VISHU - SADHYA

Vishukkani at home in Pune.

‘Vishu’ is the new Year of Malayalees (Keralites) – Palakkad Iyers too celebrate this day as New Year – this usually falls on 14 April, at times on 15th – one day after Tamil New Year day. It is the 1st day of the the month of 'medam' in the Malayalam calendar. 

The previous day is a whirlwind rush - making rounds of Kerala stores (for those settled outside Kerala) and vegetable / fruit vendors procuring all the desired stuff. At night, a good hour or more is spent in keeping the ‘vishukkani’. The favorite God(s) (usually Krishna) presides on a table close to the bedroom. A bunch of golden yellow ‘kanikonna poo’ (flowers) is a must – these days they are sold in the ‘Kerala Stores’ along with all the other Vishu-stuff (such as pappadam, variety of chips, 'paalada', banana leaves, jack fruit etc.); a few shopkeepers are generous enough to offer a bunch of the golden flowers free to their customers. Otherwise people still pluck bunches from the blooming trees lining some roads and share with needy lookers-on!

Golden yellow 'konna' poo in full bloom

A tray of raw rice, freshly broken coconut halves filled with pulses, topped with a gold sovereign, a cup with coins and currency notes, and a mirror are a must! A pretty ‘vellarikka’ is adorned with a gold necklace and occupies pride of place. Other requisites are the lamp, agarbatti, match box, kumkum, 'vibhuti' (sacred ash) etc.

Traditionally a spread of whole vegetables and fruits (usually yellow and green in color) are arranged – green bananas, green mangoes, drumsticks, snake gourd, lime, and ripe mangoes, grapes, yellow bananas, and a whole jack fruit! These days - those of us who live outside Kerala - substitute the whole jack fruit with a small raw jack fruit or a piece of the big ripe fruit! We have started keeping whatever fruits are available in our place – watermelon, oranges, apples …. and also adding color by lining up the vegetables we normally use – tomatoes, brinjals, carrots etc. In fact, the first time my mother saw my ‘vishukkani’, she was aghast and said, “We don’t keep carrots and tomatoes!” I tried to convince her by saying, “We use them in plenty throughout the year, don’t we? So I include them too. Is there any law against it?” It took her a couple of years to accept it! On similar lines, the 'vishukkani' my daughter-in-law had arranged in the US was based on the availability and use of the vegetables and fruits there.

'Vishukkani' in the US ....

The ‘vishukkani’ is the first thing the members of the household see the moment they wake up on the new year morning – the lady of the house wakes up first, lights the auspicious lamp, prays to the Almighty and looks at every item of the ‘kani’ symbolizing plenty and prosperity throughout the year. She puts on kumkum, looks at herself in the mirror and does ‘namaskaram’. Then she wakes up each member of the family one after the other, closing their eyes with her hand till they are in front of the ‘kani’. Each one repeats the ritual. The elders give ‘vishukkai nettam’ to the rest of the family. I remember as kids, we used to get one rupee (50 years ago!). My sons used to be given Rs.11. Now the corresponding amount has increased to anything between Rs.101 and 501!

                                 

The other highlight of the day is the grand ‘sadhya’ (feast) – complete with vada, paayasam (chakka pradhaman / 'ada pradhaman' / 'paalada pradhaman' /  'paal payasam'), a couple of side-dishes including a 'thoran', koottu, avial, 'kaalan', 'olan', 'pachadi', 'kichadi' and of course sambar, rasam, pappadam, pickle and curd. Last year I had prepared all items of 'sadhya' (see photo above) for just the two of us at home - in order to present my blog post. Otherwise it is a mini feast with 4-5 dishes and chips varieties, pappadam and of course vada and payasam.

The whole family sits on the floor and enjoys the feast served on banana leaves.The banana leaf should have the narrow end to the left hand side of the eater.

'Vishu' sadhya at home ....

The items should be served in a particular sequence. Also each dish has an allotted spot on the banana leaf! Here's the complete feast served in the right sequence (as in the above photo).

First paal paayasam is served on the near right end.

Next, the dishes are served in order from the far right end of the eater -

kichadi, maanga pachadi, vegetable (urulaikizhangu roast), thoran (avarakka), koottu, avial, olan, kaalan, puli inji, maangaakary.

Near-end beginning from left end -

pappadam, pazham, chakka pazham (optional), sharkaravaratty, varathuppery, chakka uppery, paruppu vada, rice, ghee, sambar and paruppu.

The steel cups from left to right at the far end contain- paayasam, rasam and curd.

FEAST ITEMS

Feast items beginning from left outer circle -

kichadi (white), pachadi (golden brown), thoran, urulakizhangu roast, koottu, olan, avial, kaalan, puli inji, maangaakary, vadai, sharkaravarati, chips, curd, paal paayasam.

Inner circle - beginning from left from near end - ghee, paruppu, rice, pappadam, sambar, rasam.

View of the same items from the other end! 

 

A grander feast will have an extra sweet ('uppittu' /‘boli’ / laddoo ) and an extra paayasam ('ada pradhaman'). Any one of the special rice varieties – lemon rice, coconut rice or tamarind rice – can be included – if desired.
Happy Vishu! Have a great year ahead! And enjoy the 'sadhya'!

                  © Copyright 2011. Brinda Balasubramonian.

KARADAYAN NOMBU - NOLUMBADAI

'Nolumbadai' is prepared on 'Karadayan Nombu' - a festival celebrated by Tam-Brahm ladies for the well-being and long life of their husband. In a sense it is akin to 'Karva Chauth festival of North India. Girls also perform this 'nombu' - to get 'worthy' husbands in due course. ‘Nolumbadai’ and butter are offered along with betel leaves and betel nut, haldi, flowers and fruit, as ‘naivedhyam’ after which ladies tie a thick yellow thread (smeared with haldi) ( manjal charadu) around Devi (Goddess) and also around their own neck. The festival usually falls in mid March.

To save yourself from excess work on the D-day, make the rice flour a couple of days earlier.

Nolumbadai

Makes 30-32 adais

Ingredients

Raw rice - 2 cups

Jaggery - 2 cups

Water –3 1/2 to 4 cups

Black-eyed peas (karamani payaru) – 2-3 tbsp – soaked in water for an hour and pressure-cooked

Coconut pieces – 2-3 tbsp

Ghee – 1 tsp

Method

Wash and soak the rice in water for 15-20 minutes.

Drain and keep in a colander or spread on a newspaper for 10-15 minutes.

Powder it in a mixer and sieve on a fine sieve. This will give 4 cups of rice flour. Spread it for 2-3 hours.

Dry roast the rice flour well till it is very light brown. (It will give out an aroma). Cool it. This will give you 2 cups of flour. You can store this in a clean, dry bottle if you make this in advance.

Dissolve nearly 2 cups jaggery in nearly 4 cups of water in a kadhai on a low heat.

When it starts boiling, continue on low heat and add coconut pieces and pressure-cooked karamani payaru and a tinge of salt and a tsp of ghee.

Add 2 cups of rice flour gradually, stirring all the while till water is absorbed completely.

Turn off the heat and allow it to cool.

Make big lemon-sized balls of the dough.

Apply a little ghee/oil on your hand and wet it too.

Flatten each ball into adai on separate banana leaf piece and steam like idlis for 10-12 minutes. It will have a shiny glazed look when ready.

Tips –

Instead of karamani payaru, yellow moong dal can be used – it has to be roasted till light brown and soaked in water for 30 minutes. It can be added to the boiling jaggery and the rest of the procedure continued.

If banana leaves are not available, you can make the adais on wetted and oiled plastic sheet and transfer them to oiled idli plates for steaming.

You can even make the adais on wetted and oiled left palm of yours and gently transfer them to oiled idli plates for steaming. 
If the flour is not roasted well, the adais will turn out sticky.

The same rice flour is used for the sweet adai and salty adai. So make double the quantity of rice flour if you intend to make both varieties of adais.

Salty adai

Makes 30-32 adais

Ingredients –

Raw rice – 2 cups

Water – 31/2 to 4 cups

Black-eyed peas (karamani payaru) – 2-3 tbsp – soaked in water for an hour and pressure-cooked

Coconut pieces – 2-3 tbsp

Oil – 2 tsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Urad dal – 1 tsp

Whole red chilli pieces – 2-3

Asafetida – a pinch

Curry leaves - 8

Method –

Wash and soak 2 cups of rice for 15 minutes. Drain in a colander and spread on a newspaper for 15 minutes.

Powder it in a mixer and sieve on a fine sieve. This will give 4 cups of rice flour. Spread it for 2-3 hours.

Dry roast the rice flour well till it is light brown. Cool it. This will give you 2 cups of flour.

Heat oil in a big kadhai and add mustard seeds and urad dal.

When they splutter, add red chilli pieces, asafetida and curry leaves.

Add nearly 4 cups of water. Add the boiled kaaramani payaru and required salt and bring to boil.

Lower the heat and gradually add the rice flour and stir well till water gets absorbed.

Cool and divide into equal sized balls.

Make adais and steam like idlis for 10-12 minutes.

© Copyright 2011. Brinda Balasubramonian.

SHIVARATRI - PARUPPU KANJI

This item is a must on ‘Shivaratri’ night in Palakkad homes! Our grandparents undertook rigorous fasts and stayed awake all night. Hubby says the whole family would go to watch 'kathakali' in the temple premises to stay wake all night! I remember Veremai (my maternal grandma) telling me stories about 'I-forgot-who' stayed awake all night perched on top a tree all night to save himself from some animal (I think) and plucked and dropped the leaves to stay awake. It was Shivaratri night and the leaves he dropped were 'vilva' leaves and they fell on the 'Shiva lingam' at the bottom of the tree. Needless to say the man attained 'moksha'. As a little girl I loved the story - of course I belong to a much older generation which lapped up the tales without popping questions! Whether we would undertake the fast or partake in the ‘puja’ or stay awake all night – don’t ask! But all of us as children looked forward to ‘paruppu kanji’ at night. I hate 'kanji' (porridge) as I've always associated it with sickness. But I love 'paruppu kanji' as it is more of a payasam than a 'kanji'. I wish I could call it 'paruppu payasam'. But fundamentalists would object to it as 'paruppu kanji' is a more austere term for a solemn festival like 'Shivaratri'.

It is an easy-to-make, tasty and healthy item but somehow we get to make it only this festival!

Ingredients

Yellow moong dal – ¾ cup

Jaggery (powdered) – 1- 1 1/4 cup

Cashew nuts – 2 tbsp (roasted in 1 tsp of ghee) (optional)

Cardamom powder – 1 tsp

Milk – 1-2 cups

Method

Dry roast the moong dal to light brown.

Wash the dal. Add 1 1/2 cups of water  to it and pressure-cook it in a separate vessel for 2 whistles and allow to cool.

Remove from the cooker and add the powdered jaggery and mix well while still hot till it dissolves completely.

Add cardamom powder and roasted cashews.

Pour out the thick paruppu kanji into bowls. Add 1/4 - 1/2 cup of milk to each bowl and stir well.

Serve hot or chilled.

Tips

Since it is made on ‘Shivaratri’ and is had with fruits at night, it is supposed to be light (they didn't add cashew nuts) and hence it is called ‘paruppu kanji’ and not 'paruppu pradhaman’!

 © Copyright 2011. Brinda Balasubramonian.

FESTIVALS - PONGAL

Festivals are celebrated with delicious delicacies among the Palakkad Iyers. Festivals mean good food and fun - as in all communities. But then, there are unique items prepared on specific festivals lined up in the calendar.

‘Pongal’ is the harvest festival of Tamilnadu but since Palakkad Iyers are basically Tamilians (though settled in Kerala), they celebrate ‘Pongal’ – though on a modest scale – with ‘Pongal’ and ‘vadai’.

They make two varieties of Pongal – ‘Chakkara pongal’ (sweet) and ‘venn pongal’ (savory).

Rice-dal mix

Dry roast the moong dal till light brown. Mix the rice (1 glass) and dal (nearly 1/2 glass), wash well and pressure-cook with ¼ glass more than the usual amount you use to cook rice (ie.2 ¼ x 1 ½ =nearly 3 ½  to 4 glasses water if using Basmati rice & dal). I add 3 glasses of water an 1/2 glass of milk for this special occasion. The rice has to be overcooked.

Chakkara Pongal

This is similar to ‘vella payasam’ – the only difference is it is not prepared from rice alone but with a mixture of rice and moong dal.

Ingredients

Over-cooked rice-dal portion (1:1/2 glass).

Jaggery – 1 1/2 glass (you can add or decrease the                                                amount as per your taste)

Ghee – 3 - 4 tbsp

Cashew nuts – 2 tbsp

Coconut pieces – 1 ½ tbsp

Raisins – 2 tbsp

Cardamom powder – ¾ tsp

Method –

Heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a kadhai and fry the cashews, coconut pieces and raisins separately till golden brown and set aside.

Heat 1/4 glass of water in the same kadhai and dissolve the jaggery and strain to remove impurities (or use organic jaggery which is usually clean).

Heat the syrup well till it thickens and add the cooked rice-dal and stir well.

Add ghee and continue to stir till almost dry.

Add cardamom powder and mix well.

Garnish with roasted nuts and raisins and serve hot after offering it as ‘neivedhyam’.

                Venn Pongal

Ingredients

Rice – 1 glass

Yellow moong dal (dry-roasted to a light brown) – almost ½ glass

Ghee – 3 tbsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Urad dal – 1 tsp

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Black pepper – 1 tsp

Pepper powder – 1 tsp

Curry leaves – 8

Cashew nuts – 2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Method

Pressure-cook the rice-dal mix with 3 1/2 - 4 cups cups of water. It has to be a bit overcooked.

Heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a kadhai and fry the cashew nuts till golden brown and set aside.

Heat the entire ghee, add mustard seeds, urad dal, and cumin seeds and whole pepper corns. When they crackle, add pepper powder and curry leaves and a pinch of asafetida and salt.

Add the cooked rice - dal  mix and mix well.

Garnish with roasted cashews.

Serve hot with chutney or sambar.

Tips

If you are not weight-watchers, you can add a dollop of extra ghee in your plate of pongal and relish the extra taste!

© Copyright 2011. Brinda Balasubramonian.

ELAI ADAI

‘Elai adai’ is a delicacy – a rare one at that! My mother was very fond of it – and her mother too - not to forget me too! And banana leaves were aplenty in our garden! So whenever I’d visit my mom at Madras this would be on the top of the charts on the 'must-prepare' list! Whenever I manage to get banana leavesand have a stock of ‘chakkavaratti’, I spare no efforts to make them! You guessed it - yes, it is a laborious recipe.
What surprised me was that I found that ‘Elai adai’ is sold in some Indian stores in some parts of the US – frozen ones, of course! Taste-wise, they are definitely not a patch on the home-made ones!

(Makes 10 elai adais)

Ingredients

Banana leaves – cut in 9" x 7" rectangular pieces - 10

Raw rice – 1 glass

Coconut – 1 big (grated)

Jaggery – 1- 1 ½ glass

Chakkavaratti (Jackfruit halwa) – 2 tbsp

Cardamom powder – ½ tsp

Method

Wash and soak the rice for 2-3 hours and grind to a fine paste in the mixer. Add 1 tsp of powdered sugar and 2 tsps of oil and make a fairly thick batter (adding water if necessary).

Melt the jaggery in required water, strain off impurities and boil the syrup till thick.

Add the grated coconut and jackfruit halwa and stir well. Continue to heat till the water has evaporated.

Add cardamom powder and mix well.

Wash the banana leaves and warm each of them by holding them above the gas flame turning back and forth till they become soft and foldable.

Make a ‘dosa’ on the banana leaf with the rice batter. Fill half of it with a thin layer of coconut-jaggery stuffing and fold along the center.

Make all the elai adais like this.

Arrange 5-6 carefully in a colander at a time and steam it for 15 minutes.

Remove after 10 minutes and serve the ‘elai adais’ along with the banana leaf on a plate.

Tips

If you are adding more ‘chakkavaratti’, add less of jaggery.If you don't have 'chakkavaratti', just add more jaggery - of course it will lose its authentic flavour!
 

It is laborious - prepare the stuffing one day before to offer you some respite.

© Copyright 2011. Brinda Balasubramonian.