Aama vadai or paruppu vadai

Soak channa dal(3 cups) for 3 hours. Then drain out dal and grind along with red chillies(6),hing or asafoetida(2 spoons), salt,green chillies(3) and curry leaves without adding water(You may sprinkle a few drops if it is too hard)

You may fry some onions and add them to this vadai batter.Since I made it on New years day, I avoided onions.
Now make round balls of this mixture.Flatten them with your hands(like the shell of a tortoise).

Heat a kadai with oil. The kadai should be heated really well in order to prepare this vadais.
Drop a pinch of the batter in oil . If it floats up immediately, then the oil is ready to be cooked.Hurray.
Now drop the flattened doughs carefully into the oil and allow them to cook till they are brown in color. You may need to turn the vadais after some time so that both the sides get an even color.

I got 31 vadais using this quantity enough to be stored for 3 days and eaten.

New year celebrations

I was very excited to celebrate Tamil New year/Vishu this year as this was the first time my hubby and I got to celebrate it all alone. So I had the freedom of cooking all what I wanted in my own style.:)

Apr 14,2013

Srini and I woke up early in the morning to have a vision of Chithirai Kani/Vishu Kani.The tradition asks us to walk out of our bed with closed eyes till one reaches the place where the Kani is kept and then see it as the first thing on this D-day.This feeling has always been divine every year.

The eldest in the house, then offers a precious ornament(like a ring) to all in the family to be touched and kept on both the eyes and then back in the Kani.
Then after prostrating before God, the elders give Vishu kaineetam (money) to the young ones.Once all this is done, all the family members join together and burst crackers welcoming the New year.

This time, however, we could not burst crackers here, but managed to follow all the other practices possible.

Now comes the feast part(Virundhu(as in Tamil) or Sadhya(as in Malayalam)).

My menu this year consisted of the following:

1. Pal Payasam(Kheer)
2. Paruppu Vadai or Aama Vadai
3. Kaalan( a dish similar to Kadhi)
4. Tomato Rasam
5. Potato curry
6. Beans paruppu usili(one of my favs)
7. Rice

Please click on each of the links to view the recipe.

The toughest part in preparing a feast on auspicious days is that one is not allowed to taste any of the dishes unless they are offered as naivedhyam for God.

Luckily, this time, all the dishes were perfect in their taste and we enjoyed the day to the fullest having a hearty meal. 

Happy New year once again ...:)