Vella Payar (Sweet Cowpeas)

No Navarathri is complete for Puthucodians without this sweetened cowpeas neivedyam. Most of the houses will have this offering on the first day itself as a sweet beginning.This is also distributed as Prasadam in the temple during Navarathri. I invariably  make this neivedyam on the first day as well as on Saraswati puja day. 

This dish is also prepared when the new born baby is put in the cradle for the first time. Yes, we have a function for putting the baby in the cradle. Usually it is done on the 28th day after the baby is born in the maternal grandparents’ home as is the custom. When the baby is taken to the paternal grandparents’ home, there again is a cradle function. But I digress; Vellapayar brought back memories.

Let us get on with the recipe.

Ingredients:

Cowpeas: 1 cup (it is also known as black eyed peas)

Jaggery : 3/4 cup

Cardamom powder: 1tsp.

Freshly grated coconut: 2 tbsp.

Method:

Wash and soak the peas in enough water (the water level should be above the peas) overnight. Pressure cook the peas in the same water. The peas should be cooked very soft. Otherwise they will harden when put in the jaggery syrup.

Melt the jaggery in one cup of water. Strain to remove all the impurities, sand particles etc. Pour the strained syrup in a wide, thick bottomed pan and heat to make a soft syrup. Add the coconut gratings and cooked peas. Mix well. Keep stirring until all the moisture is absorbed. Remove from heat, add cardamom powder and offer as neivedyam.

Enjoy!

Happy Navarathri!

Thai Poosam; Recipe: Panakam

Hope everyone celebrated Thai Poosam in the traditional manner. Worshipping Lord Muruga is said to be good for the welfare of the children.We celebrated Thai Poosaam by offering Panakam and Sweet Payar to Lord Muruga. (Recipes are sure to follow).

Sometime back I had raised a question about the significance of offering coconut as neyvedyam at the bathing ghat. After musing over it for a long time, I think I have an acceptable answer. It may perhaps be due to the fact that since Lord Muruga or Saravana was born in Saravana Poikai or the Lake of Saravana, people offer neyvedyam at the bathing ghat. And also the practice of carrying the coconut in a uri (uri is a pot hanger in which pots of curds, milk etc. were stored) to the bathing ghat could signify the kavadis that devotees carry on their shoulders to the Muruga temples. Carrying the kavadis to the temples and depositing them there signifies carrying all your burdens and unburdening them at the feet of the Lord.

Essentially, Sweet Payar is a dish prepared during the "cradle ceremony" of a new born baby. That would be the first time that people outside the family circle see the new born baby for the first time. When Karthikeya killed the demon Taraka, He was but a very young boy.

Panakam is a great thirst quencher. Since Thai Poosam falls at the beginning of the summer season, Panakam is the right choice for neyvedyam. During the Vela/Pooram festivals (temple festivals in Kerala), which take place starting from the month of February, there is a custom known as Parayeduppu. People offer grain (usually paddy) in a Para (a measure of roughly 10kg) to the deity who is either taken around the village atop a caparisoned elephant or is represented by a Velichapadu (oracle). There are people who offer panaka para, i.e., a great quantity of panakam is prepared and distributed to all people who come to witness the festival. It is believed that when the thirst of so many people is quenched, they in turn bless the person who offered them the sweet panakam on a hot afternoon.

Panakam has jaggery, which is an instant energy booster, and dry ginger, which will alleviate any gastric problems due to the heat and untimely eating during such festivals.

We will have the recipe for panakam today.

Though in Kerala, panakam had only jaggery, chukku (dry ginger) and cardamom powder, in Karnataka they add some lemon juice also to the panakam, which gives it a special tang.

Ingredients:

Serves 4

Jaggery: 200gms
Dry ginger powder: 2 tsp.
or
Fresh ginger : 2" piece
cardomom powder: ½ tsp.
Juice of 1 lemon.

Method:

Melt the jaggery in ½ cup of water. Strain to remove sand particles. Boil it until the raw smell disappears. Cool. Add 4 cups of water, lemon juice, ginger powder and cardamom powder and mix well. If using fresh ginger, cut the ginger into small pieces and blend it in the blender with little water to extract the juice. Strain and add to the panakam.

Cool and serve.

Important festivals in February 2009

Before continuing with my Kanu descriptions, I need to take a time out to list the festivals we observe in the month of February. Well this is half Thai and half Maasi ( the Tamil months) or half Makaram and half Kumbham (Malayalam months). Not many festivals during this period although Kerala comes alive with the temple festivals of Poorams and Velais. The Poorams start after the harvesting seasons, one of the main reasons being that the Ezhunnellippu (procession of caparisoned elephants) is done mostly in the fields after the harvest.

8th February 2009 - Thai Poosam
A festival celebrated in the Muruga temples all over the world. As with other festivals, there are various legends associated with this festival too. According to popular legend, it is the day Lord Muruga destroyed the demon King Tharakasura. We used to observe the festival at home by offering some neyvedyam like Vella payar or Panakam to Lord Muruga. The more important ritual is to take a coconut to the tank or stream where one takes bath and breaking the coconut at the side of the stream after the bath and offering it to Lord Muruga there itself. I am not able to find a convincing reason for this ritual. Usually neyvedyams are offered at the temples or at homes; what is the significance of offering the neyvedyam at the bathing ghat? If any of the readers knows the answer, please enlighten me.

23rd February 2009 - Mahashivarathri
One cannot call Mahashivarathri a festival in the real sense of the word. I would rather call it day of meditation and fasting and getting rejuvenated mentally as well as physically. Most people observe a fast on this day with a jagaran (keeping awake) for 36 hours. That is starting from daybreak on Mahashivarathri day until night falls the next day. Different people observe the fast differently. The full fast is observed by not taking any food till sunset. After offering Pooja and Argya to Lord Shiva after sunset, light saltless refreshments (Vella dosa, Parippukanji, fruits, etc.) are partaken. People who cannot fast the whole day, take some light refreshments once during the day and once in the night.