Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Rolling stones of the wet grinder - Black and White Wednesday

We are a household that does not eat light breakfast. My husband does not feel satisfied with a bowl of cereals or flakes. The lightest I might cook would be upma on many days. However, having a prepared batter to steam some idlis or spread nice crisp dosais is such a comfort, especially in my home.
For until my late teens, my mother did not insist on a wet grinder - a heavy duty appliance for tough grinding! She had a domestic help who did the grinding on the traditional mortor, we call attukkal or kallural. We were asked to lend a hand sometimes too. In fact, during holidays in our grand parents home, these were considered fun activities for girls and boys alike!
I too made do with my mixer grinder for many years. Finally when I had to entertain guests, grinding with the mixie was a task, that I decided to purchase a wet grinder and am happy that I did.
I put this to use quite often for all types of batter grinding and on one such day, I took some pictures of the process.....and sharing them through this post.
The pictures below show the soaked rice being processed to a batter for the sevai / shavige or string hoppers that was the picture of last week.


The picture below is a view from the top....the drum revolves in a clockwise motion, the stones each rotate on an axis and the ingredient that has been dropped in is crushed and ground to a batter. The hand on the side regulates the flow of the ingredients being ground.



Capturing motion was fun!

Half way through the process, some grains have been stuck to the face of the roller stone.


I had not expected to see grains of rice when the batter is almost ready.

Near end....a thick batter which will eventually be diluted with the water that will be used to clean the drum and the stones.

Small portions of batter flying off the roller stones and casting shadows in the batter and reflections on the inner walls of the drum go unnoticed unless you are taking pictures.

Sending these to Susan's Black and White Wednesdays - A weekly Culinary Photo Event.

12 comments:

  1. lovely clicks from different angles
    indu srinivasan
    kattameethatheeka.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lata, believe it or not, I typed a big comment here as soon as I saw the FB update but my Internet connection was faulty and it didn't go through! I've never used a grinder so I was surprised to read that you use your hand - I'd be so scared of getting my hand crushed!

    ReplyDelete
  3. A beautiful click. Ur post reminds me of the Aattukal we had at my mother's place and it was put to multi use other than grinding for dosa and idli. We used to grind Thenga thogaiyal,coconut for sambar and molagootal etc. Nice post.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fantastic shots , esp taken in motion! :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. The ol' Ultra grinder.. what wd we do without it! (uh oh, you just reminded me that i have some dal & rice soaking away!)

    ReplyDelete
  6. That one is absolutely beautiful and delicious :)), don't laugh, I love this gadjet with all my heart!, well thought click..

    ReplyDelete

Hello,
Welcome and thank you for taking time to drop by.
I appreciate your valuable comments and tips.
I sincerely hope to improve with them.
Hope we shall interact often.
Thanks once again,
Lata Raja.