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Showing posts with label COLLECTIONS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label COLLECTIONS. Show all posts

November 9, 2020

How to celebrate Diwali at home in Tamil nadu - Diwali celebration ideas

How to celebrate Diwali at home

Diwali or Deepavali (in Tamil) is one of the biggest Hindu festivals celebrated across India. It is one of the most important festivals of the year. I have been sharing the celebration procedures of various Hindu festivals in my blog. But somehow I missed posting on how to celebrate Diwali at home. This is purely Tamil nadu / Tamilians style celebration and that too my family’s way of Diwali celebration at my home. This year 2023, Diwali festival is on 12th November, Sunday in Tamil nadu. 

Diwali festival gets its name from the row (avali) of clay lamps (deepa) that Indians light outside their homes to symbolize the inner light that protects from spiritual darkness. So Diwali is called the Festival of Lights. 

Diwali falls in the month of 'Kartik' in Hindu calendar. It is the celebration of returning of Lord Rama to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile. Diwali is also the day on which Lord Krishna had defeated demon Narakasura.

Diwali diya decorations

Unlike other Hindu festivals, there is no hard and fast rules for Diwali celebration. It would be a fun-filled festival. Even though this festival is important to Hindus, it is also enjoyed and celebrated by non-hindus as well. Diwali celebration includes lighting Diya and LED lights across the house, decoration with flowers, rangoli, shopping dresses, fireworks/ crackers, puja (prayers), exchanging gifts, enjoying grand food and relish Diwali special sweets & snacks.

On this day, we light candles and decorate our homes with Rangoli. We burn firecrackers, eat lots of sweets, snacks and share them with our friends and neighbors. Diwali is the most loved festival, and we enjoy it very much. I have shared some of our last year's Diwali celebration images below. Hope you will get some ideas with it !

Diwali sweets and snacks


Ingredients for Diwali celebration :

  • New dresses for the family members
  • Crackers (optional, avoid using to celebrate Eco friendly Diwali)
  • Sesame oil, Shikakai powder, turmeric powder, mehandi powder or paste.
  • Banana leaf
  • Coconut
  • Betel leaf and nut
  • Banana
  • Turmeric and kumkum
  • Lamps, oil and wicks
  • Varieties of sweets and snacks
  • Idli rice, urad dal to make idli batter

Diwali Pre – Preparation :

For us, Diwali preparation begins with purchase of new dresses for the family. We purchase Diwali dresses one month before the festival. Diwali shopping would be a big excitement for all of us. We buy dresses for my in-laws & ourselves and in turn they buy dresses or silver articles for us as Diwali gift.

Diwali decorations

We don’t have the practice of doing grand decorations for Diwali instead my daughter loves to paint some clay lamps/ diya and we light it in our house entrance around the rangoli. She also puts mehandi for me and herself. 

Diwali snacks recipes

Next to Diwali shopping comes the Diwali recipes preparation. As a food blogger, I start to make Diwali recipes 15 days before the festival to blog the sweets and snacks recipes. But my MIL starts the preparation one week before Diwali. She makes a big batch of thenkuzhal, ribbon pakoda, kara sev and maida chips/ namakpara for snacks. These snacks are must in our house.

For sweets, usually my MIL makes Badushah, maida burfi, badam burfi, wheat halwa and boondhi ladoo. Once I go to Salem, I make some kaju katli and gulab jamun as the last minute sweets. Overall minimum one variety of halwa, burfi, ladoo, gulab jamun and some milk sweets or cashew sweets will be in the diwali menu.

We reserve few pieces of sweet and snacks in separate boxes to keep them for naivedyam on Diwali day and we consume the rest.

Finally, we purchase crackers a week before Diwali. But recent years, we stopped buying them. We just buy sparklers and one packet of crackers for keeping in neivedyam.


Coming to our house Diwali celebration procedures :

Diwali celebration

In some places, Diwali is a five days festival. But for us, its a 2 days festival. Every year, we go to Salem 2 days before Diwali and love to celebrate it with my in-laws. On Diwali day, I also visit my parents as both my parents and in-laws are at Salem. So its a double treat for me.

Diwali sweets

On the eve of Diwali, we burn crackers till 8.30 night and then we start to prepare suzhiyan, adhirasam which is a must do for Diwali in my home. We stack it in a box. We wash & decorate the diyas/ lamps and other pooja items, decorate them with turmeric, kumkum dots. Sweep the house and draw rangoli / color kolam in house entrance and in pooja room.

In a big plate, we arrange all the new dress by keeping turmeric & kumkum in a corner of the dress and keep everything ready in pooja room. We also keep a small packet of crackers safely in one corner to keep it for neivedyam. By the time, we finish all these works, it will be around 10.30-11 PM. You can do all these activities in the day time as well.

On Diwali day morning, we ladies wake up early around 4 AM, brush the teeth and wash the face. My MIL ( eldest lady) lights the lamp and keep a small bowl of sesame oil/ nalla ennai & shikakai powder, turmeric powder and mehandi / marudhani in pooja room. In 2 plates, we keep a set of betel leaves, nuts, 2 banana and one unbroken coconut. The elder( my FIL) in our home apply little oil in the forehead for all of us and keep a pinch of shikai powder on our head for sastram. Then we take bath and wear some old clothes first.

How to celebrate diwali at home

We ladies enter the kitchen and start to make vada, bajji, idli & sambar for breakfast. In the mean time, my FIL keep flowers for all the idols and keep the pooja room ready. After making all neivedyam recipes, we keep the dresses in 2 different plates, keep some crackers in front of the God as shown in the picture above. We place 2 banana leaves (one for veetu theivam and another one for magamaayi) in front of the God and serve the reserved sweets and snacks along with idli smeared with ghee, vada, suzhiyan and adhirasam.  No need to keep sambar if you add onion. Break the coconut that is kept in the thamboolam plate and get ready for main pooja.

This is my MIL’s practice but my mom offers all sweets & snacks along with bajji, idli and vada in front of our pooja room in common to all the God. I heard most of the people worship Lord Ganesha and Goddess Lakshmi on this day. Finally, it depends on our tradition. We don't chant any slokhas or sthothrams or keep kalasam on this day. You can recite some Lakshmi slokhas if you like. 

Usually, we do the pooja before 6 am. The eldest person (my FIL) in the family do the pooja by showing dhoop, dheep and give dresses to everyone.  Dresses are given to the younger ones in the family and then goes according to the age. We wear the new dress and start to burn crackers. 

diwali food


After burning crackers for an hour, we have breakfast (Idli sambar) along with diwali sweets & savouries in banana leaf. In the above pictures, I have shared our last year’s Diwali sweets, snacks and breakfast.

After breakfast, myself and my MIL pack the sweets and snacks for our neighbors and friends, distribute them. That’s all. All our works will be over with this . Then we have a relaxing day by watching all the special programs in TV & enjoy the whole day without cooking.

Every body will have the sweets, snacks, vadai, suzhiyan & adhirasam as food for the whole day. We don’t prepare lunch on Diwali day instead we give the sweets, snacks, vada or bajji if they feel hungry or make tea / coffee / juice if needed. 

On Diwali day evening, we wear new dresses and we burst all the remaining crackers with family and friends and finish the celebration. We make idli sambar for dinner or some curd rice to keep it light and simple. This is how we celebrate our Diwali. 

On diwali night or the next day morning, we consume a small gooseberry sized diwali legiyam for better digestion.

Please find all our diwali recipes collection if you are interested.

Disclaimer : All these details shared above are based on my family’s celebration procedure. Please consult with your elders and alter it as per your tradition and practice.

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August 19, 2020

Kozhukattai Varieties – Kozhukattai Recipes List For Ganesh Chaturthi Festival

Kozhukattai recipes for festivals

In this post, I have shared the list of different types of kozhukattai recipes / kozhukattai varieties that can be made for Ganesh chaturthi / Vinayagar chaturthi and other festivals like Varalakshmi vratham, during Tamil month Aadi, Karthigai deepam and other occasions at home. For Ganesh chaturthi, people make varieties of kolukattai / mothagam / modak across South India and North India as Lord Ganesh loves modak and he is fondly called as Modakpriya /Mothagapriyan.

In Tamil nadu, it is called as kozhukattai. we make mothagam @ kolukattai as the major naivedyam recipe for Vinayagar chaturthi. Other than kozhukattai we make sweet appam, sundal, payasam and ladoo too. Kozhukattai varieties like sweet poornam kozhukattai, uppu kozhukattai / ulundu kolukattai and ellu kozhukattai is offered for Ganesh chaturthi. 

Some people also make paal kolukattai and thengai poorana kozhukattai instead of kadalai paruppu pooranam kozhukattai. Apart from the traditional kozhukattai recipes, beginners can easily try ammini kozhukattai in sweet and spicy versions.

In North India, Ukadiche modak and fried modak are very popular. Apart from this Khoya modak, dry fruits and nuts, khajoor modak can also be prepared. In this post, I have shared all the traditional kolukattai recipes and few beginner friendly kozhukattai recipes with no cook stuffing.  I have also shared some links on different methods of making kozhukattai / modak dough along with some useful video links. 

Hope you find this collection helpful for making kozhukattai varieties for this Ganesh chaturthi.I will try to add more kozhukattai varieties like peanut kozhukattai, vegetable kozhukattai, ilai kolukattai in future and update this list. Ok, lets move on to the list of kozhukattai recipes.

Check out my full Ganesh chaturthi recipes collection HERE !

Here is a detailed video of making 3 different types of Poorana kozhukattai




























Hope you find this list helpful to choose and prepare kozhukattai for this Ganesh Chaturthi festival. Do try and have a great celebration. Share your feedback too !

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April 11, 2020

Lockdown Recipes - Indian Vegetarian Recipes For Lockdown

Lockdown recipes list Indian vegetarian with Pdf

In this post, I have shared a list of lockdown recipes for Indian vegetarian breakfast, dinner, lunch and snacks that uses minimal ingredients, vegetables, oil and ghee at home. I have also made a downloadable PDF for easy access. When I shared the collection of upma varieties, some of my readers asked me to post a collection of easy Indian breakfast'/ dinner and lunch recipes using non perishable foods, uses minimum or no vegetables and rice during this lockdown period / home quarantine period.

Not only that, many people working from home find it really difficult to manage kitchen, household works, kids and office work together without house maids.  For those people, I have shared some easy breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes which can be prepared instantly with less chopping works, minimum vegetables and dry ingredients.

Most of the recipes I shared here are with dry ingredients like pulses, legumes, flours like wheat flour, ragi flour, rice flour, Poha/ pressed rice, sago, rava which can be stored for long time. I have given recipes with basic vegetables like potato, tomato, onion for side dishes.

Lunch recipes given in this list are one pot rice recipes that can be prepared quickly under few minutes in a pressure cooker, few kuzhambu varieties without any vegetables or with a single vegetable like potato, cabbage, cauliflower etc. Most of these recipes can be stored in refrigerator and use it for few days. Infact, they taste more better day by day. Just reheat and serve.

 You can alter the recipes based on the ingredients in hand i.e by using chilli powder instead of chillies, using frozen vegetables instead of fresh ones, by using tomato puree instead of chopped tomatoes, desicated coconut etc. Finally I have also shared few snacks and sweets recipes which needs less oil and ghee by getting ideas from my friend Shalini and my sister Radha.

During this pandemic situation, I am trying to include foods that are rich in Vitamin c, anti fungal, anti viral Indian spices to improve and boost immunity. So I am taking pepper, cumin, garlic, ginger, onion, turmeric in the form of rasam, thogayal, pachadi, podi varieties, chutney varieties, turmeric milk, garlic milk. I have added all these recipes in the list. I also consume fruits like mosambi, orange, gooseberry, muskmelon, apple and watermelon in my regular diet to keep up the immunity levels. I will add more recipes using gooseberry in my upcoming post and include them in this list.

I hope this list of lockdown recipes would be helpful to you to decide on what to cook during this home quarantine period. I know I am late in sharing list but its better late than never.  Ok friends, lets check out the list of Indian recipes that can be prepared during this lockdown period with the available ingredients in our pantry/ kitchen. Lets hope and pray God to overcome this pandemic situation and fight Corona !!

PDF DOCUMENT

Alternate download URL


EASY BREAKFAST / DINNER RECIPES

I have shared some easy idli, dosa batter recipes which requires no or less idli rice. Some people may have a stock of ration shop rice. So I have included ration rice idli dosa batter and raw rice idli batter too. I have also given instant dosa varieties, one pot upma varieties, sandwich, paratha, pasta & noodles recipes that can be prepared instantly. Check it out below. 

IDLI / DOSA VARIETIES 

Instant Idli recipes
Idli dosa batter recipes 
Check out my 15+ idli varieties collection for more ideas !

Instant dosa varieties
SANDWICH / TOAST / PASTA/ SPAGHETTI RECIPES
PARATHA RECIPES
Please check this link for 10 poori varieties for more poori ideas.


UPMA VARIETIES
Upma varieties


I have made a separate post for 40 upma varieties which includes rava, semiya, bread, millets, rice, pasta etc. Please check this link or click the image above.


OTHER BREAKFAST RECIPES

SIDE DISH RECIPES – Chutney, Sambar, Kurma, Gravies

In this section, I have shared side dish recipes for idli, dosa, chapathi, poori and other tiffin varieties. I have shared all the coconut, tomato, onion , garlic and ginger based side dishes assuming you might be getting any or all these vegetables in your place. Please choose the dishes according to the ingredients in your hand and try them.

Chutney varieties
Check out my 65 chutney recipes collection for more options.

Idli Sambar varieties
Check out my 30 Idli sambar varieties for more ideas !

Kurma Varieties / Gravies for roti
Check out my kurma varieties collection for more ideas !


LUNCH RECIPES


RICE VARIETIES IN PRESSURE COOKER
KUZHAMBU VAREITIES WITHOUT VEGETABLES
Check out my 75 Kuzhambu recipes for more ideas !

RASAM VARIETIES
PORIYAL / CURRY RECIPES
PACHADI / THOGAYAL / PODI RECIPES FOR RICE
Check out my 15+ thogayal varieties for more interesting and healthy ideas !

BEVERAGES / DRINKS (DO NOT ADD ICE CUBES )
SNACKS RECIPES WITH LESS OIL
Check out this link for MURUKKU RECIPES.

Check out this link for VADA RECIPES

Check out this link for BAJJI BONDA RECIPES.

Check out this link to see all my snacks recipes collection !

SWEETS RECIPES WITH LESS GHEE
If you are looking for more sweets recipes, please check this link !!

PDF DOCUMENT

Alternate download URL


Friends, do check out the above list. Choose the recipes based on the ingredients in your hands and try them. If you find this list useful, do share with your friends and family members. Do leave a comment in the comment box below. It will make me happy. Stay safe and take care !!



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