Recipes of Maa-vilakku Neivedyam

In my previous post, I have written the pooja to be done for the maa vilakku. Here I am giving the recipes of the dishes made for neivedyam.

Pachha Maavu - Dough to make the lamp





Ingredients
Raw rice/Pacharisi - 2 1/2 cups
Powdered jaggery - 1 cup + 3 tblspn

Wash and soak rice in water for 2-3 hrs. Drain and spread on a towel to dry. Powder in the mixer grinder and sieve the ground powder to get fine rice flour. Grind the coarse rice again and continue until few tablespoons of coarse rice is left.

Grind the powdered jaggery and fine rice flour together. Transfer the rice flour and jaggery mix to a bowl. Keep mixing them by your hand and you should be able to make a ball of it. It might look as thought you cannot hold the flour together. Don't add jaggery since it will not end up in a stiff dough later. Its by the warmth of the hand that the flour and jaggery will come together. It requires some 20 minutes of constant kneading. If you are making the dough just for eating then more of jaggery will not be a problem. But since we need to light the lamp in it, it should be a stiff one else after few hours of burning the lamp, the jaggery in the dough will start melting and the lamp will lose the shape. We have the custom of placing two lamps. So divided the dough into two ball and shaped it well. While eating the maavu, its had along with coconut pieces.

Vella Kozhukaatai


Ingredients
Rice flour - 1 1/2 Cups
Powdered jaggery - 3/4 Cup
Water - 1 1/2 cups
Coconut chopped into tiny pieces - few

Mix jaggery in 1 1/2 cups of water in a bowl and heat it. When the jaggery is fully melt, strain to remove any dirt. Bring the jaggery syrup to a boil. Stir in the coconut pieces and a tablespoon of ghee. Slowly stir in the rice flour. Keep mixing to avoid lumps. Continue to cook till it is not sticky to touch and the dough will have shiny coat to it. Leave it to cool. Make small marble sized balls. Steam it for 10 minutes using an idly steamer or any steamer of your choice.

Paal Pongal





Ingredients
Raw rice - 3/4 cup
Roasted moong dal - 1/2 Cup
Jaggery - 3/4 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Coconut milk extracted from one coconut.
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tspn

Extract two sets of milk from the coconut. To extract milk, grind the fresh, grated coconut with 1 cup of water. Squeeze to extract the milk. This is the first milk. Repeat grinding with another cup of water and extract the thinner second milk. Instead of coconut milk, ordinary milk can also be used.

Pressure cook rice and moong dal in 3 cups of water. It must have cooked mushy.
Make jaggery syrup by boiling water and jaggery. Bring the syrup to rolling boil. Slowly stir in the cooked rice+ dal mix to the boiling jaggery syrup. Keep stirring. It will start thickening. Add the second milk and continue to cook till the rice + dal absorbs the flavors. Stir in the thick first milk and cardamom powder. Remove from fire.

Pachharisi Idli - Idli with raw rice and urad dal
Raw rice - 1 cup
Urad dal - 1/2 cup
Salt

Usually idli is prepared by grinding soaked boiled rice/puzhungalarisi. When ever any bhakshanam is made for nivedyam, its customary to use raw rice. So since idli is offered as nivedyam, its made using raw rice.

Soak 1 cup of raw rice and urad dal separately, for 3 hrs. Drain and spread on a towel to dry. Powder the rice coarsely like rava. Grind urad dal into a smooth batter. Mix the rice rava and urad dal batter. Add salt and adjust the consistency by adding water. Leave it to ferment overnight. Scoop the batter into greased idli moulds and steam cook for 10-12 minutes. If rice is ground to a smooth batter, idlis will not turn soft and fluffy. For that reason, coarse rice is used.

The steamed goodies - Kozhukkattai and Idly are being part of the Steamed Treats organized by Shruti

Recipes from HHB

I like her blog very much because every time she gives very detail descriptions and all the recipes on her blog I've tried is unforgettable. I was inspired by her scones recipe recently. I like scones crazily, it's my all time favorites snacks. I've tried many scones recipe, all of them are yummy! I find the goodness of this recipe is quite low in fat.

Normally those scone recipes I've baked contain lots of butter whereas this is not. That's why I like to give it a try. Yes, it's not very buttery flavour on it. I added some raisin and chopped walnut to give it some sweetness and crunchy texture. It's good to eat!

I freezes some doughs so that's I can have fresh scones at anytime :P

The other recipe I've tried recently from HHB recipe is the banana bread. The goodness of the recipe are low in fat, low sugar and contain fifty percent of wholemeal flour.

The texture is like cakes and bread. As it contains little sugar, I eat it with some jam. When you think that it's healthy than those banana cake, it's nice to eat! Guilty free! All thanks to HHB recipes!

Badam Halwa - Almond Sweet

Badam Halwa (Almond Sweet) for Amma's Birthday

(lots of photos in here, so apologies for the slow download!)

Optimism, Child-like Enthusiasm, a Positive Mind, Cheerfulness, Creativity, Resilience, and an Amazing Patience - all Personified. That’s Chitra Amma for you! I have never seen her down for a long time and she will never loose her temper no matter what! (I have literally seen her flare up just once or twice – so you can imagine what kind aggravation can make that happen – and God save the aggravator!) I feel I live a very good life, because I like to think that there is maybe just a very tiny microgram of her qualities in me (okay..okay … I do loose my temper very often..and patience?? Whats that?)!

Today is Chitra Amma’s Birthday, and so this blog post and preparation is by me for her – to wish her a wonderful day and year ahead, and to thank her for being what she is! Hot Badam Halwa that melts in your mouth – what can be a more special dish for a special person? Well, amma is currently in Portland visiting my brother and sister-in-law, so she will just have to imagine this badam halwa, while I feast on it here! (I just need any excuse to indulge!)

I found this recipe in Vah Chef’s videos. Check the video here. Here are the quantities I used, and some of my learnings. I surprised myself, as it turned out absolutely delicious, aromatic and melts in your mouth – just like good halwas should!

Ingredients
Badam (Almonds) - 2 cups
Milk – 2 cups
Sugar – 2 cups (you can add more if you have a sweet tooth!)
Ghee – 2 cups
Saffron Strands – a pinch
Fresh cardamom powder – ½ tsp

Method
1. Boil Almonds for a few minutes until the skins are wrinkled. Immerse them in cold water. Remove the skins and discard.
2. Grind Almonds and milk together into a paste. You can stop just short of making a very fine paste – smooth as say idli batter. 3. Take a heavy bottomed vessel and heat ½ cup ghee on a low flame.
4. When the ghee has melted, add the badam and milk mixture. Stir well and begin cooking. Keep the flame in low through-out the preparation. As the mixture cooks, it will thicken.

5. Now add the sugar and one cup of ghee and stir and continue cooking. Be very careful not to burn the bottom, as even a slight browning can spoil the taste of badam halwa.
6. You will soon see small eruptions on the surface. This is what I call ‘volcanos and dimples stage’ and its real fun to see it happen!! Be very careful as this is really hot, and can burn your skin. Keep stirring to prevent burning!
7. The ‘volcanoes and dimples’ will subside, and the ghee will start separating from the halwa as the mixture cooks.
8. Now add the saffron, cardamom powder and the remaining ghee and continue stirring. The saffron will provide a lovely colour to the badam halwa. I don’t like adding colour to my cooking – else a drop of yellow food colour can make this ‘hotel style’! 9. Pour the halwa into a flat decorative tray (I just used a foil tray) – and make sure you take the first serving for yourself, and enjoy the ‘halwa’ of your labour!

My learnings:
a) Although this was the first time I tried this, it turned out absolutely delicious !
b) Badam quantity can be deceptive! Initially, I took only ½ the pack, and felt it would be too less. However, with the full pack (1 kilo), I landed up with a huge volume of halwa as you can see in the snaps! If you land up making too much – pack some off to your near and dear ones, and they will be super thrilled! I have therefore, halved the quantities in the recipe here!
c) Don’t be conservative with ghee. This is a rich dish, and if you do not add sufficient ghee, it will not taste good. Further, less ghee increases risk of the halwa sticking at the bottom of the vessel and burning. Ghee also allows the halwa to stay for a long time. My halwa has stayed at room temperature for a week now (Sydney is cold of course), and it is still fresh and good to go, after 10 secs in the micro!
d) Now since you are adding all that ghee, use a good quality ghee which smells fragnant! I buy high quality white butter, and make the ghee at home – as I am just not satisfied with store bought ghee!
e) Make sure you have high energy and are in the mood to cook, when you begin this venture!You will need to stir, and stir and stir continuously, and it takes nearly an hour to cook! If you relax, the halwa can burn in a second!
e) Motivate your spouse to help you with the stirring! Hubby and I took turns, so that we did not leave the halwa unsupervised for even a second!
f) Watch the Vah Chef’s video to learn the recipe and get entertained as well!!