Vella Payaru / Payaru Sweet Sundal

This post has been lying in the draft for more than two months.  I made this sundal for navarathri. I followed my patti's traditional way of doing this sundal. Here goes the recipe.
Ingredients:-

1. Red Karamani -  1 cup (soak it overnight)
2. Jaggery - 1 cup (plus or minus acc to taste)
3. cardamom - 3 (powder it)
4. Ghee - 2 tsp

Pressure cook Karamani till its done (it took 5 whistles for me). In the mean time, take a heavy bottomed pan add the jaggery with required amount of water (little less than1 cup preferably) and let it melt. Remove impurities from it by filtering it in a thin cloth. Again pour the jaggery water in the same pan and let it boil. When it starts boiling really well, add the cooked karamani, powdered cardamom to it and let everything mix and cook for 5 to 7 minutes. When karamani mixes really well, turn off the stove and the add the ghee now and mix everything well.  This can be eaten as evening snack too.

Saraswathi Pooja Celebrations & goodies

Saraswathi Pooja is my most favorite celebration when I was a girl. Cos thats when we don't have to do any homework nor do we study on that day(lol). Since its the last day of navrathri, in my mom's place, we make lots of goodies on that day. This year, I wanted to do the same way so that my girls could also learn our tradition and culture. This year I made aama vadai, pal payasam, kondakadala(black channa dhall) sundal and the regular south Indian traditional samayal. It was really fun that day and we successfully enrolled our girls for swimming lessons. Since I have posted recipe for pal payasam already, I am just posting recipes for aama vadai and kondakadalai sundal here along with few more pictures of that day...



Kondakadalai sundal:-
Ingredients:-

1. Kondakadalai/Black Channa dhall - 1 cup
2. coconut - 1 tsp
3. salt to taste
4. oil - 1/2 tsp
5. mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
6. urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
7. red chillies - 1
8. curry leaves- few
9. asafoetida powder - a pinch

Soak black channa dhall over night. Pressure cook it when you are ready to make sundal. Drain it fully when the pressure is released. Take a pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall and red chillies to golden brown. Now add the cooked sundal to it. Add salt and mix it well. Turn off the stove. Now sprinkle the coconut and asafoetida powder and mix it well. Garnish it with curry leaves.
Well I guess I need to post the recipe for aama in my next post cos my girls want me to read a book now.

Happy Navrathri!!!

HAPPY NAVRATHRI TO ALL MY BUDDY BLOGGERS!!!

Hope you guys are having fun with all those wonderul dolls. Kolu is one of my favorite Indian festival where we get to see lots and lots of beautiful dolls. This year I got some help from my girls cleaning up the dolls, setting kolu padi, giving manjal kumkumam to friends etc. Since I had to go get thamboolam from my friend's place, I am doing sundal & sweet on every other day and the remaining days, I just use white rice for neivedhyam. Yesterday I made Kadala paruppu sundal & Rava Kesari for neivedhyam. On sunday I made Garbanzo sundal and aval Payasam. I am sharing the recipes of kadala paruppu sundal and rice flakes payasam here cos I have already posted the recipe for rava kesari and Channa sundal.

Kadala Paruppu Sundal:-

Ingredients:-

1. Channa dhall/Kadala Paruppu - 1 cup
2. Red chillies - 1 or 2 (acc to taste)
3. Salt to taste
4. Shredded coconut - 1 tbsp
5. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
6. oil - 1 tsp
7. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
8. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
9. Curry leaves -few
   

Soak dhall for an hour. Pressure cook it upto one whistle. Dhall should not be over cooked. Other wise it will be mushy. Once the pressure is released, drain the dhall and keep it aside. Take a pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall and red chillies to golden brown. Now add the cooked dhall to it and mix it well.Add salt and asafoetida powder and mix it. Turn off the stove and sprinkle the coconut and garnish it with curry leaves.

Aval Rice Flakes Payasam:-

This is the first time I am trying this payasam and I found it very easy and handy. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Rice flakes - 1 cup
2. Milk - 2 cups
3. Sugar - 1 cup(acc to taste)
4. Cardamom - 1 or 2 ( powder it)
5. Edible camphor/pachakarpooram - a pinch
6. Food color - a pinch (this is optional/I used orange color)
7. Cashew - few for garnishing
8. ghee - 1/2 tsp

Soak rice flakes in water for half an hour. Drain it fully and keep it aside. Now take a thick bottomed pan and pour a cup of milk and bring it to boil. When the milk starts boiling, add the aval to it and let it boil for 3 minutes. Now add the remaining mil, cardamom, food color and pachakarpooram and let it boil for another 5 minutes. When the quantity becomes 3/4th turn off the stove and add the sugar at the end and mix it well. Fry cashew to golden brown in ghee and pour it on top of payasam. It just took 10 minutes to finish this payasam.

Navarathri Celebrations

Navarathri - Which is one of my favorite hindu festival. Since I was born and brought up in an Agraharam, we celebrate navarathri in a very grand manner. There were 40 residents in that Agraharam and 36 residents will have navarathri festival. Since I am the only girl in our family, my mom and my aunt used to put costumes everyday like madisaar mami, krishnar, Radha, Ramar, etc. It used to be really fun to visit everyone's place everyday without fail, with all my friends and most of all collecting Sundal is the main part of navarathri for us. We never bothered to see the decorations people have made or new idols sitting in the padi etc, our goal is to collect Sundal and we work hard (!) to collect maximum. Now a days my girls' miss all those fun. So I try to make whatever I could during these Navarathri days to make them happy and enjoy the festival. I didn't follow any particular theme this year cos one of my twin is sick with viral fever. I just arranged the idols. First padi is Vinayakar - Lakshmi - Saraswathi set, and Murugan - Valli kurathi - Deivanai kalyana kolam along with kalasam. Second padi is karthikai Pengal with baby Murugan in lotus flower set. Third padi is Dasavatharam (not kamal's movie) with a small Venkatachalapathy and Ragavendrar (some people believe, he is a avatar of Mahavishnu) and Laughing buddha. Fourth and Fifth padi were arranged by my twin girls. Fourth padi has a tusker elephant, Halloween pumpkin, Mermaid and Newyork skylights. Fifth padi has dolphins, santa, leather back seaturtle, snowman, birds, a small house and Lasvegas Luxor model. My better half is not interested in all these rituals and he doesn't believe in these rituals. So he never bothers to help us out.

This is what I made during Navrathri as Neivedhyam. First day started with Simple Vermicelli Payasam .

Next day I made Garbanzo Sundal which was really a hit.

On thursday I made Black eyed bean sundal with Quick Carrot Halwa.

On friday, I made Mixed vegetable Sundal with Paal and pazham (milk+banana+sugar) as sweet.

On Saturday, I made , Black Chickpeas Sundal with Oats Vadai and sojji(kesari).

On sunday, I had only rice, cos I had to visit friends' place to get navarathri thaamboolam.

On monday I made Rajma sundal with Pal Payasam.


On Tuesday I made carrot halwa and no Sundal(!). On wednesday, I just did the regular cooking with rice and milk as naivedhyam. and On thursday, I made paruppu vadai (will write the recipe in detail cos I didn't deep fry the vadai, instead I bake them) and sabudhana payasam as prasadham and finished the navarathri celebrations successfuly.

Rajma Sundal

Making sundal is very easy. Even though most of us know the recipe for making sundal, this recipe might help the new cooks. 5 years back when I started learning how to cook, frankly speaking I didn't know how to season a simple curry. I used make an international call to ask for help. Lets coming back to the recipe, here is the recipe for making rajma sundal.

Ingredients:-

1. Rajma - 1 cup
2. OIl - 1 tsp
3. Salt to taste
4. Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
5. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
6. Red chillies - 2 (acc to taste
7. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
8. Curry leaves - few
9. Coconut - 1 tsp
   

Soak rajma beans for atleast 4 hours before cooking. Pressure cook it adding required amount of salt and drain it when it is ready to open the cooker. Take a pan, pre heat oil, add mustard seeds, add urad dhall, asafoetida powder red chillies and curry leaves and fry it till golden brown. Now add the cooked and drained rajma beans to it and mix it well. Sprinkle coconut on top of it. Serve it hot. Enjoy this also as a side dish for sambar rice

Veggie Salad Cum Sundal

This is something I got the recipe from a magazine and I wanted to try this for Navarathri as sundal (!). It was really colorful and the left over was used as salad.

Ingredients:-

1. Baby corn - 4
2. Baby Carrots - 3
3. Moong sprouts - 1/4 cup
4. Mango - 2 tbsp
5. Salt to taste
6. Lemon juice - 2 tsp
7. Pepper - a pinch
8. Coriander leaves - few

Chop Baby corn and carrots into small pieces. In the mean time, microwave or steam cook the sprouts till it becomes softer. Drain the excess water and add it to corn and carrots. Chop mango into small pieces to match carrots and corn. Add it to the sprout mixtures. Add salt and pepper, lemon juice and coriander leaves and mix it well. Here we can also use green chillies in the place of black pepper.

Black Eyed Beans Sundal

This is another sundal I made during Navarathri. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Black Eyed beans - 1 cup
2. Salt to taste
3. Oil - 1 tsp
4. Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
5. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
6. Curry leaves - few
7. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
8. Red chillies - 2
9. Coconut - 1 tsp
   

Soak black eyed beans for atleast 4 hours. Pressure cook it adding required amount of salt and drain it after opening the pressure cooker. Take a pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, add urad dhall, curry leaves, red chillies and asafoetida powder and fry it till golden brown. Now add the cooked beans to it and mix it well. sprinkle the coconut on top. enjoy!!

Garbanzo Sundal

My mom's place is near Marina beach. Beach is just 2 bus stops from my house. When I was in school, during summer vacation, we often go to marina beach with few of my friends who live near by and we will have fun. Usually my dad joins us. He used to get this sundal from a brahmin boy who used to sell this sundal in Marina beach everyday after his school. It used to be really good. I tried to follow the same recipe and it came out exactly the same:-)

Ingredients:-

1. Garbanzo Beans - 1 cup
2. Raw Mango - little less than 1/4 cup
3. Coconut - 2 tbsp
4. Oil - 1 tsp
5. mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
6. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
7. Red chillies - 1
8. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
9. Salt to taste
   

Soak garbanzo beans for about 6 hours. Cook it adding a pinch of salt. Keep it aside. In the mean time, cut mango and coconut evenly into very tiny pieces. Take a pan, pre heat oil, add mustard seeds, when it splutters add urad dhall, red chillies and asafoetida powder and fry it till it becomes golden brown. Now add the cooked garbanzo beans, add mango and coconut pieces, adjust salt and mix it well. Turn off the stove. Serve it hot and can have it as evening snack. As we all know, garbanzo beans is rich in protein and mango is rich in vitamin C which is very essential for the kids during winter days.