Akkara vadisal

Sugar sweetened milk rice usually done on ocassions.

Ingredients:
rice ----1 cup
milk ----2 cups
water--- 1 1/2 cups
sugar ----- 2 cups
saffron strings soaked in a tablespoon of milk or saffron color (optional)--- a pinch
cardomam powder ----- a pinch
cashew nuts and raisins ---- 2-3 spoons
Ghee for roasting nuts and raisins.

Method:

Add a table spoon of ghee and roast the raw rice lightly.

Pressure cook the rice in 2cups of milk and 1 1/2 cups of water till soft.

After it is cooked well, mash the rice and make it more pulpy with a cup of milk.

In another vessel, make a sugar syrup with 2cups of sugar and a little water, once the sugar dissolves in the water add this syrup to the mashed rice and mix well with saffron strings and cardomam .

Garnish with raisins and cashews roasted in ghee

Thiruvadhirai kali & ezhu thaan kootu

Kali is a mixture of rice and dal boiled with jaggery.Ezhu thaan kootu is a tangy spicy sauce made with a medley of 7 native indian vegetables. This is a complete whole some meal done as neivedhyam( offering to God) on Arudra Darisanam day/ Thiruvadhirai - a tamil festival dedicated to the dancing god - Nataraja.

Thiruvadirai Kali
Ingredients:
Rice ------------ 1 cup
Moong dal ----- ¼ cup
Coconut gratings: 4 tablespoons
Cardomam powder: 1 spoon
Jaggery : 1 ¼ cup

Ghee and cashew nuts for garnishing

Method:

Dry roast raw rice in a kadai till it turns light brown. Grind it coarsely like Rava.
Dry roast moong dal till it turns light brown and mix it with rice rava.
Make a jaggery syrup by adding the jaggery to 2 cups of boiling water. As it boils, add cardomam powder, grated coconut and roasted rice and dal. Mix them and pressure cook to 4 whistles.
When done garnish with cashew nuts roasted in ghee.



Ezhu than kootu:

This is made of 7 Vegetables generally native vegetables like yam, colocassia, potato, sweet-potato, raw plaintain, broad beans, garden beans, cluster beans. We can add carrot, French beans, peas ,capsicum and other vegetables of our choice also.

Mixed vegetables cut into 1” strips --- 3 cups
Tamarind --- lemon sized
Boiled and mashed toor dal --- 1 cup
Salt , turmeric and asafoetida for seasoning

Spices to dry roast and grind:
Red chillies --- 6 nos
Channa dal --- 2 spoons
Coriander seeds --- 2 spoons
Cumin ------- ½ spoon
Coconut gratings ---- ¼ cup

Boil the vegetables along with salt and turmeric. To this add the tamarind extract and boil till the raw smell of tamarind fades.

Now add the ground masala and boiled tuvar dal one after another.

When done,sprinkle with asafoetida powder , garnish with spluttered mustard and curry leaf.

Pori urundai

These are healthy sweet balls made of puffed rice and jaggery. This is specially done on Karthik purnima.

Ingredients:
Puffed rice ---- 4 cups
Grated Jaggery --------- 1 cup
Coconut pieces ( cut into small0/ slivers of copra – ¼ cup
Dry ginger powder ------ 1 tea spoon
Cardomam powder ---- 1 teaspoon
Method:
Spread the puffed rice on a big plate and sprinkle the powder of ginger and elaichi.

To make jaggery syrup:
Boil the jaggery in a cup of water till you get a rolling consistency. Test the consistency by dropping a spoon of the syrup in water, it should not dissolve but when you remove the jaggerys syrup from water it should roll like a ball. To this syrup, add the coconut pieces.



Now add the syrup over the puffed rice spread on the plate and mix them, When still hot shape them
loosely into round balls. On cooling, the jaggery syrup will bind them together

Thengai poorna kozhakattai

Steamed sweet dumplings made with a filling of coconut and jaggery or Thenga poorna kozhakattai is specially made on ocassions like aadi velli and pillaiyar chaturthi( ganesh chaturthi). One of the most prominent feature of hindu festivals is the neivedyam and so this poorna kozhakattai is one of the neivedyam for Lord Ganesh. That said, each and every ritual has a spiritual significance cleverly hidden and embellished with a mythological story. Some of the sifnificance and reasoning  have diluted as it has travelled from one generation to another.

Now here is an interesting story on why this is offered to Ganesha and the significance behind it which was shared by a story teller.

 There is one story that fleetingly talks about how Anusuya, wife of Sage Atri fed a kozhukattai to Ganesha to appease his hunger since he wouldn’t stop eating, while Shiva, who was patiently waiting to be served, grew hungrier and hungrier watching his son polish off everything. Funnily, as soon as Anusuya fed Ganesha the kozhukattai, both he and Shiva burped 21 times in unison; Shiva suddenly felt full, thus establishing the standard number of kozhukkattais to be offered to Ganesha as 21. While it was an interesting story,

kozhukattai has two parts: the outer layer and the inner stuffing.” “The inner stuffing or poornam is like the Paramatma or God. The outer covering is the Jivatma or the individual. The outer rice flour cover is flavoured with salt – an allusion to our senses. We get distracted by material things because our senses operate all the time and forget about the spirit—the ultimate sweetness— that lies inside. By eating a kozhukattai, we submit to Ganesha that we will consciously move towards realizing the existence of the Paramatma or the poornam. In effect, we are the kozhukattais.”

Does'nt it make more sense to make the kozhakattais now...over to the recipe.

Ingredient ( for filling)

Gratings of one big coconut
Grated jaggery – ¾ cup
Cardomam powder – 1 teaspoon

Heat the above ingredients on a kadai over medium flame till the moisture evaporates and the ingredients bind together.



Ingredients for covering:

Processed rice flour: 1 cup
Water : 1 cup
Salt : 1 teaspoon
Gingelly oil : 1 teaspoon

In a deep vessel boil the water with salt and oil. When the water starts boiling add the rice flour slowly to the boiling water without forming lumps. The dough formed should be pliable.
Cover the vessel with a lid and allow the dough to rest.



After smearing your palms with gingelly oil, take a marble sized dough and mould them into small cups with the help of your fingers.



Fill the cups with the coconut filling and close them at the top by tapering like a cone. Mould the remaining modaks and steam them in an idli plate in cooker for 10 minutes.

Vella puttu

Vella puttu is a sweet delicacy made during ocassions.

Ingredients:

1 cup of processed rice flour
(To prepare the processed rice- Wash raw rice and drain the excess water through colander. Dry the rice under shade . Grind the dry rice and roast the rice flour on low flame till it turns pale red)
¾ cup of jaggery.
Pinch of turmeric
Pinch of cardomam powder

To garnish: Roasted cashew nuts and dessicated coconut

To make jaggery syrup:

Boil the jaggery in a cup of water till you get a stringy consistency. When you drop the syrup in water it should not dissolve.



Method:

Sprinkle lukewarm water mixed with turmeric on the rice flour and mix well till you get scrambled rice flour( don’t bind the flour). Steam this flour in a cooker.



Allow the steamed flour to cool by laying it on a wide plate.

To the steamed flour, add cardomam powder and jaggery syrup and mix them lightly ( it should remain scrambled and should not be bound by the syrup)

You can now garnish it with roasted cashews and dessicated coconut powder.
The vella puttu is now ready.

Vella cheedai

Vella cheedai is the sweeter version of cheedai . Vellam in tamil is jaggery.




Ingredients:
Processed rice flour ----1/2kg( see below how to make processed rice flour)
Jaggery water ----- 375 gms of jaggery dissolved in 1 cup of water
Roasted urad dal flour--- 2 table spoon
Small pieces of coconut ---- 1 ladle (optional)
Butter ---- lemon size
Cardamom powder for flavour

Mix all the above ingredients with butter and jaggery water to make a dry scrambled dough. Make marble sized balls of even size and fry them in cooking medium. Remove from the oil when it turns slightly brown. When cooled, the cheedai’s are crispy.

Processed rice flour:
This is the base flour for making traditional tamil savories like thattai, kai suttu murukku, cheedai and a sweet called adhirasam.
Raw rice is washed well and the excess water is drained through a colander. After a resting time of 30 minutes, the wet rice is spread on a clean cloth like dhoti and dried under shade. After an hour when the rice is still wet, It is ground finely in a mixer. This wet rice flour is then roasted lightly on an wok. It can be stored in air tight containers when dry and can be used as and when required.

Neivedhyam to Sri Krishna

The below items are neivedhyam offered to Lord krishna yesterday on Krishna Jayanthi. Kai suttu murukku, thattai, cheedai,vella cheedai, vella avul,vella appam, payasam, vennai, thayir, pal and assorted fruits. All favorites of Lord Krishna. Done with lot of care and devotion(prepared after having bath and fasting by reciting prayers while preparation) by mother in law and ably assisted by shreya and sharun.




The coming blogs will feature the preparation of the above items. the base flour is processed rice flour.

Thengai poli

Poli is a tamil sweet made like paratha and filled with coconut and jaggery.This is specially made on Tamil new year day. The fillings can vary according to one's choice.

Following is the recipe of Thengai poli

Ingredients:

Gratings of 1 coconut(called thengai in tamil)
Fried grams ----200 gms
Jaggery --------200gms


First grind the coconut gratings in a mixer finely.Now add the powdered jaggery into the mixer and blend them well.
Now in a big wok, Add the ground jaggery and coconut mixture. To this add the finely ground fried grams. Blend them on a very low heat for 5 minutes. For flavor, add some cardamom powder and mix them well.

For making poli

Ingredients:
Maida ---- ¼ kg
Pinch of turmeric and salt.
Mix them with water and bind them to chappati dough consistency. Rest the dough for ½ hour.

Now take a plaintain leaf( clean plastic paper). Grease the leaf, take the dough ( amla size) and pat them flat, now add the required filling according to the patted size, fold the filling and shape like a ball. Now grease the fingers and pat the filled ball to the required size.

Now transfer the patted poli on to a heated tava and roast them till both sides are done.

Top them with ghee and serve hot.

Manga - vepampoo pacchidi (Tamil new year special)

This is a special pacchidi prepared specially on Tamil new year day. This recipe is supposed to contain all the 6 tastes - sweet( jaggery),sour(mango), bitter(neem-flower),salt, pungent(mustard) and astringent( asafoetida/hing).

Partaking this pacchidi on new year symbolises that our life is also filled with all these tastes.


Ingredients:

fresh vepampoo( neem flowers) --- 1 teaspoon
Raw(sweet-sour) mango ------------------------ 1/2 slice
jaggery --------------------------- size of a lemon
mustard ---------1/2 teaspoon
dry red chilli ----- 2 nos
pinch of asafoetida

Method:

Boil the jaggery in 1 cup of water till it dissolves. Filter the water. To this add the chopped raw mango pieces, salt and boil till the mango gets softer.

Now take an iron wok, add 2 teaspoon of oil, when it heats up, add mustard, once the mustard crackles, add dry red chilli pieces

Add the tempering to the mango -jaggery mixture, and sprinkle with hing powder.

neivedhyam to Lord Rama

It is the beginning of summer and according to the tamil calender, the month of panguni and today is punarpusam star, navami thithi (9th day) - Indians celebrate this day as a festival to mark the birth of maryada purshottam - Lord Rama. The food offered to the lord after pooja is called neivedhyam. The Neivedhyam offered is panagam(sweet juice) and neer more( diluted butter milk)

PANAGAM

Ingredients:
Jaggery (Powdered) - 1 Cup.
Water - 3 Cups
lemon juice of 1 lemon
Dried ginger (Powdered) - 1 ½ Tsp.
Cardamom (Crushed) - 2 Nos.
a pinch of edible camphor (optional)

Procedure:

Mix the jaggery in water and dissolve it well. Filter the jaggery water to remove the impurities present in jaggery. Add lemon juice, dried ginger powder, Cardamom and edible camphor. Mix this well. Serve chilled.

This can be served as a welcome drink to quench the thirst and cool the system in the hot summer months.

NEER MORE ( diluted butter milk)

INGREDIENTS:

1 Cup thick butter milk
3 cups water
dry ginger powder - 1 tea spoon
asafoetida ( according to taste)
salt ( according to taste)

for seasoning
2 tea spoon - cooking oil
1 tea spoon - mustard
a sprig of curry leaf.

In a deep pan, churn the butter milk with the help of a wooden churner/hand blender. Keep adding the water and turn the churner on till it dilutes and mixes well. Now add ginger powder, salt and asafoetida and churn again till all mix well.

In a small wok, add some oil, when it heats up - add mustard seeds. After it splutters add the mustard seeds to the butter milk. Top it with crushed curry leaves.

Chill it and serve.

Drink lots of panagam and neer more and beat the heat.

kar adai

Today is karadaiyan nonbu.So today's festival recipe is adai. It has two variations, sweet and salt.

Vella adai(sweet)

Ingredients:
Proceessed rice flour -- 4 cups
karamani(lentil beans)(Lobia in hindi) ---1/2 - 3/4 cups
1/2 cup of coconut pieces(cut into small pieces)
jaggery - 4cups
cardomam---10- 12

To process the rice:
First rinse the rice well and after draining the water, dry it on a cloth in the shade for 2 hours. Let there be some moisture. Grind it finely now in a mixie and sieve well.Lightly fry the sieved flour on a thick bottomed pan sauteing constantly till the dampness goes. The lightly fried flour is the processed rice flour

Method
1. Pressure cook the lentil beans.
2. Add 2 cups of water to the jaggery and heat it on gas. When it melts, filter the syrup.
3. Now take the syrup and heat it and add coconut pieces, karamani, cardamom and slowly add the processed rice flour and keep stirring till it thickens like chapati dough.
4. When it cools, pat them like small adai's and steam them.

For Karaadai or uppu adai( salted and spiced)

Ingredients:
processed rice flour-- 1 cup
mustard: 1 teaspoon
urad dal: 2 teaspoon
finely chopped coconut pieces 2 table spoon
ginger - 1 inch piece
paste of green chilli - 2 teaspoon
asafoetida -- 1/2 teaspoon
a hand ful of karamani
salt to taste
oil -- 1 tablespoon

take oil in a kadai, when it is heated.

Add mustard after it splutters, add urad dal, when it browns add green chilli paste, grated ginger . now add 2 cups of water. To this, add coconut pieces, boiled karamani, asafoetida, salt and curry leaf. When the water is boiling, add the processed rice flour till it becomes like chapati dough.When it cools, pat them like adai's and steam them.