Kolam by Sudha Balaji

These two cool drinks are offered as naivedyam for Sri Rama Navamai.  Very thoughtful of our elders because this festival is celebrated in summer. They can also be very traditional home made cool drinks and hence may be healthy because we use dry ginger, jaggery and cut raw vegetables.   Panak or panagam recipe  Take fresh grated jaggery. Add water and dissolve the jaggery Filter the solution to remove dirt , if any. Add dry ginger powder ( sukku podi in Tamil ) and stir well Add cardamom powder Squeeze lemon juice - two one medium sized lemons Stir well and store in a fridge.  It is like Devamritham as we say on a hot summer day,  very refreshing drink Neer mor or spicy butter milk Add water to curd and stir well to make butter milk Add salt. Add peeled and cut mango pieces Add peeled and cut cucumber pieces Add asafoetida Add curry leaves saute ( mustard and cumin seeds ) These are quick and easy recipes described in qu...

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...

Sabudana kheer | Javvarisi payasam for Gokulashtami and Navratri The steps for making this kheer are given below.  If you like to view the video directly which is in Tamil it is available after the description and images. Traditionally what we do is for any javvarisi (sago) recipe is that we soak it in water for a few hours allow it to absorb water and then proceed with the recipe.  This is a different method wherein we do not soak it in water.   This is particularly useful when we have to make a quick payasam instantly.   The image below shows javvarisi and a mixture of almonds, cashews, pista powdered.  Actually, this powder I mix in milk and give it to suhasinis who come for thamboolam for Varalakshmi Vratham or Navratri. Take one measure of javvarisi and roast in a little ghee in a vessel called vanali in Tamil.  After some time the volume of the javvarisi spheres increases just as we get when we soak it in water.  Remove it and...