Sago Rice Kheer, Sago Curd Rice, Seasoned Curd Rice with Pomagranate ~ Navratri Special Dishes

For the last day of Navratri, the prasadams have to be in white and I decided to go with Sago. So I made Sago payasam, curd rice with Sago and the regular Curd rice seasoned and garnished with Pomegranate. It's pretty late today, so will leave with a short note as I have another early day tomorrow for the Vijayadasami Pooja.

Sago Rice Kheer

Sago - 1/2 cup
Cooked Rice - 1/2 cup
Milk - 2 cups
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Water - 1 cup
Ghee - 1 tsp
Cashews and Raisins for garnish

How to make the Kheer:

Soak the sago overnight and change waters. Pressure cook for a whistle. Drain the water from the sago.

In a pan, bring the milk to boil, add the water drained from the sago. Add the cooked rice and mash well.

Add the sugar and let it simmer. Finally add the cooked sago and simmer for 5 mins. In another pan, roast the nuts and pout over the kheer.

Sago Curd Rice

Sago - 1/2 cup
Curds - 2 tbs
Milk - 2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Take the boiled sago and mix in the curds and milk. Season with mustard and curry leave.s

Seasoned Curd Rice with Pomegranate.

Hope you all had a great festival season.

Moth Dal, Moong Dal Ven Pongal ~ Navratri Special Dishes

Today's neivedhyam was with Moth dal, Moong dal Ven Pongal. I make Ven Pongal in three different ways. This adds to the collection and is very healthy dish to boot. I recently picked up moth dal and have not cooked before. Deciding what to do, I thought making it as Ven Pongal was the best thing. I added Moong dal to make it more like the regular Ven pongal taste.

It would help if you soak the dal overnight. I simply roasted it and pressure cooked. That made it crunchy and not soft. Else otherwise the taste was simply superb.

Moth Dal

Moth Dal, Moong Dal Ven Pongal

Ingredients Needed:

Moth Dal - 1/4 cup
Moong Dal - 1/4 cup
Rice  - 1/4 cup
Salt to taste

For seasoning

Crushed Wholepepper - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves
Cashew nuts
Ghee - 2 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp

How to make the Ven pongal.

Soak the moth dal overnight. Drain and keep it aside.

Dry roast the moong dal and take the moth dal, moong dal and rice. Pressure cook for 3 whistles.

Once the pressure falls, heat a pan with oil and ghee, add whole peppercorn, cumin seeds, curry leaves and cashews.

When the cashews are roasted, pout this on the cooked pongal.

Serve as prasadam.

Ven Pongal Recipe
Pulagam aka Ven Pongal with a difference 
Rava Pongal
Whole Green Moong Dal Ven Pongal

The Sundal offered was Boiled Ground nuts.

Navaratri 2012 Recipes | Easy Recipes for Navratri

Indian Festival Foods

Coconut Poha (Thengai Aval), Brown Karamani Sundal ~ Navratri Special Dishes

The last three days of Navratri is dedicated to Goddess Saraswati. The neivedhyam offered has to be of white colour. It can be dishes with coconut, curds and payasam. I decided to make with Poha with coconut. Though I had already posted this recipe, I decided to make it again. The sundal offered was made with brown karamai with lentils and nuts added. 

Our family friends invited us for the Gollu at their home. I took the kids along to show them the Gollu is arranged. They were so excited and even practiced what to sing when they go there. They have surely grown up from the last time they saw. I remembered my childhood, when we lived in a colony. It used to be such a grand time during Navrati season. We get visit so many homes on daily basis and it was really so much fun. I was feeling sad that it's just about one or two occasions for us to visit these days.

Coconut Poha, Karamani Sundal and Appam ~ Navratri Neivedyam

The Gollu was so beautifully done and the kids were so taken in by the whole arrangement. Aunty had really done a wonderful job and was going on encouraging the boys sit and check them out in detail. They were so silent and everybody assumed that they were very quite. If only they knew!

Anyway they were so excited with the toys and chips aunty gave them. She surely knew how to get them interested. I am sure next time they won't say no.

The Coconut Poha surely makes a quick snack or tiffin item.

 

Coconut Poha

Ingredients Needed:

Thick Poha / Aval - 1 cup
Fresh Coconut, grated - 1/2 cup

For seasoning:

Oil - 1 tsp
Roasted ground nuts - 1 tsp
Cashew nuts - 5
Chana dal -1 tsp
Mustard Seeds, Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Hing a pinch
Salt to taste
Curry leaves
Green Chilies - 4 long

How to make the Coconut Poha

Wash and soak the poha for 5 -7 mins. Drain and keep it aside.

Grate the coconut and keep it ready

Heat a non stick pan with oil, sputter mustard, urad dal, curry leaves, chopped green chilies, roasted nuts. Saute for couple of minutes. Add hing

Then add the grated coconut and salt. Saute well.

Finally add the drained poha and combine everything well.

Brown Karamani Sundal

Soak the karamani overnight and pressure cook till done.

Heat a pan with oil, saute with curry leaves, channa dal, mustard and Urad dal. Add green chiles. Finally add the cooked karamani. Adjust spice and simmer for few minutes.

Navaratri 2012 Recipes | Easy Recipes for Navratri

Indian Festival Foods

Rava Semiya Payasam, Kollu Sundal ~ Navratri Special Dishes

For the sixth day of Navratri we have to make a payasam. I decided to make something with Jaggary and wheat. I had already made the versions I knew and I wasn't exactly having enough time to think of something new on those lines. Since I have already have Semiya Payasam and a variety of Rava Payasam, I thought I must combine these two to get another version in place.

If only I got my thinking ahead of time and did this the right way. I knew Rava soaks up milk and the semiya/ Vermicelli doesn't get cooked up properly if sugar is added before. Well it was a tricky situation and I was running out of time. So I did the easiest possible way. Sad that it ended up soaking up all the milk I added! Anyway here is a delicious Payasam still, if only you take care to add the things at the right time!

After a hiatus of three weeks, I am back to work and I didn't want either things to be undone because of this. It's a holiday for kids and they were up early, on regular days you would find us having tough time waking up the boys. But on holidays, they are up as early as they can. They even had their games all planned up and were up to it. 

Though I planned on a different prasadam, I ended up making this as I couldn't find the Wheat Rava that I was supposed to use. Anyway I knew this payasam would turn out great as well. My only concern was not finding the right cookery to display this. Imagine all white plates, bowls and white dishes! Gosh I was going crazy thinking what contrast I should put in place, but none came to mind. So it's white you are going to see today.

Rava Semiya Payasam

Ingredients Needed:

Rava - 1/2 cup
Semiya - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Milk - 4 cups
Water - 2 cups
Condensed Milk - 2 tsp

For Garnish

Roasted Cashews and Raisins
Ghee - 1 tsp

How to make the Payasam

Heat a non stick pan with ghee, roast the nuts and keep it aside.

Roast the semiya and then rava. Add milk and bring to boil. Simmer for 5 - 7 mins. Add water and bring to boil.

When rava and semiya is cooked, add sugar and bring to boil. Finally add the roasted nuts.

Notes:

If you add Rava much later, it won't soak up all the milk. If this gets thicken, add milk microwave and serve.
Else you can serve as thick pudding.

Kollu Sundal / Horse Gram Sundal

This is a simple sundal with kollu, which is soaked overnight. Pressure cook with enough water. The water drained from the sundal can be made into Ulavala Charu or Horsegram Rasam, which is a very famous Andhra Charu. 

Drained Kollu can be sauteed with regular seasoning and served.

Navaratri 2012 Recipes | Easy Recipes for Navratri

Indian Festival Foods

Corn Rava Kesari with Palm Sugar, Dried Green Chana Sundal ~ Navratri Special Dishes

For today's Navratri Pooja, it's second day for Goddess Lakshmi. It has to be a Kesari, so I made a kesari with Corn Rava and Palm Sugar / Panang Kalkandu. Palm sugar can be used as alternative to white sugar. Unless you are told that the kesari is made using Palm Sugar, you won't really find much difference in taste. PJ has a wonderful post on what Palm Sugar is all about.

Since I have made Kesari with all possible grains/ingredients, seeing the corn rava got me thinking that I could make kesari with it and use Palm sugar instead of refined sugar. 

For the Sundal, we made with dried Green Channa, with simple tempering. Since today is Friday, Lord Ganesha is also invoked along with Goddess Lakshmi. To please Lord Ganesha, nothing can please him more than Kolukattai with Coconut purnam. 

So today's prasadam was Corn Rava Kesari with Palm Sugar, Green Chana Sundal and Kolukattai.

Corn Rava Kesari with Palm Sugar

Ingredients Needed:

Corn Rava - 1 cup
Palm Sugar - 1 cup
Water - 4 cups
Cashew nuts - handful
Ghee - 2 tsp

How to make Kesari

Pound the palm sugar and melt with enough water. Once melted, remove the scum if anything found. Keep it aside.

Heat a pan with ghee with cashew nuts, then add the rava. Saute well. Add melted palm sugar to the pan and bring to boil.

Simmer and cook till done.

Notes:

Pressure cooking the corn will make the task of cooking this easy. First I had cooked it directly, though the kesari got cooked well, it got dried up fast with the corn kernels getting dried up. So I had to microwave it for 10 mins with 1 cup water.

So if you Pressure cook the corn kernels, this is very easy to get done.

Dried Green Channa

Greed Chana - 1 cup

For Tempering

Oil - 1 tsp

Mustard Seeds, Urad dal - 1/4 tsp

Green Chilies - 2 long

Salt to taste

Soak the dried green chana overnight and pressure cook till done.

Then temper the boiled chana with the tempering ingredients.

Navaratri 2012 Recipes | Easy Recipes for Navratri

Indian Festival Foods

Samba Godumai Sakkarai Pongal with Moong Dal, Double Beans Sundal ~ Navratri Special Dishes

The second three days are dedicated to Goddess Lakshmi, and the prasadams will have to be sweet based, mostly with Jaggary, we we can use sugar as well. So decided to make a Sakkarai Pongal with Samba Godumai, fine. The previous time when I had made a Sambar Godumai sweet pongal, the rava was thicker version and I had used other spices as well. I kept it to very simple version like the regular Sakkarai Pongal.

Today's version is made with very fine rava of Samba Godumai and along with Moong dal, channa dal. Other than nuts and ghee, this version is very simple and quick to make. 

We have been having heavy rains since last night. We woke up to heavy rains and decided not to send the boys for school. Konda wanted to go as she had some tests and I think she wanted to enjoy the trip through rains. I remembered my school days, when I never used to miss even a day, even when it was raining cats and dogs. It's been a tough task keeping the boys engaged. They ended up finding out their own games and have been on a rampant of different games. Well that had our help going out of her wits. Anyway the unexpected off gave them many ideas.

Coming back to the dishes, I also made a simple sundal with Double beans. I remember Amma cooking so much with Double Beans. All her biryanis always had fresh double beans. Athamma remembered this and took a packet when we shopped.  

Now that we have got different grains, flours and lentils, you will be assaulted to different variations of these ingredients. What else will you say, when I ended up making Bansi Rava Kesari, Samba Goduma Sweet Pongal and next on my list will have to be something different! Gosh I have exhausted my ideas on twisting and turning the same ingredients into either pongal or kesari..:) That's not to say this wasn't delicious. We really enjoyed the taste the rava gives.

Sweet Pongal with Fine Broken Wheat

Ingredients Needed:

Broken Wheat Fine - 1/2 cup
Yellow Moong Dal  - 1/2 cup
Channa Dal - 1 tsp
Jaggary - 1/2 cup
Water - 1 cup
Milk - 2 tbsp

Cashew Nuts handful
Ghee - 1 tsp

Method to prepare:


Melt jaggary in another pan. Remove scum if any.



Pressure cook the moong dal and channa dal till done. Add the samba goduma to the pressure cooker along with jaggary. Cook for couple of whistles.

When the pressure falls, remove and add milk. In another pan, heat ghee roast the cashews. Add to the pongal.

Double Beans Sundal

Ingredients Needed:

Double Beans - 1/2 cup
Curry leaves
Mustard Seeds, Urad Dal - 1/2 tsp
Green Chilies - 1 long
Dry Red chilies - 1 long
Hing a pinch
Salt to taste
Grated Fresh Coconut.

How to make the sundal

Soak the beans overnight and change water before pressure cooking them. This needs more than 4 whistles as the beans are dry ones.

Once done, drain and keep it aside.

Heat a pan with oil temper with curry leaves, mustard seeds, urad dal, hing, and chilies. Saute for a minute and then add the drained beans. Simmer for couple of minutes.

Serve as prasadam.

Navaratri 2012 Recipes | Easy Recipes for Navratri

Indian Festival Foods