Puran Poli with Moong bean

The year 2020 has made us all stronger physically, emotionally & spiritually and also made us richer by unique experiences. We have learnt many invaluable life lessons that would guide us sail through even the difficult phase of our life. Now I feel it is appropriate to follow our traditional way of celebrating New Year with sumptuous repast of various flavours like sweet, bitter, pungent etc. This tradition encourages us to accept and adapt to every season, every flavour and every change in our life gracefully.

Pesarattu

We often felt shy talking about food during our childhood days as we might get teased by our peers or others as gourmands. Nowadays, it is a welcome trend that the kids are happily wielding small ladles to cook up their favorite meals (thanks to the TV shows like Masterchef Juniors), and the teens turn to food critics with élan. Today the gourmands proudly declare themselves the foodies and try various cuisines. Apparently, a foodie would find Pesarattu, the golden green crepes, served with melt-in-mouth savory sooji (upma), flavorful lentil stew (sambar), spicy ginger chutney and creamy coconut chutney as a gastronomic delight.

Modhagam

This is my first post in the second year of blogging. On this first anniversary I thank WordPress team for their fantastic support, readers & fellow bloggers for their continuing support and my family, relatives & friends for their kind cooperation, invaluable assistance & honest reviews. I also thank Lord Ganesha by posting the most appropriate recipe for Modhagam that we usually offer to Him on the festival of Ganesh Chathurthi. I have always been delighted to share our heirloom recipes in this space, and now I share a new method that I found very helpful for making soft, smooth dough for modhagam.

Kummiyanam

Kummiyanam is a nutritious dessert prepared with rice, assorted legumes & palm jaggery for Aadi Iruthi celebrated by the people living in & around Tirunelveli. We offer kummiyanam to the lamented souls while remembering them in the Aadi month, a Tamil calendar month usually falls between 15^th of July & 15^th of August. In this month we remember the departed men on the day of amavasyai (no moon day) and the departed women on aadi irudhi (the last day of Aadi). Ironically, Japanese also visit the cemeteries during the same period to pay tributes to the departed souls.