Pongal Celebrations

Hi readers,

Happy Pongal, Sankranthi and Vishu. Hope you are all having as much fun as we are.
May God bless you all. Lets start with a background on this festival.

Thai Pongal is a harvest festival event celebrated by Tamils across the world. Pongal coincides with the festival Makara Sankranthi celebrated in various other parts of India. Pongal in Tamil means "boiling over or spill over." The act of boiling over of milk in the clay pot is considered to denote future wishes for the family.

Makara Sankranti/Thai Pongal celebrates the resumption of the sun's 'journey northwards' where the days get longer. Tamil Hindus dedicate the first grain harvested to the sun on this 'Surya Mangalya'. The celebration of Makara Sankranti/Pongal is not confined to the Tamils. It is a pan-Indic event described in the Mahabharata. Traditionally celebrated at harvest time, it's a celebration of the prosperity associated with the harvest by thanking the sun god, rain and the farm animals that have helped in the harvest. In villages, new clothes are worn and people owning cows find this festival more important. Pongal is celebrated by the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.(from WIKI)


This is our pooja thali - sweet pongal, gulab jamun and vada. You can find the recipes as the entry progresses.
Otta vada:

Also known as medhu vada or ulundu vada, this is a famous snack as well as a breakfast accompaniment in South India especially Tamilnadu, Kerala, Karnataka.

Ingredients:

Skinned whole urad dal - 1 cup
green chillies-2
ginger chopped-small piece
onion chopped- a handful
Salt -1 tsp flat (crystal salt) or as required. (If using table salt use less)
Plastic sheet or banana leaf for making vadas(we used ziploc bag)
Oil for deep frying.

Method:

Soak Urad dal for half an hour and refrigerate it for 1 hour. Drain the water and grind it along with green chillies and salt to a smooth and soft batter adding as little water as possible.It is better to use the wet grinder for grinding than the mixie. Your batter is now ready. (tips- to find out if your batter is ready, dampen your hand and take a small ball of batter - it should not stick to your hands).

Heat oil in a deep bottomed kadai. Now take a bowl of water, dampen your fingers in it, take a lemon sized vada batter and flatten it slightly on a plastic sheet or back of the banana leaf. You can even use the aavin milk cover after washing. Enga amma apadi than seithanga. Make a hole in the middle. Now slowly transfer the shaped dough to your hands and slip it into the hot oil very gently. Fry till it turns golden brown on both sides. Remove it from oil. Repeat the process. You can fry 3-4 vadas at a time depending on the size of your kadai and the amount of oil.

Sweet Pongal:

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup

Moong daal - 1/2 cup

Milk - 3 cups

Water - 3 cup

Jaggery - as required (I used 1 cup powdered)

Ghee - 1 tablespoon

Cashews - a handful

Raisins - optional

Cardamom powder - a pinch

Method:

1. Pressure cook washed rice and daal with water and milk.
2. Heat water and add jaggery cubes and make a syrup that watery.
3. Once the rice and daal are cooked and the pressure is released, add the jaggery water to the rice-daal and mix well.
4. In a pan, heat some ghee and roast cashews and raisins and garnish the pongal.

Finally the Gulab jamun, it was made with the readymade mix. So we leave it to you guys.
Have a nice day.

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Sweet coconut filled kozhukattai/Modakam

We made kozhukkattai for ganesh chaturthi. They came out well.

Ingredients:

Dough:

Rice flour - 1 cup

Water - 1 and quarter cup

Oil - 1 teaspoon

Salt - less than quarter teaspoon

Note: For rice flour I used the regular rice flour available in the Indian grocery store. Authentic kozhukattai is made of pounded rice flour called Kai kuthal arisi maavu in tamil. It is prepared thus. Soak rice for one hour in water. Drain water through colander and dry by spreading over a towel under shade for one and half hours. Pound it to a fine powder. Sieve it. Allow to dry under shade for another one day. Keep in dry air-tight container and use whenever required.

Coconut filling:

Grated fresh coconut ( or shredded fresh coconut on the frozen secion in the Indian grocery store) - 1 cup

Grated white jaggery (light golden jaggery) - 1 cup (level)

Finely cut cashewnuts - 1 tablespoon

Ghee - 3 teaspoons

Cardamom powder - quarter teaspoon

Roasted gram - grind the gram (chutney dal or pottu kadalai) - 1 tablespoon

Method:

Filling:

Grate white portion of the fresh coconut using traditional grater or buy the readymade fresh shredded coconut in the freezer section. Thaw it for an hour before use.

Grind the grated coconut for even and fine grating.

Mix grated jaggery to this and heat in a heavy bottomed kadai strring in between till jaggery melts completely.

When the mixture becomes a little thick stir in the ground gram dal, ghee fried finely chopped cashewnuts and cardamom powder.

Remove from heat and allow it to cool down completely before stuffing it into the kozhukattai.

Do the filling first and get ready the dough. By the time the dough is done the filling will be cooled off.

Dough:

Heat water in a heavy bottomed kadai. Add salt and oil to the boiling water.

When the water starts bubbling, reduce the heat and pour the rice flour in the center as a heap. Insert a ladle and close with a lid leaving little gap.

Reduce the heat and cook for seven to ten minutes. Turn off the heat and stir the rice flour dough quickly without lumps.

Let the dough cool down a little. When it is still luke warm knead well to a smooth dough using little water to sprinkle if necessary. Apply oil the hands at the end while kneading.

Make small lemon sized balls out of the dough.

Making kozhukattai:

Using thumb and forefinger, flatten the edges first and gradually shape it like a cup carefully turning and pressing with equal pressure on all sides.

Keep little filling and fold it to seal well. Use the fork edge and press in the sides to form a design.

Arrange on a greased idli plate and steam cook for seven to ten minutes. Serve luke warm. Be careful while eating when it is still hot. The filling will be very very hot.

We recently saw modakam mould which gives momo shaped kozhukattais...We are planning to try them next time.

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