Maavilaku Mavu Recipe | Maa Vilakku Mavu Recipe

Maavilakku Mavu (Maa Vilakku Mavu) is an auspicious rice flour lamp made with rice flour and jaggery during Tamil Month Thai, Aadi and also during Karthigai Deepam festival. It is a family custom for many of you to offer Maavilakku during these auspicious occasions. My mother and MIL doesn't have this tradition, but my sister's in-laws has this tradition and she started following. I heard from her that even for Karthigai Deepam, they used to make Maavilakku Mavu deepam along with other diyas. So I learnt from her how to make this auspicious rice flour lamp.

Maavilaku Mavu Recipe | Maa Vilakku Mavu Recipe | Karthigai Deepam Recipes

Also Many people have a tradition of making Foxtail Millet with honey lamp and offer that to Lord Muruga. You can look here how to make Foxtail millet with honey (I have made balls out of foxtail millet and honey, we can make a big ball and make a dent in the middle and pour ghee and lit the lamp.

Maavilaku Mavu Recipe | Maa Vilakku Mavu Recipe | Karthigai Deepam Recipes

Preparation and Yield:

Preparation time	10 mins
Cooking Time	5 mins
Servings	5

Maavilaku Mavu Recipe | Maa Vilakku Mavu Recipe | Karthigai Deepam Recipes

Ingredients:

Raw Rice**	2 Cups*
Grated Jaggery	1 1/2 Cups
Cardamom	2-3
Ghee	2 tablespoon
Cotton Wick	2

* 1 cup = 250ml
** we can also use store bought rice flour, but for neivedhyam it is always good to prepare fresh rice flour.

Method:

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. Take the rice flour in a mixer along with grated jaggery and cardamom

Grind the rice and jaggery. Just give a couple of pulses just to mix the rice and jaggery thoroughly. Do not over grind it as the jaggery will start giving water and the whole mixture would become clumsy. Take the ground rice and jaggery powder in a plate and leave it aside for 10-15 minutes. The jaggery would give a nice wetness to the rice flour and you can easily make a soft dough.

After 15 minutes, split the rice and jaggery mixture into two portions. Knead the rice and jaggery mixture to 2 balls. Then with our fingers or with any bottle cap, gently press the center of the ball to make a dent. If you feel your rice and jaggery mixture is too dry to make balls or dent, then you can add little ghee and knead the mixture again. You can make a dent and make a shape like a Diya.