Important festivals in March 2009

10th March 2009 - Maasi Pournami (all Maasi Pournami related posts)
The full moon day in each Tamil month falls on a different star or nakshatra and that day is generally known by the name of the star. In the month of Thai (January-February) it falls on Poosam nakshatram and hence known as Thai Poosam. In the following month, Maasi (February-March) it falls on the Makam nakshatram and known as Maasi Makam, though in our parts it is more popularly known as Maasi Pournami. Offering of Payasam to Lord Siva after the moon rises and distributing the payasam to children are the important rituals of the day.

14th March 2009 - Karadayan Nonbu (2008, 2007, all Nonbu related posts)
As I had written earlier, this particular pooja is offered at the time of the birth of the new month Panguni (Meena) which varies every year. This year the Sankramanam (time of birth of the new month) is at 2.54 pm and hence pooja and neyvedyam to be offered at that time. Neyvedyam - Adai

27th March 2009 - Ugadi
Ugadi is the new year day for Telugus as well as Kannadigas

Recipe: Ambode

Immediately after the obattu post, I was ready with this post for Ambode, another Ugadi speciality. What with the burning hot summer and a tooth problem that required a root canal treatment, I just got too busy. The truth is I try to keep myself busy to the brim always. Be it summer, winter or rains. It’s good, say my friends. It’s bad, feel I. Anyway, the fact is I am busy.
How does one keep oneself busy during summer? I for one, start making all sorts of sun-dried wafers (vadams, karuvadams and vattals) to keep for the whole year. And then comes pickling. Summer is the season we get plenty of mangoes and is the right season for mango pickles. This year I made “Aavakkai” after a long interval. The aavakkai that I made this year is so special because, I made them with Andhra mangoes and under the guidance of a true Andhra friend and it turned out just yummy and truly fiery. More about vadams and aavakkai later (immediately, I promise), we will go on with Ambode.
Ambode (Kannada) or Aamavadai (Tamil)or Parippuvada (Malayalam) are all very close siblings, with as much difference as one can notice among siblings. Ambode takes the prize, I should say. I have learnt the secret of crispy, mouth watering ambode from Mrs.Shakunthala, whose ambodes are a treat any day. She is the official ambode maker, whenever our “Soundrya Lahiri” teacher arranges a Pooja and each time the ambodes turn out just as yummy. Let us get on with the recipe, without much ado.


Ingredients:
Chana dal: 2cups.
Green chillies: 3or 4 according to taste
Dry red chillies: 1 or 2
Pepper corns: 1 tsp.
Jeera: 1tsp
Hing: 2 tsp or size of a pea
Curry leaves: few
Coriander leaves: 2 tbsp.
Grated fresh coconut: 2 tbsp.
Cinnamon: 1/2 “ piece
Cloves: 4 nos.
Ginger: 2” piece
Salt to taste
Ghee: 1 tbsp.
Raw rice flour: 1 tbsp.

Oil for frying

Optional
Finely cut onions: 2 tbsp
Crushed garlic: 1 tsp
(When making ambode for offering as Neyvedyam, I usually do not add onions and garlic, however they definitely add to the taste, no doubt)

Method:

Wash and soak the chanadal with hing, peppercorns, jeera, green chilies and red chilies for 1 hr. Crush the cinnamon and cloves separately (this will not get crushed with the other ingredients, if ground together in the mixer). Drain the soaked chanadal with other ingredients to remove all water and grind coarsely with curry leaves ,giner,crushed cinnamon and cloves and salt. Transfer to a bowl and mix the grated coconut, rice flour, finely cut coriander leaves and ghee. If using onion and garlic, add the finely cut onions and crushed garlic also. Mix well.
Make small balls of the ground mixture. Heat oil in a pan. When the oil is hot, reduce the heat, but retain the temperature of the oil. Take the prepared balls in your palm and pat lightly with the fingers and slide into the hot oil, one by one. Turn the ambodes once inside the oil, so that both sides get cooked evenly. Remove from oil, when both sides are cooked, drain and serve the crispy ambodes with pudina chutney or tomato sauce.
The less experienced can pat the ambodes on a plastic sheet and gently slide them into oils, taking care not to splash the oil.

NJOY!

Recipe: Obattu

Happy Ugadi to all. It is new year’s day for many people on Ugadi or Yugadi. The new year that has dawned is known as Sarvadhari . The Sarvadhari varsha for people in Tamil Nadu and Kerala who observe Suryamana Ugadi starts on the 14th April.
As always festivals mean good food and also food made of seasonal fruits and vegetables. The season is also the start of spring or Vasantha rithu in India and trees and plants are blooming after the gloomy winter months. The neem trees are full of fragrant blooms. Hence the use of neem flowers in cooking on this new years day. Neem flowers have anti fungal, antibacterial and anti diabetic properties. In Karnataka, the ritual is called eating bevu bella or neem and jaggery, bitter and sweet to symbolize that life is full of sweet and bitter turns.
In Andhra, the ritual is to make a chutney known as Ugadi pachadi using neem flowers, mango, jaggery, chili powder and salt. These raw ingredients are mixed and served as pachadi. This is supposed to cleanse the system.
Besides Ugadi Pachadi the special dishes prepared for Ugadi are Obattu and Ambode in Karnataka. I understand Andhra people also make obattu(known as bobbatlu in telugu) and Pulihore and payasam and vadas.
It is my long-standing promise to post the recipe for Obattu and Ambode. The time has at last arrived, with my making obattu and photographing them.
Obattu or Holige(Kannada), Poli(Tamil), Upputu(Kerala iyer), Bobbatlu(telugu), Puran Poli(Marathi) all refers to stuffed sweet parathas made of Maida. The sweet stuffing can be made from a variety of ingredients, most popularly using chana dal, jaggery and coconut. Kannadigas use equal quantity of chana dal and toor dal and coconut. This filling can be prepared using only coconut and jaggery or green gram dal and coconut and jaggery (Kerala Iyers make uppitu with this stuffing) and in the new age, the sweet stuffing can be made with carrot, coconut and jaggery to give a vegetable touch to it (healthy and nutritious as the presenters of tv cookery shows like to say). And again the rolling is done like parathas or on banana leaves.
Given below is the recipe for Karnataka obattu, as prepared by my authentic Kannadiga friend, Veena.
Ingredients:
Filling:
Chana dal: 250 gms.
Fresh grated coconut: 1½ cups
Grated jaggery: 2½ cups
Dry ginger power: 2 tsps.
Cardamom powder: 2 tsps.

For the outer covering:
Maida: 250 gms
Salt : a pinch
Turmeric powder: 1 tsp.
Gingelly oil: ¼ cup
Water to knead the dough
Ghee for brushing on the obattu
Preparation:
First make the dough by kneading the maida with salt and turmeric powder and water to a soft and elastic consistency in a large bowl or plate. Add 2 tbsps.of gingelly oil and knead again. Make a well in the centre of the dough and add the remaining oil and keep it aside for 10 minutes. Knead again incorporating the oil well into the dough to make the dough more elastic and pliable. Keep the dough covered with a moist cloth. The quantity of oil could be increased to get more pliable dough or if you are calorie conscious, decrease the quantity of the oil (honestly speaking let go when making obattus, if the quantity of oil is decreased the obattu do not come out as flaky and tasty).
To prepare the filling, cook the chana dal with just enough water to cover the dal in a pressure cooker until just done (Do not over cook). Strain to remove the water. (Kannadigas use this water to make a special rasam ). At this stage I deviate a little from Veena’s method.
Veena continues thus: She heats the strained dal, coconut and jaggery in a kadhai until all the moisture evaporates then cools and grinds the mixture and adds cardamom powder and dry ginger powder to get the stuffing.
As I have always said, I like to strain the jaggery to remove the dirt and sand, hence the following method. Grind the strained dal and grated coconut .Boil the jaggery in ½ cup of water until the jaggery dissolves. Strain to remove the sand and other dirt particles. Pour into a heavy bottomed kadhai and boil until the syrup starts thickening. Add the ground dal and coconut mixture and continue stirring until the mixture starts leaving the sides of the pan. Remove from the stove, add cardamom and dry ginger powders. Mix well and cool. Make lemon sized balls of this mixture and keep aside.
Knead the dough once again. (People with weak shoulders like me may use a electric kneader for this to get excellent result or else seek the help of your better half like I do). Take small quantity of the dough and pat into a small circle with the palm of your hand on a banana leaf or plastic sheet. Place one ball of the filling in the centre and close from all sides. Pat the ball into a thin paratha with the palm of your hand. Heat a tava. Gently remove the obattu from the plastic sheet and roast on the heated tava on both sides until brown spots appear. Remove from the tava and drizzle ghee on it. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling. Serve the “Melt in the mouth hot obattu“ drizzled with ghee and enjoy your holiday with your family.
To add to the sweet taste,Kannadigas serve this obattu with a payasam made of khuskhus, coconut milk and jaggery . We love it with ghee.
ENJOY!

Grahanam

We celebrated Ugadi on Monday. We refers to the Kannadigas, the Telugus, the Maharashtrians and the like. We at home of course celebrate every festival with everybody. As long as there is good food to be eaten, we Iyers are in! Ugadi is the new year’s day for all those observing the lunar calendar. People deck up the house and prepare a festive lunch and offer pujas in the temple. The important item of the festival lunch is Holige or Obattu and Ambode. I thought of preparing obattu, but then, my good friend Veena brought a few for us.

On Ugadi day, we also had a partial solar eclipse early in the morning. My mother was asking me, “did you observe the Grahanam(eclipse)?” I burst out laughing and asked her, “Amma, how do you observe Grahanam? After all you don’t have to prepare Parippu Kanji or payasam, right?” She said, “that’s true. You don’t have to prepare any thing.”

Having said so to my mother, my memories went back to the grahanams when we were growing up. Those days, grahanams were indeed days filled with lots of fun.
To start with, the whole village was in a relaxed mood during the time of eclipse as nobody was supposed to eat anything during the eclipse time. The last meal had to be had atleast 2 hours prior to the start of eclipse and the kitchens were closed till the end of eclipse. This meant that the womenfolk had no kitchen work and we could spend time with our mothers in relaxation. Otherwise, they would be always busy with preparing meals or other kitchen work. During the eclipse, nobody was supposed even to drink water. The stomach was to be free from work also, as digestive functions were also thought to be affected by the “rays emitted during eclipse.”

And then, there was a big congregation at the side of the stream to have a dip at the start of the eclipse along with some vedic chants to ward off the evil effects of the eclipse. (Most of the Kerala Iyer settlements were around a temple and there very often was a river, stream or pond on the banks of which there were some banyan trees. Many of these congregations took place under these trees. There was a platform built around the banyan tree which the men sat and discussed various matters from politics to everyday events). As it was rare to get the older women at the stream during the day time on the other days, we had swimming races with the daring seniors on such occasions. It was loads of fun to swim with Parvathi patti, Seshi patti and the likes, and observing them indulging in teasing each other and mock fighting. If the eclipse was for a short duration, the fun was much more, as we were all supposed to have another dip at the end of the eclipse. This meant all stayed back at the poolside until the eclipse ended and we never got out of the water. We were scolded when we reached home for being in water for so long “like buffaloes.” “What if you catch a cold,” we were asked. By then the mothers would get very busy anyway, as they had to prepare food for all from scratch, as they had emptied the kitchen for the eclipse. Not even dosa or idli batter would be kept aside for use after grahanam. The only item brought forward thru grahanam was curds in which a piece of dhurva grass was been placed to ward off evil effects.

During grahanam, various shanthi poojas were conducted in individual houses and also dhanams (alms) were given to brahmins, as it was believed that the people on whose birthstars the grahanam was falling, will have to suffer the ill effects of grahanam. They were also supposed to wear a pattam, a palm leaf on which some mantras were written to ward off evil effects. We would dance around the pattam wearers making fun of them. To my luck, I never had to wear a pattam when I was growing up, afterwards I never cared.

And how did we view the eclipse? We were sternly warned not to look at the sun directly. We did not have access to any special glasses/filters like the present day kids, we did not even have sunglasses, to view the eclipse. Our elders taught us to darken glass pieces with the soot from the oil lamp and view the sun thru this darkened glass. Another method was to look at the reflection of the eclispsed sun in a decanted solution of cowdung in water.

There was another important ritual to be observed by all pregnant women during the grahanam. They were advised to hide, literally, they were asked to stay inside a dark room, closing the doors and making sure that even a small hole or crack in a window or door was plugged. When I think of those days, I am surprised no one else kept conpany for these hiding ladies, atleast for small talk. They sat inside the room all alone during the period of grahanams. It was believed that pregnant women who did not hide during grahanam would deliver children with deformities. It is not clear to me whether this belief has any scientific backing, though we read often that many practices being observed blindly over generations on the advice of elders have sound scientific backing. I wonder what today’s young women do during grahanam and how many deformed children are born because of their not hiding. It is to be remembered here that today science has helped us to detect many deformities proir to the childbirth and corrective measures are taken immediately after the child is born and in some cases even in the foetus state itself. Such facilities were not available until toward the end of the 20th century. Today it is quite common to carry out many prenatal scans and tests.

There are people who advise the young generation to hide during grahanam today also, as was illustrated by our friend whose daughter had a child two days before this solar eclipse. He called us to give the good news and said, “see her luck, she does not have to hide during grahanam.”