Happy Ugadi and Happy Navratri!

Today is the beginning of the navratri and it is also the beginning of the new year - so wish you all a happy ugadi!

Sweet pongal

This time when I made pongal for Sankranti it turned out just perfect, DH simply loved it and so I decided to record the recipe. Even though  it is from Chandra Padmanabhan’s Dakshin and I have this book, I like to write down what I did because I’m sooo going to forget how I made it when it’s time to make it next year!

The way to remember the proportion of ingredients in this recipe is to benchmark them with respect to the volume of rice. You don’t have to use 1 cup rice, you can use 1/2 cup rice and change the other ingredients accordingly.

I used 1/2 cup rice and it yielded enough pongal for around 4-6 people.

Ingredients

1 cup rice

1/2 cup split yellow moong dal

2 and 1/2 cups water

1 cup milk

3 cups jaggery and 3/4 cup water

cashew and raisin, in quantities you like

1-2 tbsp ghee for roasting the dry fruits

Method

1. Pressure cook dal and rice with the milk and water and without the weight. Remember to not put the weight, this is very important as using the weight boils the milk. I checked the cooker now and then to see if the rice and dal were cooked. Since we’re not using the weight, it’s easy to open the cooker again and again. Rice and dal should be cooked and should’ve absorbed the liquid. If it’s just moist then that’s not a problem but too much of liquid and you have a watery pongal.
2. Dissolve jaggery in 3/4 cup of water by cooking on low heat.
3. If you think your jaggery has too much of impurities, strain this liquid. I skipped this step.
4. Thicken the jaggery mixture a little. Add the cooked rice and dal to the jaggery and stir. If the consistency is like you want then you’re done otherwise you can cook it a little to thicken it.
5. Shallow fry the dry fruits in the ghee and add them to the mixture.
6. Delicious pongal is ready!

Janmashtami

So I'm late posting about Janmashtami this time...mainly because I had really really late start on it. Usually I like to decorate my temple a week before Janmashtami, but this time my DH and I were working on the temple that day itself. We did manage to change everything except the style of the decorations. It was a repeat from last year. Here's a peek at what it looks this year:
The swing is more "aerodynamic" this year, as quoted by my DH :D. It actually is, when you try to swing it you can see it. For the prasad, we made makhane ki kheer, fruit chaat and panchamrit.

I'll update the photo for the kheer sometime later this week. In the meantime I can tell you how to make it though the quantity of everything is hand wavy because we just didn't measure anything this time :). The recipe comes from my mom.

Makhane ki kheer

I used a can of evaporated milk, half a litre whole milk, 8 tblspns sugar, around 250 gms of makhane and a few dry fruits (especially chironji). Chironji adds a very special taste to the kheer; maybe because since my childhood I've always had makhane ki kheer with chironji I feel it's incomplete without it.

Dry roast the makhane and grind them. Most of them should be fine, just leave a few chunky pieces here and there. We firts ground it in the food processor and then took the chunky pieces and ground them in the grinder. Mix everything and bring to boil on a medium flame (covered). When it comes to a boil, simmer (open) and cook till you think the milk has thickened enough. I think it took around 15-20 mins but it would differ from stove to stove.

Here's my post on Janmashtami last year; look at what I said about makhane ki kheer:

It didn't taste the same as my mom's. So the next time I'll get it from my mom and if I make it right, the recipe will make way into one of the posts.

True to my word, I posted it now :).

Rangoli

A sneak peek at things that I made for diwali. I got the rangoli design from Diwali Festival. They've a nice collection of designs. The dot-grid wasn't clearly visible on the online designs so I generated a graph paper, drew the design on it and then made the rangoli (with Crayola color chalks!).

Another item that I made for diwali was kandils/kandeels. Like Rangoli, they're also my favorites for diwali. I like small colorful ones as they make your home look really beautiful.

Happy Diwali!

Wish you a very happy diwali!

P.S.: What better day than the most auspicious day of Diwali for my 100th post :).

Happy Choti Diwali

"Choti diwali" falls on the day before Diwali. There are two legends behind this festival.

One famous story behind the celebrations of Chhoti Diwali or Narak Chaturdashi is about the demon king Narakasur who was ruler of Pragjyotishpur, a province to the South of Nepal. During a war he defeated Lord Indra and snatched away the magnificent earrings of Mother Goddess Aditi who was not only the ruler of Suraloka but also a relative of Lord Krishna's wife, Satyabhama. Narakasur also imprisoned sixteen thousand daughters of Gods and saints in his harem. When Satyabhama came to know about this malevolent act of Narakasur she got furious and she prayed to Lord Krishna to empower her so that she could destroy Narakasur. The legend also tells that Narakasur was under a curse that a woman would kill him. So Lord Krishna empowered Satyabhama to fight with Narakasur and himself became the charioteer of her 'Ratha' in the battlefield. Thus by the grace of Lord Krishna Satyabhama beheaded Narakasur on the day previous to Narak Chaturdashi and released the imprisoned ladies from Narakasur's harem and also recovered the precious earrings of Mother Goddess Aditi. In order to save all those imprisoned ladies from embarrassment Lord Krishna accepted them all as His wives. As a symbol of the victory over Narakasur Lord Krishna smeared His forehead with the demon king's blood. Then Lord Krishna returned home with His new wives early morning of the Narak Chaturdashi day. The womenfolk massaged scented oil to His body and gave him a good bath to wash away the filth from his body.

Another legend is about King Bali, who was king of the nether world. His power and increasing influence posed a threat to the security of all 'Devatas' so they prayed Lord Vishnu to help them out. To help Devatas and to curb King Bali's powers Lord Vishnu went to King Bali in the guise of a short-height 'Brahmin', who is known as incarnation of 'Batu Waman', and begged to give him only that much area of land that he could cover with in three steps because King Bali was well known for his philanthropy. King Bali saw just a short-height 'Brahmin' asking for a little piece of land so he proudly granted him his wish. That very moment that short-height 'Brahmin' disappeared and there was almighty Lord Vishnu in place of him. In his first step Lord Vishnu covered the heaven and in the second step the earth and asked King Bali where to put his third step. Then King Bali offered his head to Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu put his third step on his head and pushed him deep into the underground. But at the same time being impressed by his generosity Lord Vishnu gave King Bali the lamp of knowledge and allowed him to return to earth once a year to light millions of lamps.

The mother of Narakasura, Bhoodevi, declared that the death of her son should not be a day of mourning but an occasion for celebrations. Since then people celebrate diwali with joy and fun every year.[Source: I love India]

Ganesh Chaturthi

[Leftmost plate(counterclockwise): rice idli (white round discs), curd rice, tamarind rice and ambode. Oval tray in the front(counterclockwise): Rasmalai(in bowl), Nippat, Kalakand, coconut laddoo, kodubale/kodbale, chakli.]Click on the image to get a larger view.

Ganesh Chaturthi is a popular festivals in the southern and western states of India, viz-a-viz: Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Why do we celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi?

Once upon a time, the Goddess Gauri (consort of Lord Shiva), while bathing, created Ganesha as a pure white being out of the mud of Her Body and placed Him at the entrance of the house. She told Him not to allow anyone to enter while she went inside for a bath. Lord Shiva Himself was returning home quite thirsty and was stopped by Ganesha at the gate. Shiva became angry and cut off Ganesha's head as He thought Ganesha was an outsider.

When Gauri came to know of this she was sorely grieved. To console her grief, Shiva ordered His servants to cut off and bring to Him the head of any creature that might be sleeping with its head facing north. The servants went on their mission and found only an elephant in that position. The sacrifice was thus made and the elephant's head was brought before Shiva. The Lord then joined the elephant's head onto the body of Ganesha.

Lord Shiva made His son worthy of worship at the beginning of all undertakings, marriages, expeditions, studies, etc. He ordained that the annual worship of Ganesha should take place on the 4th day of the bright half of Bhadrapada. Since the "4th day" is called "chaturthi" in hindi, the name "Ganesh Chaturthi". [Source: Swami Sivananda]

Delicacies for the festival

Traditionally, 21 varieties of prasad are offered to Ganesha on this day. So we also tried to complete this number. Among the home-made dishes we had: rice idli, curd rice, tamarind rice, ambode, rasmalai, nippat, kalakand, coconut laddoo, kodubale and chakli. Apart from nippat and kodubale everything turned out very good. A few I made from my own recipes and few from fellow bloggers. Here are they:

Rice Idli 1 cup idli rawa 1 cup urad flour 1 cup rice flour salt according to taste Method: Mix all the ingredients with water and form a thick batter. Let if ferment overnite (or in cool temperatures for 2 nights). Check the consistency of the batter, it shouldn't be too thick else the idlis will turn out hard even though they'll rise. So add water if you think it's thick. Boil some water in the cooker, take only so much water such that the water is below the level of the last plate of the idli stand. pour spoonfuls of batter in the idli moulds of the idli stand and steam them in the cooker for 15 mins. The time may vary from stove to stove. For me, it takes 15 mins by the clock. Soft idlis are ready to be devoured!

Chakli 2 cups rice flour 1 cup urad flour 1 cup dalia (or bhuna chana dal) -- well grounded 2 tsps roasted sesame seeds chilli powder (according to taste) salt (according to taste) chopped geen chillies (optional) 3 serving spoon full hot oil oil for deep frying Method Mix all the ingredient except oil. Now add oil. When you add hot oil to the mixture, it should release bubbles - that's the check for right temperature of the oil. Crumble the dough with oil. Then knead it with water. The dough is towards the soft side. Heat the oil for deep frying. Fill the chakli maker with the dough and press it to make 2-3 concentric circles at one go on a paper towel. Lightly attach the inner open end to its neighbouring circle. Similarly attach the outer open end to its neighbouring circle. Now turn the towel upside down on your palm, so as not to break the chakli. Drop it into oil for deep frying. The oil should be medium hot, unlike pooris which are fryed in very hot oil. When the chakli starts to sink toward the bottom, it's done so take them out. Ring them in a spoon or any other flatware which has a rod-like shape that can go inside the innermost circle of the chakli. Let it hang for 5-10 mins.

Curd rice from Latha's recipe. Even though I'm no big fan of curd rice, I must say this was the best curd rice that I've ever tasted. A big thanks to the recipe and of course to the chef, my DH. Rice - 1 cup Milk - 2 cups (boiled and cooled) Fresh curds - 2 tablespoons Salt - 1/2 teaspoon Green chillies - 2 nos (cut into small pieces) Curry leaves - 1 twig finely chopped Fresh cream - 2 table spoons Hing - a pinch Ginger - 1/2 teaspoon (finely chopped) Pomegranate - 2 tablespoons Seedless grapes - 10 nos ( cut into 2 pieces ) Cashew - 4 nos (cut into pieces) Oil - 1 teaspoon Mustard - 1/2 teaspoon Method Wash the rice and cook in a pressure cooker with* 2 and1/2 cup water. Transfer the rice to a deep container and mash when still hot, adding a little milk as you mash. Slowly add the remaining milk as you keep mixing. Allow to cool for 5 minutes. Add curds, salt and cream and mix well. Heat oil in a small kadai, add mustard seeds. when it crackles add curry leaves and green chillies. Add the seasoning,hing, cashews, ginger and fruits and mix well. Serve with a pickle of your choice. Tips * The rice should be over cooked so that it can be mashed well.

Kalakand from Praveena's recipe. I'd halfed the quantity of the ingredients but forgot to half the heating time; but it turned out for our good. The recipe is for the milk cake version of kalakand which is white in color; but the kalakand is creamish brown and thats the texture that we got due to the overheating. So basically if you heat it for a little less than twice the time mentioned you get the brownish version of kalakand. 2 cups Full cream milk powder 300 ml Thickened cream 395 gms (1 can) Sweetend condensed milk Pistachio Kernels - chopped for decoration (optional) Method Mix all ingredients together in a microwave safe dish (I use a Corningware dish). Make sure there are no lumps. Taste or lick the spoon. This is stage one. I can't put my finger on what it tastes like but it is good enough to eat now. On the high setting on the microwave, cook for 6 minutes. Have a careful eye on the microwave as it tends to froth up and spill over. If this happens give a break for 10 or 15 seconds and resume. Also the 'high' setting on the microwaves varies. It is with trial and error that you will get the optimal time taken to get the mix to a stage where the milk solids are starting to come together. Mix well. Again taste. I think it tastes a bit like basundi at this point of time. Put in the microwave for another 6 minutes. Keep a eye on it for the first few minutes and then it should be okay. Let it sit the microwave for 5 or 10 minutes after the beep. This gives it some time to fully cook. This still looks a bit raw when you take it straight out but this rest will let it fully cook through. Decorate with chopped nuts. When fully cool you can cut it into pieces and serve. This tastes good warm, cold or at room temperature. You can cook it a bit longer if you want a more browner, harder texture to it. Really up to you.

Rasmalai from Gits ready-to-make. I've found this to be the best way to make rasmalais. It's easy, ready ina jiffy and tastes as delicious as readymade rasmalais (in India).

Coconut laddoos from the same recipe as that used on Janmashtami.

Recipe for Ambode I'd already posted earlier. Except that since I was making this for prasad, I didn't add the onions.

I'm sending this post as an entry to the Ganesha Chaturthi roundup by Latha.

Janmashtami

Wish you all a happy Janmashtami!

Here's a peek into our jhoola(swing) for Krishnaji.

and the prasad...
(from left to right) Makhane ki kheer, coconut laddoos and panchamrit.

The coconut laddoos came out to be really good and the chef behind them, my DH, says that they are very easy to make. The recipe is:

What you'll need:

1 can condensed milk
2 cups of dessicated coconut
1 tablespoon  sugar

Let's start:

1. Mix the condensed milk and the coconut in a bowl.
2. Add the sugar and stir on a low flame for about 4 minutes.
3. Set aside till the mixture has slightly cooled down.
4. Shape into laddoos(small round balls).
5. Roll each laddoo in a little dessicated coconut.
6. Store in airtight jars.

Got the recipe for makhane ki kheer from here; but something seemed to be missing. It didn't taste the same as my mom's. So the next time I'll get it from my mom and if I make it right, the recipe will make way into one of the posts.

Satyanarayan Katha

We performed Satyanarayan Katha yesterday. One can read more about the Satyanarayan Katha in english and hindi. As part of the prasad we'd panchamrit and kasaar (or panjiri): both are my favorites. Here's the recipe for kasaar, it's my mom's recipe and the best!

What you'll need
1 cup Whole Wheat flour (Atta)
3-4 tsp. Ghee (clarified butter)
0.5 cup fine-grained Sugar
2 tsp cardamom(elaichi) powder
chopped roasted nuts

Let's Start

1. Roast the flour with the ghee on a low flame, I used the med-lo setting. Keep roasting/stirring till the color of the flour changes to a nice brown (not burnt brown). It is important to roast it on low flame, otherwise the color of the flour will change but the flour wouldn't get cooked properly.
2. After it's roasted, let it cool.
3. Mix in rest of the ingredients.
   

Ugadi

Derived from yug (युग)+ aadi (आदी), it means beginning of a new era. It isbelieved that Brahmaji (ब्रह्माजी), the creator of the hindu pantheon, started creation on this day - chaithra shudhdha pratipadhe. Also thegreat Indian Mathematician Bhaskaracharya's calculations proclaimedteh Ugadi day from the sunrise on as the beginning of the new year, new month and new day. It marks the beginning of a new hindu lunar calendar with a change in the moon's orbit.

People eat neem (नीम) and jaggery (गुड़ ) on this day. Neem has a bitter taste while jaggery is sweet. The significance being that one should be as sweet as jaggery to others and that life is a mixture of good and bad, joy and sorrow, and success and failure; but one should take everything in one's stride in the coming year.

The traditional food for this festival is "holige" (होलीगे) and "puliogare" (पुलीओगरे or tamarind rice).

My menu: sewiyan payasam (सेवियाँ पायसम) and ambude (अम्बोडे). I found a cool kolam site। It has a flash demo of how to draw the kolam. It doesn't have too many designs though. I made the "diya" kolam.

Shivratri

As the name suggests, "Shivratri" is a festival in the honour of Shivji. Its a popular festival in North India and people observe fast for the day. There are two stories behind this festival - one says that Shivji married Parvatiji on this day, while the other says that this was the day when the samundar manthan took place during which a pot of poison emerged from the ocean and it had to be consumed before the manthan could be resumed. It was then that Shivji stepped forward to rescue the Gods and the demons and consumed the poison - turning blue because of it.

As part of the puja we bathe the shivling with milk, water and sugar. Two particular offerings made to Shivji are the bel leaves and dhatura (a fruit). We prepared kuttu ki pakodi and makhane ki kheer (thanks to Ma!) for the special dinner - no Indian festival is complete without delicacies :). Sometimes we have aloo ki tikki. Some day I'll upload recipes for these.