Karadayan Nombu

A celebration of a wife's devotion and love, a remembrance of times when the husband-wife relationship was beyond sacred - the Karadayan nombu is celebrated when the masi masam ends and panguni begins (typically Mid-March). This nombu remembers the day when Savitri fought with Lord Yama to win her husband's life. As he blessed her with "dheerga sumangali bhava", he was trapped by his own words!

The married women fast on this day, and make a delicacy of black eyed peas, rice flour and jaggery (the ingredients that one would normally get when living an ascetic life). They pray to the Almighty to bless their husbands with a good life. The unmarried women undertake this fast so they are blessed with good husbands.

For those who believe in it, you fast the whole day and break the fast at the time the panguni month begins. For those who don't, enjoy the adai!

Ingredients:

Black eyed peas (karamani) - soaked overnight and boiled.
Rice flour - 1 cup + 1 cup
Jaggery - 1 cup
Salt - To taste

To season:
Mustard seeds
Oil
Channa dal
Urad dal
Curry Leaves
Green chilli - sliced finely
Asafoetida (hing / perungayam)

Recipe:

Roast the rice flour until the aroma is released. Make sure it doesn't turn black. Set aside.

Heat oil, add mustard seeds. Once it splutters, add hing, channa dal, urad dal and saute until a nice golden brown. Add chilli, curry leaves. Add 1.5 cups of water, salt and let it come to a boil. To that add 1 cup rice flour and let it cook, until it makes a nice ball and doesn't stick to the utensil. Add the black eyed pea and mix well.

Make patties out of this dough, steam in a idli cooker for 7 - 10 minutes (or more if your patty is a little thick). 

Sweet adai:

Clean the jaggery in hot water and bring it to a boil. Add the roasted rice flour and black eyed peas. Mix well and bring it to a dough like consistency (like the one for the salted variety). Make patties and steam in idli cooker for 7 - 10 minutes. 

Serve with butter! 

Chaturthi special - Kozhukattai

I'd decided to make kozhukattai (S says momo), today being the angarika chathurthi. This is one of the dishes that always eluded me, and it's most often the rice dough that kills me. However, this time, it just turned out perfect!

Here's a step by step recipe:

Make the poornam (filling) first. Here's how:

To 1 cup of grated jaggery, add a cup of grated coconut and saute on low heat. Mix well until it thickens. Add cardamom powder, mix well and set aside. Cool a bit (just so much that the hand can tolerate)

If this mixture does not thicken, sprinkle a little flour and mix well.

Grease your hands (with ghee), and make small balls out of the mixture.

Note: The jaggery that we get here is not clean. My grandmom told me this tip - soak the jaggery in very little hot water (for about 10 minutes). The jaggery melts (you can also mash it with a spoon). Filter it, and you can see the sediments at the bottom. Additionally, slightly boil this mixture, and remove the foam from the top and we are done cleansing the jaggery.

Now for the outer cover:

Take about 1 cup of rice flour (sieved well). To this add 1/2 cup hot water, and mix well using a fork. It should form a sticky yet soft dough. The dough should be pliable, and if not, add hot water in installments. (If too watery, add some flour - you get the drift)

Let cool for a minute or two. The dough should still be warm enough to handle.

Take a small piece from the dough and make it into a ball. Make a crater in the center, and keep adjusting the dough, so it's thin all around, yet can hold the weight of the filling. Place one ball of jaggery mixture into this. Fold the edges and bring it to shape.

Likewise, complete the rest of the balls.

Steam in an electric cooker / pressure cooker for about 10 mins. The outer covering will become translucent.

Serve warm! (of course after the neivedhyam)

The left over dough will later be used for making salted vegetable momos :-)