Kolam by Sudha Balaji

This is a sweet dish that is used as an offering or neivedhiyam for Puja particularly on Thursdays. for Lord Hyagreeva  (for children's education). It can also be prepared and offered for auspicious occasions and festivals like Varalakshmi Vratha Pooja instead of kheer or payasam.. Method of preparation Gram dhall ( kadalai paruppu ) is cooked with little water in a cooker.  Using a ladle break the dhall so that some are whole and some are broken.   Add powdered jaggery and mix well.  In a vessel add ghee and heat it.  Now add cashew nuts, raisins and the mixture of gram dhall and jaggery to the heated ghee   Stir well till jaggery melts completely.  Add cardamom powder to it.  The neivedhiyam is ready.  Adding grated coconut is optional. Usually, it is prepared in small quantity since it is for offering. Guruvaram or Thursday is very important for our family.  My mother-in-law was an ardent devotee of Mahaperiya His Holiness Chandrasek...

Quick and easy sweet appam This appam is prepared for Krishna Janmashtami as an offering or neivedyam to Lord Krishna in our family circles.. Usually prepared with jaggery,  I have done with sugar to make it easy to justify the title ! We need, one cup boiled milk, one cup sugar , one cup maida and cardamom seeds or elakkai powder . Mix all the three , sugar, maida in milk.  Wait for around 10 minutes so that the sugar is completely dissolved in  milk. Add cardamom powder ,  the image below shows what is correct viscosity of the batter to get perfect appams. Heat the stove > When oil is hot turn the knob on the stove to sim position the batter is poured in hot oil using a ladle or spoon.   When  the appam becomes brown turn to the other side .  This ensures that it gets cooked evenly and completely. One important point to be noted is that we should  fry the appam one by one otherwise they will stick together in the oil This...

I would like to share some of the kheer (or payasam) types that I think are (un)common.  Since Rangoli-sans-dots is primarily on rangoli or kolam designs, recipes like kheer or payasam and rangoli are inseparable so far as festivals like Lakshmi Puja, Diwali and Sankranthi are concerned.   They are also important for festivals like Varalakshmi Vratham, Ganesh Chathurthi, and Fridays ( especially for Sravan month Fridays  or Sravana sukruvar and  Tamil month Aadi - Aadi Velli as we call in Tamil ).  So I thought that I should occasionally add some festival related recipes. Pumpkin (parangi) payasam for Fridays Required ingredients 1. Ripe pumpkin - 250 gram 2. Milk -1/2 litre 3. Sugar -as desired 4. Cardamom 5. Cashew nuts 6. Raisins 7. Optional (almonds and saffron) Cook the pumpkin pieces in a pressure cooker. Take them out, mash and keep separately.  Boil the milk for 5 minutes and add cardamom powder and saffron (optional). Th...

Naivedyam for Vinayaka Chaturthi | Pillaiyar Chaturthi Traditional kozhukattai is sometimes difficult to make because the batter made from rice flour may tear or give away .  So this kozhukattai is an easier method to prepare the offering for Lord Ganesha.  Of course like many naivedyam we can make it for snacks  for children and adults First we have to prepare the puran, Again we can have different types of puran or filling.  The traditional pooran is made from coconut, jaggery. For one measure grated coconut, three fourth measure jaggery is taken ( it is better to grate jaggery also so that it dissolves quickly ) In a shallow vessel add a little  ghee and then add the coconut Then add jaggery and mix them well with a ladle.  Due the heat the jaggery melts and binds to the coconut.  We should stir till the jaggery coconut mixture does not stick to the vessel. The pooranam is ready, add a little  more ghee and card...