Aadi Perukku is a festival of fertility & prosperity being celebrated in South India for over 500 years. The 14th century Sangam Tamil literature, Paripadal, described the celebration of this festival elaborately. It gives us a glimpse of how our ancestors celebrated this festival and also how they revered the Mother Nature in those days. It is quite enthralling to read those old verses mentioning about the rivers passing through our neighbourhood. You may read those Sangam Tamil verses here.
We serve Chitrannam, a platter of rice dishes, as a lunch meal for the Aadi Perukku festival that we celebrate on the 18th day of the Aadi month of the Tamil calendar. Traditionally, we prepare tamarind rice (puliyodharai), lemon rice (elumichai sadam), coconut rice (thengai sadam), and sweet Pongal (Sarkarai Pongal). You can also check out my traditional chitrannam recipes here. Nevertheless, I prefer my chitrannam platter to be colorful and flavorful. So I have prepared spicy red tomato rice, aromatic green mint rice, nutty brown sesame rice, sweet yellow candied rice, and creamy white curd rice. Besides, they are easy to prepare with commonly available ingredients and we can even pack these rice dishes for children’s lunch boxes.
