Karthigai Deepam

Happy Karthigai Deepam to one and all :)

One of the important festivals celebrated in Tamil Nadu fell on Dec 8 this year. 

Casual browsing on details of the festival, a little about its history etc brought me to the link below - 

http://www.kamalascorner.com/2010/11/karthigai-deepam.html 

This is a wonderful website on cooking and has archives of information on many South Indian recipes. Most importantly, I liked the organisation of information on this website. In the link provided above, there is a section on Karthigai recipes and there are some new ones I noted -Sooji Appam and Panaolai Kozhakattai. 

Yes, coming down to what I prepared for the festival - Adai, Appam and Vella Aval were prepared for the occasion. I am sure most of us already know the recipes of Adai and Appam. People usually prepare vella poree or poree urundai using puffed rice which are crispy. I prepared Vella Aval (one using beaten rice flakes), I had it as a prasadham in an Ayyappa temple in Bangalore last week, liked it, guessed what could have gone into making it and prepared along that thought. 

Recipes: 

Vella Aval (Jaggery with Jada Poha) 

1 cup Jada Poha (thick Aval/beaten rice flakes) 

1 cup Jaggery (powdered) 

2 tsp Til seeds (I used brown til)

1 tsp Cardamom powder

1 tbsp Ghee 

2 tbsp Cashewnuts (broken) 

2 tbsp Grated coconut 

Take required quantity of poha/aval in a bowl and wash it well with water. Drain any excess (free flowing) water and let the poha/aval rest in the bowl. The latent moisture in the bowl will cause the poha/aval to swell. The basic intention is to infer the quantity of swollen poha and take equal quantity of jaggery. This proportion would provide the right sweetness to the dish. 

In a pan, heat ghee, add broken cashews and roast well till they are golden brown. Add the til seeds now and roast till they crackle.Take care to maintain distance from the pan as they splutter. 

Now into this, add the powdered jaggery and on light heat, mix the contents of the pan well. The jaggery will melt into a syrup slowly. Add the poha (swollen - Usually, this swelling process takes about 5-7 minutes) into the pan and give a thorough stir. Once the contents of the pan are evenly mixed, add the cardamom powder and turn off the stove. Vella Aval is ready and it came close to the prasadham I had in the temple :) 

Adai 

For 1 cup idli rice - 

Little less than 1/4 cup Urad dall (whole)

1/2 cup toor + channa dal mixture (both dals constitute this mixture equally) 

5-6 red chillies

2 tsp black pepper

All of the above are soaked overnight. These are then ground to a fine batter with sufficient water, salt to taste and a pinch of asafoetida in a wet grinder. The batter is left for 2 hours to ferment, then used to make adais on a hot tawa just the way we make dosa. 

ready to be made into adais. Best served with a dollop of butter/spoon of ghee, can use molagai podi (chutney powder) as an accompaniment. Powdered jaggery as an accompaniment stands out as it complements the peppery taste in adai. 

Appam

1 cup of raw rice in soaked in water overnight. 

1 cup of powdered jaggery (rice and jaggery equal proportions for the right sweetness) 

1 small banana (yellow variety) 

1 tsp cardamom powder

3 tbsp grated coconut or 2 tbsp finely chopped coconut pieces 

The soaked rice is ground in a mixer (after carefully draining water completely) with powdered jaggery and one banana mashed into it. Cardamom powder is added to the mixer contents. Again, one more run of the mixer to ensure all contents are mixed well. Leave the appam batter to rest for 6 hours at least. This resting time is mandatory to get soft appams. If you have time, then grind the rice with jaggery in a wet grinder, this will yield super soft appams when compared to using mixer. 

When the batter is ready to go into the fry pan specifically used to make appam - Paniyaram pan, add the coconut pieces or grated coconut. 

Set the paniyaram pan on stove. In each of the pits in the pan, pour sufficient oil, lace it with small quantities of ghee. I refrain from frying the appams entirely in ghee, though if my maternal grandmother saw this adulteration, she would kill me :) 

Pour a ladle of batter into each of the pits, ensure the batter covers the pit well and does not overflow outside. Cook appams in the pan on medium flame, turn them over after some time to ensure they are evenly cooked. This proportion yielded me 18 appams. 

Mashed banana's addition to the batter makes appam take in a little more oil. But you can pardon yourself once in while as banana adds an unparalleled sweet and fruity taste to appam.