Kitchen and Home Making

KARTHIGAI DEEPAM FESTIVAL Today it is Karthigai Deepam Festival. This day denotes the occurrence of the Karthigai Nakshatram every month, as per the Tamil Calendar. Coming to its history,Brahma and Vishnu were both quarrelling about their relative superiority. To give a decision on it and to kill their ego, Lord Siva stood before them in the form of a blazing mountain. Having failed in their attempt to find out its top and bottom the two prayed to Lord Siva for His grace. He blessed them saying that he would appear in the form of Jothi (light) on the top of the hill every year on the day of Karthigai in the month of Karthigai. To commemorate this event, the Deepam (Light) festivals is being conducted at Tiruvannamalai every year. The Karthigai Deepam festival is celebrated in the Tamil month of Karthigai(November-December). It begins on Uttradam day with flag hoisting and goes on for nine days. Of the five elements earth, water, fire, air and ether, fire is considered important as bei...

Ingredients: Vermicelli – 50 gms (crush it to small pieces) Milk – 400 ml Sugar – 10 tbsp or to taste Cardamom – 4 (grind it to fine powder) Ghee – 3 tbsp Cashew Nuts – 12 Silvers of pistachios Service For: 2 People Cooking Time: 15 minutes Cooking Instructions: Heat ghee in a pan and fry the vermicelli till it turns golden brown and keep it aside. Heat a tbsp of ghee and fry the cashews and keep it aside. Bring the milk to boil in a pan. Do not add water in the milk. When the milk starts to boil well, add fried vermicelli to it and keep stirring it for a while or for about 10 minutes in a simmer flame. Now add cardamom powder and required amount of sugar and mix it well and stir for some more 5 minutes or until it gets thick / payasam consistency. If it becomes very thick in consistency, add some more boiled milk to it. Switch off the stove and transfer it to the serving bowl and garnish it with fried cashews and silvers of pistachios. One more closer look of the Kheer

Ingredients: Peeled Broken Green Gram – 1 cup Bengal Gram – 1 cup Red Rice – ½ cup Grated Coconut – 1 cup Jaggery – 300 gms Cardamom Powder – ¼ tsp Cashews – few ( fry it in ghee) Cooking Instructions: Do not wash the rice. Coarsely grind the rice and grated coconut together with a little water. Add both the gram in a cooker with required amount of water and wait for 3 whistles in high flame. Add the grinded powder to this and keep stirring continuously. Now add powdered jaggery, cardamom powder and cashews and keep stirring it. When the dish attains thick consistency, switch off the stove and serve it.

Ingredients: Milk – 300 ml Red Rice / Pacharisi – 5 tbsp Cardamom – 5 pieces Cashews – 25 gms Sugar – 5 tbsp or to taste Service For: 2 People Cooking Time: 30 minutes Cooking Instructions: Fry the rice in an empty pan in a simmer flame until it starts to change color. Grind the fried rice, cashews and cardamom to a fine powder. Bring the milk to boil in a pan. When it starts boiling, add the grounded powder and required amount of sugar and keep stirring it constantly for about 15 minutes or until it gets to a thick consistency.