Neer Mor is a spiced Indian buttermilk drink made during the summers to beat the heat.
Table of Contents
Neer Mor
Neer Mor is a South Indian after meal drink prepared with curd that is diluted and seasoned with spices.
It is prepared by beating thick homemade curd, diluting it with water and adding a few spices and seasonings.
It goes by the name of Chaas in Hindi, majjige in Kannada and Sambharam in Malayalam.
You can enjoy Neer Mor alongside meals as it aids digestion and complements the spicy South Indian dishes well.
How to make Indian Spiced Buttermilk
There are two ways you can make buttermilk.
Buttermilk from curd
The first method I will describe to you in the simpler one. You will need one cup of curd, preferably homemade, or you can buy curd from your local milk booth that is sold in packets. Do not use the curd that you get in plastic cups/tubs. They are too thick and are better for eating as is.
Take a cup (about 180ml) of curd and add it to a large bowl. With the help of a matthu (math-u) or an Indian wooden whisk, place the round side in the bowl and roll the whisk in between your palms to make a back-and-forth action. This action will help break the lumps of curd and give it an even texture.
Once the curd has an even texture, add 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of asafoetida. Mix the two seasonings into the curd well.
Next, add chilled water (room temperature water is fine too) to the bowl. How much you want to add is up to you. If you prefer a thicker consistency of buttermilk, you can add 300-400 ml of water.
Neer mor as the name suggests, is quite thin, and this is the consistency I prefer. So I add a little over 1/2 litre of water to get a thin consistency of neer mor. This thin consistency actually makes the chaas more palatable in summers than its cousin the lassi.
Perform a little taste test and ensure the salt and asafoetida levels are up to your liking.
The finale of this variety of neer mor is to add the tempering.
Place a tadka pan on a low-medium flame. Add a tsp of cooking oil (I use groundnut oil for most of my tadkas) and allow it to warm up.
Once warm, add 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds and allow it to crackle. Turn off the flame and add curry leaves from 1 sprig.
Add this tadka to the buttermilk and mix well.
Serve buttermilk as a refreshing summer drink after lunch or dinner.
Buttermilk from churning butter from cream
This method is a slightly more laborious one. It involves the use of cream to churn the butter while and leave a watery residue which is the real “buttermilk”.
Buy a small carton of cream, the 200ml one, and add all the cream to a large mixer jar. You can cut open the carton and scoop out all the cream from it. Before starting the process, make sure that the cream is cold; butter gets churned faster when the temperature is lower.
Add 200-250 ml of cold water to the cream and mix it with a spoon. Now, switch on the mixer and let the machine do its job. The churning process in the mixer will take 2-3 minutes. Do not give up in between. If you feel the mixer is getting warm, add a little more cold water, just a little to help the mixer cool down.
The moment the butter forms, you will notice some of the buttermilk accidentally spill out of the mixer. This has happened to me several times to me, so I’ve given you a fair warning. You can turn off the mixer and remove the butter from the mixer with the help of a large spoon. You will need to collect a lot of bits and pieces of the butter floating.
(You can process the butter further and use it in your cooking.)
Once you have removed all bits of the butter, the leftover liquid is the precious buttermilk. Collect this in a separate container. This is the original way buttermilk used to be made and hence the name “butter” “milk” meaning milk of the butter.
You can either keep is at the same consistency or thin it down by adding a little water. Now, you can add salt and asafoetida powder to this buttermilk and mix well. To prepare the tadka, place the tadka pan on a low flame and add half a teaspoon of oil. Once the oil is warm, add mustard seeds and curry leaves and allow it to sputter. Turn off the flame and add this tadka to the buttermilk. Mix well and serve it cold after lunch.
In this recipe, I have described how we consume Neer Mor at my place. But there are a few variations to this delicious drink.
To make neer mor, in some households, people combine ginger, green chillies, onions, curry leaves, mint leaves, and coriander leaves with curd in a mixer jar. They then blend the ingredients into an even mixture, add salt and seasoning it with mustard seeds.
Storage and Shelf Life
Once you make Neer Mor, store it in the fridge and drink it chilled. You can store it for a couple of days in the fridge and consume it. After a couple of days, the oil and the curry leaves will change colour, its best to avoid that.
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Recipe
Spiced Buttermilk | Neer Mor | Chaas
Ingredients
- 1 cup Curd 180-200ml
- ½ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Asafoetida powder
- 3 cups Cold Water
- 1 tsp Cooking oil
- ½ tsp Mustard seeds
- 1 sprig Curry Leaves washed and dried
Instructions
Buttermilk from Curd
- Pour a cup of curd in a large bowl.
- With the help of a wooden whisk, beat the curd with the back-and-forth action. This will help break the lumps of curd and achieve an even consistency. You can also do the whisking with a wire whisk or even in a mixer.
- After beating the curd, add salt and asafoetida and mix it well into the beaten curd.
- Now, add the cold water to the bowl and mix thoroughly. Your neer mor is almost ready.
- To temper the buttermilk/chaas, place a tadka pan on a low-medium flame. Once the pan is warm, add a teaspoon of cooking oil.
- When the oil is warm, add the mustard seeds and allow them to crackle. Turn off the heat.
- Add the curry leaves to the tadka pan and let them sizzle in the oil for a few seconds.
- The last step is to add this tempering to the buttermilk and stir well.
- Serve your buttermilk chilled along with lunch on dinner during summers.
If you are looking for more recipes to make this summer, try Doddapatre Tambuli
Do follow me on Instagram at Make Potato — I post daily lunch box ideas and quick snack recipes.
