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

Poha Bisi Bele Bath, Vellai Karamani Sundal ~ Navaratri Special dishes

Wishing all my readers a blessed Navaratri!

As with previous couple of years, I wanted to celebrate Navaratri virtual this year as well. As per calender, Navratri started from 16th Oct and ends on 23rd Oct. This time again we have two tithis coming on the same day. However we started the pooja on the 15th as per Tirumala Devasthanam started the Navarathri Brahmotsavam schedule. 

The first three days are dedicated to Devi Durga, and the prasadam offered has to be spicy, tangy and sour. During these three days, we make Lemon Rice, Tamarind Rice and Sambar Rice along with some Sundal. Last year I was able to make a sweet dish as well on each day. We made Lemon Rice for the first day, Pulihora for the second day. So today's prasadam I made Bisibelebath with Poha.

We have made all varieties of sundals with different lenthils, so deciding to make something new, I took Athamma for shopping and she was so excited as a kid, planning different payasam and kesaris with all the ingredients we got.

Planning on making the sambar rice, I thought I should make the sambar rice differently. Thinking what the change should be, I remembered Poha, and decided to make the Bisibelebath with Poha. Everytime I make Bisibelebath or Sambar Rice I keep changing the spice powder. This time, changing the main ingredient made all the difference.

Though the process is almost the same as your regular Bisibelebath, you got to be cautious in making sure the poha is not mashed up.

Poha Bisibelebath

Ingredients Needed:

For the Bath

Poha/ Aval - 1 & 1/2 cup

Toor Dal - 3/4 cup

Vegetables (Beans, Carrot, Potato, Drum Stick) - 1 & 1/2 cup

Tomatoes - 2 medium

Tamarind extract - 2 tsp

Salt to taste

For the Masala / Spice Powder:

Dry Red chili - 2 long

Coriander Seeds - 1 tbsp

Channa Dal - 1 tbsp

Urad Dal -  1 tbsp

Whole Peppercorn - 1 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Mogga - 2

Clove - 2 

Cinnamon stick - 1"

For Seasoning

Oil - 2 tsp

Pearl Onions/ Sambar Onions - 1/2 cup

Curry leaves

Cashew nuts handful

Ghee - 1 tsp

How to make the Poha Bisibelebath

Wash and pressure cook the toor dal till done along with turmeric powder. 

Wash and chop all the vegetables. 

Meanwhile dry roast the ingredients for the spice powder, allow to cool and grind to a smooth powder. Keep it aside.

Once the pressure falls, churn the dal well, add the chopped vegetables along with tomatoes except drumstick. Cook for couple of whistles, let the pressure fall, add the drumstick pieces. Cook for a whistle. Allow for the pressure to fall down.

Make sure the water is not too much. I ended up adding little more than required, so cooked till the excess water evaporated. Add the ground spice powder along with tamarind extract and continue cooking.

Wash and soak the poha for 5 -7 mins. Make sure you don't soak for long. Drain and keep it ready.

With the dal thickens, add the drained poha and simmer for 5 mins. Remember when this turns cold, it will absorb all liquid.

In a pan, heat oil and saute the onions, curry leaves and cashews. Pour this on the simmering bath and add the ghee.

Serve hot.

Vellai Karamani Sundal

This sundal is made with spicy masala and makes a great snack.

Ingredients Needed:

Vellai Karamani - 1 cup
Salt to taste
Curry leaves few
Mustard Seeds, Urad dal for seasoning.
Oil - 1 tsp

Spice powder

Dry Red chilis - 1 long
Whole Coriander -1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

How to make the sundal

Wash and soak the karamani overnight. Pressure cook for couple of whistles till done. Drain and keep it aside.

Dry roast the ingredients for the spice powder. Allow to cool and grind to a fine powder.

Heat a pan with oil, add mustard seeds, Urad dal, curry leaves. Then add in the boiled karamani, saute for couple of mins, then sprinkle the spice powder along with salt.

Simmer for a min and remove from flame.

Navaratri Special Dishes prepared during 2009 and 2011

Bisi Bele Huli Anna as Amma makes
Kadambam Sadam



Indian Festival Foods