Karthigai Pori Recipe – Karthigai Vella Aval Pori–Karthigai Deepam Recipes

Karthigai deepam festival 2016 is nearing. It falls on 12th December, Monday. Every year on Karthigai Deepam festival day, we make pori urundai, appam, payasam and maa vilakku and offer God. Both MOM & MIL has the same practice.In Tamil nadu, during Karthigai deepam festival, we get a special mixture of aval pori ( Puffed Poha), pottukadalai( fried gram dal), Ellu ( roasted sesame seeds) in small packets. When I was young, I used to buy them from a small Chettiyar shop nearby my house.My mom used to roast them in ghee and add it to the boiled jaggery syrup. It tastes crispy and stays good for weeks together.  But in my MIL’s place, getting readymade aval pori is difficult. So she used to roast the thick poha until puffy and follows the same.Both of them do not make balls with aval pori (aval pori urundai )instead they just mix the roasted aval pori in jaggery syrup and keep it as such. Today, I have followed my MIL’s method and prepared this Karthigai pori using thick poha. In Bangalore, puffed rice( arisi pori in Tamil, Mandakki In Kannada) is mostly available in all the shops whereas puffed poha ( Aval pori) is not easy to get. For people like me, this recipe would be useful. Generally, beginners may feel difficult to make balls from the hot aval pori mixture. Do not worry, this post is specially for you. Here you do not have to shape balls. Its just a mix and serve method. But the only difficulty in this recipe is poha should be roasted patiently in batches. It takes nearly 15 –20 minutes for roasting. But this Karthigai aval pori tastes super crispy than the ready made aval pori you buy from the market. So the time you put in this recipe is worthwhile. Do try this method of making Karthigai pori, I am sure you will be very happy with the results. So lets see how to make Karthigai pori recipe with step by step pictures and a video !
Please check out my other Karthigai Deepam Recipes HERE

Karthigai Pori Recipe

How to make Karthigai pori without making balls

Cuisine: South Indian

Category: Sweet

Serves: Serves 3

Prep time: 5 Minutes

Cook time: 20 Minutes

Total time: 25 Minutes

Chitra Ganapathy

INGREDIENTS

1 cup - 250ml Thick Poha - 1 cup Grated jaggery - 1/2 cup Water - 1/4 cup Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp Ghee - 4 tsp Coconut bits - 2 tbsp Fried gram dal/Pottukadalai - 2 tbsp Black Sesame seeds / Ellu - 1/2 tbsp Dry ginger powder – 1/4 tsp ( optional)

METHOD

Take a kadai and heat 1 tsp of ghee. Add 1/3 cup of poha ( Poha should be roasted only in batches). Roast in medium flame till it becomes puffy and slightly turns golden in color.it takes nearly 5 minutes to finish roasting one batch of poha. Remove in a plate. Repeat the same for the remaining poha and collect everything in a plate. Let it cool down. You have roast 1 cup of poha in 3 batches ( 1/3 cup per batch). Stay nearby and roast them patiently. In the same kadai, dry roast the black sesame seeds till it crackles. It takes nearly 2-3 minutes. Remove them to the poha plate. In the hot kadai, put the fried gram dal and switch off the flame. It will become crispy in the heat of kadai. If your gram dal is fresh and crispy, you do not have to roast it, You can directly it mix with the roasted poha. Chop coconut into small pieces.Heat 1 tsp of ghee and roast the coconut bits till golden in color. Stay nearby and roast till done. Remove in a separate bowl. In a kadai, take 1/2 cup of jaggery and add 1/4 cup of water. Boil till the jaggery melts. Switch off the flame and strain the jaggery syrup using a metal strainer. Wash the kadai and add the strained syrup to it. Boil again till frothy and thick. Add cardamom powder( I used cardamom essence) and dry ginger powder( if using). Keep the flame low to medium when the syrup starts to thicken. Now take little water in a small plate. Put few drops of jaggery syrup and try to gather them with your fingers. Syrup should not dissolve in water and you should be able to collect them and make a small ball with it.This is called soft ball consistency. Refer Video for clear understanding. NOTE : You cannot shape balls/urundai in this consistency. For making balls, you should boil jaggery syrup till it reaches hard ball consistency.   Once the consistency is reached, switch off the flame and add the roasted poha mixture, roasted coconut. Mix well and set aside. Initially the mixture may look sticky. But when it cools down, it will look separate and tastes crunchy.Offer God & Enjoy ! You can store this in an air tight box and enjoy for weeks.

Note

For me, 1/2 cup of jaggery was enough for 1 cup of aval. If you need more sweetness, you can add 3/4 cup of jaggery, The consistency of jaggery syrup is very important else the pori will stick to each other and becomes soggy after few hours. Hard ball consistency is needed to shape balls. For soft ball, balls cannot be made. Black sesame seeds gives nice flavor. You can use white sesame seeds as well but flavor must be missing. If you like, you can add 1/4 tsp of dry ginger powder/Sukku podi.

Try this easy method of Karthigai pori for this festival and enjoy !

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Tirunelveli Manoharam Recipe – Sweet Murukku Recipe

Manoharam is a traditional South Indian sweet dish kept in marriages, Seemandham and naming ceremony as seer bakshanam. It is popularly known as Paruppu thengai among Tamil Brahmins. Paruppu thengai koodu is very well decorated and kept for display in most of the occasions.Paruppu thengai koodu is basically a pair of conical shaped containers filled with a variety of nuts like ground nuts, cashew nuts or fried gram dal/ pottukadalai rolled in jaggery syrup or its filled with this Manoharam sweet. I still remember my MIL made this paruppu thengai with pottukadalai for my valaikaapu function.Manoharam is made with fried murukku/thenkuzhal rolled in thick jaggery syrup (Vella paagu) flavored with cardamom powder or Dry ginger powder (Sukku podi). Many people make it as manoharam balls during Karthigai deepam festival. In Tirunelveli, apart from Iruttukadai Halwa, Manoharam is also a very popular sweet dish. We call it as “Manavalam” colloquially. Last year a reader asked me to share Tirunelveli manoharam recipe during Diwali. As I had completely forgotten its taste, I couldn’t try and post it. Recently I told my Appa to get a pack of Manoharam from Tirunelveli.After tasting it, I got an idea about it and tried at home by watching the Youtube video by Ponna mami. It came out very well with a nice flavor of dry ginger powder. Its an addictive snack. I can much it all through the day !! I found varieties like Kerala Manoharam and Chettinad Manoharam recipes which are different in ingredients and procedure as well. Soon I must try them too. Today lets see how to make Tirunelveli Manoharam recipe with step by step photos !
Check out my other Tirunelveli special recipes HERE

Tirunelveli Manoharam recipe

How to make Tirunelveli Manoharam recipe - a most popular snack !

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Sweet

Serves: -

Prep time: 10 Minutes

Cook time: 20 Minutes

Total time: 30 Minutes

Chitra Ganapathy

INGREDIENTS

1 cup - 200ml Besan flour - 1 cup Rice flour - 1/2 cup Hot oil - 1 tbsp Ghee or soft butter - 2 tsp Water & Salt - as needed Cooking oil - to deep fry For sugar syrup Grated jaggery - 1 cup Sugar - 2 tsp Water - 1/2 cup Dry ginger powder/sukku podi - 1 tsp Cardamom powder - If needed

METHOD

First lets prepare the murukku.For this, sieve besan and rice flour in a wide bowl. Add salt, hot oil and ghee to the flour. Mix well. Then add water little by little and make a dough. I made the dough very sticky as shown in the original recipe. So it was very easy to squeeze. Take the murukku press and use a single hole or three holed mould. Grease the press with oil. Fill the dough and set aside. Now heat oil to deep fry and drop a pinch of dough.If it rises to the top immediately, oil is hot. Now simmer the flame and squeeze the murukku either in a circular manner or as a straight line. Don’t worry about the shape because we are going to break them into pieces. Cook both the sides till bubbles cease. Do not fry in high flame, murukku will turn dark. So fry it patiently. Remove in a paper towel. Deep fry all the batches. Let it cool down completely. Take the powdered jaggery, sugar and water in a kadai. Mix & melt it. Strain the syrup if needed. Let the syrup roll boil and reaches soft ball consistency. To check this, take some syrup and pour it in a plate with water. Gather the syrup and try to make a soft ball. It is called soft ball consistency. Switch off the flame. Add dry ginger powder and mix well. Now break the cooled murukku into pieces ( make small pieces if you are making balls,else break them roughly) and add them to the jaggery syrup. Mix well. Make sure all murukku pieces are coated with the syrup. Make balls when it becomes warm enough Or Remove in a plate and let it cool. They look cluttered, remove them carefully and keep it in a plate. Serve & enjoy !

Note

The consistency of jaggery syrup is more important.It should be in soft ball consistency or even slight hard ball is fine else the syrup won’t coat well. Dry ginger powder adds a nice flavor. It aids digestion too. So don’t skip it. You can use soft butter instead of ghee.

Try this yummy, addictive Manoharam snack at home and enjoy !

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Maida Appam Recipe With Sugar - Karthigai Deepam Recipes

Maida sweet appam - Sweet maida paniyaram recipe with step by step photos and video !

Sweet appam can be made using different ingredients.It can be prepared with maida,wheat flour or raw rice.I have already shared two versions using wheat flour & raw rice.Here is my third version of sweet appam using maida,banana &sugar.This is the most easy to make version among all the three.My Mil makes this appam for our surprise guest along with a bajji variety. My MIL makes deep fried version whereas I used paniyaram pan here.If you feel maida & sugar are unhealthy,u can replace it with wheat flour & jaggery.Lets see how to make this easy sweet appam recipe using maida & sugar for Karthigai deepam festival !
Please click HERE to check my other recipes for Karthigai Deepam.

Maida appam with sugar

Sweet appam with maida,banana & sugar

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Sweet

Serves: 8 nos

Prep time: 5 Minutes

Cook time: 10 Minutes

Total time: 15 Minutes

INGREDIENTS

1 cup = 200ml 

Maida/All purpose flour - 1/2 cup Rice flour – 1 tbsp Small banana - 1 no ( I used yelaki) Sugar - 1/4 cup Cardamom powder - 1/8 tsp ( 2 seeds) Water - as needed Cooking soda - A pinch Salt – a pinch

METHOD

Take the ripe banana and mash it well with your  hands or grind in a mixie. To this, add maida, sugar, rice flour, cooking soda, salt and cardamom powder. Mix well without water. Add water little by little and make a smooth, lump free batter. Batter should be thick but pourable. If the batter is too thin, appam may become flat. If its too thick, appam would be hard. So take care. Heat a paniyaram pan adding oil in each hole. After the pan is heated,pour a small ladleful of batter in each hole.Keep the flame medium and cover cook for sometime.Flip it & cook for the other side too.Remove in a bowl. I tried few appam by deep frying them.I used oil till 1/4 of the pan and deep fried one at a time.It came out well with golden brown color as u see in the picture below.So if you wish to deep fry,u can go ahead. But remember to deep fry the appam in less oil to get a good shape. I used my mini tadka pan. You can use any kadai. Enjoy !

Note

Replace maida with wheat flour & sugar with jaggery for healthy substitute.

Try this quick and easy maida appam for this festival.Happy Karthigai Deepam !

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Very good recipes Tags: sweet appam recipe with maida, sweet appam using maida, maida appam with sugar, maida banana appam, maida appam recipe, karthigai deepam recipes, Sweets recipes, festival recipes

Karthigai Deepam Pooja Procedure,Date,Recipes

Karthigai Deepam is a festival of lights, celebrated in the Tamil month of Karthigai. It is celebrated on the full moon day of the Karthigai month(November-December) which coincides with Karthika star.This year 2016,Thirukarthigai deepam falls on December 12th, Monday.Pooja should be done in the evening around 5-30 to 6pm.  Actually One must light deepam every evening in the entrance and do the pooja on all the 30 days of this month.On the Thirukarthigai day, the entire house is decorated with the oil lamps. This festival of lights indicates the removal of darkness (Ignorance) and enhancing of light (Intelligence).Karthika Month is the only month in which both Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu are worshipped. Karthika Pouranmi or Karthika Purnima is also one of the days when the temples of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu are full with the devotees wanting a darshan of their deities.
The other names of Karthika Pournami are Deva Diwali or Tripurari Purnima. Generally people observe vratham/fasting during 30 days of Karthigai month.On those days,people avoid eating Non-veg foods.They take head bath daily and read one chapter in Kanda puranam book.They must take meal only once per day either it can be a lunch or dinner.Most of the people observe this kind of Vratham on auspicious days like karthika poornima, karthigai somavaram etc.In this month,Karthigai Deepam is the most important festival for Hindus.
Story behind this festival
This festival is celebrated in a special manner in Thiruvannamalai. Lord Shiva asks Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu to find out the exact location of his head and his feet. Since Lord Shiva takes a gigantic form, they are not able to find out anywhere. Then Lord Shiva takes the form of a jyothi (light of fire) on the hill of Thiruvannamalai. Therefore, this festival is also known as Annamalai Deepam. Here, a special torch is lighted on the zenith of the hill and it is believed that Lord Shiva's jothi will be visible on this day.
Lord Muruga took the form of six babies in a lake called "Saravana Poigai". On this day, all his six forms were united by Parvathi(his mother) and this way, he had six faces. Special poojas are performed to Lord Muruga.
On this day, people clean the houses. In the evening, they draw kolams (Rangoli,Please visit my in-laws kolam blog "Learn Kolam" for Rangoli ideas.) in the front of the house and also place some lamps on it. The lamps(Agal vilakku) are placed in the pooja and lighted. Then the neivedyam & deeparadhanai is done after which the lamps are moved to different places in the house. The lamps are arranged near the doors and windows and also in the balconies.A lamp should be kept in Rice containers & Salt box too. In this way, people of Tamil Nadu celebrate Karthigai Deepam for three days.
Source:
http://www.yadtek.com/karthika-pournami-festival-story-and-its-significance/
http://klavanya.wordpress.com

Significance of Karthigai Deepam

Karthigai Deepam is an auspicious time to experience the light & power of divine. The auspicious combination of the Full Moon in the month of Karthigai (November – December in English) and the dazzling star Krithika allows the light of divine consciousness to enter into the world.
On this day, Arunachala deepam in Thiruvannamalai, the Mountain of Light (fire) is said to represent the divine, Shiva in his form as the element of Fire. He comes alive and radiates a unique energy that enables you to move from human intelligence to divine intelligence.
Furthermore, Krithika (Karthigai) is the birth star associated with Muruga.So Karthigai Deepam is one of the blessed times of the year where the divine energies can burn your karmic sufferings and help you experience inner transformation.
Source : http://www.astroved.com/us/specials/karthigai-deepam

Ingredients for Pooja & Neivedyam

For Pooja

• Lamps/Agal vilakku – as needed ( Click HERE for homemade lamps using rice flour)
• Wicks/threads
• Oil & ghee
• Betel leaves/Betel nut ( Vetrilai,paaku)
• Banana/Vazhai pazham
• Flowers
• Incense stick,Dhoop & camphor
• Coconut

For neivedyam

• Aval pori (or) Nel Pori (or) Arisi pori/Puffed rice
• Dark colored jaggery ( pagu vellam, for making paagu)
• Raw rice Or Wheat flour Or maida for making appam
• Sugar ( If using for appam)
• Coconut
• Raw rice & moong dal for making payasam
• Raw rice or store bought rice flour for making Maavilakku

Please visit my in-laws kolam blog "Learn Kolam" for Rangoli ideas.

How to perform Karthigai Deepam Pooja

• In Tamil nadu,Karthigai Deepam is celebrated for 3 days.The Previous day to karthigai is called as Barani deepam.So we keep 5-7 lamps in the entrance on Barani deepam day.

Prepreparatory works

• Two days before the karthigai deepam,you should finish all the shopping and keep all the ingredients ready.Every year we used to buy one new lamp/Agal vilakku.If you have this practice,buy one.While buying the lamps,make sure there are no cracks on it.
• One day prior to the festival,clean the house & wash all the lamps & agal vilakku.For washing agal vilakku,take water in a big bowl adding soap powder/Detergent.Soak the lamps for 15 minutes and then wash it.This helps to remove the oil greased in the lamps.If you are using new lamps,u don’t need to soap wash them.Just wash it in plain water.Spread the lamps in a wide plate and let it dry till afternoon. After its dried,keep turmeric and kumkum on three sides of lamp.
• On that day evening,take 5 or 7 lamps,put oil & wicks.Draw some rangoli in the entrance & light the lamps after doing neivedyam.You should not light the lamp inside the house and take out.Instead you should light the lamps only after keeping them out.It’s a sentiment.

On Karthigai deepam day

• The next day i.e on karthigai deepam day morning,observe fasting and prepare all the neivedyam recipes. Soak the rice for making Maavilakku & appam.Make pori urundai and store in a box.Grind the batter and keep it ready for appam.Mix jaggery and homemade rice flour for maavilakku.Make a ball,put a dent.Keep turmeric & kumkum dots.Set aside.No need to add ghee now.You can roast rice n dal for making payasam and keep aside.Apart from these recipes,I also make salt less kozhukattai & rice flour lamps following my mom.I do this every year for the well being of my family members.In the below picture,u can find the homemade lamps and kozhukattai.If you wish u can try them too.Please check this link for the recipe & procedure.
• Prepare the lunch and have it.After having lunch,at around 4 pm,prepare the payasam.Make appam.Put the wicks for all the washed lamps and pour oil.Pour ghee for maavilakku and put the wick.Wash the entrance and draw Rangoli/Kolam.Please visit my in-laws kolam blog "Learn Kolam" for Rangoli ideas. At around 5 pm,decorate the pooja room by keeping flowers.Take a plate and keep betel leaf,nut,banana and broken coconut.Arrange all the neivedyam recipes in another plate.Keep the maavilakku in front of the God.
• First light the maavilakku & the lamps/Vilakku in pooja room.Do not light the agal vilakku now.By 5.30 pm u can start the pooja and by 6 pm u can light the lamps outside.Do the neivedyam,dhoop and dheeparadhanai.After doing the pooja, first light two lamps.Keep one inside the rice container and the other one inside the salt container.Keep the containers open.Remember all the vilakku should face only EAST.
• Now take the remaining lamps and arrange them in the entrance as u wish.Light them using a match stick.You should not light the lamp inside the house and take out.Instead you should light the lamps only after keeping them out. It’s a sentiment we follow.Please remember this point.
• Now light the remaining lamps and keep them in entrance of each room.Please be careful after you keep the lamps inside the house.Warn your kids about them.Let the lamps glow all around your house.Decorate your house with lamps as u like.Once they turn off automatically,u can remove them after 9 pm.Arrange them in the plate.Repeat the same on the next day evening too.Some people make batchanams like adhirasam & milagu jeeraga adai for next day neivedyam.But we just keep some fruits or dry grapes or sugar candy/kalkandu and do the neivedyam.Keep some lamps in odd number the next day.No need to keep lamps inside the house for every room.So totally it’s a three days celebration.

Karthigai deepam recipes

Below you can find the collection of Karthigai Deepam recipes like appam,pori urundai,maavilakku and payasam recipes from my blog.Please click on the images to see the respective recipe.I have also a shared a video on how to make pori urundai.I hope you will find these recipes easy to make & useful .

Please check THIS LINK to view my full collection of Karthigai recipes :)

    
   

Friends,the procedure I have shared here is completely based on my family’s tradition.This may differ for from place to place.So please take the advice from an elderly woman who is regularly performing the puja and change it.Thanks for visiting this page.Please write a few words in the comment section if you find this post useful.

Have a happy Karthigai Deepam Celebration !! See you all in my next post.Bye for now

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Very good recipes Tags: karthigai deepam recipes, Karthigai deepam pooja, Karthigai deepam pooja procedure, Karthikai deepam puja, Karthigai deepam puja, How to celebrate karthigai deepam, Karthigai deepam festival at home