Karthikai deepam - Recipe Adai

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

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

Karthigai 2010

Hope everyone celebrated Karthigai in the traditional manner. We celebrated Karthigai this time at Jalandhar. All the neighbours had dia for Diwali and had just closed their Diwali lighting on the previous day, and we had dias once again on Full moon day. Jalandhar being in Punjab is the right place to have dias on Karthigai day as it is celebrated as GuruPoornima or Guru Nanak Jayanthi by Sikhs. We could not visit any Gurudwars to see their celebrations, though, as we were busy with Karthigai. We lighted lots of dias and as usual had Poriurundais and Neyyappam and Adai. I was wondering where to get Pori for Karthigai for sometime now. Interestingly, our neighbour gave us Pori and a piece of sugar candy as Prasad after Lakshmi Puja on Diwali day. I was surprised that for Deepa puja south and north have Pori as Neyvedyam. Unity in Diversity indeed.

Recipe: Pori

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 similar. 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.

Ingredients:

Pori : 5 measures
Jaggery: 1 measure
Coconut pieces: 2 tbsps.
Cardamom powder: 1 tsp.

The pori needs to be cleaned first. It will have husks sticking to it and also some stones at times.
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 will 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 cardamom 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 needs to be sieved to remove the sand. Follow the same method as for nelpori.

Recipe: Neyappam

Neyyappam literally means "ghee cake."

Neyyappam is a unique sweet of Kerala and is made in a special utensil known as Appakaral which is a pan with bowl-shaped depressions carved in to it. In the olden days appakarals were made of bronze. Now a days appakarals made of iron and other metals and even non-stick karals are available. The traditional appakarals had 3 depressions and these days karals with 7 and 9 depressions are available

"Neyyappam thinnal rendundu karyam," is a famous malayalam saying which means that 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 is dripping with ghee and after you eat a neyyappam there is so much grease in your hands that your can apply it on your 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.
Cardamom powder: 1tsp.
Ghee for frying the neyyappams
Gingelly (sesame) 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 cardamom 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 a little water to get a pouring consistency (as thick as idly dough). Heat the appakaral and add a 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 one side (appams will start turning on its own) turn them with a 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.

Important festivals in December 2009

1st December 2009 - Karthikai Deepam

Karthikai Deepam is an important festival in the Tamil calendar. From the 1st day of the Karthikai (Vrichikam) month small terracotta lamps are lit in the front of the house and on Karthikai day many lamps are lit. In the evening, pooja is offered to Lord Shiva after lighting the lamp in the pooja room. The neyvedyam includes sweet pori, Neyyappam, Adai and fruits.

31st December 2009 - Thiruvathira

There are two views about the exact date of the festival. Some calendars say it is on the 31st December 2009 and yet others say it is on the 1st of January 2010. Well, I am going to decide when to celebrate only closer to the festival.

The neyvedyam for Thiruvathira is of course, Kali and Kari.

Important festivals in November 2009

This year, the month of November does not have any important festival that we observe. Usually, we have either Deepavali or Karthikai in the month of November. This year, however, Deepavali was celebrated in October and Karthikai falls in December. The people of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have already celebrated Karthik Poornima on the 2nd November. This is again because, as I had said earlier, the Tamils and the Keralaites observe Souramana Ugadi or Solar year and people in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh observe Chandramana Ugadi or the Lunar year. According to lunar year the month of Karthik begins on the new moon day, which happened to be the day of Deepavali this year, where as for people observing Solar year the month of Karthikai or Vrichikam begins on the 16th November. The full moon day following 16th November is celebrated as Karthikai in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. More about Karthikai later.