Hope all my Indian friends got to celebrate Saraswathi Pooja today. We did a small pooja and I made Payasam and Uzhunnu Vada for Naiveydam (food offerings to God). Amma used to make these two dishes during Saraswathi Pooja/Vijayadashmi day. She loved Uzhunnu vada/Urad dal fritters a lot. I like it but if you gave me a choice between parippu vada and (channa and toor dal fritters) and Uzhunnu Vada I will go for the former.
I still remember that on Vijayadashmi day, my poor mom had extra work to do, not only did she have to do day to day work, but also make this two dishes. She is not a fast person, takes her own time to make everything with ultra cleanliness. I got that gene, I am cleanliness freak, I want everything to clean immediately, and I don’t like anything in the sink during night. When I wake up in the morning I want a clean kitchen as much as possible. Now my little princess who curious to touch and taste everything spills whatever we give her to eat.
Usually during Navaratri amma kept Golu in home, which is mainly an exhibition of various dolls and dolls of popular in odd numbered tiers. Read more about Golu and their custom from here. As a part of custom, in the evening, married women and girl children from neighborhood are invited to see the golu and given vethalai paaku, ( Betal leaf, Aracanut, small gifts and kumkum, money etc) and prasadam (various type of sundals) . We were also very happy to visit all the houses in the neighborhood, but before hand we will roam around asking “aunty what type of sundal have you made for the offering today”. If they say sweet version sundal or sweets I was more than interested to visit their home, savory not that found of, still we visited them as with amma. I have lots of happy memories about that. Here I don’t know many families, so I didn’t keep any golu. If you keep golu you need to give prasadam and vethalai paaku to married women/Mami. Where I am I gig to find people who are knowledgeable of our customs and follow our traditions. So I decided only to do Pooja.
I made payasam similar to Attukal Pongala payasam except that I did not add any coconut. Attukal is a famous Devi temple in Thiruvanthapuram, South India. We Thiruvanthapuram people fondly call Attukala Ammachi (means mother). During the end of the 10 day festival in the Malayalam month of Kumbam (February-March) there will be Pongala an offering of boiled rice in earthen pot offered by women. Attukal Pongala is an annual congregation of more than three million women who gather to offer pongala to Attukal Amma (Devi, Mother Goddess) making it the largest gathering of women on earth. Only women are allowed to do the Pooja, and no men other than volunteers and poojari (Main Priest) are present during that day in and around the premises of the temple. See pictures of this year pongala at this blog; Mom used to offer pongala every year. I remembered going to pongala with her and decided to make today’s payasam similar. However, I didn’t use any earthenpot and made it using pressure cooker and stove top to make it easy. I cooked rice and dal in pressure cooker and added jaggery and ghee made easy payasam.
For Uzhunnu vada I soaked whole urad dal/black gram for 5 hours in water and grind it into a fine paste with less water and then added chopped green chilies, ginger, salt and curry leaves. For Naivedyam, I made few without adding any onion, rest I added chopped onion. My hubby is fond of Uzhunu vada. He enjoyed his vada while watching the foot ball game between Viking (Minnesota) and Cowboys (Dallas). The Vikings won the game. The vada are crispy golden colored on the outer side and soft white inside. We enjoyed this vada with our evening coffee. Here goes the recipe.
Print recipe from here
What you need
Payasam
Raw rice: 1/3 cup
Yellow split peas/Moong dal: 1 tablespoon
Jaggery: ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon
Ghee/Clarified butter: 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon
Cardamom: 3 no
Cashew nuts: 6 no
Water: 1 1/ 2 cup
For Uzhunnu vada
Black gram/Urad dal/Uzhnnu: 1 ½ cup
Green chili: 2 no (chopped finely)
Curry leaves: 2 sprigs (chopped finely
Ginger: 2 inch piece (chopped finely)
Salt: 1 teaspoon or to taste
Water: 4 cup for soaking+ ½ cup for grinding
Oil: 4 cup( I used canola oil)
How I made
Payasam
Wash both rice and moong dal and pressure cook up to 2 whistles for about 20 minutes with 1 cup of water. Set aside
In a medium sauce pot add ½ cup of water and jaggery and bring to it boil so that jaggery will dissolve completely. Remove from the fire and strain to remove any impurities and set aside.
In the same pan add jaggery water and cooked rice moong dal mixture and cook for about 6 minutes or until jaggery water gets absorbed completely by rice and add 1 tablespoon of ghee with stirring in between for another 3 minutes. Add crushed cardamom and stir well and switch off the flame.
In a small pot heat 1 teaspoon of Ghee/clarified butter and add cashew nuts and fry for 1 minute or until golden brown color. Add this to above Payasam.
Enjoy as much as you wish.
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Yield: 3 serving
Verdict: Tasty
Will you make it again: Yes I will
Uzhnnu vada/Black gram fritters
Soak Uzhnnu/Urad dal/ Black gram for 5 hours in 4 cup of water. At end of soaking time, clean the urad dal with running water and set aside.
In the mean time chop green chilies, ginger, onion and curry leaves finely and set aside.
In a food processor/grinder/mixer grind the soaked urad dal into fine paste with ½ cup of water. Batter should be thick; you should able to make small balls with them.
To the ground urad dal /black gram paste add salt, chopped green chilies, ginger , onion and curry leaves and mix everything so that all the ingredients gets combined well with the batter. Set aside
.
Heat 4 cups of oil in thick bottomed pan, when it reaches 350 F; slowly add donut shaped urad dal dough. (On your wet palm or Ziploc bag, place a round ball of dough, slightly flatten to form the thick disc and a use your finger to create hole in the center to form the shape of doughnut). Fry them by flipping them few times for about 8 minutes or until they reach golden brown color. You will be able to fry 3 at a time.
Drain them using a slotted spoon into a kitchen towel to remove extra oil.
Enjoy with hot tea.
Preparation time: Soaking 5 hours: Grinding: 5 minutes: Frying: 40 minutes
Yield: 15 no
Verdict: Tasty
Will you make again: Yes I will.
Swathi
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This is Swathi ( Ambujom Saraswathy) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
both the recipes looks yummy n mouthwatering dear…
Wow! What a delicious post. Loved both the recipes, especially the urad dal fritters and the clicks are awesome.
That is an awesome combination…My mom made this combo so often…I miss my mom…Swathi you brought back memories….Sweet pongal with medhu vada looks super yummy.
Pushpa @ simplehomefood.com
A couple goodies… the post has given me the munchies 🙂
My goodness…I love it i love it…Looks awesome swathi…
delicious everything looks yummy
You are making me drool lady..both payasam and vadas look scrumptious..!
US Masala
Both sounds extremely tasty. I’d really like to have some hot wadas with chai 🙂
Vadas are to die for.look super crispy & golden brown! Loved the payasam too..both dishes yum!
Lovely post 🙂 vada looks so good and perfect 🙂
Awesome dish n the the clicks are gorgeous dear..
Tasty Appetite
Absolutely tempting pudding and vadas, makes me drool..
scrumptious!
Nice step by step pics and delicious vada.
Both are delicious, your vada is perfectly done…
http://treatntrick.blogspot.com
yummy payasam n crispy vadas.. perfect prasadam for pooja..
Very lovely dish! Thanks for sharing.
Both payasam & vadas look mouthwatering. Very nice combination.
Deepa
Hamaree Rasoi
Perfect festival recipes,vada looks very crispy and the payasam looks divine.
Both looks great… delicious.. love them Swati..
looks so good…lovely clicks swathi
Nice combo………. Perfect for festivals
Thanks for sharing your customs with us! I hope you had a wonderful Saraswathi Pooja celebration!
Every time I came into your blog I learn something new to apply to my recipes. Thanks.
yuuumm the little fritters looks great!
have a great day!
Priscilla
yummy recipes
These are both such scrumptious treats! They would make sitting down to a cup of tea very special!
lovely post…both dishes are great..but here I am going for vada…sooooooooo tempting !
gorgeous posting, as usual! ANd the dishes- wow! I love your presentation for the Vadhas- it amazes me sometimes how Indian ladies do them with just one (right) hand and still get such nice, even shaped fritters- with a whole in them as well!
another very interesting dish you got here! thanks for always sharing your lovely meals 🙂
Have a great day!
jen @ http://www.passion4food.ca
I love the mix of sweet and salty in this post! The best of both worlds.
hi dear,first time to ur blog….vada and pongal looks perfect!! nice click too!….im glad to follow u dear
adipoli……. aashamsakal………………………….
Nice recipe..both looks adipoli!! kothiyavunutou 🙂
சரஸ்வதிக்கு வெங்காய வடை!…:) பேஷ்! பேஷ்!..:)
Those fritters look amazing. I have to make both recipes.
Nice appetizing vada 🙂