Happy Ganesh Chathurthi !!!

This blog post is quite a special one cos it holds my celebration recipes of Ganesh Chathurthi...Ganesha has always been my favorite for sweet unknown reasons :) Thou my before-marriage times of Ganesh Chathurthi with my family at home sweet home are always a memorable ocassion...I've never been able to celebrate this occasion all by myself since I got married n settled in US...So this is officially ;) my first Ganesh Chathurthi in US...Hope I did my best n gave full justice to my love towards lord Ganesha..

The day started with me rising up early...whoo, wasnt tat really special...n tat too the reason being ..TO COOK :D The dishes I had planned to prepare for the pooja were Kolukattai (both sweet n spicy)...sundal and also sweet pori...Since itz my first try making kolukattai, I had no idea how long it was going to take me to prepare 'em...To get all the boost i needed, wat else did I need than a small talk to my mom in india :) yeah, gave her a call, confirmed the recipes once again n then "shoot-it" :)

The dishes turned out much much better than I expected...So with full guarantee here comes the recipes for 'em...

SPICY KOLUKATTAI:

Ingredients:

• Idli rice - 2 cups
• oil - 1 tbsp
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Channa Dhal - 1 tsp
• Urad Dhal - 1 tsp
• Onion - 1/2 of medium
• Curry leaves - as req
• Green chillies or dry red chillies - 2 or 3

Preparation:

Soak Idli rice in water overnight. Grind it adding very less water.

In a wide kadai(pan), add oil + mustard seeds + curry leaves + green or red chillies + onion + channa dhal + urad dhal + salt and saute till the onion becomes translucent. Then add the ground idli rice batter to this and keep stirring it well till it becomes like a ball. It should round up to an almost ball consistency(similar to the chapathi dough consistency). Then switch off the flame.

When it slightly hot, make round balls out of the dough and press it with ur fingers to make it into kolukattai shape or you can also make it to any shape of ur choice.

Spicy Kolukkatis are ready !!!

I have already blogged my sundal recipe... and for Sweet Kolukattai recipe, check here .

So tatz it...Happy Vinayaka Chathurthi to all !!!