RCI-Varalakshmi Vratham...

A day for Ladies, with the yellow sacred threads, kumkum, flowers and the Kalasam with the face of the Goddess atop, decorated with jewellery and flowers is a never to miss sight.Offerings or Neivedyam like white payasams, tamarind rice and some traditional sweets are made for the goddess Varalakshmi along with the offerings of fruits, coconuts and betel leaves and nuts.Pushparchanai or flower offerings is done along with the sacred Ashtothram chants with the 108 names of the Goddess!. The day falls on a Friday, every year according to the Tamil Calendar.

I had posted about Varalaksmi vratham a few weeks back, giving importance to Arisi Upma or Raw rice Upma.Find the recipe and details here.

In this post, let me add along the recipe for the Dosai and the accompanying Chutney which were again the part of the main menu for the day..

Pacharisi / Raw rice dosai.

Fermentation for the Iddly or Dosa batter requires 8 to 10 hours in normal room tempature of 25-30deg C. Parboiled rice and Urad dal in the ratio 4:1 is generally used for the purpose.

When it comes to the day of "vrutham", raw rice(pacharisi)becomes the substitute.Fermentation is avoided as it is considered “making ready the previous evening”and believed to be “unfit”!!.
Therefore the soaking is done early in the morning for an hour on the same day and ratio for the raw rice and the urad dal would be 2:1 so as to acquire preferably a “softer” output :)..

Ingredients:

Yeilds 10-12 medium dosas

Raw rice -1cup
Urad dal-1/2 cup
Salt-to taste.
Oil, you prefer,(use fresh and unused)-for making dosas

Method:

Soak together, rice and dal for an hour and a half.Grind it to a smooth batter using the required amount of water,just as you prepare the normal idly or dosa batter.
.Spread the batter on the hot tawa, meant for making dosas. Let the dough be slightly watery .Pour along in a circular way and avoid spreading into flat circles using the back side of the round ladle as you make the normal dosas.Just “pour” round and it spreads itself.Take care to fill the gap and resemble a dosa J..Flip over and cook the other side.Try to make soft and whiter dosas as this batter has the chance for making dosas harder.So avoid overcooking on the griddle or keep on flipping over and over.

Kadalai paruppu / Bengal gram dhal Chutney.

Ingredients:

Serves 2-3

Kadalai paruppu/bengal gram dhal-1/2 cup
Red chillies-4-5 or according to your preference
Oil for roasting-2 tsps
Oil for tempering-1 tsp
Mustard seeds and urad dal-1/4 tsp each
Kayam/hing-1/4 tsp
Curry leaves-a few
Salt-to taste

Method:

Heat oil for roasting in a kadai.Roast the dhal till unform golden colour.add the chillies and fry for a few seconds.Remove from fire,transfer contents to a flat dish and cool.Grind with salt adding enough water.See the picture for the consistency.Heat oil and temper using the mustard seeds and urad dal.Add hing and curry leaves.Pour it over the chutney and serve with the above hot dosas.Do not attempt to heat up the chutney.

Sambhar was also prepared, with pumpkin pieces in it. I am not going in depth with the recipe of Sambhar here as Viji had requested us to avoid regular sambhars or rasams :).

The recipe is already posted here.
The only difference with the sambhar recipe is that, onions are avoided for the day or on any such auspicious days.

The food is served on a banana leaf soon after the morning poojas and women generally skip lunch or dinner as they observe fasting for the day..

This goes to RCI-Tamil festivals hosted by Viji of vcuisine.

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Fantastic Four Meme...

The Yum girl, Lakshmi, has tagged me for a Fantastic Four Meme.Thank you Lakshmi.

I prefer posting the memes separately without the recipes, attached.

(Whispering the reality- Simply can't overcome the recent laziness to blog recipes) :)

So please bear with me to come up with "a recipe less Meme".


Here Goes:

4 Places I've lived

• Alappuzha (Kerala, India)-infancy,
  
• Kottayam (Kerala, India)-childhood till marriage,
  
• Thanjavur(T.N, India)-After Marriage,
  
• Now residing in a town of T.N- Totally Nailed-Settled for the rest of my life.

4 Jobs I've had

Ambitions- Reality

• Pursue education- Sacred Knot
  
• Specialisation-Nutrition & Dietetics- Jr Chef
  
• PhD Nutrition & Dietetics- Sr Chef
  
• A decent job outside India-Mom of 2 ; a complete housewife.

4 Favourite places I've holidayed

• Swiss-Grindelwald and Lucern in particular.I believe Swiss is heaven on earth.



• London- the architectural beauty and elevation of its historical buildings, the charming and the friendly English.



• Venice-the beautiful water body linking almost every where, the Gondolas, reminds me of "Vallam" and my ancestral Alappuzha(the Venice of the East).



• U.S-Florida-the ultimate Disney world, magical Newyork, Las vegas for gambling and Buffalo for the mystique Niagara.

4 Favourite foods

Have a broader outlook here, as brought up in such a way, "not to ignore any food"..

To quote 4..

• Anything related to "Kerala Cuisine"-Kappa puzhukku and meen mulaku arachathu topping the list.
  
• Amma's and Granny's-Anything they cook(chocolate cake and vattipulusu to mention respectively ).
  
• Kothamalli Thuvaiyal- by my ma in law...and only hers.
  
• Ammayi's(her mom's) cooking-She had been my teacher for cooking..as V had been brought up by her food tastes!.
  

4 Favourite places I'd rather be

• A couple of days relaxing in a slowly drifting House boat in Kumarakom which stops now and then to load the fresh catches of Pearl spots and baby mussels and getting cooked hot in the house boat kitchen, and me nibbling karimeen pollichathu, kakkayirachi ularthiyathu.. with a cool can of coke.
  V and kids can very well join in, if they can tolerate the stink aroma :D..
  
• Can spend even hours gazing at the crystal clear snow fed river flowing down up from the mountains amidst the fragrant flowers, the smell of the fresh green grass..deeply inhaling the fresh air.
  
• My bed room cum home theatre, watching my favourite movie(uninterrupted till finish),with surround sound speaker effects,..V and kids can join, as long as they don't bother me .. :D..
  
• Parents' place in Good old Kottayam..receiving pampers..eating all the favourites..with siblings..where I can be as I am..:)..of course back to V, with extra pounds.. :)..

4 Bloggers I like to tag

• Remya
  
  
• Sirisha
  
  
• Sona
  
  
• Roopa

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Egg so cool!...

Not "a-so-good -photographer", not a proud owner of a fine model cam,

Just a spirit to be a part ; not an yearn for success...

A shot so casual with not much preparation, a single shot for participation...

....to pamper the great interest in the art of "Photography"...

Three cheers to Jai and Bee for initiating this great event of "Click"!!

The month's theme is egg...

Still not feeling confident to take part??..Well this is for you..:)

Time to celebrate too!! Happy Ramzan!!

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Chakka Varatti/Jack fruit Preserve.

The game is over..and lemme shake hands with bee (who came up with the first right guess),tbc, remya and sumitha who had also guessed right! It was really nice to scroll down the varied guesses ... most of them associating their imaginations with their own regional, traditional sweets..that was the sweetest of you too...:)

Soon after finishing editing this post I was unusually prompted to search the versions of the same in blogosphere.I did find a few fine recipes of Chakka varatti, but very few in all, which made me realise that this is certainly a ‘not-so-common delicacy’, of Kerala Of course, which has yet to be tried by the bloggers..

Being aware of the “hard” reality that this is not “easy” as it sounds…in other words,”beware! my dear friends this is not as easy to prepare as you read through!:)..”..I had less confidence when it came to ‘trying-for-the-first-time’ and kept postponing until I got the right ally; my Mom!!...

Together we started chopping the ripe fruit bulbs, which was not an easy job..(she was particular ‘not’ to churn up in a mixer and wanted the tiny bits undissolved in the end product!), and proceeded to the other ingredients.’Coconut’ was avoided as we prefer without them.The mixing part was done alternatively by her and me in a 7 lt Prestige pressure cooker body.Supposed to be done in Uruli but we avoided that too as it might bring the hazard of spurting all over while boiling the fruit mixture.
After about 1 ½ hours of exertion, we came up with a kilogram of the real traditional Chakka Varatti!!!...it tasted great and was worth the effort!..

So here is the recipe…

Ingredients:

Yielded 1kg, Time to prepare 1 1/2 hrs :D..

Ripe jack fruit bulbs-chopped-6 cups(we used Varikka chakka which is preferred.Refrain from Koozha chakka as it tends to be more fibrous).
Jaggery-crushed to smaller lumps-3 cups
(If weighed, jaggery should not be less than half the weight of the fruit)
Ghee-1 ½ cups
Cardamom powder-a tsp or to flavour as you please

Method:

Pressure cook the jack fruit pieces in 3/4 cup of water until 4-5 whistles.In the mean time, melt jaggery in ½ cup of water till it becomes slightly thick.Filter impurities and add on to cooked fruit.Bring to a boil,this mixture and keeping the flame medium, keep on stirring….on and on.. adding half the quantity of ghee while stirring ..on and on..:)..continuously …( go for a long handled ladle with a flat end so that to have your hands safe from the hot splutters when the pulp boils and bubbles over)…stirring on and on...:).almost .for an hour and a half..:)..till it spreads a wonderful aroma and rolls out to a dark soft ball leaving the edges of the vessel.Add the remaining ghee and mix well along with the cardamom powder.

The darker the hue,the richer the taste and longer the shelf life of the preserve.

The three pictures here represent the stages of preparation in half an hour intervals.

Chakka pradhaman(the diluted payasam with the addition of coconut milk) , Chakka ilayappam(steamed dumplings with the fruity filling, wrapped in banana leaves)and Kumbil appam(steamed in Bay leaves as cones....to be posted soon) are mostly prepared using the above Chakka varatti/chakka vilayichathu as the base ingredient.

May-2007
Jai & Bee of Jugalbandi announced JFI-Jack fruit.Unfortunately I could not be a part of their fabulous round up as I had been away, holidaying.

I dedicate this post to you Bee..

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Guess the food in the bowl!...

Never been up with a guess game so far!..:D..Can you guess the food in the picture?

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