Fenugreek Flavored Buttermilk ~ Menthi Majjiga

Last Updated on March 17, 2017

I am a procrastinator! This week was suppose to be the easiest and a relaxed week in this marathon. I had first 3 days of posts drafted and scheduled long ago. All I had to do was proofread before publishing them. The other three recipes are easy ones and could have breezed through the week, yet here am, cooking, clicking, drafting and posting the recipe on the same day!! And am yet to cook tomorrow’s recipe as well! Thank god, I the recipes on the list were easy!!

Today’s recipe for Cooking Carnival, is a fenugreek flavored buttermilk ~ menthi majjiga. It is a recipe from Cooking at home with Pedatha, cookbook. I made it a few times last year and wanted to post it for CCC during summer, as it is a great summer drink. I never got to do it until today.

Buttermilk is flavored with cumin powder, salt and tempered with fenugreek, ajwain (carom), mustard seeds, green chilies and curry leaves. I adjusted the spices, reduced the quantities to my taste. Fenugreek seeds are bitter in taste and hence reduce the quantity almost half. This is a very refreshing summer drink as both buttermilk and fenugreek are body coolants.

I was not going post the below picture and did not even sort all the pictures I took in these glasses. In the last minute, I randomly picked one picture as I felt the spices in the buttermilk are not visible in above pictures.

Serves: 3 – 4

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups Yogurt (I used nonfat homemade yogurt)
• ⅔ – ¾ cup Water
• ⅛ tsp. Cumin, crushed
• ¼ tsp. Pepper Powder (I didn’t use)
• ½ tsp. Salt ( adjust to taste )
• Few drops, about ¼ tsp Lime Juice (my addition)
• 2 tsp. Oil

Tempering

• ⅛ tsp. Mustard Seeds
• ⅛ – ¼ tsp. Ajwain / Carom Seeds (I used less than ¼ tsp)
• ⅛ – ¼ tsp. Fenugreek Seeds
• ⅛ tsp. Cumin Seeds
• Dash of Asafoetida / Hing (I didn’t use)
• 1 – 2 small Green Chilies, chopped (adjust to taste)
• 4 Curry Leaves, torn into 2-3 pieces
• 2-3 tsp. chopped Cilantro

Preparation:

• Take yogurt in a bowl, add water and whisk lightly to make buttermilk. I used a little less than ¾ cup of water and kept the buttermilk slightly on the thicker side.
• Add freshly ground cumin powder, lime juice, salt, mix and keep aside.
• Take oil in a pan for tempering.
• When oil is hot, add mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, ajwain and let the fenugreek seeds turn light brown.
• Reduce the flame, add cumin seeds, asafoetida, stir and turn off the flame.
• Add curry curry, green chilies, chopped cilantro let the chilies roast in the oil.
• Pour it over buttermilk, stir and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Update – Buttermilk was very thick to my liking. I diluted it a bit before drinking.

This day in 2008: Cilantro Pinwheels
This day in 2014: Turkey – Sekerpare ~ Cookies in Sugar Syrup
This day in 2015: Chilaquiles from Mexico

Events: This also goes to this week’s Cooking from Cookbook Challenge.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 68