Nuts Poli for Sankranthi Special | Traditional Sankranthi Customs with Rangolis

Happy Sankranthi to all my readers!

Hope everybody has had great festival celebrations. Bhogi and Sankranthi is always celebrated with much pomp and planning. During school days we used to get almost four days off. I remember visiting my grandparent’s home for Sankranthi and it used to be so festive. We normally used to travel on Bhogi morning, and could see the “Bhogi Manta” or the Bon Fire that gets done on the early hours of Bhogi day.

We really should be very careful when traveling on the roads and the colourful Rangoli takes your breath away. Everybody competes with creating the most beautiful and pretty rangolis. This year we decided to visit my sils and landed on Bhogi day. Saw many colourful rangolis and my nieces had also done very pretty rangolis.

Refer how to make Poli from this Dal Poli

Nuts Poli

Ingredients Needed

All purpose flour - 1 cup
Cashew - Almond powder - 1/2 cup
Milk - 2 tbsp
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 2 tsp
Salt a pinch

Method to prepare:

Shift the flour, add the ghee and rub well to get a crumbly form. Slowly add water and knead to a soft dough. Rest it aside.

To make the stuffing, heat a non stick pan, add the ghee, nuts powder. Stir well. Then add the sugar. Allow it to melt.

Then add the milk, continue stirring to get a thick paste. Allow it to cool.

Meanwhile, divide the dough into small balls. Pinch out small balls of the stuff, place in the middle and cover the ball over the stuffing.

Roll out as you do with a regular roti. Check out how to make the stuffed poli

Heat a tawa and cook on both sides with ghee.

What is a festival without a poli! Hope you make these and enjoy!

Below are some snippets from our celebrations  today. These Rangolis were done by my nieces.

 Bon Fire that we had

 Konda bringing in the different colours.

 This was the big Rangoli made by my nieces.

 Special bath preparation on Sankrathi. Sugar cane pieces, coins, hyacinth beans, Reni Kai (not sure of the english name, will find out soon.)

Everything mixed together and poured over small kids before having their bath.

Check out our previous year celebrations.

Hope everybody is enjoying. Will come back with pictures of the dishes made.

Jonna Pelalu Laddu / Popcorn Laddu ~ Sweet Laddoo with Jowar Sankranti Special!

I know this is not the greatest time for me to post this laddos, but then life is like that! What with my diet plan and being determined not to touch a sweet dish, you may think that I might be tempted. For one thing, this was prepared during Sankranti and another well..another reason.

Anyway with the diet plan going strong, I am surely not going to be making sweets but only post ones that were already prepared. The day has been hectic with work and the diet putting lot of pressure. Basically it was because I wasn't really prepared for it. Well that shows that I got to be more prepared. Work has been hectic the last two days which resulted in me working the weekend too. I completed the breakfast and hubby dear took the kids for a trip to his friends family in a town. They came back only late evening and recollected that they really enjoyed the trip.

They play with calf and ran around wild. These were some of the bounties that our friends sent back. This reminded me of my childhood spent cultivating. That's a story for another day for sure. For now enjoy the pictures.

 

Radish, Okra/ Lady's Finger and Cluster Beans.

 

Red Sorrel Leaves and Amarnath

Before getting on the recipe, check out my interview in Femina.

Coming back to the laddus, as I said I was really surprised that these are popped before making these laddus. You may have read this post where the Jowar were treated as just lovely pops just popcorns. Knowing how much Athamma enjoyed making this during Sankranti because she remembered her Mom. She said her mom used to make this in huge amount for the kids at home. Most times, before attempting to make the laddus, it was mostly consumed as just pops.

So just for the post we again popped them and they disappeared just like that!

Jonna Pelaalu Laddu

Jowar Pops - 1 cup 

Jaggary - 1 cup or depending on sweetness

Cardamon a pinch

Ghee as required to make balls

Method to prepare

Make the Jowar pops as explained in the post. Allow to cool. Then pulse it couple of times till you get a fine powder.

Grate the jaggary to a fine powder. Then again pulse both the Jowar and jaggary together. Remove and add 1 tsp of ghee. Mix it again. This should get you a texture that will hold it together.

Make tight balls from the mixture and adjust the ghee to see if the balls are holding it together.

Store in a container, this stayed for a week and was most delicious!

Enjoy every bite. Of course once you shed some weight!..:) Have a great week ahead.

Sakara Pongal with Sprouted Whole Moong Dal

As with every festival, this Sankranti had me thinking what new dish I should make. Whatever new dish that may come to mind, I will have to make the star dish of the festival, that being the Sakara Pongal. And innovation had its play with Athamma telling me that we can prepare it with whole Moong dal instead of the split one and make it more healthy by using sprouted whole Moong dal. I normally prepare as how Amma makes, with Split Moong dal and handful of Channa dal. I especially like biting on that hard tidbits of channa dal in between.

Athamma had the sprouts done the previous night, they were just sprouting. So it was all convenient for us to make the Sakkara pongal. I found Athamma very nostalgic about her mom and was going on telling me on the different dishes her Mom used to make. Theirs being a big family, the entire cooking process starts well ahead in the morning. As a Bogi special, they used to make Sesame topped Jowar Breads, with Mixed Lentil Gravy. True to that Athamma made these two for our Bogi dinner. I could see that she was missing her mom and all those dishes that she no longer makes at home.

The other things we made were the Jowar Laddos with Jaggary. This was really something so new that I was really wonder struck. Did you know that Jowar also pops as the Corn? Atleast I didn't know and was so amazed that such wonderful preparation was also rustic in origin. Athamma said since Jowar was a staple grain at their place, this found its way in all forms. What I loved so much were the jowar pops as in pop corns! More on it when I post the recipe.

Next laddo that we made was the Bajra or Sadda ladoo. With the laddos that I ended up making, I can almost have a separate section dedicated to the lovely Indian Laddos on spot!

Then came the pineapple Halwa. I have been wanting to make Pineapple Rava Kesari, maybe next time.

Sprouted Whole Moong Dal Sakara Pongal

Ingredients Needed:

Rice - 1 cup
Jaggary - 1 cup
Sprouted Moong dal - 1/2 cup
Water - 3 cups
Cardamom a pinch
Ghee - 2 - 3 tsp
Roasted Cashew and Raisin for garnish.
Fresh grated Coconut - 2 -3 tsp (opt)

Method to prepare:

For making sprouts:

Follow the sprout process and store in fridge until you make this. Ideally its best to get it sprouted the day before as we want moong that just started sprouting.

For making the Pongal:

Wash the moong dal and keep aside.

Wash and soak the rice for 15 - 20 mins. Then pressure cook the rice along with the sprouted moong dal till it is soft.

In a separate pan, melt the jaggary and remove the scum if any. Then bring to boil, then simmer and allow it to cook for 5 - 7 mins till you get a thick syrup consistency.

Once the pressure off, remove lid, you will find the husk of the moong dal on the top. Remove them and mix well.

Pour the melted jaggary over the cooked rice and mix well. In a small pan, melt the ghee and roast the nuts and raisins till the raisins balloon up. Pour over the rice mix along with the ghee and mix well.

A healthy sakara pongal in offering!

Enjoy on any festival!


Do be sure to check out the Quick Paneer Parathas that I sent for lunch yesterday for Konda

And these tasty Onion Dosas my new post on BC!