Ammupatti's thoughts

Moved my blog!

2017-10-02T19:26:00.000+05:30

Hello everyone! I have moved my blog to Wordpress. Click here to read my latest posts!

2014-12-10T21:21:00.000+05:30

As were taking a stroll after sunset yesterday, we were mesmerized by this extraordinary sight, a smiling moon. It was as though the heavens wanted to tell the terror battered Indians, “Cheer Up! There is still Hope!”

Come on Indians, We shall overcome!

Recipe: Keera Masiyal

2014-12-10T21:20:00.001+05:30

As promised, I am starting my Kanu spread with the recipe for Keerai Masiyal. Sometime back, Jennifer had asked what the difference was between Keerai molakoottal and Keerai Masiyal. Basically, Keerai molakoottal and Keerai Masiyal both are prepared with pureed Spinach or Amaranth. Whereas Keerai molakoottal is a richer curry with dal and coconut in it, Keerai masiyal is just pureed spinach with minimum spices and garnishing. Also Keerai molakoottal is used as a gravy curry to mix with rice with a side dish like Pachadi or thogayal. Keerai Masiyal is used as a side dish for sambar or morukoottan etc.

At home, we are especially partial to greens and would like to have a green in our menu as often as can be managed. The flip side is the time taken to clean and wash the greens. Now that I have a small patch of kitchen garden in Hyderabad, I manage to have greens more often.

Sometime back we had an arrangement with a hawker to supply one type of greens daily at our doorsteps. It so happened that my beloved parents spent couple of weeks with us at that time and my father enjoyed the daily greens. So when he was leaving, he told my husband,"my special thanks for the daily keerai". The next time my parents were expected, my husband said, "so, I will stop the greens from tomorrow". I asked, "but why?". He said, "your father apparently did not like the daily keerai, that's why he made a dig at me jokingly." I blurted out laughing and said, "Actually he loves Keerai and as it is difficult to get keerai everyday at home in Kerala, he really enjoyed the keerai and he was complimenting you!"

Now for the recipe.

I like to use either amaranth or spinach for keerai masiyal. Thandu keerai is for poriyal only. I like to use coconut oil for garnish as it imparts a special flavour.

Ingredients:

Spinach: 1 bunch
turmeric powder: 1 tsp.
Salt to taste.

For garnish

Coconut oil: 2 tsp.
mustard: 1tsp
urad dal: 1 tsp.
Rice: 1 tsp. (uncooked)
Red chillies: 2 nos.
Curry leaves: few

Method:

Clean and wash the spinach to remove all the dirt and soil. Boil in minimum water with salt and turmeric powder for 5-10 mnts. Cool and blend in a blender.

Heat a pan and add the coconut oil. When the oil is hot add, the mustard, urad dal, rice, broken red chillies and curry leaves, in that order. When the urad dal and rice turn pinkish red in color add the blended spinach and saute for 5 mnts. Your tasty keerai masiyal is ready. Quite quick, isn't it?

Neyvedyams for Kartikai

2014-12-10T21:20:00.000+05:30

Neyvedayams for Karthikai

As I have mentioned the neyvedyam for Karthikai are Pori , Neyyappam and Adai. Pori is puffed rice and there are 2 kinds of Pori, nelpori (made by frying paddy seeds) and avil pori(made by frying flattened rice or avil). The preparation of both these poris for neyvedyam is same. Here, is the recipe.

I am mentioning the ratio of ingredients for 5 measures since that is the easiest way to measure out the required quantity of jaggery. You can use any container to measure the pori.

Sweet Pori

Ingredients:

Pori : 5 measures
Jaggery: 1 measure
coconut pieces : 2 tbsps.
Cardomom powder : 1 tsp.

The pori need to be cleaned first. It will have husks sticking to it and also some stones at times.Measure the pori and accordingly measure the required quantity of jaggery. Melt the jaggery in just enough water to cover the jaggery. Strain to remove sand and other impurities. Boil the jaggery syrup to get a thick consistency. This is very important as otherwise the pori would sink in the syrup and become soggy. When the jaggery syrup is of right consistency the pori would get coated with the syrup and will remain crisp.

Here is how to get the right consistency. As you are boiling the jaggery syrup, keep a bowl of water near your working surface. As the jaggery thickens drop a few drops into the water. Remove the jaggery drops from the water with your fingers. Initially it will form a soft ball. This is known as jelly consistency or more commonly as tomato consistency(as it would be soft as tomato). This is the consistency for Neyyappam.

Boil the syrup some more and drop a few drops into the water. Collect the dropped jaggery with finger tips. It would form into a hard ball. If you throw the ball on a hard surface it should make a "thud". This is the right consistency for Pori and is known as "Kallu pakam" or stone consistency. Now you need to be very quick. Remove the syrup from the stove.

Add the coconut pieces and cardomom powder and the pori and mix continuously so that the pori gets coated with the jaggery evenly. Allow to cool a little and make small balls of pori.

Avil Pori is prepared the same way. Avil pori will have fine sand particles so it need to passed through a sieve to remove the sand.Follow the same method as for nelpori.

Neyyappam

Neyyappams literally mean ghee cakes.

Neyyappam is a unique sweet of Kerala and is made in a special utensil known as "Appakaral" with depressions in them. In the olden days appakarals were made of bronze. Now a days appakarals made of iron and other metals and also non-stick karals are available. The traditional appakarals had 3 depressions and now a days karals with 7 and 9 depressions are available

photos of different appakarals

Neyyappam thinnal rendundu karyam is a famous malayalam saying which literally means you gain twin benefits when you eat neyyappam. What are they? "Appavum thinnam, meniyum minukkam" which means you can enjoy the appam and also shine your body. This is because as neyyappams are fried in ghee the appam would be dripping with ghee and after one eats neyyappam there is so much grease in ones hands that one can apply it on ones body.

Now for the recipe. Though different people make the dough for neyyappams differently, below is the recipe followed by our family and it gives the softest neyyappams.

Ingredients:

Raw rice: 1 cup
jaggery: 1cup
coconut pieces: 1 tbsp.
cardomom powder: 1tsp.
Ghee for frying the neyyappams
gingelly oil 3 tsp.

Soak the rice for 2 - 3 hours and strain through a colander to remove all the water. Grind to a fine powder in a mixer. Sieve to remove any larger particles. Grind once again until all the rice is ground to a fine powder.

Make a syrup of jaggery to jelly consistency. Switch off the stove. Add cardomom powder and coconut pieces and add the ground rice flour while mixing the dough continuously. Keep the dough covered for a day. (This dough will keep good for upto a week).

The next day mix the dough well adding little water to get a pouring consistncy( as thick as idly dough). Heat the appakaral and add tsp of gingelly oil( ghee tends to stick to the bottom of the karal ) and top with ghee. When the ghee is very hot ladle out spoonfuls of dough into each depression. When the neyyappams are cooked on oneside(appams would start turning on its own) turn them with skewer. When they are done(the skewer should come clean when inserted) remove them using the skewer. Repeat.

Offer neyvedyams to Lord Shiva and enjoy the prasadams with family and friends

TIME FLIES

2013-06-16T07:18:00.000+05:30

The kids shown in the last post as they are today, actually last month. Event : the boy cousin's daughter's wedding.

The much awaited title:)

2013-04-23T08:23:00.000+05:30

VISHU SADHYA was my 300th post.

When I posted that, I did not realize that I had completed 300 posts. This 300th mark should have come quite some time ago, but for my health condition which prevented me from using my hands for a long time. What started as a mild pain at the base of my thumb in my left hand soon became very acute and I thought I may have strained my hands while doing a particularly difficult knitting pattern. We were planning a visit to our elder son at Jallandhar so I postponed any doctor's visit till then. As soon as we arrived in Jallandhar and I explained my problem to my son, he arranged for an MRI scan and diagnosed the condition as Tenosynovitis.

I was asked to restrict the use of my hands and hence my long absence from the blog. Though I started to write in between, I had to discontinue due to the pain. I am much better now and my son says I can use my hands for short periods. There are a few posts which I started last year, which I thought I must complete. Since I am continuing from where I left off, I had difficulty in bringing back my thought process of that time. The following post is from February 2012.

Back in Jalandhar and am still settling down and getting acclimatised. It is still quite chill here and temperatures are quite low even during the day. Added to that is the advice of my son to restrict the use of my hands by wearing splints. Easier said than done. What all activities can I restrict? Even though hubby dear takes care of all the kitchen work, still there are so many activities in my day to day life, where I have to necessarily use my hands. Anyway, I am trying to restrict as much as possible.

Good opportunity to reflect on all the years gone by, actually they zoom past me fast. Well why this sudden looking back? Not without reason. For it is only recently that I became a certified senior citizen, which gives me a lot of privileges officially and otherwise.

For the starters I became a real patti in the last year and all these years in our house patti denoted my children's patti and now when my son tells his son, "look at patti", I am naturally turning back to see where the patti is and only later do I realise that he is referring to me. There are other privileges or the long awaited privileges as per hubby dear. In the last few years he had been telling our children very often, "another couple of years and amma can travel at 50% concession in the Indian Railways". And as I was nearing the magic date, here comes our hon. rly minister with an announcement that women are eligible for senior citizen concession from age 58. All the years of eagerness put to rest.

The year is very special in our family because, it is not only me, but 3 of my cousins are also attaining the magical age. I am trying to visualise 4 children all under the age of 1 year in our ancestral home 60 years ago, yours truly being the senior most among them. It must have been a lovely year back home with the bawling of 4 children and the young mothers tending them and comparing their activities. Mind you, 3 of us grew up in the same house till the age of 10 and two of us till age 15, until I went to college. When I say this to the youngsters today, they just cannot believe that 4 sets of parents with children could live in the same house for so long. Well that is history now. Today, the youngest of my cousins has come to live in the same city as I live and we meet quite often reminiscing.

What is special about attaining the age of 60? It is special because the Hindu Calendar consists of a cycle of 60 calendar years, each having a different name starting with Prabhava. When person attains the age of 60, it means he or she has completed one full cycle of the 60 years. In the days gone by, with limited availability of healthcare and nutrition, very few people completed one full cycle of 60 years. Hence there was a big celebration, which was actually a big thanksgiving for having been blessed with long life. The celebration with vedic rituals is known as "Shashtiabdapoorthi Shanthi", during which again, the person asks for forgiveness for any sin committed knowingly or unknowingly during this long journey of life. He actually retires from active life and spends time in spiritual activities. This was also the time to hand over the responsibilities of running the household to the next heir. Symbolically, the children celebrated the shashtiabdapoorthy of the parents, thus commencing on their taking over.

However with better healthcare and other facilities, these days the average life expectancy has increased, and many people live to much older age and their responsibilities never end. In fact on attaining the age of 60 and taking retirement from one's services, today's senior citizens have to be more active taking care of the grandchildren and the households. The children are just waiting for their parents to retire from their professional fields so that they can have them to come over and share their responsibilities of taking care of their children and running the household.

VISHU SADHYA 2013

2013-04-15T12:44:00.000+05:30

Our Vishu Sadhya this year was simple but very enjoyable, especially because we are with our elder son and more so because, being Sunday, we could have our lunch at the right time.

We had mambazha pulissery, chakka curry, mixed vegetable thoran,badam payasam,pappadam and karuvadam.

We also had elai adai in the evening.

Happy Vishu once again!

Happy Vishu

2013-04-14T07:54:00.003+05:30

HAPPY VISHU!

Wishing every one a Happy, Healthy,Peaceful and Prosperous VIJAYA SAMVATSARAM

Recipe : Ribbon Pakoda

2012-11-12T12:48:00.000+05:30

Ribbon Pakoda has been an all time favorite and a must for Diwali in most Tamil households for a long time. It is called ribbon Pakoda as the snack looks like a ribbon.

There are different recipes for this and they all come out equally tasty. My dear sister has this mouth watering combination of ingredients:

Raw rice : 5 cups
Fried dal : 1 cup

Wash and dry the rice. Dry roast the dal until a nice aroma arises. Get the rice and dal milled together. This is the basic flour.

The other combinations are:

1) Besan    : 2 cups
     Rice flour : 2 cups

2) Besan        : 1 cup
      Rice flour : 2 cups

3) Besan              : 1.5 cups
     Fried dal flour : 0.5 cup
     Rice flour        : 2 cups

I have tried all the above combinations with good results.

On to the recipe:

Flour as per any one of the combinations above
Red chilli powder    : 1 or 2 tsp as per taste
Hing         : 1 tsp
Salt                           : to taste
Butter                       : 2 tbsp
Black sesame seeds : 2 tsp
Oil      : for frying

Method:

Beat the butter and salt together until fluffy. Soak the hing powder in a little water. Mix the flour and red chilli powder in a wide mouthed pan or plate. Add the butter-salt mixture, soaked hing, and sesame seeds. Add water as required and knead to a soft and stiff dough.

Heat the oil. When the oil starts smoking, press the dough into it using the 2 slits plate. Remove from oil when done.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Boondi Laddu

2012-11-10T22:21:00.000+05:30

Happy Diwali to all!

I am writing a full post after a very long time; I just couldn't keep away from publishing a new post during Diwali season. Though I am still not able to prepare any fancy sweets this Diwali, I am posting the recipes of the goodies I prepared in the previous years and have not posted.

Boondi Laddu is a melt-in-the-mouth delicacy, prepared all over India in different ways (Unity in Diversity), the main difference being the size of the boondi or globules. The very first time I sent these laddus to my younger son in the US, he said it was a big hit with his American colleagues. They came again and again for these "sugary globules pressed into a ball" and went ga ga over it.

In the northern part of the country it is popularly known as motichoor laddu as the boondis they prepare are the size of small pearls, hence the name motichoor, moti meaning pearl in hindi.

In the South the boondis are slightly bigger. Laddus are a must in South Indian weddings and all other major functions like Upanayanam, Choulam, and the first birthday of the baby.

Laddus would not be prepared at home until a few years back; we had them only during marriages or upanayanams when we had cooks to come and prepare them. I started preparing them only when we were on our own and did not get the homemade laddus. I remember the first time we prepared these at home was in 1977. My brother was visiting us and I wanted to surprise my parents by sending homemade laddus to them. I do not know their reaction as we did not have instant communication those days like we have today.

Preparing the boondis is the most difficult part of making laddus. Once this has been mastered, the rest is not very difficult. I wish I could post a video of boondi making, later perhaps. One has to use a special ladle, a boondi jarni (a flat spoon with holes), which has an upturned rim so that the batter will not spill from the outer rim.

To the recipe now,

Ingredients:

Bengal gram flour       : 1 cup
(Besan/Kadalamavu/
Kadalehittu)
Sugar                           : 3 cups
Oil                               : for deep frying
Food color (orange)     : a few drops

To garnish

Ghee                            : 4 tbsp
Cloves                          : a few
Pachakarpooram         : one pinch
Saffron (optional)         : a few strands
Cardamom powder     : 2 tsps
Raisins                          : 2 tbsp
Cashew nuts (broken) : 2tbsp
Nutmeg powder           : 1/2 tsp
Diamond shaped sugar candy: 2 tbsp
(kalkandu)

Method:

Boil the sugar with 2 cups of water. Remove the impurities by adding a little milk. Make a one string consistency sugar syrup and remove from stove. Add the saffron soaked in a little milk and a few drops of orange food color. Add the cardamom powder, nutmeg powder, pachakarpooram, kalkandu and crushed cloves.

Make a batter of pouring consistency by adding water to the besan.Whisk well so that there are no lumps. Heat oil in a wide mouthed pan (Some people use ghee to fry the boondis, but I prefer oil as the ghee solidifies to a sticky texture when it cools). When the oil is heated, hold the ladle (jarni) above the heated oil and pour one big spoonful of batter into the ladle. The batter will drop into the oil as little globules. Fry till they are cooked. They should not become crisp or they will not absorb the sugar. Remove and put in the sugar syrup. Repeat till all the batter is used up.

Heat the ghee in a small pan and fry the raisins and broken cashew nuts to a golden color. Pour over the boondis soaking in sugar syrup. Mix well. Make into balls of desired size.

Enjoy your Diwali with laddus!

THIRUVONAM

2012-08-29T19:51:00.000+05:30

Hope everyone had a sumptuous Onam.

We celebrated Onam by making a traditional pookalam (with hand collected flowers) and of course, the traditional Onasadhya (Onam feast). We had sambar, aviyal, olan, puliinji, naranga achar, pappadam, pazham, salted chips and sweet chips and Palada Pradhaman (recipe later). Onam was all the more enjoyable because our elder son is with us to celebrate Onam and also because I could send some Onam goodies over to our younger son and family through a friend.
I am still unable to type long posts, so I will end this here. More later.

Happy Onam

2012-08-28T19:25:00.001+05:30

Manjal Chatham

2012-01-23T22:19:00.000+05:30

We had a quiet Pongal this time, with only the two of us at home. Yet, we like to celebrate all the festivals in the traditional manner. We may not have an elaborate spread of goodies, which is what Indian festivals are all about, but we still observe the festivals. We offered sarkkarai pongal, vella neyvedyam and Manjal Chatham to Lord Suryanarayana and prayed for peace and prosperity for all.

Our usual practice is to prepare venpongal and sarkkarai Pongal on the morning of Pongal and have these for breakfast. This year, we had a little deviation from that practice and decided to have brunch.

When we were growing up, there was no practice of breakfast in most of the houses in our village. The children had their brunch at around 9a.m., before going to school and the elders would eat around 10.30 or 11 am. Actually our house was an exception as we had idlies every morning. Our grandfather used to have idlies for breakfast before he went to visit our farm about 4 kms away. We children also had a mini breakfast along with him and our brunch before going to school.

Coming back to pongal celebrations, for Pongal brunch at Puthucode we had Manjal Chatham, Avarakkai sambar and pumpkin poduthuval, with karuvadam, vadam and payasam. As I had said earlier we did not prepare sarkkarai pongal or venpongal in those days. We used to relish the Manjal chatham also known as Pongal chatham. I particularly remember the color sequence of that brunch. For Makara Sankranthi, we children usually adorned our hands and feet with mehendi. The mehendi colored hands in bright yellow Manjal Chatham in which hot home made ghee and brown sambar was poured, produced a beautiful color combination, which I can recollect even today. I have not been preparing Manjal Chatham for very long now so I decided to prepare it this year. It is a very simple colored rice with nothing to spice it up yet we used to relish it as our taste buds were still very sensitive and not spoilt by harsh spices.

Over to the recipe

Ingredients

Cooking rice 1 cup
Toor dal 1 tbsp.
Turmeric powder 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Method

Wash and cook the rice with Toor dal, turmeric powder and enough salt. Your Pongal Chatham is ready.

This Pongal chatham is prepared during karkitaka Sankranthi and also during the bridal shower. In our community, the bridal shower is given by the paternal aunt (Athai) or maternal uncle's wife (mami). A couple of days before the wedding the bride is invited to either of the aunts' house with friends and other girls in the family and given a lunch in which Manjal Chatham is served. Mehendi is done to the bride and others after this function. Similar function is held in the groom's aunt's place for the groom.

On Cloud nine (pun definitely intended)

2012-01-18T21:48:00.000+05:30

One of the problems I faced towards the end of 2011 was my inability to use my computer to my full satisfaction; my Mac Mini crashed. Our elder son, who is a doctor (but knows a lot about computers technically) reported to his younger brother (the software engineer) who is in the USA. In typical NRI style he said, "the computer is very old, throw it and buy a new one". Doctor that he is, whose mission it is to revive everyone or thing, whatever condition they or it may be in, going to any extent, our elder son tried his best to revive the computer in the two days that he had before he went back. He was not able to install all the software, yet he managed to make it functional enough for my basic needs. My younger one gave me an ipad recently, which I use for mail, chatting and browsing the net. Yet I feel comfortable writing my blog on my desktop computer. However, in its revived avatar, it wouldn't perform many of the functions the way it used to; it felt different. We could not install iPhoto, which meant I could not download photos from my camera and upload to my photo album online. Each time I encountered a problem with the computer, our elder son would give me directions as to what to do over long distance phone and I would execute it; but the one thing which never happened was uploading photos from my desktop to the site. I did everything that our son said, but the computer would not obey my command. The never say die attitude in me made me sit at the computer every day, and finally, I was able to upload photo from my computer this morning.

Yay!

Pongalo pongal/Recipe Nutriladdu

2012-01-14T16:06:00.000+05:30

New year has dawned and we have already celebrated new years' day and thiruvathira.

Tomorrow is Makara Sankranthi/ Pongal. The weather in the southern India is slowly warming up leaving the cold winter nights behind, though northern India is still reeling under the cold. It would continue to be cold there till holi which is when they celebrate burning their old things akin to what is done in the south during bhogi. We had a fairly cold winter this year in Bangalore, accompanied by rains at times thanks to Thane and other short fused cyclones in the bay. People in parts of Tamilnadu and Pondicherry were the worst affected because of Thane and when seeing the clips of Thane ravaged beach road of Pondicherry I was reminded of our trip to Pondicherry last January . The beach road in Pondicherry is a lovely walking plaza and I enjoyed walking there on all days of our stay there.

Though winter is fast fading out, the mornings will continue to remain foggy and misty. A rich diet of proteins and carbohydrates is recommended to ward off the colds and coughs caused by the weather. That's is the reason why SarkkaraiPongal and Venpongal with lots of dal and rice and ghee is prepared and distributed during Pongal. In Karnataka a mixture of dried coconut, groundnuts, sesame seeds and jaggery is distributed to friends and neighbours during Makarasankranthi. "Ellu Bella thinni Olle mathannu adi" ( eat sweetened sesame seeds and speak sweet words).

I am giving a recipe for a nutritious laddu( poushtik laddu) which is rich in proteins and carbo and is very good for kids and grown ups alike. This laddu can be prepared with any assorted nuts and is quite easy to prepare. Here I have prepared with the more common sesame seeds and ground nuts.One can use either white or black sesame seeds. I prefer to use black sesame seeds.

Ingredients:

Sesame seeds : 1 cup
Groundnuts :1 cup
Fried dal (pottukadalai) :1/2 cup
Jaggery : 21/2 cups
Ghee: 2 tbsp
Cardomom powder / dry ginger powder(chukku) 1 tsp.

Mehod:

Wash and clean the sesame seeds. Drain and spread on a clean towel to dry. Heat a pan and dry roast the sesame seeds, until the seeds start spluttering. Remove. Roast the ground nuts and fried dal separately.Remove and cool. Grind the ground nuts and roasted dal coarsely. Make a 2 string(kallupaku) syrup of jaggery. Add the ground nuts, fried dal and roasted sesame seeds and the ghee. Add the cardomom or chukku powder. Mix well.Remove from heat. Allow to cool a little. Make small balls of the mixture, when it is still warm. While making the balls, smear little ghee in your palms so that the mixture will not stick to your hands.

The hot mixture from the stove can also be poured into a greased plate and cut to shape when a little cool, to get chikkies.

nJOY!

WISHING EVERONE A HAPPY PONGAL AND JOYOUS DAYS AHEAD!

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T03:07:00.000+05:30

Wishing my dear readers a very happy new year and many great and prosperous things to come in this new year.

Karthikai deepam - Recipe Adai

2011-12-20T10:13:00.002+05:30

Hope every one had a wonderful Karthikai festival. We celebrated Karthikai with Pori, Neyyappam and Adai. I had planned to light lots of lamps and had put the wicks and oil in many small earthenware lamps as is the custom. But we have been observing that during this month there is a steady wind blowing as the sun goes down making it difficult to keep the lamps burning. By the time we finish lighting the lamps in a row all the flames get blown off by a gust of wind and we again start lighting them all over again. It was very difficult to keep them all burning continuously for five minutes. It is all the more difficult because our house is east facing and the direction of the wind is not favorable to us. We need more than two people to keep all the lamps burning for a longer time. Any way I managed to keep them on for some time running from this end to that end.

Coming to think of it I have not posted the recipe for Adai so far although it is an item prepared very often at home. There are different kinds of Adais we prepare, but Karthikai Adai is special and is known as Aanai Adai. Here is the recipe for this tasty Adai.

Ingredients:

Boiled rice- 1 cup
Toor dal- 2 tbsp.
Chana dal- 2 tbsps
Whole black gram- 2 tbsp.*
Black eyed peas (Vella payer / karamani)- 2 tbsp.
Horse gram- 2 tbsp
Hing- a small piece
Jeera- 2 tsp
Whole black pepper- 2 tsp
Green chillies- 2 nos
Curry leaves- a few sprigs
Grated coconut- 2 tbs
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Method

Wash and soak the rice and pulses together for 3 to 4 hours. Add hing, jeera and black pepper while soaking. Grind the soaked ingredients with curry leaves, green chillies, coconut and salt to a coarse consistency. Heat a tava and pour one big ladle of the batter and spread to a nice circle. Sprinkle one tsp of oil all around. Allow to cook for 2 minutes. Gently flip over and cook the other side also sprinkling another tsp of oil.

This Adai is offered as neyvedyam with a dollop of butter on top.

After neyvedyam the prasadams can be served with butter or ghee or Jaggery or chutney or the all time favorite of aviyal. At the home, though we always had Adai with home made butter or ghee and honey

*One can use urad dal in place of whole black gram.

Karthikai

2011-12-08T16:46:00.005+05:30

Tomorrow is Karthikai Deepam festival or rather we have decided to celebrate the festival tomorrow. I say this because most Hindu festivals are not celebrated on a fixed date either by the Hindu calendar or the English calendar. They are observed on a particular star or a thithi according to lunar calendar. Some festivals like Karthikai and Thiruvathirai are celebrated on the day that a particular star coincides with a full moon. Usually in the month of Karthikai (the Tamil month) or Vrischikam (Nov - Dec) in Malayalam, the star Karthikai falls on a full moon day. That is when the Karthikai Deepam festival is celebrated. More often there is a variation in this pattern like the full moon day falls on a day after the star Karthikai and then there are deliberations as to when to observe the festival, on the Karthikai star or on full moon day. And most people settle for a day according to what their priest says. Similarly this year, the Karthikai star rises at 3 pm on 8th December and Poornima starts in the evening of 9th December. So there are deliberations as to when to celebrate the festival. The famous Annamalai Deepam in the temple town of Thiruvannamalai dedicated to Lord Shiva is being celebrated this year on 8th December. But my mother tells me the priest in our village has said Karthikai is to be celebrated on 9th December. Some people are celebraing the fesival on the 10th as well.

As such there is always a difference in the days on which Iyers and Iyengars celebrate the various festivals. One sect gives importance to the star and the other sect gives importance to the thithi. All said and done festivals are celebrated to pray for peace and happiness all around; so a festival celebrated on any day is for the well being of mankind and it doesn't matter when one celebrates as long as the spirit of harmony and well being is maintained.

In our house, Karthikai has special importance and is always celebrated in a grand style. Our elder son always makes it a point to come home during Karthikai festival. He likes to light lots of lamps around the house. Karthikai is also important because my youngest brother was born on Karthikai day and his birthday is celebrated on Karthikai day. My husband was born the day after Karthikai, though his birth star is Mrigaseersham, which again goes to say that particular year, Karthikai was celebrated on Rohini star. We, including our sons, can visualise the day so clearly though none of us were born then, as it has been told to us on each Karthikai day by my mother-in-law. Happy birthday hubby dear and happy birthday my dear brother!

Make neyvedyams of Pori, Appam and Adai and light lots of lamps to remove the darkness and bring in light of prosperity and love all around.

Happy Karthikai

Holiday

2011-11-29T12:05:00.000+05:30

I am still not able to get over my hangover from the month long holiday and Diwali celebrations that we had. Yes, we had a great Diwali this year with both our handsome and charming sons, daughter in law and our ever so adorable and perfect grandson with us. We had lots and lots of fun and loads and loads of good food.
We had paruppu pradhaman, kozhukkattai, elai adai, sevai, puran poli, vadai, neyyapam, morappam, malabar paratha, stuffed parathas of various types, varieties of pulav, pathrode, cakes, semiya payasam, pal adai pradhaman, jangiri (jahangir), badusha, boondi laddu, mullumurukku, omapodi, ribbon pakoda, mixture, and samosas, to name a few.

Our sons, daughter in law and grandson arrived in Bangalore by navarathri end. We had a grand saraswathi pooja and vijayadasami followed by happy times in the company of our little bundle of joy. We had a great time like never before. In between we managed a trip to Puthucode and Guruvayoor.

Diwali was grand with boondi laddu, badusha, ribbon pakora and mixture. We bought crackers for diwali, something we had not done for 25 years. Our grand son thoroughly enjoyed the sparklers and flower pots and the chakras. He even enjoyed the exploding crackers that the neighbors set off.

We also celebrated the little one's first birthday, actually twice. First, according to Hindu calendar on his star birthday with Ayushya homam. We also did the jathakaranam, namakaranam and annaprasanam and we also had the varadhanam.

We had a cake cutting celebration followed by a lunch with our friends and extended family on his date of birth. The little one thoroughly enjoyed all the attention he received. We also enjoyed every moment we spent with him. He is such a wonderful kid, always cheerful and full of energy.
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Our son, daughter-in-law and grandson have since returned to US and our elder son is spending the last few days of his leave with us. I am reminded of the times we used to leave our parental home enmasse after family get-togethers for various functions. Distinct is the memory of the day all us, including the newly married couple, left Puthucode after our youngest brother's marriage leaving only our parents behind at Puthucode. The party also included some family friends who had come to attend the wedding from Bangalore. One of them said, "Next time onwards please book your return tickets on different days so that your parents will not be left alone all of a sudden". I am also reminded of the proverb my dear mother in law used to repeat at various occasions,"alandalanda nazhi ozhinjozhinju varum" which when translated means, history repeats itself. One understands the implications of the various actions we undertake because of our various commitments only when one is at the receiving end. When one is busy with the family, one has no time to think of the effects of our routine actions.

Happy Diwali

2011-10-25T17:26:00.000+05:30

Wishing my readers a very happy and joyous Diwali. I hope you are all making nice and tasty snacks and sweets and enjoying them with your families.

Navarathri Neyvedyam / Recipe:- Puttu

2011-10-01T19:22:00.000+05:30

Puttu is the favoured neyvedyam on a Navarathri friday. I had been making "Aval Puttu" for Navarathri all these past years. Sometime back, one of the readers had asked me the recipe for Therandukuli puttu. Thats when I decided to prepare rice puttu. On an experimental basis I prepared this puttu earlier with fantastic results.

This puttu prepared using roasted rice flour, jaggery, cardomom and coconut was traditionally made when girls attained puberty. There used to be celebrations on a grand scale and puttu was prepared using large quantities of rice. Rice flour was roasted in big urulis. During the days when girls were married before attaining puberty, tradition demanded that huge quantities of puttu be sent to the in-laws house.

Since I have very little time , I shall stop my story telling and proceed with the recipe.

Ingredients:

Raw Rice: 1 cup
Jaggery: 3/4 cup
Grated Coconut: 2 tbsps.
Cardomom powder: 1tsp.
Ghee: 1 tbsp.
Cashew nuts: 1 tbsp.
raisins: 1 tbsp.
Salt a pinch
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp.
Warm water : 1/2 cup

Method:
Wash and soak the rice for 2 hours. Drain and grind to make a fine powder. Roast the rice flour to a light pink color. Allow to cool a little. Add a pinch of salt and turmeric powder to the rice flour. Mix well. Sprinkle warm water little by little to the rice flour mixture and mix gently, until it attains a bread crumbs consistency. Try to make a ball using the rice flour, with the fist. It should form a ball in the fist and crumble when the fist is open. That is the right consistency. Do not add more water. Transfer the rice flour to a clean, cloth and make a bundle.

Keep the cloth bundle on a steamer and steam for 20 minutes. Remove and spread on a clean plate. There should not be any lumps after steaming. If there are any lumps, run the rice flour in the mixer for a few seconds.

Meanwhile, prepare a hard syrup with jaggery(kallu pakam). Add the grated coconut and cardomom powder . Remove from heat and add the steamed rice flour little by little,stirring constantly. Add 1/2 tbsp. ghee and stir again. Stir until all the rice flour gets coated with jaggery and the puttu turns out like sand grains. It should not turn to a sticky mass(this means the syrup is not the right consistency).

Heat the remaining ghee and fry the raisins and cashew nuts to a golden brown color and pour over the puttu.

Offer to Devi and distribute to all guests. You will win accolades.

Happy Navarathri!

Navarathri

2011-09-29T22:04:00.000+05:30

Happy Navarathri to All.

Before I could finish with my Onam posts, Navarathri is here. We had been so busy over the last week or so preparing the house for the visit of our children in a couple of days, we hardly found the time to get ready for Navarathri. Somehow I managed to set up the kolu this evening; it is only half done, I hope to add some more sparkle to it.

I have already suggested Navarathri neyvedyams for all the 9 days. I shall add some more as I prepare some different neyvedyams this year. To start with, I prepared "Rava Ladoo"today, for the surprise guests who always turn up.

Happy Navarathri once again!

Ona Sadhya / Recipe : Inji Thayir

2011-09-20T19:05:00.001+05:30

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The days following Onam were very busy. There were many social commitments to be met with, finish the routine jobs that were kept at abeyance because of Onam and generally putting things in order for Navarathri is fast approaching.

We had a fabulous Ona Sadhya indeed. We had invited our elderly cousin who lives alone and my friend was a surprise guest. Above all, what made Onam very happy for us was that our charming and handsome sons celebrated Onam in their respective places. Special mention has to be made about the microwave 'palpayasam' our elder son prepared.

We had, Sambar,aviyal,puli inji, thoran, inji thayir, palpayasam,pappadam and sweet and salty chips.

img 0008(blog related)

Inji Thayir as the name suggests is a ginger based chutney. In Kerala, Inji Thayir is served with all grand feasts, as the ginger helps in digestion. Inji Thayir is supposed to be equal to 1000 curries because of this property of ginger. There is an interesting story of the great "Vararuchi", considered to be one of the nine jewels in King Vikrmaditya's cabinet, in connection with Inji Thayir.

Over to the recipe.

Ingredients:

Happy Onam

2011-09-09T22:06:00.002+05:30

Happy Onam

2011-09-09T22:03:00.001+05:30