Aadi thengai suduthal recipe using simple ingredients with stepwise pictures and video. Today I celebrated Aadi pirappu/ Aadi pandigai / Aadi masam 1st day (Aadi festival) in my house by roasting coconut in direct fire. We call this as “ Aadi Thengai suduthal / Aadi thengai sudum pandigai” in Tamil. Some people also call this as vedi thengai. Thengai suduthal is called as coconut baking in English.
This kind of celebration may be new to some of you. Its a customary practice among the people in and around villages of Salem District, Namakkal and Dharmapuri district, Tamil nadu. My mom follows this tradition every year. To celebrate aadi 1 thengai sudum pandigai, We stuff the coconut with sesame seeds and jaggery pooranam, roast and cook in fire directly.
Usually my mom makes aadi pandigai pooja in the evening around 6 pm by offering this roasted coconut for Vinayagar (Lord Ganesh) and Amman on Aadi 1st day. This year 2025, Aadi 1 falls on 17th of July. In Tamil nadu, special sticks (Alinjil kuchi and Vadha narayanan kuchi in Tamil) and readymade pooranam/stuffings are available in all the market.
Being in Bangalore, I couldn’t find these things here. So I used a long kulfi stick for holding the coconut, asked my mom for the stuffing part and celebrated Aadi 1 festival for the first time in my house.
By God’s grace, everything went very well and I was totally satisfied. As this practice is almost forgotten among our generation, I wanted to have a record of this festival and the recipe in my blog for my future reference and of course for the Salem people who look for this festival. Wish you all a very happy Aadi Pandigai / Aadi Pirappu ! Lets see the procedure for stuffing and roasting coconut in detail with video below.
Do check out my another Aadi pandigai recipe – Brahmin’s style Aadi Thengai Paal Payasam recipe.
Aadi pandigai thengai suduthal recipe
Ingredients
Main Ingredients
- 1 Coconut
- 2 tsp Turmeric powder (to coat the coconut)
- Coconut water as needed
For stuffing/Pooranam
- 2 tbsp Raw rice (optional)
- 5 – 6 tbsp Grated jaggery
- 1 tbsp Fried gram dal/Pottukadalai
- 2 tbsp Moong dal
- 1 tbsp Dry Roasted Sesame seeds (black or white)
- 1 tbsp Thick Poha/Aval
Instructions
- Take all the ingredients given under " for stuffing" in a mixie jar. Grind everything to a coarse powder or fine powder before stuffing. It helps to stuff easily. Alternatively you can dry roast all the ingredients, grind to coarse powder and stuff them. My mom doesn’t grind the stuffing ingredients. So I too followed the same. But grinding to a coarse powder makes the stuffing job easy.
- Clean the coconut by removing the fibre part (thengai naar) and rub the coconut well on the hard, rough surface or grate using a carrot grater to remove its fibre completely & make it smooth.
- Now you can see three eyes on the bottom part of the coconut clearly. Pierce one eye with a sharp pointed tool ( I used screw driver) and make a big hole. Invert the coconut over the tumbler and collect all the water. Reserve the water aside.
- Inside the hole, stuff the pooranam mixture using your fingers. It would be slightly difficult and it takes more time too. Use the pointed tool whenever necessary to push the stuffing inside the coconut through the hole.
- Add the coconut water little by little say few tbsp in the middle of stuffing. Keep stuffing the mixture and pouring the coconut water & fill the coconut. At one stage the coconut water will come out. At this point, stop filling it.
- Now wash the coconut with drinking water and apply the turmeric powder all over it. Insert the strong stick or skewer. Seal the top with some turmeric powder paste. Decorate the coconut by keeping kumkum wherever needed. I kept 3 dots around the coconut and 4 dots on the top.
- Keep the coconut over the gas burner. Switch on the flame and roast the coconut on all the sides. I used a big screw driver to turn the coconut as my stick was very tender.
- Roasting takes nearly 10-15 minutes. Adjust the flame whenever necessary. While roasting, the water stuffed in the coconut may spill and drop over the burner. Don’t panic. U may get some strange sound too. Its the crackling sound of sesame seeds and the shell of coconut. Keep turning the coconut whenever needed. Coconut will turn black and it will get a big crack at one stage.
- Stop roasting the coconut at this stage and remove it. Keep aside to cool. Cut open. Stuffing will be well cooked and soft. You can enjoy the stuffing along with roasted coconut.
Video
Notes
- Adjust the quantity of jaggery based on your taste.
- Stuffing the coconut takes more time and it really tests your patience too. Add coconut water in the middle of stuffing and keep filling. Use a pointed device to push the pooranam inside the coconut else it would be really difficult.
- Its better to powder the ingredients before stuffing. It makes the job easier.
- Some people soak the rice for an hour before stuffing in the coconut. Its purely optional.
- Grind the ingredients mentioned under “to stuffing” a fine powder for easy stuffing.
Sharing is caring
Enjoy this roasted coconut pieces with the stuffing. It tastes yum !
This is something new for me, thanks for sharing this tradition…Wish you good luck on this festival
Thanks Gauri :)
I love this thengai and have enjoyed a lot in childhood roasted the coconut with neighbours and frnd together..my native is Salem as well.was just asking mom why this is done and the reason behind this special receipes on aadi 1st and it's unique to Salem alone.Any idea..?
No it's not unique to Salem. Here in Karur we used to celebrate Aadipirappu by Thengai suduthal
Hi, Good to know that its celebrated in Karur as well. I have heard that this celebration is popular in and around Salem only :)
Will definetly try before the end of Aadi……..blog is very nice.
Thank u so much sir :)
super chitra…ths z d frst tym i m hearing abt ths prasadam…usually v make adi paal n vada n offer to god!!! lovely recipe… wil try 2 make it fr sure … !
Definitely very new to me and good to see the new tradition… Happy Aadi aks…:)
Thanks Anitha. Do try it. Thanks da viji.Wish u the same :)
totally new to me… Happy Aadi Chitra
Being a salemite, really missed this festival. Thanks for posting and really touched too !
I too miss it very badly after marriage. So i wanted to try this year to satisy my craves :)
Thanks for sharing such an authentic recipe Chitra
This is the first time I am hearing about this, very traditional one Chitra, thanks for sharing it, I would love to try this, my only doubt, the coconut will crack, it'll not burst rt..
No Hema, it will not burst…only the shell cracks!
Thanks for the reply Sangee :) U must be knowing it very well :) Yes Hema,it won't burst.Just adjust the flame whenever necessary to prevent over roasting !
Super recipe chitra…….. Looks interesting and inviting!!
I'm hearing this for the first time. Thanks for sharing. Nicely explained with beautiful pics.
Beautiful, I could smell it here :)
wow .. jus awesome..
wonderful recipe chitra , I had hear about this festival from a friend and now I see this thengai sutadhu :) very well explained , thanks for sharing !!
lovely post Chitra…I am missing it badly…you have done it so well and the coconut looks delicious!
Though i have heard about this , never tasted though. Love to taste this ,must be yum for sure. Nicely explained
lovely tradition.. i had never heard of it. can't imagine the taste of this coconut.. im sure they must be yummy…
wow..this is sure a keeper dear,have never seen or heard before..nicely explained :)
I moved to Salem last October and this was my first experience with the Adi Pirrappu festival. My maid roasted a coconut for me. Thoroughly enjoyed the stuffed roasted coconut. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Good to know. Thanks for sharing your happy moments with us :)
my native is salem, but i'm living outside from salem district here no one don't know “Thengai suduthal/thengai sudum pandigai”. i missed this festival
Even I miss it :(
Interesting receipe.
Thank you
Lovely. Thanks for this.. was searching the recipe🙏
You are welcome. Happy Aadi pandigai😊