Vinayaga Chathurthi is always my favorite festival. Since I was brought up in a village, its always a joyful event to buy clay ganesha. I will be roaming around to get all decorative things like umbrella, erukka maalai and so on for that ganesha. But this time we missed this festival, as we had to attend a close relative's marriage at chidambaram. After that travel, I couldn't find time to prepare this, as I had to bring back home to normal. I missed khamam dhokla also, so I didn't want to miss this time too. So I made myself to prepare something at least for Indian Cooking Challenge. I reached home by 8.30 PM after that I started my venture. When I read through the procedures, I realized only 2 recipes can be made easily at that time. So ended up my list to kozhukattais and peanut ladoos(from Valli's recipe)

I prepared the same way as mentioned by Valli. This is the second time in my life, I am preparing kozhukattai. Because my mom used prepare only pidi kozhukkattai and not this one, so I never had a chance of learning this. As my husband is very much fond of this sweet, he is very particular about the taste and texture. He has a great list of specification on how a kozhikattai should be. Even after 25 years of excellence in kitchen, he will find faults with my MIL's preparation of this sweet. This made me keep away from preparing this. No other go, I ought to prepare this at least once in a year during this pooja. I thought I am saved this year, but this ICC trapped me into trouble :( .

My poornam came out well and the dough too. But after seeing my first set of kozhukattais, my husband thought he only will prepare it. I was very conscious on the getting a fully covered kozhukkattai, but he felt that the cover is too thick. So he only did all the kozhukatais after that. Really it came out well and you can see the snaps.

Making peanut ladoos was not a big deal and it also came out as expected. Actually I thought of doing a small pooja with this as the neivedhyam, but its was toooooooooo late.

Because of hectic work both at home and office, i couldn't manage to post regularly. Nowadays my kid also giving me tough time for feeding him. In that I am not at all getting involved to take a snap of what i prepare.

We were been to a relative's wedding and I took a week off to help them in the preparations. There will be around 20-30 people at home for one or the other function. For a lunch the cook prepared potato podimas. As there were so much of diabetic patients in our family, they didn't had much. In the evening the cook prepared sweets and savories. While preparing mixture i asked them to prepare some batter extra and asked them to prepare aloo bonda with the leftover potato podimas. All the children and youngsters loved it and everything got over in minutes.

This is a very simple evening snack, especially on a rainy day.

Here goes the recipe...

For the Batter:

Besan Flour - 1 cup

Chilly Powder - 1 tsp

Rice Flour - 1 tbsp

Salt - as Required

For the Stuffing

Potato - 2 big

Onion - 1

Green Chillies - 4

Lime juice - 1 tbsp.

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Mustard and Urad dhal - 1 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Bengal Gram dhal - 1 tsp

Curry Leaves and Coriander Leaves - few

Method:

Bake the potatoes and mash it. Mince the onion and chillies.

In a kadai, heat 1 tsp of oil and add the seasoning items like mustard, urad dhal and bengal gram dhal.

Once it splutters, add the onion, green chillies and turmeric powder.

Once onion is sauted well, add the mashed potato and mix well.

Before switching off the stove, add the lime juice and leaves.

Stuffing is ready now. Make small balls out of it.

In a vessel make the batter with the items mentioned in 'For the Batter'

Dip the balls into this batter and fry them in oil.

Aloo bonda is ready and serve it hot with Coconut chutney.

Note - You can make the stuffing like this or you can reuse the leftover potato podimas as I did ;)

First of all Happy Tamil Year to All. Its been celebrated auspiciously across tamilnadu. Any start of a new year, may it be Jan 1st or Apr 14 or my Bday, I love them all. I feel afresh all these days and energize me with new hopes. I wish everything would go well throughout the year. As far as today, we had a festive brunch(No holiday here :(). Had many discussions and finalized with the menu as Drumstick Sambar, Yam Fry, Sweet Pongal, Urad Dhal Vada and Appalam. As I was running behind my kid to feed him and rushing to office, I couldn't manage to get a snap of my festive food. So I got a snap from my MIL's menu in Chennai through mail.

She prepared Sambar, Aviyal, Vada and Moong dhal Payasam. I just wanted to share how we offer for pooja. The Festive food is served on a banana Leaf . Hope you too enjoyed your New Year. 

Yesterday we celebrated Karthigai Deepam at home. Lord Murugan was born in this month and the whole of this we will be lighting lamps(Agal Vilakku) at home and yesterday is Thirukarthigai, for which we will decorate the house with many lamps.  In the evening a Jyothi called "Annamalai Jyothi" will be lighted at Thiruvannamalai, which we never miss to watch it in TV. It wil very tough to go to Thiruvannamalai during this day, as the town will be loaded with crores of people from the entire Tamilnadu. 

A small story is associated with this: Once Brahma and Vishnu had a conflict on who is having more power. At that time Lord Shiva appeared infront of them in the form of a Jyothi and asked them to find the start and end of his form. Brahma went in search of his start, in the form of a swan and Vishnu went in Search of Shiva's End in the form of a Pig. Both of them couldn't succeed in their attempts and Lord shiva appeared as a jyothi in Thiruvannamalai hill. 

Hence in this day, we were lighting so many lamps to appreciate Lord Shiva's Presence in all the homes. Here is a small view on my decoration on lamps

On this day we will fast from the morning and prepare the food in the evening. After completing the pooja and offerings to GOD, we will see the lamps glowing and then only we will have our food. On this special occasion the food also will so special. I prepared Sakkarai Pongal, Aviyal, Avarakkai Sambar, Vazhakkai Varuval, Rasam and Pappads. 

Here I will Share the recipe for Sakkarai Pongal. 

Ingredients:

Raw Rice - 1 cup

Moong Dhal - 1/4 cup

Milk - 1 tbsp

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Jaggery - 1 cup

Coconut - 1 tbsp

Cashew and Kismis - few

Elachi Powder - 1 pinch

Method:

Pressure cook the rice and dhal. Once the pressure is released mash it well by adding milk and 1 tbsp of ghee. 

Mix the jaggery in 1 cup of water and heat it till 1 line consistency. Filter it to remove any iron or mud particles. Add this filtered jaggery syrup to the mashed pongal and mix well uniformly. 

Roast the coconut in ghee and keep it aside. Then roast the cashew and kismis in ghee. Add all these things to the pongal. 

Mix well and serve hot. Hope you all enjoyed the festival. 

Ingredients:

Moong Dhal - 2 cups

Jaggery - 2 cups 

Sukku - 2 table spoon

Ghee - 2 Tbsp

Cardamom Powder - 2 pinch

Cashew - 10

Dry Grapes - 10

Method:

In the kadai, roast the moong dhal in 2 tsp of ghee, till it becomes golden brown. 

Transfer the moong dhal to a bowl containing hot water and cook it well. 

Once it is cooked well, add the grated jaggery and mix well. 

Once the jaggery dissolves, and the kheer starts boiling, add the sukku. 

Too much of sukku will spoil the dish, so make it less. This sukku is very good for health, that too especially for kids. Also this will add flavour and aroma to the kheer. 

You can make it a habit to add sukku in any of the dish, whenever you are arranging for a treat at home. This helps in digestion. 

Add the cardamom powder and switch off. Roast the cashew and dry grapes in ghee and add it to the kheer. You can add any dry friuts to it. 

This can be served both hot and cold. Its a delicious dessert served in almost all tamil family treats. 

I am sending this as an entry to Srilekha's EFM - Sweets

Ingredients:

Rice Flour - 4 cups

Roasted Gram Dhal Flour - 1 cup

Soaked Bengal gram Dhal - 100 gms

Soaked Urad Dhal - 50 gms

Pepper - 100 gms

Salt to Taste

Butter - 100 gms

Oil for frying

Mix all the flour together with the salt. 

Add the soaked urad and bengal gram dhal. 

Put the butter in a pan containing hot water and pour it to the mix

Mix well so that the butter spreads evenly across the flour. 

Make the dough soft, take a portion of it and make small disc in a cloth as shown below. 

Once the wetness gets off, you can fry them in oil to get crispy thattais.

Ingredients:

Besan Flour - 4 cups

Roasted gram Dhal Flour- 1 cup

Red Chillies - 30

Omam - 5 tbsp (soaked in water for 4 hrs)

Method:

Mix all the flour together with the salt. 

Grind the Red chillies and omam to a fine paste. Sieve it with less water and get the water alone. 

Add this water to the mix and mix well. 

Put the butter in a pan containing hot water and pour it to the mix

Mix well so that the butter spreads evenly across the flour. 

Make the dough soft, take a portion of it and add it to the murukku achu with the slide having dots.

Randomly make circles in the hot oil and we can break it after frying.

Ingredients:

Besan flour - 4 cups 

Roasted gram Dhal Flour- 1 cup

Green Chillies - 100 gms

Butter- 100 gms

Salt to taste

Oil for frying

Method:

Mix all the flour together with the salt. 

Grind the green chillies to a fine paste. Sieve it with less water and get the mirchi water alone. 

Add this water to the mix and mix well. 

Put the butter in a pan containing hot water and pour it to the mix

Mix well so that the butter spreads evenly across the flour. 

Make the dough soft, take a portion of it and add it to the murukku achu with the slide having rectangular hole.

Randomly make circles in the hot oil and we can break it after frying.