Panagam and neer mor are part of the summer festival celebrations in South India. Be it for Ugadi, Tamil New Year, Sri Rama Navami we prepare this neer mor as a part of the feast and also as the neivediyam or offering to God. But both panagam and neer mor are perfect summer coolants, and you don’t need any special occasion to prepare these. Always natural coolants are better than those store-bought aerated drinks. Every state in India has its unique style of spiced buttermilk recipe and its name. In North India, it is popularly knowns as chaas, and I know there are different varieties of chaas as well. I will be sharing some in the coming months as well. In South, in Kerala, it is known by the name sambaram, and in Karnataka, we call it as neer majjige, and in Andhra/Telangana, we call it as majjiga.
Neer Mor Recipe:
The basic recipe is simple. All you need to do is churn the yogurt and make the buttermilk and add salt and asafoetida, and that’s it. Your salted butter is ready. Now you can elevate the flavors by infusing spices like green chili, ginger and fresh herbs like mint, cilantro and curry leaves. And the combinations are endless. :-) Traditionally, we make neer mor with thin buttermilk, but you can use thick ones as well.Today I am spicing it up using green chili, ginger and also I am adding some curry leaves, cilantro and chopped green mango for additional flavor. I love my neer mor little chunky with mustard seeds, raw mango. But you can reduce the mustard seeds quantity and skip the green mango as well.
Preparing Buttermilk for this recipe:
Back in India and even here in the USA, I make my yogurt. I churn the yogurt using my hand churner (matthu as we say in Tamil) and dilute it with water to get the buttermilk. If you are using store-bought buttermilk, I would recommend diluting it with water. For two cups of buttermilk, you can add 1 cup of water and dilute it. If you are using store-bought yogurt, then you can beat 1.5 cups of yogurt with 1.5 cups of water using a blender or hand churner to make the buttermilk. Once you have the buttermilk ready, you can prepare this neer mor or the spiced buttermilk in no time. Here is how I made mine.
Neer Mor Recipe with Step-Wise Pictures-
Using a hand mortar and pestle, crush the ginger and green chili. If you don’t have a hand mortar and pestle, using a mixer jar, pulse it coarsely. Add this to the buttermilk, followed by cilantro, curry leaves, green mango, and salt. Mix thoroughly.
In a separate tempering pan, heat the oil and add the mustard seeds and hing. When they splutter, add it to the buttermilk and mix.
Serve it as is or refrigerate and serve it cold.
Recipe Notes-
You can ignore the tempering and keep it oil free. Also, you can make it gluten-free by skipping the hing. Adjust the salt and spices according to your preference. Instead of crushing the ginger and chili, you can finely chop them and add it to the buttermilk. Along with curry leaves and cilantro, you can add 1 tsp dried mint leaves or 5 to 6 fresh mint leaves for added flavor.
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📖 Recipe
Update Notes: This recipe was originally posted in 2013 but now updated with new photos and fresh content.
