Wish you a Happy Diwali

Hope this Diwali fills your year with joy and continues to brighten the rest of your life

I wish all my friends, my readers a very

Happy Diwali.

Ganesh Chaturthi Prasadam~ Pala Thalikalu

Ganesh Chaturthi celebrated in my home

Ganesh Chaturthi was celebrated on 3rd Sep 2008 all over India and this year also we celebrated this festival with full devotion and joy in the company of our friends and family. Enjoyed all the tasty prasadams and naivedyam offered to Lord Ganesha. I already blogged my last year's celebrations, if interested have a look.

But what is unique this year is I made Ganesh Idol out of all-purpose flour (maida) and decorated with the throne and ornaments brought from India.

For this occasion I made Kudumullu, Uppu Undrallu, Semiya payasam, Chakkari Pongal, and Pala Thalikalu as prasadam/naivedyam (food offerings to God). I already blogged recipes for Kudumullu, Uppu Undrallu, Semiya Payasam and Chakkari Pongal/ Pramanannam. I am blogging only Pala Thalikalu here in this post.

Pala thalikalu aka pammulu payasam is a milk pudding with rice dough strings shaped in small snake like shapes thence the name! This recipe is my newest attempt to make pala thalikalu and I successfully made them. But only thing is many strings got melted and only few left so I captured this picture for you to understand what I made. Not bad though, for first attempter!

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Pala Thalikalu - Prasadam for Ganapati
Recipe Source: My Friend
Cuisine: South Indian, Andhra
Preparation time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 30 mins

Ingredients:
4 cups milk (whole or 2%)
1 cup rice flour/biyappu pindi
1-½ cup sugar
½ cup grated coconut/kobbari, fresh or frozen
4 tbsp sesame seeds/nuvvulu/til, toasted and crushed
1 tsp cardamom powder/elaichi powder
few strands of saffron/kumkuma puvvu
2 tbsp crushed nuts like cashew,almonds and pistachios
1 tbsp clarified butter/ghee/neyi
2 cups water

Method:

• Boil water in a big, deep vessel/saucepan. Add ghee to it and stir in sifted rice flour.
• Stir in with a wooden spoon and see that there are no lumps formed. Once all the rice flour is mixed well with water switch off the gas. Cover and let it cook.
  
• Knead the dough while it is still hot, wet your hands with water and divide the dough into small 2 inch balls and later shape into long strings. Keep aside and let it dry for 10-15 minutes.
• Meanwhile boil four cups of milk, once it comes to a full boil add sugar, cardamom powder, saffron and let all the flavor blend well on medium heat for about 10 minutes.
• Add the prepared rice strings and let it boil for another 7-10 minutes.
• Add grated coconut, crushed nuts and crushed sesame seeds for garnishing
• This tastes good hot or cold.

Tips:

• The more thick you make rice dough strings the better. It will maintain its shape in the milk sauce/pudding, else it will end up being brittle, broken or melted.
• You can make the strings with chakli press but be careful that the strings might melt down in the milk sauce/pudding.
• Don't boil the milk pudding/sauce for more than 10 minutes.
  

Check my last year's post on Ganesh Chaturthi Prasadam

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi 2008

|| Om Ganeshaya Namah ||

|| वक्रतुंडा महाकाय कोटी सुर्य समप्रभः ||

|| निर्विग्नम कुरुमे देव सर्व कर्येशु सर्वदः ||

May Lord Ganesha Bless you with the best things in life.

I wish all my family members, friends, and my readers a Happy Ganesh Chaturti

Ganapati Bappa Morya..... Mangal Murti Morya...

Varalakshmi Vratham 2008

Varalakshmi Vratham 15th August 2008

Varalakshmi Vratam was celebrated on 15th August and I know I am late in posting about it. As you all know I have already blogged about my last year's Varalakshmi Vratam puja and shared some photos with you. Varalakshmi vratam is widely celebrated across southern states of India., Andhra pradesh and Karnataka. This festival falls on the friday before Full Moon day Pournami/ Poornima in the holy month of Shravan/Sravanam.

Lot of preparation go in to perform this puja. I am briefly describing about the puja vidhanama here in the hope that it helps those who are new to this puja, newly wed and married women like me staying abroad. I know there are so much of information on the internet that we sometimes find it difficult which method/vidhanam to choose from. I belong to a Andhra-Reddy family and I am going to describe how Varalakshmi Vratam is celebrated in our family.

As I am brought up in Mumbai, I dont know to read and write Telugu, (regional language in India). So it was difficult to find a book on this puja in Hindi or Sanskrit. So I purchased CD on this puja and perform accordingly. If you google it you will find many online links like this one. This Vratam is observed by married women who pray for her husband's well being, good health and prosperity.

Puja Vidhanam
For any puja the main element to perform is through your bhakti~ devotion. On this day I get up early in the morning and take head bath, dress in new clothes and start cooking prasadam for ammavaru. Its up to you how many items you can make.

Naivedyam ~ Prasadam

Usually I usually make 5 types of prasadam but this year I made 7 different types of prasadam - Boorelu, Garelu, Appalu, Payasam, Pulihora, Guggulam and plain rice with pappu.

I offered 7 types of fruits

Puja Mandapam

Set a mandapam/place of worship on the east wall of your house. If this is not possible you can do puja in your Puja room too, like I did it last year. Clean the place and if in India we apply cow dung to sanctify the place. Here in US we do not have access to such things, so I used a box, covered with white cotton panchi/dhoti and again covered with silk/pattu cloth. I made star muggu/rangoli with rice flour and sprinkle some Pasupu (haldi/turmeric) and Kumkuma(kumkum) and place some rice and navadhanyalu (nine grains).

Kalasham

For Kalasham you can use tumbler made out of bronze, silver, or mud. Take some fresh water in kalasham and add pasupu, kumkuma, gandham, navadhanyalu, rice, few coins, tulsi leaf and flower. Place Kalsham on top of muggu with rice and navadhanyalu. Place five mango leaves in the kalasham. You can use betal leaves and any kind of leaves available. Take a clean coconut and apply turmeric all over. Wrap with a new blouse piece and place it on the kalasham as you can see in my photos. Now your kalasham is ready for puja. You can decorate it with your new and old jewellery, flowers and perform the puja. There are many ways to make this puja, like some make puja for Varlakshmi photo, some use Roopam of ammavaru, some make Roopam from turmeric and stick it on coconut. And few do Kalasham puja.

Firstly we do Maha Ganapathi puja and then perform Varalakshmi Vratam puja in which you invoke Goddess Lakshmi in 'Kalasham'. We offer our devotion and seek Her blessings. After the puja , I bow (do padanamaskaram) to my husband and get his blessings, goodies (gold or cash). This is my favorite part. This day I fast till the vratam is over and eat the prasadam offered to Goddess. In the evening we invite friends (married women) and offer tamboolam. At night we perform haarati and move Kalasham three time to left and three times to right thus ending the puja. Next day we sprinkle the kalasham water all over the house and left over we our it to Tulsi or any plant.

May Goddess Lakshmi shower you with blessings and fulfill all your wishes.

To my all online readers please accept my online tamboolam

I will blog the prasadam recipes soon....

A Sweet note on Raksha Bandhan

Rakhi with akshintalu

Raksha Bandhan is a festival celebrating the bond of affection between brothers and sisters. The day when the siblings pray for each others' well being and wish for each others' happiness and goodwill. As the name 'Raksha Bandhan' suggests, 'a bond of protection', Raksha Bandhan is a pledge from brothers to protect the sister from all harms and troubles and a prayer from the sister to protect the brother from all evil. Raksha Bandhan was on 16th August 2008.

The festival falls on Sravana Poornima (full moon day of Sravan month) which comes generally in the month of August. The sisters tie the silk thread called rakhi on their brother's wrist and pray for their well being and brothers promise to take care of their sisters. The festival is unique to India, creates a feeling of belongingness and oneness amongst the family.
Source: Raksha Bandhan



On the occasion of Raksha Bandhan, I am dedicating this post to my brother. Though staying so far from my brother I miss him so much and all the good times spent together. For this occasion I made special sweet called "Sukhadi" I learned from my very good friend Bhavana Bhabhi. This is a Gujarati specialty sweet made from whole wheat flour. This is very easy to prepare and ready within minutes. I can say effortless cooking!

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Source: Bhavana Bhabhi
Cuisine: Indian, Gujarati Cuisine
Prep time: 2 mins
Cooking time: 15 mins
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients:
2 C of whole wheat flour/goduma pindi
1 C ghee (clarified butter)/neyi
1 C jaggery/gud/bellam, grated
1 t cardamom powder/elaichi powder
1/2 C mixed nuts, chopped

Method:

• Grease with ghee or clarified butter a cake pan or some thali like I used in the picture photo.

Melt ghee in a deep pan or kadai. Add whole wheat flour and stir continuously till you smell the aroma of cooked wheat flour. Add grated jaggery, cardamom powder. Stir constantly till the jaggery melts and ghee leaves from side of kadai approximately for 10-12 mins.






Once its done transfer it to previously greased round cake pan or thali. Press it firmly with a spatula.






Sprinkle with your favourite finely chopped nuts like cashew nuts, almonds, pistachios, walnuts.








Cut it diagonally or any shape you like while the sweet is still hot and cool it.

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Store in an air-tight container, this will last up to a month but in my home we finish them off in two days! Thanks Bhabhiji for teaching me this incredible yet simple recipe!