Aayutha Pooja Celebrations

This is a very popular festival celebrated in India. You can learn about this pooja here. This pooja is celebrated a little different in the North and South India. I do not know much about the North. But this is how we celebrate it in our house.

On the day of aayutha pooja we wash & clean everything from home to vehicles. Dress up all the doors, appliances and vehicles with sacred ash (viboothi), turmeric and kukumam. Then each person in the house keeps their work related thing in front of God. When I was little , my sister and me would keep our books(now I keep my cookbooks), dad & mom their stethescopes (both are doctors) and my grandparents would keep their property documents. Then we would offer our neivedyam and will be off in a flash to watch the special programs on TV.

The next day is Saraswathi pooja. This used to be my favorite pooja during my childhood days as we needn't study on that day b'coz all the books will be in front of god.
After that, it's vijayadasami. On this day, we take our books from the pooja and start studying. Parents teach the little kiddos to write "aana aavana" on a thaambalam filled with rice. The pooja ends on this day. This is how we celebrate it in our home.

Usually for any festival we can do vadai, payasam and sundal. On aayutha pooja usually they give a mixture of puffed rice, jaggery, peanuts and pottu kadalai. I didn't do it as I couldn't get puffed rice.

Here is my contribution for RCI: festival foods hosted by our dear Viji who is the proud owner of a great blog Vcuisine . I thought I won't make it this time. But I managed to participate in it atlast. Thanks Vijika for hosting this event.

Also, I wish to send the same to Vee who owns a great blog "Past, Present and Me" for JFI:DASERRA event.

The menu I prepared this time:

Channa Dal Vada, Pasi paruppu payasam, chick pea sundal, Black channa sundal, Rice with toor dal and ghee, Sambar, vatha kuzhambu, rasam, appalam, mango pachidi, curd and pickle.

I couldn't get everything in the pic. So, I've taken only a few here.

Also, I have already blogged the recipe for vadais here . So, I'll go to the pasi parrupu payasam(split moong dal payasam).

Pasi Parrupu Payasam:

Ingredients:

Spit moong dal - 1 cup

raw rice- 1 tsp

jaggery - 2 cups(I like mine very sweet. You can reduce the quantity if you want)

water- 1/2 cup

cardamom- 3

cashews- 6(broken)

raisins- 1 tbsp

coconut- grated- 1 tbsp

milk- 1/2 cup

Procedure:

Dry roast dal and rice together until the color starts to change. Then, cook dal and rice in pressure cooker with 2 cups water for 3 whistles. The dal should be fully cooked. Mash it slightly. Meanwhile, melt jaggery with water. You need not boil it. Just melt it and allow it to cool. Filter all the impurities and add this to mashed dal. You can add more or less according to your taste. Then put crushed cardamom and milk. Boil for 5 mins. Finally, fry cashews, raisins and coconut in 1 tbsp ghee and add it to the payasam. Mix well and serve it hot or cold. I prefer mine hot. But chiiled one is great too.

Sundals:

Ingredients:

Black channa/ white channa- 1 cup

onion- 1/4 (chopped fine)

coconut- 1 tbsp (grated)

hing- 1/2 tsp (optional)

curry leaves- few

red chillies- 2 (broken)

mustard seeds- 1/4 tsp

urad dal- 1 tsp

channa dal- 1 tsp

Procedure:

Pressure cook channa with 2 cups water and required salt for 3 whistles. (cook according to your cooker. The count for whistles differs from one cooker to the other). Drain all the water and set channa aside. Heat oil in kadai and fry mustard seeds, urad and channa dal. Then fry onion, red chillies and curry leaves. Now add cooked channa and mix well. Finally add coconut and hing and roast for 5 mins.

I come to an end with this. I'm sorry guys for missing some of your post in the last three days and also not responding to your precious comments. Will go thru them soon. I was a little busy with my son. Some of my sweet friends had enquired about kavin as he was sick. Thank you so much dears. He is doing a lot better now. Had a tough weekend though!

See you guys soon. Have a nice day.