Chickpea Sundal

Blogging Marathon# 62: Week 2/ Day 3

Theme: Salads

Dish: Chickpea Sundal

For the last day of this week's blogging marathon, I have a traditional Indian salad that is usually served during festivals.

I love chickpeas in any form and this recipe with coconut and minimum spices is easy to make and is one of my favorites. I made it for Sankranthi along with pulihora and bobbatlu, for prasadam that day.

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Godhuma Rava Pongali

Blogging Marathon# 60: Week 1/ Day 3

Theme: Festival of the month Recipes

Dish: Godhuma Rava Pongali
I have another sweet dish for the last day of this week's marathon. Sweet pongali or Shakkara pongali is traditionally made for Sankranthi. Coincidentally in Tamil Nadu, sankranthi is called pongal which is also the name of a rice & lentil based dish.

My sweet pongal slightly deviates from the traditional dish because I used godhuma rawa/ wheat rawa/ cracked wheat instead of rice. I think fine bulgur will be a good substitute for cracked wheat. Other than change in the grain everything else remains the same as the rice based version.

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Jonna Rava Kesari with Fruits

Blogging Marathon# 60: Week 1/ Day 2

Theme: Festival of the month Recipes

Dish: Fruit Jonna Rawa Kesari
Today I have a sweet dish made with jonna rawa or jowar/ sorghum rawa instead of regular sooji or semolina. This recipe is from a Telugu cooking channel and even though I'm not into cooking fruits, this dish looked yummy on TV that I had to try it for myself.

Kesari is traditionally made with either sooji or godhuma/ wheat rawa. Using jonna rawa is a healthy substitute which gives a chewy texture to the dish. 

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Barley Pulihora (Lemon flavored Pearl Barley)

Blogging Marathon# 60: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: Festival of the month Recipes

Dish: Barley Pulihora

I'm starting the first marathon of the year with recipes for 'Festival of the month' theme. I picked the first festival on the Hindu calendar, Sankranthi or Pongal. Makar Sankranthi is a harvest festival is celebrated all over India and even Nepal. The day is believed to mark the arrival of spring in India. It usually falls on the 14th of January and sometimes on the 13th or 15th January.

In AP, where I grew up it is celebrated for 3 days. The first day is called 'Bhogi' when at dawn, people light a bonfire with wood logs and other solid fuels, representing the disposal of old habits, vices and so on. In the evening, infants and children are showered with Regi pallu (Indian jujube fruit). This is believed to wade of any evil from the kids. It is a time for the family to get together.

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Dishes to make for 9 days during Dasara (Navrathri Dishes)

Navratri

Devi Navratulu/ Dasara starts today and I wanted to share the list of dishes that are made on each day during the 9 day celebrations. I heard that a particular dish is made on each day, but I didn't know the details. Thanks to my cousin, now I have the list and I'm going to share it with you.

Day/ Thithi	Ammavari Avatharam	Prasadam
Day 1/ Padyami	Sailaputri	Katte Pongali
Day 2/ Vidiya	Brahmacharini	Pulihora
Day 3/ Tadiya	Chandraghanta	Kobbari Annam
Day 4/ Chavithi	Kushmanda	Garelu
Day 5/ Panchami	Skandamatha	Perugannam
Day 6/ Shashti	Katyayani	Kesaribath
Day 7/ Sapthami	Kalaratri	Sakannam
Day 8/ Ashtami	Maha Gouri	Belam Payasam
Day 9/ Navami	Siddhidhatri	Kshirannamu (Paalannam)

Wish you all a very Happy Navrathri. 

Ela Ada

Buffet on Table: Week 2 -- Indian States

Day 11: Kerala -- Ela Ada

For the final day of this week's mega marathon, I have a sweet dish from Kerala. Coconut-jaggery stuffing inside a rice flour crepe, then steamed until done. These are perfect to make for festivals and special occasions.

With sravana maasam in full swing, I had way too many fresh coconuts to take care of. So I used some of it to make this simply delicious dessert.

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Sihi Bella (Sweet Poha with Jaggery)

I made this simple sweet poha dish along with lemon rice for my daughter's birthday. Recently I made a sweet dish poha and jaggery, but that one is more like a payasam but this one is a dry-ish preparation.

This dish can be made in no time, getting the jaggery to melt is the only time consuming part. I used powdered jaggery to make things easy for me, if you are using regular jaggery, then make sure to powder it well. Also using fresh grated coconut is important because dried or frozen coconut is too dry for this dish.

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Chitrannam and Sihi Bella

Buffet on Table: Week 2 -- Indian States

Day 9: Karnataka -- Chitranna and Vella Avalaki

I have savory and sweet dishes from Karnataka today. It was my daughter's birthday few days back and I wanted to make something special for her. Lemon rice, tamarind rice are usually made for birthdays, festivals and special occasions. So I made Karnataka style Lemon rice and Sihi Bella.

I had this lemon rice aka Chitranna from Indira's blog bookmarked for a long time. Both my kids love peanuts along with potatoes, so this lemon rice with both their favorite ingredients was just perfect. I add enough of them so that they get at least one peanut and a piece of potato in each and every bite.

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Rajgira-Red Poha Kheer (Vegan recipe)

Today is second friday in Sravan masam when 'Varalakshmi Vratam' is performed. I did my pooja too today, thanks to my mom for her help :-)

This kheer or payasam recipe is from a Telugu cooking show, it is very healthy with no refined ingredients. This kheer is made with rajgira or amaranth grains, red poha and jaggery.

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Mango Pulihora with Brown Rice (Mamidikaya Pulihora)

Pulihora or puliyodarai is a popular rice based dish in South India. It is tangy and spicy and can be made in several different ways. Today's pulihora is one such variation using brown rice and raw mango. I already have 2 versions of Mamidiakaya Pulihora here and here.
Good quality raw mangoes are in the market now and I try to buy at least a couple every time I'm at the Indian grocery. I love making mango dal and quick chutnies with them.

I saw this recipe on a Telugu cooking show and have made it a number of times already. I have started to use brown rice more than regular rice these days and this recipe was perfect with it. Using brown rice adds much needed nutrients and also nice nuttiness to the dish.

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Purnam Boorelu

I kept away from making traditional Indian dishes for a long time, but recently I've realized that it is important to learn our traditional dishes, not just for me, but more for the kids. I want them to know more about our traditions and our dishes too. So I've started bugging my mom to help me out with the recipes.

I made these purnam boorelu for Ugadi last week. Purnam boorelu are very common during festivals, and weddings. I have always shied away from making these because making the purnam is a little tricky. I made a few years ago and they were a colossal failure because the poornam completely disintegrated when I dipped them into the outer cover batter. My mom makes Poli boorelu that are made in a slightly different way and are more fool-proof.

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Tomato Pulihora

Happy Ugadhi/ Gudi Padhwa to all of you who are celebrating the New Year.
Our Ugadhi is today, a day earlier than in India and I was planning for an elaborate festival with my sister's family, but unfortunately it started snowing and the weather dampened all my plans. So it was just our family and I made Ugadhi pachadi, pulihora and godhuma rawa-carrot kesari.
I think South Indians have a knack of making pulihoras or tangy, spicy rice with just about anything. I have tried adding veggies to it like these broccoli, gooseberry, cranberry and gongura. Today's pulihora is on similar lines but with tomato.

My mom gave me the idea for this tomato pulihora after she ate it at one of our relative's house. In this recipe rice is cooked in tomato infused water and then seasoned with the usual pulihora tempering with lots of peanuts, ginger and green chilies.

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Oats Rava Laddoo

Traditional Rava laddoo gets a slightly healthy makeover with the addition of ground oats in this recipe. Saw this being made on a Telugu cooking show couple of days ago and then tried it today.
Oats are lightly roasted and ground. They are then added to the regular rava laddoo ingredients -- rava/ semolina, sugar, dry grated coconut and dry fruits. Melted ghee and warm milk act as glue to hold these laddoos together.

These tasted exactly like the regular rava laddoos. My 2 year loved them (she loves anything with nuts & raisins in it), but I was surprised that my super picky son also liked them. They are quick and very easy to make -- takes about 15 minutes to make the entire batch. Also these are goof-proof, especially for people like me who are prone to screw up consistency of sugar syrup, this is the perfect recipe :-)

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Afghani Carrot Halwa (Carrot and Ricotta Halva)

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 4/ Day 3

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Afghani Carrot Halwa

I'm ending this month's marathon on a sweet note with this rich and decadent 'Carrot Halwa' that I bookmarked from 'The New Middle Eastern Vegetarian' cookbook by Sally Butcher. Halwa is very similar to our very own Carrot Halwa with a few additional ingredients like ricotta cheese and powdered milk.

This is one of the recipes that caught my attention as soon as I saw it in the cookbook. I was looking for an opportunity to make this dessert ever since. Carrot halwa is one of my husband's favorite and with him travelling, I didn't want to make this dish just for myself. So finally made it as soon as he got back.

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Balehannu Halwa (Coconut - Banana Halwa)

This is the final dish I made for Sankranthi. The actual festival was very low key, but we are heading to our cousin's place this weekend for some belated celebrations. My cousin puts up a beautiful golu and she also celebrates 'bhogi pallu' for the kids.
As I was thinking of what to bring, I found this interesting halwa with coconut and banana in 'Vegetarian Cookbook of India' cookbook by Mridula Baljekar. I had bananas that needed to be used up before leaving for the weekend, so this was a perfect recipe to make good use of them.

Also the recipe uses dry grated coconut cooked in some whole milk to give the texture of fresh coconut. Finding good fresh coconut is a little difficult here, but I always have dry grated coconut in my fridge, so this is a very convenient recipe to make for me.

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Sweet Pongal (Bellam Pongali)

The second dish I made for Sankranthi is this 'Sweet Pongal/ Bellam Pongali'. This recipe is from Chandra Padmanabhan's Dakshin cookbook. Pongal, both sweet or savory, are traditionally made for Sankranthi.

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Puliyodarai (Tamarind Rice With Spice paste)

Belated Sankranthi wishes to all of you who celebrate it. I had a very low key festival this year because my husband was away on business and the kids had school and after-school activities. So it was a busy day with too much going on. But I did make tamarind rice (Pulihora/ Puliyodarai) and Chakkara Pongal (Sweet pongal) for the festival.

I tried both the recipes from Chandra Padmanabhan's 'Dakshin' cookbook. Both the dishes turned out just like the ones served in temples. My mom's tamarind rice is quite straight forward with just cooked tamarind, but this version has tamarind cooked with spices and it tasted just amazing. This cooked tamarind masala can be refrigerated and used as needed at a later time.

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Carrot Poli (Bobbatlu/ Puran Poli with Carrot Halwa Filling)

Blogging Marathon# 45: Week 1/ Day 3
Theme: Diwal Festival Specials
Dish: Carrot Poli (Bobbatlu/ Puran Poli with Carrot Halwa Filling) 

For today's Diwali special, I have a recipe that I bookmarked ages ago from Harini's blog. These carrot polis have tempted me the minute I saw them, but it took me more than 2 years to make them. But it's better late than never -- right??

My husband is a big carrot halwa fan. My MIL makes the most delicious carrot halwa with fresh khoya and the red gajar that is available during winter in India. I'm just too lazy to take up projects like carrot halwa because a) the expectations are way too high and I don't want to disappoint the eaters b) too lazy to grate the carrot. My sister used to grate the carrots for my mom back home, so that is one job I don't really enjoy doing.

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Vegetable Rice for Festivals (Saakannam/ Shakannam)

Saakannam is one of the dishes that is made on the 7th of Navratri/ Dasara. Saakam (shaak) means vegetables and Annam means rice, so it is nothing but mixed vegetable rice. When making any dish on a festival day, we usually refrain from using onion, garlic, garam masala etc. Also using premade or store bought masalas is not preferred.

I tried looking for an authentic rice recipe that is made for festivals, but I couldn't find anything. I asked one of my cousins and she said she makes a simple mixed vegetable rice with ginger. I went with my instincts and made this dish with what I had in the fridge.

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Rava Kesari (Godhuma rawa Kesari)

Blogging Marathon# 43: Week 2/ Day 3

Theme: Navarthri -- Festival Special

Dish: Rava Kesari (Godhuma rawa Kesari)

Here's another simple sweet dish that is made for festivals. Kesari can be made with either sooji/ semolina or godhuma rava. I like the fine godhuma rawa/ dalia because texture-wise it is like sooji, but with the added goodness of the wholewheat instead of refined sooji.

Since my husband is milk-phobic, I usually skip it or add only just a little bit to give the kesari/ halwa some creaminess. It takes about 12~15 minutes total to make this dish and all you need is 3~4 ingredients.

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