Foreword:
This blog contains the Tamil word "Koottu". I thought I should explain what Koottu is for the benefit of readers who dont know what it is. If you already know what it is, then you can skip this foreword and go right to the main content, thereby saving you precious time. If you feel that your time is not THAT precious, you can continue to read and Ill not scold you.
Koottu is a south Indian dish made with vegetables, lentils and some seasoning. It makes a good combination with rice and its versatility comes from the fact that it can be used both as a side dish and as something that you can mix with rice. It is pretty light (needs very little oil and therefore preferred at night) and provides a good combination of proteins and whatever goodies the vegetables in it have.
Main content:
Netra's favorite bedtime game with me these days is to take turns naming 5 vegetables, then 5 animals, then 5 fruits, then 5 colors, then 5 birds and then whatever comes to her mind. A game that is unlikely to excite grown ups, but one that she looks forward to with anticipation each day. She'll very often greet me when I return from work with, "Lets play 5 animals" and I explain that its a bedtime game and I still need to finish dinner and stuff before we can engage in it.
A couple of days back, during one of her turns, she had to name 5 vegetables. Shes usually very fast with the first few, naming the ones that she had for dinner that day. Its like the first 3 take 4 seconds and the last 2 take about a minute, sometime with a few clues... "The red one".
As usual she rattled off the first 3 fast and thought about the next for a while and suddenly said, "koottu".
