Rava Kozhukattai & Hand made Ganesha idol

Hope everyone had a wonderful Vinayaka Chadurthi , yesterday. I had a great day and thanks for ur wishes :)

I made the Ganesha idol with Crayola modeling earth tone clay dough.

The festival day, the market is filled with Ganesha/Pillayar/Vinayagar idols made with fresh mud with a colorful umbrella!
We buy every year a new mud idol and decorate with jewels & coins (penny stick to his belly button).
We offer plenty of fruits, cooked garbanzo and modak /kozhukattai(steamed rice flour stuffed with sweet stuffing).
The 3rd day or 5 day, we take the idol to seashore and immerse it in sea. As I lived near the seashore, the 3 rd day, the beach looks like another festival. People come with their idols. But now, everything became very contemporary, the third day, a truck is passing in street and collecting the idols with a fee to immerse in beach! The life is simplified and convenient for my parents, they just pay and give the idol just in front of the door. They take care of immersing them in water.
For the Ganesha Festival, my mom makes with rava/semolina modak, which is very easy to prepare not like the steam rice flour. Till now we had only in rava/ semolina kozhukattai for Vinayaka chaturthi.
I am sharing my mom's recipe the sweet rava modak/Kozhukattai.

The prasadam offered for Lord Ganesha , from clockwise: starting with bowl of garbonza bean sundal, sweet rava kozhukattai, Urad dhal vada, savory rice dhal kozhukattai

Rava Kozhukattai
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Ingredients:

Rava: 1 cup
Sugar: 1/2 cup
Coconut freshly grated: 1/4 cup
Cashew: 10 counts broken into small pieces
Green cardamom: 4 pods Crushed
Water: boiling water
Ghee: 1 tsp
Salt: a pinch

Method:
Heat a pot with ghee, fry the cashew once they turn golden color. Add the rawa and roast it.
Take a big microwave safe bowl, put the rava mixture, sugar, crushed cardamon, coconut and salt pour hot water litle by little and the mixture could be little loose! Now keep the mixture in microwave for one min, it will start to become thick!
Let it cool sometime, form a small ball and close your fist. Make it at desire shape or thickness. Now grease the idli plate and place kozhukattai and steam it another 12 minutes.


Enjoy the rava kozhukattai hot!

I am sending this sweet modak/kozhukattai to Krishna & Ganesha Chaturti event hosted at Purva's Daawat.

Parrupu podi (dhal powder)

Whether you are in Andra or Tamil Nadu, podis (spice powder) are served first at meal time over hot plain rice with a generous amount of ghee in hotels.
“Podi” is a powdered spice made with dhal and red chillis. Each and every family has their favorite powder in stock. Very simple and easy to make and store well without refrigeration.
When you are lazy enough, u can go with plain rice, some podi , top with ghee and some pickle! Of course, if you are Health freak, avoid the ghee …
In Tamil Nadu, usually only Parrupu podi is commonly served in hotel but whenever I go to Andra (Tirupathi). Usually, they give lots of choice of podis and pickles. We all end up eating only podis and some fiery pickles! Andrahite are too good to preparing those items :)
I am giving the basic Parrupu podi (dhal powder), but if u want to make Garlic podi add some Garlic pods…. The powder has a long shelf life can be stored in airtight container for months! It is a rescue powder when u cannot make anything over stovetop.

Parrupu Podi
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Ingredients:

Dhalia Dhal or Roasted dhal/ Pottu kadalai: 1/2 cup
Red chillis: 3 or more
Black pepper: 1/2 tsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp or more

Method:
Dry roast all the ingredients together except salt until the dhal is slightly roasted. Add the salt and make a fine powder, cool and store in air tight container.

This podi goes well with rice and sending to Long Live the shelf event hosted at Romaspace.

Wish all my readers, friends & Family members a Happy Ganesha chadurthi ! Celebrated tomorrow Sept 3 2008!