Karadayan Nonbu Adai(Sweet Adai)-Sweet Rice Flour Dumplings

Karadayan Nonbu or Savitri Vratham is a traditional Tamilnadu festival of fasting wherein married women will pray for the wellness and long life of their husbands. This nonbu should be done exactly in the time when tamil month 'Masi' ends and the next month 'Panguni' starts.
These adais are very easy to make,healthy and tastes very delicious too.So here I am presenting the most easy recipe for sweet adai(savory to follow soon).During my childhood days,when I celebrate this festival with my mom I used to be very excited because my mom makes these yummy and hot 
Nonbu adais(sweet and savory) topped with a dollop of butter.I absolutely loved it and even my friends liked it when I took it to college one day.From that day I used to take a batch of these adais to college on every Karadayan Nonbu.My friends relished my moms best nonbu adais.

Making time:30 mins

Makes:12-15 small adais

Ingredients:

Raw rice flour(homemade or store bought )-1 cup

Jaggery-3/4 cup(or 1 cup if you are sweet toothed )

Karamani or black eyed beans-2 tbsp

Cardamom powder-1 tsp

Ghee-2 tbsp

Coconut slices -few 

Procedure :

1.Roast the karamani till you get a nice aroma and add 1 and 1/2 cups of water and boil the beans.

2.Boil the powdered jaggery in one cup of water until it dissolves.Then switch off the flame and strain the jaggery to remove the impurities .

3.Keep the rice flour ready.To the boiled beans add the coconut slices,rice flour and jaggery mixture and keep mixing it on low flame.

4.Keep on mixing till it thickens and comes around without sticking to the sides of the pan.At this stage add the cardamom powder and ghee.

5.Switch off the flame and transfer it to a plate.Grease your hands with some ghee and take a small portion of the mixture and make small patties or dumplings.

6.Steam all the patties or dumplings for 10-15 mins or till it is done.

7.Hot and delicious sweet adai is ready to served with a dollop of butter.

Tips:

*I used the store bought rice flour.You can use the homemade one also.

*If you are sweet toothed then use 1 cup of jaggery instead 3/4 th cup.

*You can soak the karamani prior to reduce the cooking time .

Ragi Cookies(Finger Millet Cookies)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my friends!Once when I went for shopping instead of getting plain Ragi flour I got sprouted and roasted Ragi flour.The moment I opened the pack the aroma made me read the label again .I just loved the smell and immediately I wanted to make cookies using this roasted Ragi flour. My son loves chocolate cookies and these cookies would be an ideal and healthy substitute (atleast I could trick him!) These cookies were crunchy and light.

Makes:around 20 cookies

Preparation time:35 mins

Ingredients:

Roasted Ragi Flour/Finger Millet Flour-1/2 cup

Whole Wheat Flour-1/2 cup

Powdered Sugar-1/2 cup

Butter-1/2 cup

Baking powder-1 tsp

Vanilla essence -1 tsp

Milk -if needed to make the dough

Procedure:

1.Sift Ragi flour,whole wheat flour and baking powder together.To this flour mixture add the butter.

2.Mix the butter well and add the powdered sugar to it.

3.Add the vanilla essence also and mix well to form a cookie dough.Add a little milk if the dough is too dry.

4.Take a small portion of the dough and make a small all and flatten it on a greased baking tray . Using fork you can create the pattern on the cookie as I did.

5. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade and place the baking tray and bake the cookies for 15-18 mins.

6. Ragi Cookies are ready . Once they are out of the oven,they are soft but once cooled , they turn crispy. Store them in an air tight jar for up to a week.

Tips:

* You can use cardamom powder instead of vanilla essence.

*Powdered jaggery can be added instead of sugar. 

Nel Pori Urundai and Aval Pori Urundai

With the onset of karthigai ,the city buzzes with lights and ayyapan swami poojas.I am always fascinated by the Pori Urundai recipe because this was the first recipe which I tried with jaggery syrup in the soft ball consistency .my favourite one is Aval Pori Urundai as aval Pori is very crunchy .But the Nel Pori though soft has to be made on the Thirukarthigai festival as it is  a very auspicious offering to the Lotd Muruga.My mil told me that if we dry roast Nel Pori then it will be not soft as it would be otherwise .I am providing the recipe of the Nel Pori Urundai in this and the same can be followed for Aval Pori Urundai though dry roasting of Aval Pori is not necessary.

Makes :15 urundais approximately

Preparation time :45 mins

Ingredients :

Nel Pori/Aval Pori-4 cups

Jaggery-3/4 th cup ( or 1 cup of you are sweet toothed)

Chopped coconut pieces-1/4 cup

Ghee-3 tbsp

Cardamom powder-2 tsp

Dry ginger powder-1 tsp

Water -necessary to make jaggery syrup

Procedure:

1.Dry roast Nel Pori in slow flame till its gets heated up and light without changing its colour.If using aval Pori skip this step.

2.Powder the jaggery and keep it ready . 

3.In a pan add a tbsp of ghee and roast the coconut slices till it is golden brown .

4.Heat a wok and add the powdered jaggery and water just enough to soak it and dissolve the jaggery in slow heat.once dissolved switch off the flame and strain it to remove impurities .

5.add this strained jaggery mixture back to the wok and heat it till you get a syrup which thickens and reaches a soft ball consistency.

6.To identify  out soft ball consistency keep a bowl of water nearby and add a small amount of syrup into it and check whether you are able to make a soft ball out of it.this is possible when the syrup boils like the above picture .

7.Once This stage is reached add the Pori immediately and stir well immediately keeping the flame low.Add the cardamom powder ,dry ginger powder and the fried coconut pieces and switch off the flame .(Some people add a spoon of rice flour here to get firm balls or urundais ,but I didn't use it).

8.Mix everything well fast and switch off the flame .apply some ghee to your palms and take a small amount of the mixture and make small balls out of it by pressing hard.

9.Repeat the process for the rest of the mixture and make it quickly as it will be difficult to make firm balls if the mixture cools off completely .

10.The delicious Nel Pori urundais are ready  as an offering to Lord Muruga and later to us.Store them in an air tight container and stays fresh at room temperature for upto a week.

Aval Pori Urundai

The process of making Aval Pori Urundai is the same as that of the Nel Pori except that dry roasting of the pori is not necessary as it is already crispy in texture.So they can be made using the above procedure .

Humanity Exists-Chennai Floods!!!

Well, finally Chennai is back to normalcy with prayers from all the people and their helping hand. The deluge made everyone believe that there is humanity still alive and that's what keeps us going. The Chennai floods affected everyone in some way or the other.Many lost their homes and belongings. For some  it was a different experience with shortage of power, water and other domestic supplies. It took us back to our grandparents era where there was no electricity,no telephones/mobiles and laptops. One very good thing which happened amongst this chaos is that we were able spend a great time with our kith and kin with no disturbances from the modern gadgets.

We played board games, read books to our kid, lit karthigai lamps in the house for light. We learnt how to conserve water /power as we had limited drinking or metro water at our disposal! Initially the children in the neighborhood wanted rains as they got holidays but after seeing the disaster even they prayed gods for the rains to stop. There were prayer meetings and relief work carried out everywhere. It motivates you to contribute as well. I could go on and on about the floods....but ultimately it has taught a lesson to everyone that money is not all and that humanity persists!!!

Vazhaipoo Vadai/Banana Blosssom Fritters

The heavy rains and the chill weather in chennai makes me crave for something crispy and hot.and this recipe which I learnt from my mother is definitely a super hit in my family.yes it is the vazhapoo vadai or banana blossom fritters which I am talking about.even those who don't like vazhaipoo will love this vadai.it is an ideal evening snack with tea or coffee and tastes good with plain hot rice and rasam .

Preparation time :40 mins

Serves:4

Ingredients:

Chopped Vazhaipoo or banana blossom -1 cup

Chopped onion-1 no

Asafetida or Hing-1 tsp

Salt-to taste

Fresh coriander leaves-a small bunch

Mint leaves-6(optional)

Roasted gram dal flour or pottu kadalai maavu -1/4 cup

To be grind to a coarse paste:

Toor dal or pigeon pea -1 cup

Gram dal or kadalai paruppu -3 tbsp

Red chilies-4 or 5

Garlic-4 pods

Ginger-1/2 inch

Fennel seeds-1 tsp

Curry leaves- a small bunch 

Procedure :

1.Soak both the along with red chillies for 30-40 mins.

2.Once it is soaked well and keep the ingredients ready.Drain the water completely from the dals and grind it along with the ingredients given for grinding to a coarse paste.Do not add water .If required sprinkle a few drops.

3.To the ground paste add chopped vazhaipoo,onion,salt,hing,mint and coriander leaves.

4.Then add the pottu kadalai Mavu or roasted gram dal flour to this mixture and mix well.Take a small portion of this mixture and round it to a small ball and press lightly to make vadais.

5. Heat oil in a wok and keep the flame to medium.When the oil is hot ,drop the vadai one by one carefully and fry them till they are golden brown on both sides and drain it in a tissue.

6.Delicious,golden brown and crispy vazhaipoo vadais are ready to be served.

Tips:

*Do not add water when grinding the dals .If the mixture is too watery then add more gram dal flour to get a firm mixture that can be rolled in to vadais.You can even refrigerate the mixture of its a bit watery .

*To clean and chop banana flower refer:

https://snapguide.com/guides/clean-a-banana-blossom-flower/.

*Increase or decrease the amount of chillies based on your spice level.