk everything till its well combined and of a pourable consistency. Heat the griddle/ non stick pan and lightly grease it as you would do for a dosa or pancake. When the pan is medium hot, lower the heat and pour one small ladle of the batter. Quickly spread it in an even circular motion, making sure there is only a thin layer everywhere. As soon as the crepe changes color to a golden brown and the underside comes off in one sweep, its' cooked. It takes less than a minute to get one done. Remove to a plate, and spread filling of your choice and roll.

Ghee-sugar: Spread a thin layer of ghee (clarified butter) on the hot crepe/love letter and sprinkle sugar evenly. Start rolling from one side tightly to get the roll.

Coconut-Sugar:
Toast the coconut on medium heat for 2 minutes and then add sugar (to taste) and stir till the sugar melts and the coconut is sweetened. Add cardamom powder for a spice kick.

Coconut-Jaggery: Same method as above but add melted and filtered jaggery syrup to the coconut. Substitute with brown sugar to save time. Add chopped ripe plantains as an option.

Apple pie filling: Apples cut into tiny pieces, cooked with cinnamon and sugar till they turn soft and gooey.

Spicy Filling: any of the fillings used in the erachi samosa/meat samosa or the meen pathiri/fish pie will go well with this.

25 comments:

Unknown said...

Makes me nostalgic..Thinking abt my hostel days..Nice recipe!

indosungod said...

Delicious snack with an interesting name Shaheen.

Mishmash ! said...

your love letter is our Mutta kuzhalappam :) but i am not familiar with the other filling except the sweetened coconut with cardamom and sugar....one of my fav evening snack.....the first pic has some charm ...loved it :)

Shah cooks said...

Shn, ok, thanks for the name and now i know what to make when u come to visit me.:)

Anonymous said...

Nice memories. College days were the best.

Ramki said...

Crepes are among my favourite foods. So easy to prepare and with so many mind boggling varieties, they have a charm all of their own !

lan said...

Courtyard, mess.. all brought me back to most enjoyed my hostel days.
These were called 'madakku san' in our house and was a rarely prepared delicacy. Mom used to fold it over from both sides like we do for masala dosa after the coconut filling. thanks for the recipe!

Mrs. K said...

Drat! When you said love letters..and then you started with the college days.., I thought you were going to say your love story..hehe

sra said...

Aha, now those searches for 'Malayali chechi kerala'will get your blog many more hits!

Shah cooks said...

Divya, hmm.. aren't hostel days the best time ever?:)

Indo, fastest snack and a crowd pleaser too. I think i found the real name now.

Mona, how was Eid? Along with hometown memories, I think hostel memories last the longest in our minds.

Ramki, u are right, they are very versatile and easy.

Ian,Madukku san.. what a nice name. Was ur coconut filling the same or different?

RP, my love story here.. he he.. keep wishing...:)

Sra, lol!! a good way to increase blog popularity, right?:)

Minha said...

Hi,
Your description of your college hostel was really matching my school hostel courtyard design...and we also used to have the same "loveletter" as tea time snack..Nostalgic!..and Lovely presentation! Keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

Lovely past.. reminds of my old days ....lovely ssnaps...

Rashmi

Divz said...

wow...the first pic is just so beautiful!!

Shah cooks said...

sameera, thanks! somehow school and hostel days linger clearly in the memories.

rashmi, old days..hmmm.. now i feel old!!

starry said...

took me back to when I was a little child, my mother used to make this for us when we came home from school.

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Anonymous said...

Isn't this also called Otada in Calicut?

Suganya said...

Hi...
This sounds so good. Ur dish looks so good. Nice presentation. YUM!

J said...

Love letters...!! I can imagine the expresion if I served that to some elder in the family :)

Mandira said...

what a beautiful description Shaheen! Absolutely delicious.

R M said...

Shaheen...omg I was transported right back to LH....I could almost smell the love letters. Aaah the days of sitting and chatting on the steps...I think I might even have a pic at home with you, sood, gisha etc on the steps.
Rashmi

Anonymous said...

Are you an MES KUTTIPURAM product?
well we also used to have an evening snack called loveletter,
and also the location of mess hall and tv room...
shahina

Anonymous said...

Hi Shaheen...

My friend's mom used to make this.. When asked for the reason why they are called "love letters", she used to tell "they are sweet inside.. that's why" :) :)

-J

Jayashree said...

you've taken me back to my hostel days. This was made in my hostel too....and guess what??? We called it love letter too. It was always filled with a coconut-sugar mixture.

Anonymous said...

Looks Yummy! I frequent visit your blog!. I make this with pancake batter and sugar-cocconut filling. it is a hit with my family@