Chitraanam for Aadi 18

The 18th day of Tamil month Aadi is also known as “Aadi perukku” or “Aadi 18” or “Padinettaam perukku”. Perukku in Tamil means “in abundance”. The rivers will have water in abundance now, after the monsoon rains in the previous month. This is an important pandigai of TamilNadu. On this day, people prepare mixed rice varieties also called as kalandha saadham or chitraannam. They go to the banks of the river with kith and kin and enjoy the trip with chitraannam. This is an important festival for the farmers.

Aadi 18 menu : Coconut rice, Lemon rice or Puliyodharai, Sarkarai pongal and curd rice alongwith poricha appalam

Coconut rice

Ingredients

• cooked rice   1cup
• coconut scraped   half a coconut
• green chilli    2
• red chilli   2
• curry leaves  few
• salt  To taste

Seasoning

• mustard seeds   1tbs
• kadalai paruppu or channa dal   2tbs

Method

• cook rice in the rice cooker and spread it on a plate to cool and add few spoons of oil.
• heat oil in a pan,add mustard seeds and channa dal,green and red chillies and asafoetida.
• add the scraped coconut,curry leaves and switch off the gas.fry it till the heat is on.
• when it cools down add the rice,salt and mix well.serve with fried urad papad.

Lemon rice

Ingredients

Method
1.Cook rice in a rice cooker and spread it on a plate and cool it with one tsp oil on it.
2.Heat oil in a pan  heat some oil add mustard seeds,when it crackles add Channa Dal,green chillies,turmeric powder,switch off the stove and add curry leaves and asafoetida.
3.Add the rice to the mixture and salt and mix well with lemon juice.

Puliyodharai

Method:

1. Soak cleaned tamarind in little water and extract the thick juice.
2. Roast (without oil) fenugreek seeds, dhaniya seeds, red chilles, all together until nicely roasted. Allow to cool and grind to medium coarse powder. Keep aside.
3. Heat little oil in a tawa. Add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start spluttering add red chillies, ulutam paruppu (black gram), kadalai paruppu (Bengal gram), pea
nuts (ground nuts) and fry till the ulutam paruppu turns to light brown. Add asafoetida, mix well and keep aside.
4. Heat oil in a tawa and add turmeric powder (manjal podi), chilli powder (optional), asafoetide and saute for about ten seconds. Add tamarind extract and salt.
5. Allow to boil until the contents become thick.

6. Before removing from fire add the ground powder (item 2) and the fried mustard and other ingredients (item 3). Mix well. Now the Pulikachal is ready. Transfer the Pulikachal into avessel and keep aside.
7. Cook rice (cooked rice should be loose and not sticky) and spread on a tambalam (big plate) and allow to cool.
8. Fry curry leaves in oil and add along with oil to the rice and mix well.
9. When rice is cooled add the pulikachal and mix well. Keep in a closed vessel to retain aroma

Sarkarai pongal

Rice : 1/4 tumbler
Payattham Paruppu (Green Gram): 1/2 ladle
Milk : 2 ladle
Jaggery: quantity is of the size of 2 lemons
Cashew: required quantity
Saffron (if available)
Cardamom
Dry grapes

1. Put rice, payatham parupu, milk, water in cooker.
2. Leave it to be cooked in the cooker for more time than the usual time for making ordinary rice.
3. Powder the jaggery.
4. Mix the powdered jaggery with water, heat it & stir it continuously when heating. Do this until it turns into syrup-like state. Filter it using some filter like coffee filter (this is done because usually jaggery contains unwanted particles that would’ve settled down in the syrup) .
5. Mix this (filtered) jaggery syrup with the cooked rice mixture.
6. Fry cashew nut & dry grapes, & add it to the rice + jaggery mixture.
7. Add cardamom + saffron to the mixture.

Dodyonam

Rice:   200 gms
Green or Red Chillies:  4 – cut into pieces
Black gram: one Teaspoon heap (Ulutham paruppu in Tamil, Urid Dal in Hindhi)
Bengal gram: two teaspoon heap (Kadalai Paruppu in Tamil, Chana Dal in Hindhi)
Curry Leaves:  about 20 leaves (Kariveppilai in Tamil, curry patha in Hindhi)
Cumin seeds:  Half teaspoon (Kadugu in Tamil, Rai in Hindhi)
Asafoetida: one pinch (Perungayam in Tamil, Hing in Hindi)
Gingili oil: One table spoon
Salt:to taste
Milk: 100 ml
Curd:  200 gms
Ginger: one piece

Preparation Method
First, fry in gingili oil the black gram and Bengal gram to golden color; now add the chili pieces, cumin seeds, curry leaves and asafoetida. While hot, immediately pour these fried items to the curd and add salt. Now you’ll get the fine aroma of  Dodyonam. Leave this for few minutes and then mix into the cooked rice. The rice absorbs it and becomes somewhat tight. Now add the boiled milk and mix it together.

• General guidelines for healthier food – Both body and mind:

  • One should be thinking about Perumal (Nama Smaranam) while cooking, and the purpose should be to offer the preparation to Him.
  • Once the food is prepared, it should be offered to Perumal first. While offering, one should make sure that the food is neither too hot nor cold. It should be offered with love and affection.
  • Please do not offer either pre-cooked food bought from outside or any pre-consumed food.
  • Please follow thiruvaradanam kramam as instructed by your respective acharya. (http://anudinam.org/2012/03/08/bhagavad-tiruvaradhanam/)
  • Follow ahara niyamam as much as possible. Atleast make sure that onion and garlic are not used at all.(http://anudinam.org/2012/06/11/srivaishnava-ahara-niyamam/)
  • Please ensure that food which are not prasadams are not consumed.