Janmashtami

Hello All, tomorrow is Janmashtami, celebrating the birth of Lord Krishna across India. If we see or hear stories of Krishna, we can note that Krishna also is a foodie. So we celebrate preparing varieties of dishes specially made of rice flour. Clean the house, draw the big traditional rangoli (maav padi kolam as shown in photo), draw cute little legs in the center of rangoli and draw them till pooja room (it's to be like little Krishna is walking into our house), prepare the special varities of dishes and offer them along with curd, milk, cooking butter, paitham paruppu payasam (moong dal kheer), vada, aval upma (poha/rice flakes upma), vella aval (made of rice flakes & jaggery), fruits (especially jamun) to Lord Krishna.

Now lets see the special varities.

Uppu Cheedai

Rice flour : 2 tumbler

Urad dal powder (dry roasted till golden brown before powdering it and sieved) : 2 tbsp

Salt : 2 tsp

Finely Chopped coconut (like baby milk teeth) : 3 tbsp

Asafoetida : 1/2 tsp

Jeera : 1.5 tsp

Til (seasame) : 1 tsp

Cooking butter : 3 tbsp

Method : 

Sieve rice flour and Urad dal powder once or twice. Then mix the rice flour,urad dal powder. Add cooking butter, salt, coconut, asafoetida, jeera, seasame(til). Mix very well.

Add some water and knead it as a dough which doesnt stick to your palm. Divide the dough into very small balls (like tamarind seed size, roughly roll it into ball shape. Dont roll them into perfect balls/spheres which will burst during deep frying). Deep fry these balls till bubbles fade away and they turn golden brown.)

Vella Cheedai

Ingredients:

Rice flour : 1 tumbler (1 tumbler = 200ml apprx)

Jaggery : 3/4 tumbler

Elaichi : 3-4

Urad dal powder : 2-3 tsp (the urad dal should be dry sauted till golden brown before powdering)

coconut : 2 tbsp chopped

til/seasame : 1 tsp

Ghee : 1 tsp

Oil for deep frying

Method:

Take 1 tumbler rice flour. Heat a pan and saute the flour (dry) over medium flame. Stir continuously else the flour will get over heated underneath. Check if you are able to draw a rangoli line with the flour. The line be neat without gaps, else cheedai will not come out properly. It may break and mix with oil during preparation. Also it is important for the crispness. Switch off the flame and keep the flour aside.

Heat a pan, add jaggery to it, add little hot water and stir well. The jaggery will melt. Filter it to remove the sand/impurities. 

Again saute the jaggery on low to medium flame, add elaichi powder, saute till we get one string consistency. Then put one drop of jaggery in one cup water, you should be able to take it with your fingers and roll it into a ball which looks soft like jelly. Once you achieve this, switch off the flame.

Saute the chopped coconut in ghee for 2 minutes.

Now mix the jaggery  with rice flour and knead it into a thick dough(like we do for roti). Also add the coconut  and til during this step.

Add urad dal powder to the dough and knead it again. (This is for binding). Allow the dough to cool down completely and allow it to rest for 5-6 hrs.

Now divide the dough into small round balls and deep fry them in oil till they turn golden brown.

(note: transfer all cheedai into a container and close it only when cheedai cools down to room temperature)

Appam

Ingredients:

Rice flour : 1 tumbler

Jaggery : 3/4 tumbler

Elaichi : 3-4

Maida : 2-3 tsp

Urad dal powder : 2-3 tsp (the urad dal should be dry sauted till golden brown before powdering)

coconut chopped : 2 tbsp

til : 1 tsp

ghee : 1 tsp

Oil for deep frying

Method:

Heat a pan, add jaggery to it, add little hot water and stir well. The jaggery will melt. Filter it to remove the sand/impurities. 

Again saute the jaggery on low to medium flame till we get one string consistency. Add elaichi powder in between during stirring.

Now mix the jaggery  with rice flour. Add little water if required and knead it into idli batter consistency.
Add maida and urad dal powder into the batter and mix well. (this is for binding)
Heat oil in a pan for deep frying in a deep & thick bottom kadhai. When the oil is hot (but not too hot), take a small ladle of the batter and pour it right in the center of the kadhai. Initially the batter will stick to the bottom, but within a minute or so, it will come up. Turn it or flip it to the other side. Once it has turned golden brown evenly on both sides, remove it from the oil and place it on a plate or vessel with some tissue papers.

(note: transfer all appam into a container and close it only when appam cools down to room temperature)

Plain Murukku

Ingredients

Rice: 4 tumbler

Urad dal : 1 tumbler (i.e. urad to rice ratio should be 1:4.)

Asafoetida/hing : 1/2 tsp

Cooking butter : 100g

Salt : 2-3 tsp

Jeera : 2 tsp

Til/seasame: 2 tsp

Oil for deep frying

Method:

Dry saute the urad dal till it becomes hot. Then let it cool down and mix it with rice. And grind it into nice powder by giving it to some flour machine shop. Then wait for it to come down to room temperature. Then sieve it once or twice. This is important, else if rice or dal particles are present, then it will burst during deep frying which may cause burns.

Add asafoetida, cooking butter, salt, jeera,til. Mix well.

Add some water and knead it as a dough which doesnt stick to your palm. (but do it in portions else if you make dough with all the flour at a time, then first few murukkus will come out well, and other murukkus will come out reddish.)

With the help of a muruku maker  (handy squeezing machine with different attachments for different shapes- choose the attachment with plain circle), squeeze them into small spirals and deep fry them.

Mullu Murukku

Ingredients:

Rice: 2.5 tumbler

Kadala paruppu (chana dal) : 3/4 tumbler

Pasi paruppu (moong dal): 1/2 tumbler

Til : 2 tsp

Salt : 2.5 tsp

Elaichi : 3

Cooking butter : 50g

Method:

Dry saute the urad dal and moong dal till it becomes hot. Then let it cool down and mix it with rice. And grind it into nice powder by giving it to some flour machine shop. Then wait for it to come down to room temperature. Then sieve it once or twice. This is important, else if rice or dal particles are present, then it will burst during deep frying which may cause burns.

Add cooking butter, salt,til,elaichi powder. Mix very well.

Add some water and knead it as a dough which doesnt stick to your palm. (but do it in portions else if you make dough with all the flour at a time, then first few murukkus will come out well, and other murukkus will come out reddish.)

With the help of a muruku maker  (handy squeezing machine with different attachments for different shapes- choose the attachment with spiky circle), squeeze them into small spirals and deep fry them.