Ellu Sadam/Sesame Seeds Rice

                                                                Sesame Seeds is what we call Ellu in Tamil.There are two types of Sesame seeds one in black and other in white.My mother used to use lot of black seeds in making ellu sadam or ellu urundai or in idli(dosai) chilli powder.
My mother used to make this rice on Saturdays of Tamil month(purattasi(sept15th-oct 15th)).It is a speciality neivedhayam for lord balaji(venkatajalapathy)along with paruppu payasam and ulundu vadai.
This rice is made when you fry the sesame seeds in some sesame oil along with red chillies,urad dal and channa dal.Then you powder it and mix it with cooked rice.When you fry the seeds you can hear a crackling noise!!!!

kozhukattai(vellam)

Gokulashtami Recipes

                                                                        "  Gokulashtami " or  "Krishna Jayanthy" marks the celebration of Lord Krishna's birthday.He was born on the Ashtami day in the Shravana Month.He is the most Glorious incarnation of Lord Vishnu.Gokulashtami is celebrated two days first day by the Smaartas(Iyers)and second day by the vaishnavites(iyengars)

Gokulashtami is celebrated in different forms in different states all over India.In Tamilnadu people welcome Krishna by drawing Krishna's Legs all over the house and making all his favourite sweets and savories.Along with the sweets and savories we offer Milk and milk products like butter,curd etc.We also offer lots of fruits and krishnas favourite snack Ava(rice flakes) or a payasam made with Aval along with lots of fuits like apples,bananas,pears,guavas and Naval pazham or Jamun fruit.

We usually make

• Uppu seedai
• Vella seedai
• Thattai
• Murukku
• Aval Payasam
• Vadai
• Rawa Urundai
• Pal khoa

Along with vetrilai,pakku,Bananas,apples,oranges,pears,Jamun fruit,Milk,curd,butter, can be kept for Neivedhyam.

                                              HAPPY GOKULASHTAMI TO ALL!!!

THENGAI PAL PAYASAM/AADI PANDIGAI RECIPES

                                                                     Aadi masam is here and even before that Chennai is sizzling with sale and festivities.From this Tamil month of the year all the festivals begin.I always look into Meenakshi ammal's "samaithu paar" for any festival delicacies(recipes).
                                                 I decided to make Thengai pal payasam which is important for "Aadi pandigai".They usually invite the newly weds to the house and make this payasam for the Son in law and give the couple new clothes and goodies.

Kadalai paruppu payasam

                                                                          This payasam is made with Channa Dal(kadalai paruppu)and jaggery.It is made on all auspicious days and functions.It is quiet simple and easy to make.You can make this on Navratri days,Ganesh chathurthi,Krishna jayanthi and many other .

Milk poli/Paal poli(Bhogi Recipes)

  

Karthigai Deepam Recipes

Karthigai Deepam Tuesday December 10th

Karthigai Deepam Recipes

Badusha|Diwlai Sweets

                                                   

Kozhukattai(Sweet and Salt)

                                                                                This pillayar chathurthi i decided to make kozhukattai with rice flour.Sometimes i do make with soaked and ground rice for which i have posted a recipe already here Vella Kozhukattai.This version is little simple with the store bought flour.You get special  flour kozhukattai also or you can use idiappam flour which also yields soft kozhukattais.

Sakkarai Pongal/Sweet Pongal

Wish you a 'Happy Pongal'(Jan 15)

                                                      Pongal is an important festival in Tamilnadu.It is one of my favourite festivals.when we were growing up my uncles,aunts,cousins gather in my house and we all used to celebrate together for three,four days.Food was an important part in any festival especially Pongal.The celebration goes on for three days in my house,the second day is sankranti or pongal day on which we make sakkarai pongal or the sweet pongal.

My mother used to make Sakkarai Pongal in a traditional patram called 'Vengala Panai'decorated with Manjal kothu.Along with Sakkarai pongal she used to make Special kozhambu with all vegetables and five different vegetables(curry).Sweet Pumpkin curry used to be a special one on pongal or sankranti day.There are two three ways of making this sweet pongal.I have made it after making a thick syrup of jaggery called "pagu"which gives more shelf life to the pongal.

Sri Rama Navami Recipes

                                                 Sri Rama Navami and tamil New year are approaching and i thought i will refresh those recipes.As the mercury is rising it is so hot and humid.These recipes are so refreshing and appropriate for this season.My mother used to make Panagam,Neer more and Kosumali for neivedhyam.

These are the three things made for Rama Navami as neivedhyam

• Panagam
• Neer More
• Kosumalli

Karadayan Nombu Adai

Karadayan nombu is celebrated by the Tamil Brahmins when the Tamil month of masi is ending and the begining of panguni masam.It is done to pray for the long life of the husband.There is a story of sathyavan and savithri behind this how she fought with yama to bring him back to life.

The pooja or Naivedhaym is done before the panguni masam starts.It comes at different time of the day every year.We used put small kolam on the floor near the pooja room (in east direction)spread a small banana leaf serve two adais of each(sweet and salt)with some butter and keep a vetrilai pakku.

The sastrigal usually gives a yellow thread(Nombu saradu) few days before the nombu and we usually tie some flowers and if possible some fresh Turmeric piece we usually get during pongal time.

We tie it around the neck and pray to god and offer the adais to god and eat those adais and keep one adai of each in a plate specially for the husband.

We make two types of adais one is sweet and the other is salt.In some houses they make only sweet.It is usually made with rice flour either made at home or store bought one.let us see how i made these.

Butter Beans Sundal/Navrathri Recipes

                                                    Butter Beans is a new sundal i tried today.I had not soaked any(bean or kadalai)for sundal for today so ran to the stores and was looking for a bean variety.First time i even saw these actually.I was wondering whether they were Lima beans or Soya beans but apparently they are "Butter Beans"..I just soaked them for 2-3 hours( i was not sure if it was enough and had a back up plan of instant yellow dal Sundal😜).After soaking for few hours pressure cooked them with salt for three whistles and then just seasoned it.It is quiet simple and it was so soft as butter!!!!

Thiruvadhirai kali

Thiruvadirai is celebrated when Thiruvadirai star(nakshatram) and full moon coincide in the month of Marghazi,we celebrate in favour of lord shiva.All the Sivan temples allover the world celebrate this auspicious occassion with special Abhishekam,puja to Lord Natraja .

On this festival day our houses are cleaned and decorated with kolam,"Maa-ilai Thoranams and Flowers Thoranams.

A delicious sweet  known as "Thiruvadirai Kali" is prepared in all our families.This specially made Thirvadirai -Kali is made with Thiruvadirai Kootu with seven vegetables.These two dishes are prepared early in the morning and offered as neivedhyam in a banana leaf along with Betel leaves,Betel nuts and bananas and distributed to everyone in the family.

Kadalai Urundai Recipe/Karthigai Deepam Recipes

                                                          Kadalai Urundai/Nilakadalai Urundai is a favourite sweet of mine because it is healthy and made with Jaggery and not sugar.Whenever i get a sweet craving i pop in one Kadalai mittai, be it squares or rounds.They are crispy,crunchy and tasty.However peanuts have a connection to my childhood.My grandmother used to bring peanuts from her farm when she was visiting us and we used to roast,boil and eat them in all possible ways.And most of all we used to call her "Kadalai Patti" like my children used to call their thatha "Laddu".She used to make these sweets for karthigai.Now a days i buy the Rajaram peanut candies and eat them once in a while.Tomorrow being Karthigai Deepam i thought let me make these urundais today because yesterday i finished making the Nel and Aval pori urundais.I just went to the stores to buy some more pagu vellam,Peanuts( i have used ready roasted ones)and bought some agal vilakkus(few additions this year)....

Kola Vadai/Ring Murukku

                                                                Kola Vadai or Ring Murukku is a type of snack prepared during Krishna Jayanthi and Diwali.It is very crispy and yummy when done correctly.You can refer my Uppu seedai post for home made rice flour.This murukku comes out well with home made rice flour.I made only a small quantity.If you are making for the first time try in small quantities.There is a similar snack which the kannada people make called Kodubale and telugu people make chegodilu

Mangai Pachidi/Tamil New Year Recipes

Happy Tamil New Year to All Readers.This is the first festival when the new year begins so it is a special one.Usually my mother makes payasam,vadai and manga pachidi with neem flowers espcially for this occassion and of course special Kolam with Semman or Kavi .The special item in the new year menu is the mangai pachidi.It is made with five different tastes which includes sweetness from the jaggery,salt,chili,sourness from the mango and the bitterness from the neem flowers.

We ask my mother to make the maga pachidi as per rules for the neivedhyam and a lot more for us to eat seperately.My mother would get the perfect(quantity) combination of sweet,sour,salt and chilli and we would have a couple of more servings even after finishing the sapadu or the meal.It is a real finger licking food!!!!(dish)

Karthigai Adai Recipe/Vella Adai/Uppu Adai

                                                                     Apart from making Nel Pori Urundai and Aval Pori Urundai, we make Appam and Adai in the evening when we light the lamps on Karthigai.I have already posted Pori urundai and appam recipes before and Adai was the only one left.
We make this adai with raw rice(pacha arisi) because it is for neivedhyam (we do not use boiled rice for neivedhyam) and we make two types of adais - one is sweet with jaggery and the normal adai with salt and chillies.
I have made the dough common for both,divided it and added ingredients for sweet and salt adai.You can judge according to your requirement and divide.Usually sweet adai does not sell much in my house so I have just used one fourth of the dough for it.

Pineapple Pachidi/Onam Recipes

                                                                     I have a very close Malayali friend who has invited us for Onam tomorrow.I have to make this pachidi for her so learnt how to make the pachidi from her and here is the recipe.I am not a big fan of Kerala food but we are all celebrating Onam together so that enthusiasm made me try this pachidi and post it too...
It is a sweet and sour tangy pachidi with the pineapple flavour and chunky pieces of Pineapple.I love pineapple and those who love the flavour will really enjoy the pachidi..

Poorna Poli/Avani Avittam Recipes