Subbus Kitchen

Rasgulla, a popular Bengali Sweet. Homemade Soft, Spongy balls of cottage cheese soaked in sugar syrup. The sponge cheese melts in your mouth making us to have more and more! Getting soft and sponge rasgulla is the challenge in this dish. The main trick to get nice and spongy rasgulla is kneading of the cottage cheese we prepared using full fat milk. Follow this recipe to get nice and spongy rasgulla at home! Ye Dil Mange More :-)

Rasgulla Recipe | Bengali Sponge Rasgulla Recipe

Preparation and Yield:

Preparation time	-
Cooking Time	1 hour
Yield	15 Rasgullas

Rasgulla Recipe | Bengali Sponge Rasgulla Recipe

Ingredients:

Milk	4 Cups* or 1 litre + 2 tablespoon
Lemon Juice	1 tablespoon
Sugar	2.5 Cups
Water	3.5 Cups
Cardamom Powder	1/4 teaspoon
Chopped Almonds	1 teaspoon
Chopped Pistachios	1 teaspoon

* 1 cup = 250ml

Rasgulla Recipe | Bengali Sponge Rasgulla Recipe

Method:

Heat a pan and add 1 litre of milk to the pan. Keep stirring until the milk starts to boil. We should get nice bubbles in the milk. Also keep stirring till you get bubbles. The stirring will help the fat to fully combine with the milk. If we don't stir, then the fat will separate from the milk and we would not get soft and spongy cottage cheese. Meanwhile dilute the lemon juice with 1 tablespoon of water and keep it ready.

When the milk starts to boil, switch off the flame and add the lemon juice little by little gradually. When milk starts to curdle, stop adding the lemon juice. Add 1/2 cup of cold water or ice cubes which helps to stop the curdling process. Also the cold water or ice cubes take out the sourness of lemon juice which we have added. Place a muslin cloth or thin cotton cloth over a strainer. Strain the curdled milk through the cloth covered strainer.

Cover the cloth and squeeze the cloth gently to remove excess water from the cheese. Also show the covered cloth under running water just to ensure the sourness of lemon is removed completely from the cheese. Squeeze the cloth gently and hang it for 30 minutes. In 30 minutes, the hung cloth would have removed most of the moisture from the cottage cheese.

If you open the cloth, you could see a ball of cottage cheese not completely dry, would have a little moisture and if you touch it would crumble into pieces as shown in the picture. lets knead the cottage cheese nicely using your palm. Knead the cheese for about 7-10 minutes to get soft and spongy rasgullas. This knead is mandatory and is the main process to get softer rasgullas

After 10 minutes, the kneaded cheese would be like a dough. make small lemon sized balls out of the cheese dough. Make sure the sizes are small, because cooking the cheese balls in the sugar syrup doubles its size. Lets heat a cooker or a broad and thick bottomed vessel. Add water and sugar and bring it to boil. When the sugar syrup starts to boil with bubbles, add 2 tablespoon of milk to the boiling sugar syrup. Adding milk to the sugar syrup separates the dust from the sugar and makes it float at the top of the syrup. We can then easily remove the dust using a ladle. This step is optional. If you have clear white sugar, we can skip this. If any dust present in the sugar, it would make the syrup look slightly dull in colour and your rasgullas would not look good in the dull sugar syrup.

Make sure your sugar syrup is absolutely boiling and add cardamom powder and then drop the cheese balls in the sugar syrup. Cook the cheese balls in the sugar syrup for about 20 minutes with the pan closed with the lid. Gently stir the cheese balls every 5 minutes till they are cooked. You could see the size of the cheese balls gets doubled when they are fully done.

After 20 minutes, keep the flame low and cook for another 5 minutes. At this stage check the consistency of the sugar syrup, if it is too thick, add a ladle of water and again cook the rasgullas. If the sugar syrup is too thin, keep in low flame for more time to get a thicker consistency. Finally when the sugar syrup is in correct consistency and the rasgullas are cooked, then switch off the flame. Bring the rasgullas to room temperature and then refrigerate for atleast 7-10 hours.

Our yummy soft and spongy Bengali Rasgulla is now ready to serve Chilled. Add 1-2 rasgullas to a serving bowl and add 1 ladle of sugar syrup. Garnish with finely chopped almonds and pistachios on top of the rasgulla and Serve!

Rasgulla Recipe | Bengali Sponge Rasgulla Recipe

Navratri , literally means 9 nights and 10 days and we worship nine different forms of Shakthi during these 9 days. 10th day is called as Vijayadasami or Dusshera. All these days, we prepare different varieties of sundal and offer as neivedhyam to Goddess Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati.

Navaratri Sundal Recipes | Navratri Sundal Recipes | Navratri Sundal Varieties

We generally prepare sundal, sweet puttu, different rice varieties or payasam varieties on each day of navratri for neivedhyam and also we share the neivedhyam with our guests who would come and vist our Golu and get thamboolam from us. Offering neivehdyam first to God and then to our guests bring happiness to our hearts and in turn we get blessings from all 3 Goddess and also from elders.

Here, I have given the collection of sundal varieties which we do traditionally for Navratri. The traditional sundal varieties are Chickpeas, channadal, peanut, moongdal,Green gram dal, karamani (cowpeas), mochai (Field beans), Dry Green peas(Pattani), Sweet Corn and Navratna sundal. We can make sweet version of sundal using cowpeas, moongdal and mixed dal.

Preparation and Yield:

Preparation time	10 mins
Soaking Time	Overnight
Cooking Time	20-30 minutes *

* Soaking and cooking time differ for each varieties.

Sundal Varieties:

Navratri is one of the most important festival in all parts of India, especially very famous in northern part of India. It is the Hindu festival dedicated for Goddess Durga. Navratri , literally means 9 nights and 10 days and we worship nine different forms of Shakthi during these 9 days. 10th day is called as Vijayadasami or Dusshera.

First 3 days of the Navratri, we dedicate to 3 different forms of Goddess Durga

Second 3 days of Navratri, we dedicate to 3 different forms of Goddess Lakshmi

Last 3 days of Navratri, we dedicate to 3 different forms of Goddess Saraswathi

Recently I studied a detailed article about Navratri which has detail on the decoration, Neivedhyam, flowers for pooja, fruits etc and I feel this would be more helpful if I share this here in www.subbuskitchen.com

Day	Decoration	Flowers	Fruits and Leaves	Neivedhyam Dishes
Day 1	Maheswari	Jasmine and Vilvam	Banana and Vilvam	Venn Pongal and Karamani Sundal
Day 2	Kaumari	Thulasi and Mullai	Mango leaves and Thulasi	Mango, Puliyodharai and Puttu
Day 3	Varahi	Hibiscus,Maru, Sampangi	Jack fruit, Maru	Sakarai Pongal, Jack fruit, Yellu Podi
Day 4	Mahalakshmi	Jathimalli	Guava	Curd Rice and Pattani sundal
Day 5	Vaishnavi	Shenbaga poo	Pomegranate	Pongal, Payasam and Mochai payiru sundal
Day 6	Indrani	Kunguma poo	Narathai, Sandhanam	Coconut Rice, Pomegranate, Sweet lime, Channa dal sundal
Day 7	Saraswathi	Thazhambu, Thumbai	Dates	Lemon rice, Sweet Sundal
Day 8	Narasimhi	Marudhani, sampangi	Grapes	Paal sadham, appam
Day 9	Chamundeswari	Marikozhundhu, Lotus	Naval pazham	Vella sadham, Chick peas sundal
Day 10	Maha Durgai	Sevvarali, Roja	Sevvazhai	Sakarai Pongal, Thayir sadham, Puliyodharai

Mainly in Gujarat and Maharashtra, during Navratri, there is a tradition of wearing different color dresses during these 9 days. Given below are the colors for each day.

25, September, 2014	Grey
26, September, 2014	Orange
27, September, 2014	White
28, September, 2014	Red
29, September, 2014	Blue
30, September, 2014	Yellow
1, October, 2014	Green
2, October, 2014	Peacock Green
3, October, 2014	Purple

Neivedhyam Dishes

Sweet Varieties


Sakarai Pongal	Payasam	Pottukadalai Urundai


Yellu Podi	Puttu	Sweet Sundal

Sundal Varieties


Chick Peas Sundal	Black Chick peas Sundal	Channa dal Sundal


Karamani Sundal	Green Moong dal Sundal	Moong dal Sundal


Peanut Sundal	Pattani(Peas) Sundal	Sabudana Sundal

Rice Varieties


Venn Pongal	Puliyodarai	Lemon Rice


Curd Rice	Coconut Rice	Vada

Sabudana (Jevvarasi) is considered as one the main ingredient which can be used mainly on Vrat / viratham days. During Navratri festivals, it is a tradition to make Sabudana Vada, Sabudana Ladoo, Sabudana Payasam and Sabudana Kichadi. Sabudana Ladoo is very simple to make just like maladu or rawa ladu. Lets see the recipe now..

Sabudana Ladoo

Yield	10-12
Preparation Time	-
Cooking Time	30 mins

Sabudana Ladoo

Ingredients :

Sabudana	1 Cup
Desiccated Coconut	3/4 Cup
Sugar	1/2 Cup
Cashews Nuts	10
Ghee	6 tablespoon
Cardamom	4

Sabudana Ladoo

Method:

Heat a pan, add sabudana and keep the flame low and stir it for atleast 30 minutes

After 25-30 minutes, the sabudana has changed its color to light brown. Remove the sabudana from flame and cool it off. Add the cooled sabudana in a mixer and grind it to a smooth powder

Again heat the pan, add desiccated coconut and fry in low flame for 2-3 minutes. The coconut doesn't need to become brown. Remove from flame

In the meantime, powder the sugar in a mixer

Add the powdered sugar, powdered sabudana to the fried desiccated coconut and mix well

Heat another pan, add 1 teaspoon of ghee and fry the broken cashews. Add the cashews to the ladoo mixture and mix well. Add rest of the ghee in the pan and heat it for a minute. Remove the ghee from flame and add it to the ladoo mixture and mix well with a spoon

When the mixture is warm enough to handle, take half fist full of ladoo mixture and hold it to make a small ball of sabudana ladoo. Repeat this step for rest of the ladoo mixture

The yummy and tasty sabudana ladoo is ready for neivedhyam and also for serving

Sabudana Ladoo

Rasmalai, another popular Bengali Dessert like Rasgulla. RasMalai is a delicious dessert where homemade soft and spongy cottage cheese patties immersed in Chilled Creamy Milk. The first part of preparing malai(Soft cottage cheese patties) is same as we prepare cheese balls for rasgulla. The shape of the cheese differs. For rasgulla, we make balls out of the homemade cottage cheese, but for Rasmalai, we make patties. Also Rasgullas are immersed in sugar syrup whereas the Rasmalai are immersed in yummy evaporated milk. It seems to be a complicated process but very simple to make at home. Get ready to make this delicious Rasmalai for this Diwali!

Rasmalai Recipe | Ras Malai Recipe

Preparation and Yield:

Preparation time	-
Cooking Time	1 hour
Servings	5

Rasmalai Recipe | Ras Malai Recipe

Ingredients for Malai:

Milk	4 Cups* or 1 litre + 2 tablespoon
Lemon Juice	1 tablespoon
Sugar	2.5 Cups
Water	5 Cups
Cardamom Powder	1/4 teaspoon
Chopped Almonds	1 teaspoon
Chopped Pistachios	1 teaspoon

* 1 cup = 250ml

Ingredients for Ras(Evaporated Milk):

Milk	1 Litre
Sugar	100gms
Saffron Threads	few

Rasmalai Recipe | Ras Malai Recipe

Method for Making Malai:

Heat a pan and add 1 litre of milk to the pan. Keep stirring until the milk starts to boil. We should get nice bubbles in the milk. Also keep stirring till you get bubbles. The stirring will help the fat to fully combine with the milk. If we don't stir, then the fat will separate from the milk and we would not get soft and spongy cottage cheese. Meanwhile dilute the lemon juice with 1 tablespoon of water and keep it ready.

When the milk starts to boil, switch off the flame and add the lemon juice little by little gradually. When milk starts to curdle, stop adding the lemon juice. Add 1/2 cup of cold water or ice cubes which helps to stop the curdling process. Also the cold water or ice cubes take out the sourness of lemon juice which we have added. Place a muslin cloth or thin cotton cloth over a strainer. Strain the curdled milk through the cloth covered strainer.

Cover the cloth and squeeze the cloth gently to remove excess water from the cheese. Also show the covered cloth under running water just to ensure the sourness of lemon is removed completely from the cheese. Squeeze the cloth gently and hang it for 30 minutes. In 30 minutes, the hung cloth would have removed most of the moisture from the cottage cheese.

If you open the cloth, you could see a ball of cottage cheese not completely dry, would have a little moisture and if you touch it would crumble into pieces as shown in the picture. lets knead the cottage cheese nicely using your palm. Knead the cheese for about 7-10 minutes to get soft and spongy cottage cheese. This knead is mandatory and is the main process to get softer malai

After 10 minutes, the kneaded cheese would be like a dough. make small lemon sized balls out of the cheese dough and press it in the middle to make small patties. Make sure the sizes are small, because cooking the cheese patties in the sugar syrup doubles its size. Lets heat a cooker or a broad and thick bottomed vessel. Add water and sugar and bring it to boil. When the sugar syrup starts to boil with bubbles, add 2 tablespoon of milk to the boiling sugar syrup. Adding milk to the sugar syrup separates the dust from the sugar and makes it float at the top of the syrup. We can then easily remove the dust using a ladle. This step is optional. If you have clear white sugar, we can skip this. If any dust present in the sugar, it would make the syrup look slightly dull in colour and your malai would not look good in the dull sugar syrup.

Make sure your sugar syrup is absolutely boiling and add cardamom powder and then drop the cheese patties in the sugar syrup. Cook the cheese patties in the sugar syrup for about 20 minutes with the pan closed with the lid. Gently stir the cheese patties every 5 minutes till they are cooked. You could see the size of the cheese patties gets doubled when they are fully done. Let the malai in sugar syrup come to room temperature. Meanwhile lets prepare our Ras(Evaporated Milk)

Method for Evaporated Milk:

In a heavy bottomed pan, heat the milk. Stir the milk to avoid overflow. Allow the milk to boil till it becomes thicker and reduces to 1 cup of quantity

Now add sugar and saffron threads and continuously stir for 5Min's and remove from flame. So our Ras (Evaporated milk is now ready). Allow it to come to room temperature and then refrigerate it.

Method for Rasmalai:

Take the malai (cottage cheese patties) out of the sugar syrup and place it in a serving bowl. Add chilled evaporated milk (Basundi) and Serve the yummy Rasmalai

The soft and spongy Rasmalai is now ready to serve!

Rasmalai Recipe | Ras Malai Recipe

Modhagam / Fried Modak is a yummy snack and also widely used dish for neivedhyam for vinayakar chaturti or other festivals. Also whenever we do other varieties of kozhukattai and if we have left over pooranam, then we can use that pooranam to prepare modhagam and this way we do not need to throw away the left over. Any kind of pooranam can be used to prepare modhagam. Here i have shown thengai poorana modhagam recipe. Try this yummy dish and let me know your feedback!!!

Preparation and Yield:

Preparation time	1 hour
Cooking Time	30 mins
Yield	6

Modhagam Recipe | Fried Modak Recipe

Ingredients for Outer Cover:

Maida	1 Cup
Salt	a Pinch
Ghee / Oil	1 teaspoon
Oil	For Deep Frying

Ingredients for Filling:

Grated Coconut	1 Cup
Powdered Jaggery	3/4 Cup
Cardamom Powder	1/4 teaspoon

Modhagam Recipe | Fried Modak Recipe

Method:

Take maida or all purpose flour in a mixing bowl. Add salt and ghee/oil and mix well. Then add water little by little and make it to a soft dough. Let the dough rest for an hour.

Meanwhile, lets prepare our pooranam (filling). Heat a pan, add 1 tablespoon of water and add grated jaggery. When the jaggery dissolves completely in water, strain it to remove dust and sand particles

Add the strained jaggery juice again in the pan, and keep it in flame . When the the jaggery juice starts to boil, add grated coconut, cardamom powder and stir well continuously till it roll like a ball and does not stick the sides of the pan

This is the correct consistency to remove from flame. Take the coconut pooranam in a plate and allow it to cool off Make small balls out of the pooranam and keep it in a plate. Now make small balls out of the maida dough. Take one maida dough ball and grease your hand with oil and gently spread it to a small circle. Place the filling (puranam) in the middle of the spread dough.

Gently close the outercover so that the filling is sealed inside the cover and make it like a modagam (kozhukattai).Finish all the rest of the dough and puranam as per the step 5.

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan. When the oil is hot enough, gently drop 4-5 modak in the oil. Deep fry the modak till they are golden brown color and outer cover turns crispy. Remove the fried modak from oil and place it in a paper towel to drain excess oil.

The yummy Fried Modak (Modhagam) are now ready to serve!

I have been thinking of publishing this Suyyam recipe for a long time and this time I decided to do it now as we have Vinayakar Chaturti coming and this would be useful to many of us. This is one of the sweet dish one can never go wrong and easy to make especially for Neivedhyam. The filling which we use is just the same as we do for Paruppu Poorana Poli where we use bengal gram dal with jaggery. We can concoct this wonderful Suyyam even for other festivals like Saraswathi Pooja, Diwali, Varalakshmi Vratham etc.

Suyyam

Yield	20
Preparation Time	-
Cooking Time	30mins

Suyyam

Ingredients for Filling:

Bengal Gram Dal(Channa dal/ Kadala paruppu)	1 Cup
Jaggery	1 Cup
Grated Coconut	1/2 Cup
Cardamom Powder	1/2 teaspoon

Ingredients for Filling:

Maida / All purpose Flour	1/2 Cup
Rice flour	2 tablespoon
Salt	a pinch
Turmeric	a pinch
Oil	For frying

Suyyam

Method:

Wash the channa dal and pressure cook it with 2 cups of water and allow for 2-3 whistles. The dal should be cooked nicely but not be smashed.

Strain any excess water from the cooked dal and allow it to cool off. Then add it to mixer. Grind the dal in the mixer to a nice paste without adding water. Then add the grated jaggery, coconut and cardamom and give a pulse or two and remove the filling to a bowl. Now the poornam for suyyam is ready. Make small dumplings out of the filling and keep it ready

Heat oil in a pan for frying the suyyams.

Now let us prepare the batter for outer cover. Take a bowl and add maida and rice flour along with turmeric and pinch of salt

Add water little by little to make a thick batter like bajji batter or idly batter. Take one dumpling of pooranam and dip it in suyyam batter and coat it evenly

Drop the coated suyyam pooranam in hot oil gently and allow it to fry completely in oil.

Add 4-5 dumplings of coated pooranam in oil and gently mix it and turn it so that it is fried nicely in all sides. Fry the suyyams till it becomes golden color and becomes crispy outside. Remove the fried crispy suyyams from oil and place it in a paper towel to drain the excess oil

The mouth-watering suyyams are ready for Neivedhyam and also for serving.

Suyyam

Saraswathi pooja is considered to be a very auspicious day which is celebrated on the 9th day of the Navrathri. On this auspicious day, students keep their books in the Pooja and Pray to the Goddess Saraswati who is known to bestow knowledge and wisdom to all of her worshippers. Not only do the students offer their books at the deity's feet but they also neatly cover them and make them look as good as new.On each book, we keep Sandhanam and kumkum and keep under Goddess's feet to get her blessings. Since we are keeping the books in pooja in this auspicious occasion, we have a belief that we should not read anything; the next day which is Vijaya Dashami is when we should do pooja and take the books and read thereby getting the blessings of the Goddess of learning.

Saraswathi Pooja

We should chant the following sloka to get blessings of Goddess Saraswathi.

"Saraswathi namasthubhiyam varadekamarubhini vidhyarambham karishyami siddhibhavatume sada"

To all the workers the worship of their tools is a must on this day.This day is celebrated as Ayudha Pooja .People worship Vishwakarma who was the architect of the world . All the tools ,machines etc are cleaned ,painted and well polished after which they are smeared with sandalwood paste and vermilion with great care. In most of the companies, people use to do saraswathi Pooja one day earlier keeping their vault and other accessories which are important for their business.

Saraswathi Pooja Recipes:

For Neyvedhyam : Usually we make one payasam, medhu vada, chole sundal(Either White chick peas or Black chick peas) and Suyyam and offer the same as neivedhyam to Saraswathi on the Saraswathi pooja. The receipes for the same are given below

Saraswathi Pooja Lunch Menu

For Lunch, we usually prepare Sambar, Rasam, Curry, Aviyal, one pachadi, kootu, curd, dal and plain rice. We can use the vadai and suyyam which we made for neyvedhyam and serve the same for lunch as well. The lunch menu is given below. This is the menu we follow in our home.

Festival Lunch Menu

Like snakegourd, we can make wonderful stew using ridgegourd too. Ridge gourd is extremely rich in dietary fiber and enriched with all the vital elements. It is low in saturated fat, cholesterol and calories that aids in weight loss. So we need to try and use this healthy vegetable more in our kitchen. Lets see the simple Ridge Gourd Stew (Peerkangai Kootu) recipe now...

Peerkangai Kootu Recipe | Ridge Gourd Stew Recipe

Preparation and Yield:

Preparation time	10 mins
Cooking Time	30 mins
Servings	4

Peerkangai Kootu Recipe | Ridge Gourd Stew Recipe

Ingredients:

Ridge gourd (Peerkangai)	250gms
Turmeric Powder	1/2 teaspoon
Salt	To Taste
Moong dal	1/4 Cup*

* 1 cup = 250 ml capacity

For Grinding:

Grated Coconut	2 tablespoon
Whole Pepper	1 teaspoon
Cumin Seeds	1/2 teaspoon

For Seasoning:

Oil	1 teaspoon
Split Urid dal	1 teaspoon
Red Chilli	1
Curry Leaves	few

Method:

Remove the seeds and finely chop the Ridgegourd. If the Ridgegourd is tender, we can also include the seeds as they would be very tender. Take the chopped Ridgegourd in a vessel and add salt and turmeric and pressure cook it. Allow 2-3 whishles. Also pressure cook the moong dal

While the Ridgegourd and moong dal is being cooked in the pressure cooker, we can take the grinding ingredients in the mixer and grind it to a nice paste

Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds starts to sputter, add urid dal and fry till the dal turns golden brown color. Add the broken red chilli and curry leaves and fry for 10 seconds. To this add the cooked Ridgegourd and mix well. Adjust the salt if needed.

Next, add cooked and mashed dal and mix well.&nbsp Then add ground paste and stir well;

Allow the stew to boil for 5 minutes and remove from flame. Add a teaspoon of coconut oil and some tore curry leaves and stir well and now ready to serve

Serve this yummy Peerkangai Kootu (Ridge Gourd Stew) with hot boiled rice and slurp!

Peerkangai Kootu Recipe | Ridge Gourd Stew Recipe

First time when heard this recipe from my MIL, I was amazed and immediately got up and tried this dish in my kitchen. It turned out a big hit in my home. The flavour of baby onions with rasam spice powder gives a yummy taste to the dish. Mix this yummy Vengaya Rasam (Baby Onion rasam) rice with hot boiled rice and with a teaspoon of ghee makes us have more and more!

Vengaya Rasam Recipe | Onion Rasam Recipe

Preparation and Yield:

Preparation time	10 mins
Cooking Time	30 mins
Servings	5

Vengaya Rasam Recipe | Onion Rasam Recipe

Ingredients:

Baby Onions / Shallots	1 Cups*
Tamarind	1 gooseberry size
Rasam Powder	1 teaspoon
Salt	To taste
Garlic Cloves	5
Green Chillies	2
Tomato	2
Salt	To taste
Chopped Coriander Leaves	1 tablespoon

* 1 Cup Capacity = 250ml

For Seasoning:

Ghee	2 teaspoon
Mustard Seeds	1 teaspoon
Curry Leaves	few

Vengaya Rasam Recipe | Onion Rasam Recipe

Method:

Soak the tamarind in water and extract the juice.

Peel the baby onions (Shallots) and take 1/4 cup separately for grinding. Add the shallots, green chillies and garlic cloves to the mixer. Grind it to a nice paste.

Heat a pan and add a teaspoon of ghee and saute the shallots. Add a pinch of salt while sauting which will enable the onions to cook quickly, When the shallots are transparent, add the ground mixture(shallots+green chillies+garlic Paste) to the pan and mix well and allow it to boil in low flame till the raw smell of the shallots goes off. Then add chopped tomatoes and allow it to cook completely

Then add the tamarind extract along with salt and allow it to boil for 5 minutes to get rid of the tamarind smell. Then add the rasam powder and keep the rasam in low flame and allow it to boil till the raw smell of the rasam powder goes off

Adjust the water level and finally garnish with coriander leave and when the rasam starts to boil, remove the rasam from flame. Heat another pan and add ghee. When the ghee is hot, add mustard seeds and when the mustard seeds starts to sputter, add curry leaves and add this seasoned ingredients to the rasam

The yummy Vengaya Rasam (Onion Rasam) is now ready to serve with hot steamed rice and pappad!

Vengaya Rasam Recipe | Onion Rasam Recipe

Jangri is a very yummy and traditional sweet variety. Jangri is one of the popular sweet dish available in most of sweet shops in India. We can see many people buying Jangri from the sweet stalls especially for Diwali and other festivals. This is a very simple and easy to make sweet dish at home with all simple ingredients. We just need little patience to get the right shape, otherwise this is one of the easiest dish to make at home.

Jangri

Preparation and Yield:

Yield	20
Preparation Time	1 hour
Cooking Time	1 hour

Jangri

Ingredients:

Urdal	1 cup
Raw Rice	2 teaspoon
Sugar	3 Cups
Oil	For Frying
Kesar color(Saffron Color)	1/4 teaspoon
Orange Essence	4 Drops

Jangri

Method:

We can buy Jangri cloth that is available in the shop. Also we can use thick plastic cover. In the bottom middle of the cover, heat the needle and insert the needle in middle of the cover to make a small hole. Soak the urdal and raw rice in water for 1 hour

After an hour, Rinse the urdal and rice and grind it in grinder by adding very little water like we do for medhuvadai

Take 1 handful of urdal flour and put it in plastic cover. First take a plate and try to squeeze the cover to make jangri pattern. We need to make one circle and then followed by small circles to make a flower like design. Try once or twice in the plate before trying directly in the oil just to be confident enough to proceed with. Heat oil in heavy bottomed pan. When the oil is hot enough, squeeze the plastic cover(like we do it using mehandi cone) so that the urdal flour comes out of the small hole in the plastic cover. Rotate your hand to squeeze the urdal flour in hot oil like a small circle with flower like design just we practised on a plate.

Let the urdal flour gets fried in oil. When the jangri turns golden brown color and becomes cripsy, remove from flame. Repeat the steps for the remaining urdal flour.

Heat another heavy bottomed pan, add sugar. Add water so that sugar dissolves in water. Stir the sugar syrup continuously until the syrup is sticking in hands. Now add organge essence and kesar powder and stir it well. Switch off the flame. To prevent the sugar syrup to get crystallized, we can add a teaspoon of lemon juice. If the sugar syrup gets crystallized after some time we can again keep in low flame and add a tablespoon of water and make it dilute again.

To this sugar syrup, add 5-6 fried jangri and mix it well so that the jangris get dipped in sugar syrup. Leave this for 5-10 mins and then take those jangris out of sugar syrup and place it in a plate. Repeat the steps for the rest of fried jangris

The delicious tasty Jangri is ready to serve for any occassion especially for the festival of lights(Diwali)

Jangri

Adhirasamis a traditional sweet dish which will be done for most of the festivals. For auspicious and even for inauspicious occasions, adhirasam is one of the main dish. Learning to make adhirasam is one of the mandatory requirement for all Indian Women especially Southern part of India. Even for Tamil Weddings, Adhirasam is one of the seer dishes which is mandatory from bride side. Making adhirasam at home is simple but we need little patience to fry the adirasams one by one carefully. Lets see how to make the delicious adhirasam at home with step by step photos and instructions.

Adhirasam

My grand daughters (twins) enjoyed adhirasam and they keep asking for more. Home made Adhirasam will surely be less oily compared to store bought adhirasams and they are little crispier too when eaten fresh.

Preparation and Yield:

Preparation time	12 Hours
Cooking Time	20 mins
Yield	12 Adhirasams

Adhirasam

Ingredients:

Raw Rice	1 Cup
Jaggery	1 Cup
cardamom Powder	1/2 Teaspoon
Cooking Oil	1/4 Litre for deep frying

Method for making rice flour:

Rinse the raw rice in water atleast couple of times. Then add fresh water to the raw rice to soak them well and leave the raw rice to get soaked for atleast an hour. After an hour, drain the water from rice and spread it in a clean white towel to get it dried.

It could take atleast 5 to 10 minutes to get dried. If you take the rice in your hand, you should feel damp in your palm or fingers. If you are going to prepare larger quantities then drying of rice takes more time. Also, if we are going to grind the rice in a mixer, then we should grind it immediately after the rice got dried. Immediately grinding the dried rice in a mixer helps us to get more smooth rice flour without any lumps. If we leave the dried rice for a long time, then we would not get smooth flour in the mixer. But if we are planning to grind it in a rice mill, then it should not be a problem.

Grind the rice in the mixer to a nice powder. Normally we don't get any lumps. But we should sieve it couple of time to get a smooth rice flour. If we get any lumps while we sieve, again add the lumps of rice flour to the mixer and grind it again to a smooth flour and again sieve it.

Repeat the sieve process again and again till we get a smooth and nice rice flour. Now our rice flour is ready

Method for making Adhirasam:

Add jaggery in a pan with 1/2 cup of water and when it dissolves, strain the jaggery water to remove dirt and sand

Again boil the jaggery water and keep stirring it until the jaggery comes to stone consistency. This means when we take a drop of jaggery juice and pour it in water, it should not dissolve rather we should be able to make a ball out of it. It should not be hard as well. This is the right consistency. When you allow the syrup more than the stone consistency, then the adhirasam will become hard. If the syrup is taken before the stone consistency, then the adhirasam will break while frying. You should be very careful at this stage.

When you take the jaggery syrup from the bowl, you should be able to roll into a ball and also when you drop it it should make a sound while hitting the ground / plate. This is the right consistency of jaggery syrup. Now remove the jaggery from flame and add to the wet rice powder and mix it well along with cardamom powder.

Mix well, so that no lumps are formed till you get chappathi dough consistency. Now the adhirasam mixture is ready for preparation.. Keep this adhirasam mixture aside for at least one day. The next day, again knead the adhirasam dough and if you feel it is too sticky, you can add little rice flour or if the dough is too dry you can sprinkle little butter milk and knead it well.

Heat required oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Make a small ball of the adhirasam mixture and place it in a oil greased plastic paper. I have cut a zipper cover into 2 sheets. I have placed the small ball of adhirasam dough in the center of 1 zipper cover which is greased with oil. Cover that with another half of the zipper cover

Using a flat bottomed bowl or lid press the ball to make it flat. We need slightly thicker adhirasam so do not press too much.

Grease your fingers with oil and gently take out the pressed adhirasam from zipper cover and drop it in hot oil. Keep the flame in medium and allow the adhirasam to get fried in oil. We have to fry the adhirasams one by one only. If we add more adhirasam to the oil, the chances of breaking is too high.

When the adirasam gets cooked on the bottom side, it will automatically rises up in the oil. Gently using a spatula turn the adhirasam to the other side and allow it to cook for another minute. Then hold your spatula on your left hand and take out the adhirasam from oil. Using another flat spatula, gently press the center of the fried adhirasam ti squeeze out the excess oil from the adhirasam. Do not press too much otherwise the adhirasam will break. So gently do it. Repeat the above steps for the rest of mixture and fry all the adhirasams

The Delicious Adhirasam is ready for Neivedhyam for Thirukarthigai/Karthigaideepam as well as for serving.

Note : If Adhirasam is getting split while frying, then its an indication that you have added more jaggery. Add one or two more table spoon of rice flour and mix it and try again.

Adhirasam

Maladu is a delicious sweet and can be made on any occasions. This is a healthy sweet made from Fried Gram(odachakadalai). I frequently make maladu and also for many festivals like diwali. This is a good evening snack for children too.

Maladu Recipe

Preparation and Yield:

Preparation time	-
Cooking Time	15 mins
Yield	10-12

Ingredients:

Fried Gram Dal	1 Cup* +1 tablespoon
Sugar	1 Cup
Cardamom Powder	1/4 teaspoon
Ghee	1 Cup
Cashews	4-5

*1 Cup = 250ml

Maladu Recipe

Method:

Grind the Fried Gram(odachakadalai) along with sugar and cardamom in a mixer to a nice powder.

Take a sieve and sieve the ground fried gram with sugar once to make sure there are no lumps. Take the sieved gram flour in a mixing bowl. In a pan, heat a little amount of ghee and add the cashews and fry until it turns golden brown color and keep it aside.

Add the roasted cahsews to the roasted gram dal flour in the mixing bowl. Now heat the remaining ghee in a low flame.

To the mixing bowl, now add,1 ladle of ghee around the ground mixture and using a spoon mix the mixture well. Make sure that the ghee-gram dhal mixture is in a right consistency that lets you make small lemon sized balls. Do not add too much of ghee then we cannot make stiffer ladoos. Adding more ghee makes it easy for us to make ladoos but the ladoos would not be stiff and it will easliy become clumpsy. Adding very less ghee makes the ladoo crumble easily. So make one ladoo and check if the ladoos are stiffer if not add little more ghee and then try again

Now take small quantity of Fried Gram(odachakadalai) mixture and press it hard to make it like a small lemon sized ladoo. If you are planning to make lots of ladoos, better add ghee in batches of gram dal flour. Take the ground and sieved roasted gram dal flour in batches and then repeat the steps to make maladus.

Repeat the above steps for the remaining ground Fried Gram(odachakadalai) mixture.

The delicious Maladu is ready for serving. Store it in an air tight container.

Maladu Recipe

Needless to say, you need some Patience to make this recipe as it involves heating the ghee, mixing, making balls, reheating the ghee till you complete the mixture.... phew.. ! Enjoy Maladu and let me know your comments

Yet another variety of rawa laddu but slightly different than the traditional. Since we are going to use rawa, vermicili and aval, i named this as triple shot laddu, just a catchy name to suit diwali festival :-).

Triple Shot Ladoo

Preparation and Yield:

Preparation time	-
Cooking Time	15 mins
Yield	20

Ingredients:

Rawa(Semolina)	1/2 Cup
Vermicilli	1/2 Cup
Aval	1/2 Cup
Ghee	1 1/2 Cup
Cashew nuts	10
Sugar	1.5 Cups
Cardamom powder	1/2 teaspoon

Triple Shot Ladoo

Method:

Heat the pan and dry roast rawa till you get a nice aroma and rawa turns slightly brown color.Take the roasted rawa in a plate. Next dry roast the aval till for a minute and take it aside

Dry roast the vermicelli turns golden brown colour. Take the roasted rawa(Semolina), vermicelli, aval and sugar along with cardamom powder in a mixer.

Grind it to a nice powder and take the ground flour and sieve it to get smooth flour.

In a pan, heat a little amount of ghee and add the cashews and fry until it turns golden brown color and keep it aside. Now heat the remaining ghee in a low flame.

Take the ground mixture in a separate pan and 1 ladle of ghee around the ground mixture along with few cashews and using a spoon mix the mixture well.

Make sure that the ghee-mixture is in a right consistency that lets you make small lemon sized balls. Now take small quantity of Rawa/Sooji mixture and press it hard to make it like a small lemon sized ladoos. Repeat the above steps for the remaining ground mixture

The delicious triple shot Laddu is ready for serving. Store it in an air tight container.

Triple Shot Ladoo

RawaLadduis a delicious sweet and can be made on any occasions. This is a healthy sweet made from Rawa/Sooji. I frequently make RawaLadduand also for many festivals like diwali. This is a good evening snack for children too.

Rawa Laddu(Sooji Laddu)

Preparation and Yield:

Preparation time	-
Cooking Time	15 mins
Yield	10-12

Ingredients:

Rawa / Semolina	1 Cup* +1 tablespoon
Sugar	1 Cup
Cardamom Powder	1/4 teaspoon
Ghee	1 Cup
Cashews	4-5

*1 cup = 250ml

Rawa Laddu(Sooji Laddu)

Method:

Heat a pan and Dry roast the rawa in a pan till it becomes slightly red color.

Take the rawa and sooji in a mixer and Grind the Rawa/Sooji along with sugar in a mixer to a coarse powder.

In a pan, heat a little amount of ghee and add the cashews and fry until it turns golden brown color and keep it aside. Now heat the remaining ghee in a low flame and add cardamom powder

Take the ground Rawa/Sooji mixture in a separate pan and 1 ladle of ghee around the ground mixture along with few cashews and using a spoon mix the mixture well. Make sure that the ghee-rawa/sooji mixture is in a right consistency that lets you make small lemon sized balls.

Now take small quantity of Rawa/Sooji mixture and press it hard to make it like a small ball/lemon. Repeat the above steps for the remaining ground Rawa/Sooji mixture.

The delicious RawaLadduis ready for serving. Store it in an air tight container.

Rawa Laddu(Sooji Laddu)

Deepavali is not only lights and crackers but also eating!. We eat so much of snacks, sweets, junk foods during diwali. When we visit some one on diwali, then its quite obvious that you will be back with stomach full of snacks and sweets offered by them. Also, in our home, the breakfast, lunch and dinner are grant and we end up eating a lot. This may create digestion problem. Our ancient already found a Legium to take care of this. In our home a table spoon of this Legium is given to all the family members immediately after the ritual oil bath on the diwali day. Then the sweets and other snacks are offered to start of the celebrations. This legium is also called as 'Marundhu' which is prepared from Ginger which will take care of the the digestion problem. To your surprise its a yummy as we add Jaggery and Ghee also. So, start your diwali with deepavali legium (Diwali Legiyum / Diwali Marundu) :-)

Deepavali Legium(Inji Legium) / Deepavali Marundhu

Preparation and Yield:

Preparation time	-
Cooking Time	15 mins
Yield	150 gms of Legium

Ingredients:

Coriander Seeds	1/2 Cup
Cumin Seeds / Jeeragam	3 teaspoon
Omam	3 teaspoon
Ginger	100gms
Grated Jaggery	1/2 Cup
Ghee	2 tablespoon

*1 cup = 250ml

Method:

First take all the required ingredients and keep it ready. Dry fry coriander seeds, cumin seeds, omam one by one in a pan and take it in a plate and allow it to cool for a minute

Take all the fried ingredients to the mixer and grind it to a fine powder.

Sieve the ground powder to get smooth and nice powder. Wash the ginger and peel it and chop the ginger to small pieces. Add the chopped ginger pieces to the mixer

Add little water and grind the ginger to a fine paste. Add grated jaggery in a vessel and add 1 tablespoon of water. Allow the jaggery to dissolve in water.

Heat a pan and filter the jaggery juice to get rid of any impurites or sand. To the pan, filter the ginger juice

Keep in low flame and stir continuously till the mixture gets thickened.

When the jaggery and ginger juice got thickened, add the ground and sieved spice powders. Stir well and add ghee and again stir well.

When the mixture starts to separate from ghee and leaves the sides of pan without sticking, then switch off the flame. You can take a spoon of legium and check it you can roll like a ball. Then the consistency is correct and you can switch off the flame.

The delicious deepavalilegium(injilegium) is ready to serve on Diwali

Deepavali Legium(Inji Legium) / Deepavali Marundhu

Shahi Tukda is a popular, delicious and simple sweet dish made using bread, milk and nuts. When I was in UK, my best friend made this yummy dish and she taught me how to make. Now whenever I make this recipe, I always remember the best moments with her :-). Even for the beginners this is one if the simple dish that would never go wrong. Ghee fried bread soaked in evaporated milk (Rabri) and garnished with nuts and saffron is a wonderful and rich dessert. We always do lots of traditional sweets for Diwali. Try this Shahi Tukda for this Diwali and surprise your family and friends.

Shahi Tukda Recipe

Preparation and Yield:

Preparation time	5 mins
Cooking Time	1 hour
Servings	5

Shahi Tukda Recipe

Ingredients:

Bread Slices	5
Milk	1 litre
Almonds	5
Pistachios	10
Saffron Threads	few
Sugar	1 Cup +1 tablespoon
Water	2 Cups
Ghee	1/2 Cup for frying
Cardamom Powder	1/4 teaspoon
Lemon Juice	1 teaspoon

Shahi Tukda Recipe

Method for Rabri :

First lets start with making our Rabri. Soak the saffron threads in a tablespoon of milk and keep it aside. Heat a pan and add milk. Keep stirring the milk in high flame till it starts boiling. Once the milk starts boiling, keep the flame medium and stir occasionally till the milk reduces to 1/4th of the quantity

Keep the flame low and add the saffron milk and stir well. Add chopped almonds and pistachios and remove the rabri from flame. Do not make the rabri very thick. Now our rabri is ready

Method for making Shahi Tukda:

Take the bread slices and cut the corners. Cut the bread in triangular or rectangular pieces. I have cut the slices into triangular pieces. Spread the bread slices in a plate and keep it aside for atleast 20 minutes. This will make the bread slices little dry. The dryness of the bread prevents it from drinking more ghee while frying. When I first tried this recipe, I used fresh bread as it is and all my ghee is gone for the first set of the slices itself :-(. After that experience, my friend taught me this trick. So now I keep the bread slices open in plate for 10-15 minutes before I start with the frying session.

Meanwhile, Lets make our sugar syrup. Heat a pan. Add sugar and water and stir in high flame allowing the sugar to boil. When the sugar syrup starts to boil, keep the flame low and and stir the syrup till it reaches one-string consistency. When you take a drop of syrup and rub in-between your thumb and point finger, you can see a thick string getting formed. You can also see the string forming in the ladle when you keep the ladle upside down. This is the correct consistency. Add the lemon juice and switch off the flame. Adding lemon juice prevents crystallisation of sugar syrup. Now our sugar syrup is ready.

Heat a flat pan and add ghee. Shallow fry the bread slices 2 at a time on both the sides

Fry them till they are nice brown color and remove the ghee fried bread slices and place it in a paper towel to drain excess ghee. Repeat the steps for the rest of the bread slices. Now our bread slices are ready to go into the sugar syrup.
Add 2-3 fried bread slices in the sugar syrup and allow it to soak in syrup for a minute on both the sides. Repeat the same for rest of the fried bread slices

Our syrup dipped bread and rabri are ready. Take a serving plate or bowl, add 2-3 pieces of fried sugar syrup dipped bread and pour the rabri. Garnish with nuts and serve chilled.

Enjoy this delicious Shahi Tudka and share your experiences!

Shahi Tukda Recipe

Diwali is always special for most of us and every Diwai most of us plan to make some new dishes which can surprise our family and friends. One such recipe is Suryakala, Chandrakala and Lavanga Lathika. This is a 3 in 1 Sweet dish where the outercover and also the filling the remains the same. The shape of the sweet differentiates from one another. As the name suggests, Suryakala is in circular shape like 'Sun', Chandrakala in the shape of a Crescent moon and Lavanga lathika is in rectangular shape with clove on the top.

So making the filling and outercover once and do 3 types of sweet dishes would surely make our effort easy and also we can surprise our family. Lets see how to make this simple dish...

Suryakala, Chandrakala, Lavanga Lathika Recipes

Preparation and Yield:

Preparation time	30 mins
Cooking Time	1 hour
Yield	20-25 pieces

Suryakala, Chandrakala, Lavanga Lathika Recipes

Ingredients:

Maida / All purpose flour	2 Cups*
Ghee	3 tablespoon
Cooking Soda	1/4 teaspoon
Salt	a pinch
Sugar	1 Cup
Homemade Khova**	1 Cup
Cashews	4
Almonds	4
Pistachios	4
Cardamom Powder	1/2 teaspoon
Oil	For deep frying
Lemon Juice	1/2 tablespoon
Cloves	10

*1 Cup = 250ml

** We can also use storebought khova. I have tried this recipe with both homemade khova and store bought and both of them turned out good. If you are buying a sugarless khova then add 1/2 cup of sugar and mix it with khova.

Common Steps for all 3 dishes

First take a mixing bowl and add maida, ghee, salt and cooking soda. Mix well so that the ghee is spread nicely in the flour.

Add water little by little and make like a soft chapati dough. Cover and keep it aside for 15-20 minutes. Take the khova in a bowl and crumble it nicely

Add the cashews, almonds and pistachios in a mixer and grind it to a coarse powder

Add the coarsely ground nuts and cardamom powder to the khova and mix well. This is the stuffing. Take the maida dough and knead it again and make lemon sized balls out of it

Lets prepare the sugar syrup. Heat a pan and add sugar to it. Add 2 cups of water and bring it to boil.

When the sugar syrup starts to boil, keep the flame medium and stir till the syrup reaches one string consistency. When you take a drop of sugar syrup and rub between your fingers it should form like a string. At this stage switch off the flame and add the lemon juice and mix well. Adding lemon juice prevents the crystallization of the sugar syrup. Now our sugar syrup is ready.

Take one maida ball and roll it to a small and thick poori. Roll the poori in such a way that the corners are thin and the center is thick. This is the make sure that the filling doesn't come out while frying the suryakala. The poori should not be so thin then the filling will surely comeout in hot oil. Do not roll too thick also, then it will take more time to fry in the oil. So roll out the poori and Place a small bowl or a lid upside down and press it so that we would get nice circular shaped poori and all the final suryakala would look same in shape and size.

Press the lid / bowl and remove the excess dough.

Method for making Suryakala:

For suryakala take 12 balls of the maida dough, we need 2 rolled pooris for each suryakala. Roll the poori as mentioned in the above points (7 & 8)
Place a teaspoon of filling in the center of one rolled poori. Then apply little water around the edges of the poori. Place other poori on top of the first poori to cover the filling and press gently so that the edges are sealed.

Then take the stuffed pooris and using your fingers start from one side and gently twist the corners as shown in the figure. Repeat this for rest of the pooris. Heat oil in a pan. When the oil is hot enough, keep the flame medium and add 3-4 suryakala and deep fry them till they turn golden brown color on both the sides.

Remove the fried suryakala and place it in a strainer or paper plate to drain excess oil. Put the fried suryakala in the sugar syrup and coat it nicely in the sugar syrup on both the sides. Repeat the same for rest of the suryakalas.

Now our Suryakala is ready to serve

Suryakala

Method for making Chandrakala:

For Chandrakala take 6-7 balls of the maida dough, Roll the poori as mentioned in the above points (7 & 8)
Place a teaspoon of filling in the center of one rolled poori. Then apply little water around the edges of the poori. Cover one end of the poori with other end so that it would form like a crescent moon or like a semicircle. Seal the edges carefully.

Then take the stuffed poori and using your fingers start from one side and gently twist the corners as shown in the figure. Repeat this for rest of the pooris

Heat oil in a pan. When the oil is hot enough, keep the flame medium and add 3-4 Chandrakala and deep fry them till they turn golden brown color on both the sides. Remove the fried Chandrakala and place it in a strainer or paper plate to drain excess oil. Put the fried Chandrakala in the sugar syrup and coat it nicely in the sugar syrup on both the sides. Repeat the same for rest of the Chandrakala .

Tasty Chandrakala is ready to serve

Chandrakala

Method for making Lavanga Lathika:

For Lavanga Lathika take rest of balls of the maida dough, Roll the poori as mentioned in the above points (7 & 8)
Place a teaspoon of filling in the center of one rolled poori. Then apply little water around the edges of the poori. Bring one end of the poori to the center covering half of the filling. Bring other end of the poori covering the entire filling

Then close the 2 edges and form like a rectangle. Insert a clove on the center of the closed edges.

Heat oil in a pan. When the oil is hot enough, keep the flame medium and add 3-4 Lavanga Lathika and deep fry them till they turn golden brown color on both the sides. Remove the fried Lavanga Lathika and place it in a strainer or paper plate to drain excess oil. Put the fried Lavanga Lathika in the sugar syrup and coat it nicely in the sugar syrup on both the sides. Repeat the same for rest of the Lavanga Lathika .

Now our Lavanga Lathika is ready to serve

Lavanga Lathika

Tasty and Yummy Suryakala, Chandrakala and Lavanga Lathika is now ready to serve. Allow it to cool and store it in a air tight container.

Lavanga Lathika

This year(2014) Diwali is on 22nd October.

Diwali(Deepavali) is a Festival of Lights. The significane of Diwali is that, it removes the darkness and brings light to the life. This auspicious occasion comes on the tamil month Ipasi(late october or early november) on krishnapakshi chaturthi. This year(2014) Diwali is on 22nd October.

This festival is celebrated to enjoy the happy moments of vanquishing of the demon Narakasura by Lord Krishna, the triumph of good over Evil!.Diwali is a festival where people from all age groups participate. They give expression to their happiness by lighting earthen 'diyas' (lamps), decorating the houses, bursting firecrackers and inviting near and dear ones to their households.

On Diwali day, early in the morning, elderly people will put kolam and will keep sweets, snacks, crakers, new dresses, vetrilai paaku and coconut for neivehdyam. The Hindus usually awake early in the morning of deepavali around 3am and the first ritual will be having an oil bath, which is an important feature of Diwali. In brahmin familes Diwali Legium will be offered to every individual which will make your stomach ready for the marathon between your hand and mouth on diwali. Then the new cloths will be offered to the every individual by the elderly people. Most of the ladies would be clad in silk saris or Punjabi suits of various bright shades. Hindus would also pay their respects to the elderly and most families would go to the temple. The houses would be decorated with oil lamps and children will play with firecrackers to celebrate the festival.

On this day, we prepare sweets and snacks and offer the same to friends, neighbours and relatives. You can try some of the recipes mentioned below.

How do we Celebrate Diwali ?

I am just describing here how we celebrate diwali. More or less all the tamil brahmins celebrate diwali in this way only. The night before diwali we put a Maakkolam in the Pooja room and keep the new dresses of all the family members on the wooden plank. Also we put small amount of Turmeric on one corner of the dress. The next day (Diwali day) I used to wake up at around 3 AM in the morning and prepare the boiling water for the bath of all the family members. We keep one bowl of boiling water, some amount of oil(Nallennai) in a bowl,some sweets and snacks which we prepared for Diwali, some crackers along with the new dresses and also light the Vilakku (Deepam). Then i used to wake up the family members one by one. Every individual has to sit east side facing on the wooden plank which is already decorated by maakkolam (Rangoli using rice flour) in the last day. The I apply the oil(Nallaennai) in his/her head. Once the oil is applied then he/she is supposed to take a bath in the hot water. The boiling water has to be prepared in advance. This ritual bath is called "Ganga Snanam". After the bath the individual has to come to the pooja room where all the new dresses were kept. Usually the elderly one of the house (in my home, my husband), will give the new dresses to the individual. He / She supposed to ask for blessing from the god and to the eldest member of the house and to get their new dresses from him. He / She wore the new dresses and then they can go to play with crackers. Once every individual of the family has taken the "Ganga snanam" all wore the new dresses and they go to the temple to offer prayers. Going to the temple with all the family members in their new dresses is the key part of Diwali. The younger ones are enjoying with the fire works, I will be busy preparing the breakfast. We offer the sweets and snacks to the friends and neighbours and also greet each other.

Wishing you a very Happy Diwali!!.. Enna Ganga Snanam acha !??

Recipes of some common Sweets:

Diwali Sweets:

Recipes of some common Snacks:

Diwali Sweets:

Click here for More Snacks

Recipe of Deepavali Legiyum:

Legiyum

Click here for Diwali Special Lunch Menu

Diwali Special Menu

This is a sweeter version of thukkada (Spicy Diamond Cuts) and this is for the sweet lovers. This Sweet Diamond Cuts or Diamond Biscuits is a very simple to do dish and it doesn't require any expertise level to prepare. Any new beginners can also try this simple dish and it may never go wrong. This is also one of the traditional and famous sweet dish especially for Diwali. It is a tradition for us to make sweets and snacks for Diwali not only for our family, but we also love to share with our friends and relatives. Some of the sweet dishes like seven cup cakes, coconut burfi, Instant Doodh beda etc are easy to make with less effort and also we would get more quantities to distribute. Sweet Thukada (Sweet Diamond Cuts or Diamond Biscuits) is one such dish which is simple to make, yummy and also we would get more quantity for distribution.

This easy dish is made with maida, sugar and ghee which are readily available in all our homes and the preparation time is much less too. Try this simple Diamond biscuits for this diwali and share with your friends and relatives.

Sweet Thukkada Recipe | Sweet Diamond Cuts Recipe | Sweet Diamond Biscuits Recipe

Preparation and Yield:

Preparation time	30 mins
Cooking Time	1 hour
Yield	500gms

Ingredients:

Maida / All purpose flour	2 Cups*
Ghee	2 tablespoon
Cooking Soda	1/4 teaspoon
Salt	a pinch
Sugar	1/2 Cup
Cardamom Powder	1/2 teaspoon
Oil	For deep frying

*1 Cup = 250ml

Sweet Thukkada Recipe | Sweet Diamond Cuts Recipe | Sweet Diamond Biscuits Recipe

Method to Prepare Thukkada:

Take a mixing bowl, add ghee, sugar, salt, cardamom powder and cooking soda and stir well till you it turns foamy and the sugar gets dissolved in ghee mixture

Add the Maida flour/All purpose flour to the sugar mxiture and mix well.

Once you mix the maida and ghe mixture, you could see it as a crumble mixture. Add water little but little and and make this into a soft dough like chapati dough

Cover it with a damp cloth or clinging film and keep it aside for 30 minutes. After half an hour, make 4 equal balls out of the dough and keep it aside

Take the chapati pan and rolling pin and keep 1 ball of the Maida flour/All purpose flour mixture and roll it like a chapati by dusting it with all purpose flour. Using a knife cut the Maida flour/All purpose flour dough into small diamond pieces

Place the diamond shaped pieces in a paper and allow it to dry. Repeat the above steps for the remaining balls and allow all the diamond shaped pieces to dry completely. In a pan, heat the oil and when the oil is hot, add handful of dried diamond shaped thukkadas and sprinkle it so that they are not stick to each other. fry it until it becomes crisp. Take the crisp thukkadas and keep it in a bowl with a paper tissue to dry the excess oil.