Karadaiyan Nombu Adai (Sweet and Savory)

Last Saturday was Karadaiyan Nombu for us (Sunday in India). Karadaiyan Nombu is a traditional festival celebrated in our community. Ever since childhood I have a big fascination when it comes to nombu because of the yellow thread.  I always ask my Mom I not married why are you tying this over my neck, my mom used to say this is a different thread. Even in school I hide this thread as I don’t want my friends to think I got married:-)

Specialty of nombu is preparing Sweet and savory Adai and tying yellow thread. Myself and sis enjoy Adai with a big chunk of room temperature butter. I can talk about how I enjoyed for the entire post, but let me get into the recipe:-)

Typically Amma soaks the rice and dries in a cloth and pulse it, but I have preapered Adai with store bought rice flour

General steps:

• Dry roast 2 cups of rice flour for 2-3 minutes and keep aside

• Dry roast the black karamani for 2-3 minutes and soak in warm water for 2 – 3 hours, strain it and add twice the water and pressure cook for 1 whistle. Avoid mushing the karamani

Having a sweet tooth, I always prefer Sweet Adai over savory, and hence the post:-)

Sweet Adai

Ingredients:

Rice flour – 1 cup, sieved

Grated Coconut (Fresh/Frozen) – 1/4 cup

Jaggery –  1 cup

Karamani – 3 tbsp

Warm Water – 1 cup + 3/4 cup (keep 1/4 cup warm water separately)

Cardamom powder -1/4 tsp

Salt – a pinch

Sesame oil – to grease

Method:

• Soak jaggery in 1 cup + 3/4 cup of hot water. Since I had big chunks of jaggery it took a while, but to speed up the procees, jaggery can be cut into small pieces or cooked with water

• After the  jaggery completely melts in water, strain the impurities.
• In a pan, add jaggery syrup and bring to boil. Add the coconut, black eyed beans and cardamom powder; mix well. Add the rice flour

• Cook till it comes to non sticky dough consistency. Cover the dough with a damp cloth, as it tends to dry soon

• When the dough is cool enough to handle, make small spheres, flatten it and gently make a small dent in center. Since rice flour is gluten free, they tend to be sticky, so greasing hand with sesame oil helps to make Adai

• Steam it in a greased idli plate for 10-12 mins.

My Notes:

• If the dough becomes dry add extra water. For the flour that I used, the extra 1/4 cup water was not needed. If you feel dough is dry, add 1 tbsp of water else no need to add. Water added should be boiling hot water, so its better to keep 1/4 cup hot water separately
• Color of the Adai depends on the jaggery color

Savory Adai

Ingredients:

Rice flour – 1 cup, sieved

Grated Coconut (Fresh/frozen) – 1/4 cup

Karamani – 3 tbsp

Salt  – as needed

Water – 2 cups ( keep 1/4 cup warm water separately)

Sesame oil – to grease

For tempering

Coconut oil – 1 tsp

Mustard Seeds – 1/4 tsp

Green Chilli – 1, chopped (Adjust according to your taste)

Channa Dal – 1/2 tsp

Ginger -1 tsp, peeled and finely chopped

Curry leaves – 1 sprig, chopped

Asafoetida – a generous pinch

Method:

• Add oil to the pan. Once the oil is hot, temper with mustard seeds, channa dal, ginger, green chilli, curry leaves and asafoetida. After it splutters, add 2 cups of water and salt. Bring to boil. Once the water starts boiling add coconut, karamani and rice flour

• Cook till it comes to non sticky dough consistency. Cover the dough with a damp cloth, as it tends to dry soon
• When it is warm make small balls and flatten it into patties and make small holes in the middle as we do for pinwheels.

• When the dough is cool enough to handle, make small spheres, flatten it and gently make a small dent in center. Since rice flour is gluten free, they tend to be sticky, so greasing hand with sesame oil helps to make Adai

• Steam it in greased idli plate for 10-12 mins.

My Notes:

• In the dough becomes dry add extra water.For the flour that I used, the extra 1/4 cup water was not needed. If you feel dough is dry, add 1 tbsp of water else no need to add. Water added should be boiling hot water, so its better to keep 1/4 cup hot water separately

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Sakkarai Pongal (Sweet Pongal)

Happy Pongal!!!

For me Sakkarai Pongal is not only a festive sweet, but a sweet which I love to eat frequently. There is one rule in our home (well its imposed by me;-)) whenever my Amma cooks Ven Pongal, Sakkarai Pongal should be in dining table, then only I will eat Ven pongal:-p till date my sister pranks at me, telling about stories like this. Not only at home, even in temple I love Sakkarai pongal. Whenever my Amma goes to any temple I will demand her to get Sakkarai Pongal. My Amma adds milk to the pongal, which is my favorite part of Sweet pongal.

Yesterday I was in dilemma whether to cook pongal with rice/cracked wheat/oats/Quinoa but hubby was suggesting to go traditional (may be he wants to taste rice pongal:-)) and I also felt the same

Sweet Pongal

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Soaking time : 30 mins | Cooking Time : 40 mins | Serves : 3

Ingredients:

Raw Rice – 1/2 cup

Moong Dal – 1/2 cup

Jaggery – 1 cup heaped (Adjust sweetness according to your taste)

Milk – 1 cup + 1/3 cup

Cardamom powder – 1/8 tsp

Saffron – a small pinch (optional)

Ghee – 3 tbsp

Cashews and raisin – for taste

Water – 2 cups + 1/2 cup

Nutmeg powder – a pinch (Optional)

Salt – a pinch

Method:

• Add saffron strands in 2tbsp of warm milk and set aside. In 1/2 cup of luke warm water add jaggery and keep it aside. strain the impurities after the jaggery is completely dissolved in water

• In a pan add 1 tbsp of ghee and add cashew and cook till they are golden brown. Add raisin and switch off the flame
• Dry roast moong dal until nice aroma comes. Soak moong dal and rice in warm water for 30 mins –  1 hour and strain dal and rice

• Pressure cook moong dal, rice with remaining water and milk in medium flame. Switch off and when the pressure release naturally mush it up a ladle

• Add saffron milk and  jaggery syrup to the cooked dal and rice; allow it to boil

• Cook till it becomes semi thick (solid), as pongal thickens over time (Switch off when you see this pouring consistency)

• Add cashew, raisin and remaining ghee and mix well

My Notes:

• Pinch of Edible camphor and clove can be added for taste
• Milk is optional for Sakkarai Pongal but it gives nice taste
• Instead of rice, oats/cracked wheat/quinoa can also be used

Thiruvatharai Kali

 First post in new year I am super excited:-) For the past two days I wanted to post some recipe but I was in big dilemma what should be my first post for this year. Though I had a couple of recipes in draft somehow I was looking for some other recipe. Yesterday being Thiruvadarai I cooked Kali and Kottu. Today morning while cooking, decided to start the year with our custom traditional festive recipe

 I started this blog in April 2014. After 1 year and 5 month break from IT industry, I always thought I should start doing something during my free time. When I was thinking what to do Hubby gave me the idea to write a food blog. At first I had lot of second thoughts and with 6 month old Little one, I wasn’t sure how it will go. But once I started writing, things changed. At times I feel blogging gives me more satisfaction than 3 years in IT and that force helps to manage 2 to 3 posts a week.  2014 was remarkable for my blog – lot of cherishable memories in my blog journey hope 2015 also turns good:-)

My sincere thanks to all my visitors, followers, co – bloggers , friends and family for the motivation and feedback. Blogging world gave me lot of interesting learnings about various cuisine  and some good friends.  Recently when we went to California for our vacation I met Malar from Malar’s Kitchen and Sri from Vidhya’s Vegetarian kitchen. Though it was last minute call, we all were glad that we meet. Our meeting didn’t feel like virtual friends meeting for the first time. We all were talking as if we know each other for ages and while leaving, it felt like the 1:30 hours wasn’t enough. Hope I get chances like this frequently to meet all friends around the world:-)

Coming back to Thiruvadarai. Thiruvadarai is the traditional festival we do for god Shiva. For neividanaam, we generaaly cook this Kali

Thiruvadarai Kali

Preparation time : 10 minutes |  Cooking time : 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Raw rice – 1 cup + 1/4 cup

Moong dal – 5 tbsp

Jaggery – 1 cup + 1/4 cup (Adjust sweetness according to your taste)

Coconut – 3 tbsp + 1 tsp

Cardamom pods – 2

Ghee/Butter – 4 tbsp

Cashews –  10

Salt – small pinch

Water – 4 cup

Method:

• Dry roast raw rice and moong dal separately till golden brown. Cool them completely. Then grind them coarse in rawa (Sooji/Semolina) texture

• Add crushed jaggery and broken cadamom pods with 4 cups of water and start melting it. When jaggery is fully dissolved and bubbles start appearing, switch off and strain to remove impurities, set aside. In pan add jaggery syrup and when it starts boiling, add salt, rice & dal powder and cook it for a minute till water combines with rice and dal

• Transfer it to the cooker separator and cover with the lid. Pressure cook for 3 whistles in medium low flame and switch off. Once pressure releases give a mix

• Add 1 tbsp of ghee to the pan. when it is hot add cashew and saute till its golden brown. Add the kali, shredded coconut and remaining butter and stir well. Cook till the kali comes together to a fluffy mass (when all extra moisture is absorbed)

My Notes:

• Kali texture depends on the consistency in which rice and dal are ground
• Always cover the the rice dal and jaggery syrup container with a lid to avoid water layer at the top
• Instead of cooking in pressure cooker and sauting in pan, can directly cook in pan
• Can cook rice and dal mixture seperately and mix it to the jaggery syrup
• instead of grinding moong dal, can also add them whole
• Kali becames grainy over time
• Saute rice and dal separately to avoid them from overcooking
• Color of the kali depends on the jaggery
• Cardamom Powder can be used instead of cadamom

Vinayaka (Ganesh) Chaturthi Recipes

Wishing you all a Happy Ganesh Chaturthi/ Vinayagar Chathurthi 🙂

Click on each picture for the recipe…