Poetic Greens
Manathakkali Keerai has a beautiful name in English – they are called Sun Berry or Wonder Berry or Black Night Shade greens.
What poetic names for such an unassuming plant?
It was a variety of greens that both my mother and father-in-law seemed to adore, and I was slightly taken aback to see the way they were thriving in our little vegetable patch to be honest. It was nice enough to pick the little black berries and pop them in, but the greens? I had no idea what to do with them. The mother donned her expression of helping the local village fool and said, “Make keerai out of it!” and so there we were – harvesting.
Do we take the stems?
Just the leaves?
Cook the green berries or just the blackened ones?
Cut them or strangle them from their stems?
The husband, clearly out of his depth, had taken to advising me on harvesting techniques.
“Dude! We’re both doing this for the first time ever as far as I am aware. And you know even less about this than I seem to know, so why exactly are you giving me directions?” I said, frowning.
“Yes! But do you really mean to say that women don’t like being told what to do?” he said. At least he looked abashed.
I laughed at that and we both went ahead with butchering the plants we were supposed to be harvesting.
Cooking the Greens
We managed to get a few leaves for the dish, and I made them. “So, what do you think? These are extremely healthy!” I said pointing to the cooked greens – I had to admit that they looked a little disappointing.
The children both winced.
“Hmm…They look healthy.”
“See? Already looking green!” I said and they both glared at me a little. “Remember those mouth ulcers you were telling me about? Well – these are supposed to be the very best cure for that.” I said.
“Yes mother – thank you! But I had the mouth ulcers months ago!” the son said.
“Well – it takes a while to grow, doesn’t it?” I said weakly and encouraged them to eat up like good children.
After they took their first mouthfuls, it was priceless. The daughter said, “Hmm…it’s a bit bitter, but does it have to be so stringy?!”
I gave an uneasy laugh. Were they stringy? They looked, well, green.
The son had a dubious look, and prodded it a bit, he put some in, and then gagged. Spectacularly. And went running to the sink.
I could have tried the strict got-to-eat-up routine, but it is difficult when the dish looked that questionable. So, I tasted it too, and oh lord! What kelpie crying in the kitchen could eat that?! It was … well…as the children kindly put it, “Not exactly disgusting, but close!”
Maybe I hadn’t made it quite right. Oh well.
Nourish-n-Cherish 