South Indian Menu Planner ~ 2 (Tamil New Year special)

Payasam :	Paruppu Payasam
Pachadi / Salad:	Mango Pachadi
Curry / Poriyal :	Vendaikkai Fry
Vadai :	Aama Vadai / Paruppu Vadai
Rice :	Rice + dhal
Sambhar/Rasam :	Arachuvitta sambhar
Pickle :	Avakkai
Chips , Pappadam	Pappadam(store bought)

Chakkarai Paal Pongal

Ingredients needed : 

• Raw rice - 1 cup
• Moong dhal - handful
• Milk - 2 cups
• Jaggery - 1 cup
• Grated Coconut - 1 cup
• Ghee
• Cashews 
• Raisins
• Elachi powder

Method : 

Pressure cook rice and moong dhal together by adding 2 cups of water + 2 cups of milk , cook it for 4 or 5 whistle and once the pressure is released mash the rice well and set aside.. 

Heat a pan add jaggery + little water and allow it to dissolve well strain the water to remove impurities if any .. in the same pan add ghee + cashew + raisins + add the jaggery water + elachi powder + grated coconut and mix it well to this add mashed cooked rice + dhal and mix it well and cook it for few more minutes to this add more ghee and switch off the flame .

Note : Use Paagu vellam / brown colour jaggery , You get nice colour ..I have used yellow colour jaggery so couldn't get proper colour.

Made it as prasadam for Thai Poosam festival along with Panchamirtham

Pongal Festival Recipes

Day 1 Bhogi Festival : 

         The first day, Bhogi is celebrated in honour of Lord Indira. On this day all the houses are cleaned and decorated with kolams and they throw away all the old things in the house into a fire made of wood. In tamil it is said as " Palayana kazhithal puthuyana puguthal".


The recipes made on bhogi day are as follows , generally on festival days we don't use Onions and garlic and Rasam is not made on all the 3 days of pongal. 


I made Morkuzhambu and Potato Curry. 

These three are must on Bhogi festival. : 

• Aama Vadai 
• PasiParuppu Payasam  or  Paruppu Payasam
• Purnam Poli    or   Thengai Poli

Day 2 : Pongal Pandigai :

The second Day, Surya Pongal is dedicated to the Sun God.It is the day actually the celebration begins and it is also the first day of the Tamil month "Thai Maasam".

On this day these items are done:

• Chakkarai Pongal
• Ven pongal
• Ulundu Vadai / Medhu Vadai

Day 3 : Kanu Pandigai / Mattu Pongal : 

The third day of Pongal is dedicated to cattle and is called as Mattu Pongal.

On this day Women offer prayers for the wellbeing of their brothers.The woman perform the ritual before bathing in the morning, they assemble in the courtyard and in the turmeric plant leaf they place the riceballs of Red, Yellow, white, (Rice is mixed with kumkum, manjal, curd respectively and made into small balls.) Sweet pongal, sugarcane and pray for the house and family of their brothers should Prosper.

While praying the God, They tell these lines. :

காக்காய்ப்பிடி வைத்தேன்; கனுப்பிடி வைத்தேன்;காக்காயகளுக்கெல்லாம் கல்யாணம், .காக்காய்களின் கூட்டம் போல எங்கள் குடும்பமும் எல்லோரும் ஒர்றுமையாக வாழ வேண்டும்.

On this day we make Mixed rice / Kalanda sadam :

• Paal Payasam
• Lemon Rice
• Coconut Rice
• Puliyodarai
• Curd rice
• Aviyal
• Ulundu Vadai / Medhu Vadai 

7 kari kuzhambu / Mixed Vegetable Sambhar

This kuzhambu/Sambhar is made with combination of 5 or 7 winter vegetables along with Thiruvadirai kali on Thiruvadirai / Arudra darisanam . These are the vegetables used you can chose any vegetables as per your wish .

            Sweet potato, Plantain, Yam, Red Pumpkin, Broad beans/Avarakkai, Taro/Sepakizhangu, Mochai/Field beans . 

Ingredients needed : 

• Mixed Vegetables
• Cooked Toor dhal - 1 cup
• Tamarind juice 
• Salt 
• Oil
• Corainder leaves - to garnish
• Sambhar powder - Check the recp. below

To tempering : 

• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp.
• Urid dhal - 1/2 tsp.
• Methi seeds - 1/4 tsp.
• Curry leaves - 1 string
• Hing powder - 1/2 tsp.

To grind : 

• Dried red chili - 3 or 4 
• Dhaniya 
• Kadala paruppu 
• Whole Urad dhal
• Toor dhal 
• Turmeric powder
• Grated coconut

Dry fry all these ingredients under "To grind " and grind it by adding little water into a paste. 

Method:

           Clean and chop all the require vegetables and keep it ready . Soak Tamarind in water and extract juice and set aside . Pressure cook toor dhal . 

heat a kadai add oil + mustard seeds + urid dhal + methi seeds + curry leaves add vegetables + hing powder + salt and cook it for few minutes and then add the tamarind juice and allow it to boil well once done add the grinded paste and cook for few more minutes finally add the cooked dhal and cook till done . Switch off the flame and finally add coriander leaves . 

Goes well with kali . Check the recipe here

Thiruvadirai kali + Kuzhambu :

http://kaviskitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/350th-post-thiruvadirai-kali-gayathris.html

Rama Navami recipes

The festival of Ram Navami is the celebration of birthday of the Hindu God, Shri Ram. Rama Navami is celebrated on the ninth day of Hindu month of Chaitra (March - April). This year it is celebrated on 28.03.2015.

In temples they continuosly recite Ramacharitamanas and sing bhajans . In southern part of India , they do celebrate Ramanavami as the Sitarama Kalyanam , the ceremonial wedding of the celestial couples.

The special prasadham made on this day are :

Panakkam , Neer mor (Buttermilk ) , Kosambari and Coconut - Jaggery mixture.

Coconut and Jaggery Mixture :

Grate fresh coconut and powder jaggery finely. In a bowl add the grated coconut and powdered jaggery  + elachi powder and mix it well. 


Panakkam , Neer mor (Buttermilk ) :

http://kaviskitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/panakkam-buttermilk-gayathris-recipe.html

Kosambari :

http://kaviskitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/kosambari-gayathris-recipe.html

To know more about this festival check my blog :

http://hindutradition.blogspot.com/2010/03/rama-navami-240310.html

Pidi Kuzhakattai ~~ 500th Post

Reached another milestone ..This is our 500th post . Thanks to all our friends for your constant support and encouragement . Hope u remember Kavitha ...hehehehe  it's all because of her I am now enjoying , learning a lot in this blogging world ... and this sweet is for you dear ..(ok ok don't scold me saying : nalla neram paarthu sweet kodutha nu ...idu last sunday rombo neram yennoda phone la pesinadukku ...after a long time ...Hope to meet u again , miss u lot ) and also I have one other reason to celebrate  as we recd. one another blog award from our frnd. Sangeetha

and she has given the rule that it has to be passed to 5 fellow bloggers ...would love to share it with all my friends still I am restricted to 5 so here goes my list : Maha , Jay , Nivi , Kanan , Vineela ..friends do grab this award and pass it to ur friends ... now off to the recp. 

This pidi kozhukattai is usally made as prasadam and one of my fav. recp. learnt this from my mother recently and tried it  ...hope u all like it ...

Ingredients needed :

• Raw rice  - 1 cup
• Jaggery - 3/4 cup
• Coconut 
• Elachi powder
• Ghee 
• Water - 2 cups

Method : 

Heat kadai and fry the rice and then grind it coarsely like rava consistency. Heat the kadai and add the jagger and water and allow it to dissolve well and then strain the water to remove impurities. Chop the coconut into fine pieces and set aside now add the jaggery water + elachi powder + coconut pieces and allow it to boil well ,then bring the flame to medium and slowly add the rice rava and keep stirring it well till it reaches thick consistency ...once done switch off the flame and allow it to cool it completely. Once done take a small ball size of the kozhukattai and using ur hand roll it into a oval shape ...and set aside ...once done,take idli plates and grease it with little oil and place the kuzhakattais and steam it for 10 mins ..

Sending this to Gayathri's event "Walking through Memory lane"  

Aama Vadai / Paruppu Vadai

As I mentioned earlier in this post , prepared this for Tamil New year ...

Ingredients needed :

• Kadala Paruppu  - 1/2 cup  + 1/2 cup
• Toor dhal - 1/2 cup
• Urid dhal - 1/2 cup
• Hing powder 
• Curry leaves 
• Dried red chili - 2 or 3
• Salt
• Oil - for deep frying 

Method : 

Soak 1/2 cup kadala paruppu + toor dhal + urid dhal for one hour ...and soak 1/2 cup of kadala paruppu seperately ...after one hour , grind the soaked dhal + dried red chili and just sprinkle little water and grind it bit coarsely to the grinded batter + salt + curry leaves + 1/2 cup soaked kadala paruppu  and mix it well ..

Heat a kadai add oil for deep frying and take batter little (a small ball size) and place in your palm and flatten it bit and slowly drop it in hot oil fry it in medium heat on both sides till it becomes crispy ...

Thiruvadirai Kali

This is a very special recipe ...Oh yeah we have reached 350th post , and the first recipe to be posted in this new year / decade in our blog and also a special Prasadam recipe ......Thiruvadirai Kali.

Thanks to all our friends and followers of this blog ...It's because of your encouragement , we were able to post many new recipes and we were able to achieve this ...

Thiruvadirai / Arudara darisanam festival :

On this day a special prasadam , Kali is made and offerred to Lord Nataraja.

Ingredients needed :

• Raw rice - 2 cup
• Paasi parruppu / Moong dhal - 1 Handful
• Jaggery - 2 3/4 cups.
• Cashews - 10 
• Raisins - little
• Elachi powder - little

Method :

               Wash rice well . Heat a kadai and dry fry washed rice till it turns slight reddish colour, and fry dhal , once cooled grind rice and dhal coarsely like rawa consistency .

 Take a big kadai , add 2 3/4 cup powdered jaggery and pour 5 cup water and allow it to dissolve well and strain it to remove impurities. Heat kadai again and pour jaggery water and allow it to boil well then simmer the gas flame and pour slowly grounded rawa , keep stirring it well till it gets thick, like upma consistency ..transfer to a vessel ..

Take pressure cooker and add required amount of water and place the vessel with cooked kali and pressure cook it for 3 whistle .

 Heat a small pan add ghee and once melted add Raisins , Cashews, and fry it add it to the Kali and mix well.

the best combination with this kali is Kuzhambu which is made with a combination of 5 or 7 vegetables. 

check this link for kuzhmabu recipe ::

http://kaviskitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/7-kari-kuzhambu-mixed-vegetable-sambhar.html