How to maintain Silk Sarees ( Pattu Sarees)

Tips to maintain Silk Sarees

A Silk (pattu) saree in your wardrobe undoubtedly would be the most expensive dress. And not only this, it also has some memories attached to them. They may be your wedding silks, engagement sarees and one you were gifted for one of your relatives wedding. Behind every saree there is a tale to tell.

But if you have noticed, you do not get to wear these sarees often especially the ones with heavy jari work. So what happens if I do not use them often? Or if I do not use them often how do I maintain them? Maintenance is very important when it comes to your costly silk sarees. And lack of it made me lose a very beautiful saree. It was my engagement saree – called Vairu oosi silk. Something in the dark blue-violet color. I did not use it for many years and it was in the same bag in the alamerah for many years. One day I wanted to badly wear it and when I opened, I noticed that all the Zari’s stuck together and they started coming out. There were patches and patches in the saree without the zari portion. I was heart broken and I decided that I wouldn’t let that happen to any of my other sarees. Here are the tips. Now after following them for over years, I am happy to tell you that my sarees look fresh and I do not fear losing them.

How to maintain Silk Sarees

• In most of the cities you get cotton covers for Sarees. Place your Silk Sarees in them. The Sarees need to get fresh air as often as possible.

• Once in 3 months, dry the Silk Saree in an airy place. Do not dry them in hot sun as they would lose their color.

• Make sure that you do not fold the saree in the same fold as before. If the sarees are folded along the same lines as before, then over a period they would tear along that line.

• Do not hang the Silk Sarees in iron hangers. They may stain the sarees.

• Do not store the sarees in a suitcase. Make sure they are kept wrapped in a cotton cloth/cover and left on the cupboard/Alamerah directly on the shelf.

• Naphthalene balls should not be placed directly in contact with the Saree. These chemicals can harm the Saree and also stain them.

How to wash Silk Sarees

• Do not wash the sarees frequently. You could give them for dry cleaning but even lot of dry cleaning is not recommended.

• Use a mild soap, detergent.

• Do not wash in hot water. Use only cold water.

• Do not soak the sarees in detergent. Just apply a mild detergent and gently wash with hands.

• Do not squeeze or twist the sarees while washing. They should be handled as gently as possible.

• Do not use any brush. They may tear the Zari and leave unpleasant marks on the saree.

• Dry the saree immediately after washing. Do not squeeze the saree to remove water. As mentioned above, dry in a shady place and never directly under the hot sun.

• Always iron the sarees with medium heat. Do not iron along previous folding lines of the saree. 

• To remove stains,

o    as a first aid – use a paper towel or cotton cloth on the stain and absorb as much as you can before the stain dries on the saree. Wash the saree immediately after stain.

o    For hard stains, dry clean the saree. Dry cleaning is the safest method for hard stains. You will be required to be very careful while clearing hard stains at home.

o    You could use a mild stain remover. Do not apply the stain remover directly. First apply only on a small portion to see the results. Once you are satisfied, apply on larger areas.

o    All mid usual stains like sweat, blood, oil can be cleaned with mild detergent.

o    Try not to dry clean for every small stain.

Vepam Poo Rasam ( Neem Flower Rasam)

As you may all know that neem has a great medicinal properties. Vepam Poo Rasam(Neem Flower Rasam) is very healthy for it consist of the neem flower and the rasam water absorbs the sourness and the excellent medicinal properties of neem.

Ingredients

• Vepam Poo( Neem Flower) – about 2 tablespoons
• 1 tomato finely chopped
• Toor daal ( Tuvaram Paruppu) – 1 tablespoon
• Red Chillies – about 4-6
• Asafoedita
• Turmeric
• Mustard seeds
• Ghee – about 2-4 spoons. Remember this rasam tastes good only if you add more ghee.
• Tamarind
• Curry leaves – 6 leaves

Preparation

• Step 1 - In a pan, add ghee and once the ghee is hot, fry toor daal(tuvaram paruppu), Red Chillies, Asafoedita, Turmeric, Chopped Tomato. Let the tomatoes become tender. Switch off the gas and keep this aside
• Step 2- In another pan, add ghee, Mustard seeds, Asafoedita and Vepam Poo(Neem Flower) and sort of Vepam Poo for some time. Make sure they become dark brown but not black. If you sort them for less time, your rasam will be really sour. The more you sort in ghee, the Vepam poo will fry and lose the real neam sourness. But make sure they do not become burnt and black. Switch off the gas and keep aside.
• Step 3 - Boil water, add tamarind, Asafoedita, Curry leaves. Let this boil for 5 minutes. Add the mixture from Step 1 and boil for another 10 minutes. Then add the mixture from Step 2 and just boil for 3 minutes. Because if you boil for a longer time, the rasam will become really sour. Switch off the gas and your tasty rasam is ready !!

Try this and let me know how it turns out for you !

Maanga Rasam(Raw Mango Rasam)

One of the tastiest Rasam I have ever made. My daughter likes it badly and I try to make it whenever I have a good raw mango. For Maanga Rasam, it is important that your raw mango(Maanga) is really sour. A little sweet is okie, but remember the raw mango is going to form as a substitute for tamarind. You may ask me, that pineapple is sweet and sour. Yes, if you use a sweet raw mango, you may get a Rasam tasting similar to pineapple Rasam but as each fruit has its own taste, the flavor of that fruit will dominate. Here is the recipe and a picture.

Ingredients

• Take a full Maanga(raw mango). Cut into small pieces and keep the seed. The seeds adds a lot of sourness to your rasam. or alternatively you could just keep some raw mango pieces and or only the seed. This means that you need any one portion either the pulp or the seed of the raw mango for the rasam

• Rasam/Sambar Powder – 1 tablespoon

• Turmeric – ¼ of a tablespoon

• Mustard, cumin, Asafoedita(Hing), 2 red chilles, curry leaves and coriander leaves for garnishing

Preparation

• Take the raw mango seed and the pulp (or which ever you have) and boil in water. Make sure you add water based on the quantity of raw mango you have. If you have only the seed or the pulp, then add about 3-4 cups of water. If you have the whole raw mango, then you could add 10 cups of water.

• Boil for 10-15 minutes or until the raw mango seed/pulp becomes tender.

• Add turmeric, rasam/sambar powder and salt. Make sure you add rasam/sambar powder based  on the quantity. If you are making more rasam with a full raw mango and the seed, the add about 2 tablespoons of the powder. Let this boil for another 5 minutes.

• Now add seasoning. In a pan, add ghee and wait till the ghee becomes hot. Add mustard seeds, cumin, little Asafoedita(Hing), Red Chillies, curry leaves. Add to the rasam and boil for 1-2 more minutes in medium flame.

• Switch off the stove and add chopped coriander leaves.

Trust me, it tastes like Heaven !!

Medicinal Properties of Carrot

Carrot has Vitamin A in excess. It has Carotin in it that is why it is called Carrot.
Carrot has all the necessary ingredients in it which is necessary for body growth. Carrot makes Digestive parts like Liver, Intestine and Spleen very healthy, makes the blood circulation normal
and is good for the eye, kills the disease germs in digestive tracks.Brain and heart become very active.
We can eat carrot raw or boiled, it has the same effect, very near to the outer layer of carrot we have carotine, therefore we should not peel the carrot.
Use of eating carrot
----------------------
1)It Stimulates the blood flow, increases the blood flow and removes the toxin
2)It helps in body growth and is easily digestive
3)EyeSight increases, more urine wil be passed, liver is
cleansed, fat in blood is reduced, Night-Blindness is cured, Diabetes is controlled,
During Menstrual Cycle correct amount of Blood will be expelled, Cough will be cleared
4)Ladies or Gents impotency is cured
5)Patients will be saved from Cancer and Osteroporosis((Bone Narrow)
6)Constipation cured, Large intestine inflamation and digestive ulcer cured
7)Unwanted Uric acid in the blood will be expelled
8)Kidney Stones removed
9)TB Cured
10)Jaundice is Cured
11)Quickly increases memory power, acne will vanish

How to make Andhra Pesarattu

I have had Pesarattu few times with my Telugu friends and wondered how healthy and tasty a simple recipe can be. Whenever I run short of ideas and want a healthy dinner or breakfast, Pesarattu is the first thing that comes to my mind. Below is the recipe.

Ingredients

•  Soak 1 cup of green moong daal(Pairu) and 1 cup of rice together for about 6 hours. You could also soak them in hot water for about 4 hours.
•  Half onion – cut in 2-3 pieces
•  Another Half onion – finely chopped
•  Green Chillies – 4 chillies – Not chopped
•  Green Chillies – 4 chillies finely chopped
•   Coriander leaves – finely chopped
•   Ginger – Finely chopped
•   Cumin Seeds
•   Salt

Preparation

•  Take a small bowl and mix the finely chopped onion, half of finely chopped ginger, half of finely chopped coriander and finely chopped green chillies. This mixture will be used for seasoning the Pesarattu. Set this aside for now.
•  Filter out all the water from the soaked daal rice mixture.
•  In a mixie, grind the full green  chillies, Ginger, Onion cut in 2-3 pieces, some coriander leaves, cumin seeds, salt, soaked daal and rice.
•  Add water as necessary and make sure that the ground mixture is not too coarse. If finely ground, it is easier to make Pesarattu.
• Once the batter is ready, switch on the stove and make sure that the dosa pan is hot.
• Take optimum amount of batter and lay them in round shape on the pan. Add oil around the round Pesarattu.
• Now add the finely chopped mix of onion, ginger, coriander and green chillies over the Pesarattu.

 

• Let the bottom of the Pesarattu turn brown.
• Remove the Pesaretu from the pan and serve hot with pickle and idli milagai podi.

Let me know how this turns out !!

How to clean Silver Ornaments and Idols

You may notice your very favorite silver jewelry/decorative items/Idols lose their fresh new look and gradually become dark and less shiny. This happens when Silver comes in contact with substance containing Sulfur.

I am generally conservative in my approach when it comes to handling jewelry. Though dipping Silver in cleaning lotions is one of the easiest methods, I always have the belief that they somehow also eat away some Silver in the process.

Methods to remove Silver tarnish

•  The first thing I always do is clean Silver with powder ash (Vibudhi). Take a paper towel or cotton or a nice thin cloth. Take Vibudhi/Ash and rub on Silver. You would notice that the Silver starts getting back its original color. Below is an image of Ash and the before-after images of cleaning a Silver item. 

    Image of Vibudhi(Powdered Ash)

                                                Before                                                                           After

• The other safe way of cleaning Silver is using Aluminum Foil and Baking Soda. It is easiest and quickest way to clean silver safely.

            

1.     Take a pan, add enough water to completely immerse the Silver item. Boil the water for some time. The hotter the water, the quicker the reaction

2.     After the water boils, add an Aluminum foil at the bottom of the pan.

3.     And add few teaspoons of baking soda.

4.     Now dip the Silver item. The Silver has to be in contact with Aluminum and should rest on the foil.

                                    5.  You would instantly notice that the Silver regains its original shine and color. 

                                        To get more desirable results, rotate the silver item few times to make sure every 

                                        side gets in touch with the Aluminum Foil

• Some also suggest cleaning Silver with Toothpaste but I am vary of the idea as Toothpaste contains other ingredients and good amount of baking soda. I have never tried this option personally.

•  You could also wash Silver with a very mild detergent and hot water. Make sure that the detergent is very mild.

• Some may suggest taking Silver items to Silversmith and have it polished. Too much polishing can wear down some of the Silver.

How to get rid of Pantry pests - Especially the Flour bugs - Weevils (Tamil - Vandu or Chakkan)?

There are a variety of pantry pests. Most of them arrive in either flour or seeds and they multiply in no time to a large number. 

Here is a picture of a small weevil from my kitchen. I got them all over few shelves from a single box of rice flour. I realized I didn’t use the flour for a long time and I should have trashed it in time. Now I had to clear off the entire kitchen to make sure that these weevils do not multiply and spread to other groceries. [Click on the image to enlarge]

How to they arrive in your kitchen?

• Most of the times these bugs are already present in the packed seeds or flour in grocery stores. The packages would have had small tiny eggs of the bugs which develop to a bug over a period of time.
•  The grocery store/your kitchen may carry infested items. It may then catch on to other items nearby. Remember all it needs is a few eggs. They multiply very quickly.
• There may be cracks in your kitchen through which the bugs may enter the apartment/home.
•  If the near by apartment/home in the same complex is affected, there are chances that your kitchen get them.
• And most importantly, if your flour or seeds are kept for a long period of time, they get infected by flour bugs.

How to avoid Weevils (Vandu or Chakkan)?

• Inspect your kitchen and unused groceries often. Make sure you immediately throw away the infested groceries and clean the place with a good kitchen cleaner.
•  After you buy the flour/seeds, refrigerate them in the freezer for about 3-4 days. This ensures that all the hidden eggs in the packed content die.
• Make sure to throw away unused flour every few months. Even if you do not see any bugs developing in them, they are more likely to get new ones any time soon
• If you live in hot climatic conditions, it is more likely that your bugs will multiply sooner. You need to be more cautious.
• Make sure the containers you store your groceries are in good shape. Make sure to wash them in hot water with a good cleaner every time you restore or refill the container. Also make sure that the seals are intact and there is no gap anywhere on the lid.

What to do if your groceries get them?

• If you get them in your kitchen, make sure you immediately clear the source and all infested items. Throw away the infested groceries. Make sure all of the non-infested items are sealed and covered properly.
• Empty the space and clean with a good food safe bleach and water. You could also use sprays available in the market for weevils/flour bugs.
• Let the shelves remain empty for few hours and frequently check to see if you see any other weevils/bugs around. It is advisable that you leave the pantry door open over night.
• Once you load the groceries, for the next few days, keep checking to see any development of bugs. Repeat the above process if necessary.