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.
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.
BoondiLaddu 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 motichoorladdu 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 boondijarni (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.
Deepavali represents the victory of light over darkness, goodness over wickedness.
Hope every one had a nice Deepavali (yes, that's how it is known in the southern states of India). As is my practice I go back to my childhood days on each festival day and the things I remember are being woken up very early in the morning and given an oil bath and given pakoda and ukkarai to eat at that unearthly hour. Deepavali was not a big festival in rural Kerala in those days. Only the Tamil speaking Iyers or Iyengars celebrated Deepavali in Kerala in those days. They also did not have a big celebration unlike people from other states. Especially for Puthucodians, coming as it does after the greatest festival of the year, Navarathri, Deepavali was a low key affair.There were no fire crackers or new clothes. We also did not light diyas for Deepavali, we would do that for Karthikai. Kerala had fire crackers for Vishu and new dresses for Onam. So what did we have for Deepavali?
There of course was a special snack preparation for Deepavali in all the houses and invariably all the houses had Pakoda and Ukkarai for Deepavali. Then on the eve of Deepavali, all the households stored water in big utensils called Anda and Arkkinchatti, emptying the water from the wells. The firewood stove in the bathroom was also kept ready for heating up the bath water early next morning. Though usually we all went to the nearby stream for our bath, on Deepavali day everyone took bath in hot water at home.There would invariably be the story telling session by our Echiyamma and on the eve of Deepavali it was the story of Narakasura vadha. (I narrate the story as told by our echiyamma). Our echiyamma would wake us all up at 3 am. While our mother got busy with lighting the big stove in the bathroom for heating the water, our athai would make a small kolam and place a wooden palakai (a small stool) on the kolam. We all would sit on the palakai one by one and our echiyamma would pour one spoon of oil on top of our head symbolically. Our athai would take over from there and oil our hair and body thoroughly and get us all ready for our bath. Our athai and mother would give us all a hot water bath rubbing our hair with soapnut powder and body with greengram dal powder. Our athanga (athai's eldest daughter) would dry our hair and comb and plait them. Then came the most important ritual. We all would put on our best dress (not brand new) and say our prayers in the pooja room. Then we were given the ribbon pakoda and ukkarai to eat. Sankaran, the man who milked our cows and buffaloes would not have come at that early hour and hence we would have to wait for our coffee until he came. We would all crib for coffee. When we had had our snacks and our mother, athai and echiyamma had gone for their bath (they went to the stream for their bath), we all would fall asleep one by one where we sat (We were not allowed to sleep in bed after the bath). When Sankaran finally came and milked the cows and coffee was made, we would all be woken up for the second time. By now the sun would have risen and we would go out and meet our friends and eat some pakoda or ukkarai from their homes as well, come back home and have a breakfast of Idli and Chutney.
In the evening the children (under 20) of all villages took out a procession of a decorated chariot or car (ther in tamil) to the accompaniment of Nadaswaram. The children made their own collection of funds for this and this was a good entertainment for all of us.
After a few years, some households started making sugar based sweets, like Thengaiburfi and diamond biscuits and it is only recently that people have started making mysore pak and laddus for Deepavali in Kerala.
So after my marriage when I came to live in Bangalore, we always made sugar based sweets like Badusha, rava laddu, Mysore-pak, Boondi laddu, Gulab jamun etc., and never tried Ukkarai. So this Deepavali I prepared Ukkarai. I also prepared Methi Para, thenkuzhal and Mysore-pak for Deepavali.
