March 17, 2008

Karadayan Nombu Adai (Sweet & Salt)

I know I am late in posting this. Better late than never. My system was down for two days and was busy reviving it. Then it was already late with Arusuvai. So posted that first. This year nombu was celebrated on 14th March. Unlike other festivals, nombu is observed during a specific period of time of the day. The time period is the ending of the month of Maasi (Kumbham) and beginning of Panguni(Meenam), which is called Sankramam. This year it was a convenient time of between 8:00 A.M and 8:30 A.M. After S left to office (he leaves by 7:00 A.M), me and my MIL started with the preprations. The flour was made ready two days before. We prepared both salt and sweet versions of the adai, though only the sweet ones are offered as neivedyam.

Preparing the rice flour for the adais
Wash and soak 3 cups of rice in water for half an hour.
Drain and allow to dry on a kitchen towel for half an hour or so. It should not be dried completely. Some moisture left on it is good.
Powder it from a flour mill or in a mixer grinder.
Seive them to get the fine powder.
Dry roast the rice flour in a kadai till they turn light brown.
You may have to seive again, since some lumps can be found.
Those lumps can be powdered again by giving a run in the mixie again.
Cool and store in an airtight container.


Preparing the Vella Adai
Roasted rice flour - 1 cup
Water - 2 cups
Powdered jaggery - 1 cup
Cooked black eyed peas(vellapayar/karamani) - 2 tblspn
Coconut pieces - 2 tblspn
Ghee - 1 spn

Boil the jaggery along with the measure water. When the jaggery is fully dissolved, remove any scums.
Transfer the strained jaggery water to a kadai. When water starts boiling, add chickpeas, coconut pieces and slowly add the rice flour.
Keep stirring while you add so that it doesn't form lumps. Add a teaspoon of ghee.
Cook till the water is fully absorbed. Leave it to cool.
Take a lemon size of the dough, flatten it on a banana leaf.
Arrange the leaves on a idli mould and steam cook for 10 mitnutes. The test is the adais would have shiny texture.

For neivadyam, adai is offered with a blob of fresh butter. Adai with fresh home made vennai (butter) is heaven.

Uppadai (Salty adai)
For seasoning
Mustard - 1 tspn
Green chillies- 3
Red chilly -2
Coconut pieces- 2 tblspn
Chana dal - 2 tblspn
Oil

Roasted rice flour -1 cup
Water - 2 cups
Salt

In a kadai, do the seasonings as given.
Add water and salt.
When waters starts boiling, tip off the flour into it.
Cook till it reached the upma consistency. Cool and prepare adais in the same way as sweet ones.

16 comments:

  1. That sounds interesting...nice looking adais..

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love this adai (both flavours) and the home made butter is out of this world.
    Btw, we add black eyed beans (karaimani) to the vella adai.

    ReplyDelete
  3. thanks valli.

    Aparna,even I add karamani. By mistake had typed chick pea in the post. Now corrected it. Thanks for commenting that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. wow!i love adai..nombu adai sounds great

    ReplyDelete
  5. Both of them looks great :) Nombu adai is still different.

    ReplyDelete
  6. the adais look great. never tried them. bookmarked.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love this adai, too, Jayasree! Thanks for sharing! :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Mmm ... these look super traditional - just like the ones I grew up with :)

    I made some of these, but added a couple of variations.

    Fun!

    ReplyDelete
  9. thank you all for your lovely comments. There is hardly anyone who doesnot have liking for this adais. For those who haven't tried, give a try you will like it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. never seen these adai ,looks soo deleciousssss jayashree

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nonbu was at the perfect time this year, wasn't it??? No thinking about what to make for brkfast....the adai made for more than a satisfying morning meal.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Remimded me of the days when my MIL and me prepare neivedyams..we used to take varalakshmi vratham which comes on Aug-sep..My mom takes up this one calling Savithri nombu :)

    Nice looking nombu adais,jayasree :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thank you all.

    Sagari, this is mostly made only once in a year for this pooja. Mainly becoz we don't bother to make it any other time. That makes it more special.

    Jayashree, very true. But since my hubby leaves at 7, I had to make breakfast for him.

    bharathy, even we call it savithri nombu, who is the one who has started this pooja at the very first place.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Never heard of this. it looks nice J.
    keep blogging :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. thanks Pooja. This is a very traditional recipe, specially made for this occassion. Do try it once.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your interest on my blog.Appreciate your feedback. Leave your suggestions/comments which will help me improve my blog.