Happy Saraswathi pooja - Sakkarai pongal/Sundal/Vadai

 Happy Saraswathi Pooja/ Ayudha pooja to everyone. Today being the pooja, I was busy making all the food that have to be offered to God as prasadam. This list includes the Sakkarai ponga, a sweet dish make with rice and jaggery, sundal and vadai. Its a custom in my MIL's place to make only masala vadai for pooja and not the usual Urud dal vadai. I too followed the same tradition. Apart from this prasadams, we also offer rice, paruppu(cooked toor dal), ghee and vegetables of our choice.This pooja is specially referred to as 'Sakthi poojai' in our place and usually performed in the evenings after the sunset.

Along with Goddess Saraswathi we also worship tools and equipments as part of the pooja. Hence the name Ayudha pooja, Ayudha/Ayudham meaning tools. Also children tend to keep their books in pooja and pray for knowledge on this special day. We clean our home, vehicles and almost all the tools in our house and decorate them with sandanam(Sandal) and Kum kum. I could still remember those full fledged poojas that used to happen in India. Here I was able to follow most of the traditions and perform a miniature version of the same pooja.. :)

Now going on to the recipes...

Things needed for Sakkari pongal/Sweet pongal
Raw rice - 1 Cup
Milk - 2 Cups
Cardamon powder - 1 Tbsp
Cashews, Raisins, Almonds - 1/8 Cup ( Chopped)
Ghee - 1 Tbsp
Water - 1/2 Cup
Jaggery - 1/2 Cup (Grated)

Wash and soak rice for 15 minutes. Pressure cook rice with 2 Cups of milk and 1/2 Cup of water for 5 whistles or until the rice will turn slightly mushy. Fry the nuts and raisins in ghee until golden brown. Heat the grated jaggery with a few table spoons of water just enough to dissolve it. Once the jaggery melts, add the cooked rice and fried nuts to it. Mix in all the ingredients until well incorporated and turn off the heat.

Yummy and rich sakkarai pongal is ready to be served.

Things needed for mukkadalai sundal/ Chickpeas sundal
Chickpeas - 1 Cup ( Pressure cooked with salt)
Coconut - 1/8 Cup ( Grated)
Mustard seeds - 1/2 Tsp
Cumin seeds/ Jeera - 1/2 Tsp
Dry red chilly - 1 no.
Hing/ Perungayam - a pinch
Onions - 1/8 Cup (Chopped)
Curry leaf - Few leaves
Oil - 1 Tsp

Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, mustard, dry red chilly, hing, curry leaf and let the seeds sizzle. Then add onions, coconut and fry it until the onions turn translucent. Add the cooked chickpeas and saute the mixture for few minutes. Simple and healthy sundal is ready for pooja.

Things needed for Masala Vadai
Bengal gram/ Kadalai paruppu - 1 Cup ( Soaked for 1-2hours)
Green chilly - 3 nos. ( Finely chopped, Can be adjusted according to taste)
Curry leaf - Few nos. ( Roughly chopped)
Coriander/ Kothamalli/ Cilantro - 1/8 Cup ( Roughly chopped)
Fennel seeds/ Saunf/ Sombu - 1 Tbsp
Rice flour - 1 Tbsp
Ginger - 1 Tsp ( Finely grated)
Onions - 1 medium sized ( Roughly chopped)
Salt - To taste
Oil - For deep frying

Grind Bengal gram with salt and very little water if needed into a coarse paste. Add onions, curry leaves, fennel seeds, coriander, green chilly, ginger, rice four to the ground paste and mix well. Make medium sized patties with the vada batter and deep fry until golden brown. For crispier vadas, make the patties thinner. Some many like their vadas soft, in such cases thick patties will do the job.

Crispy vadas are ready to be offered to God and enjoyed with chutney of our choice.

Once again Happy Saraswathi pooja to all!!! This yummy plate of prasadams goes to Only festive food event by Pari and to CFK - Festive foods event by Sharmi guest hosted by Suma.