ಶ್ರಾವಣ ಮಾಸದ ಶುಭ ಆರಂಭ/Shravana ……starts with holige

The month of Shravana is considered the most auspisicious month of the Hindu calendar. The star shravana is said to rule the sky. This month becomes a busy for ladies especially on tuesdays and fridays who call  married ladies for sumangali pooje or Arisina kunkum. As kids we would enjoy going along with our mom to visit other houses eating the sweets and sundals/kadale vogarne. So every tuesday and fridays we would have sweet dishes and vadas of different kinds. Every day is Shravana is considered auspicious for different dieties. Newly married ladies are advised to perform gowri pooje on tuesdays during shravana.

 

Naga-panchami is the first festival falls on the 5th day of sharavana which is worshipped in honour of snakes or nagas. To know more about nag-panchami check out here.

The Below is from here
Each day in the month of Shravana has a special significance .
Monday: is the day of Lord Shiva worship. 
Tuesday: Gauri is worshipped in every home, by women for the good health of their family. Additionally ladies perform kumkum pooja too
Wednesday: are dedicated to Vithala, a form of Vishnu or Krishna. 
Thursday: are also days for worshipping Buddh and Guru.
Friday: every home worships Lakshmi and Tulsi, also perform sumangali pooje.
Saturday: are for Saturn (Shani). It is also known as Shravan Saturdays, with the object of object of obtaining wealth. These days are known as Sampat Sanivara (wealth Saturdays). i remember in shravan the temples would be full of yell deepa( black seseme tied in black cloth deepa offered to Shani God to obtain peace and harmony)
Sundays: are meant worshipping the Sun god. Sun worship was general in the Vedic period and even now it is so. Especially in Shravan, every Sunday the Sun is worshipped without fail. 

As for me I do enjoy celebrating these festivals and even my neightbourhood friends make me active in involving in these celebrations. But wholly i celebrate the festives with great pleasure when it is on weekend else I  atleast make sure the kids know the importance of the day and why is it celebrated. I myself was not aware of many festivals until I got married when i explored to find out more about them. Living far from your own culture sure makes us more to explore the roots of our culture.

This year Shravan Maasa started for me with a sweet dish Holige though usually I make of Channa dhall this year I made of Coconut.

All you need
for Dough
Plain flour – 1 cup
wheat flour - 1/4 cup
oil – 1/2 cup
pinch of tumeric(optional)
salt to taste

Hoorna- filling

grated coconut – 1 cup
jaggery – 1cup
rice flour – 1/4 cup
cardamom – 1/2 tsp
poppy seeds (optional)

 

Method

• Make the dough mixing all the ingredients to form a smooth dough just like for parathas and let it soak for 2 hrs or more
• make a fine paste of grated coconut and keep aside
• Boil jaggery with around 2 tbsp until it dissolves, strain the soln and heat again until it is slightly sticky
• now add the grated coconut and rice flour stiring continuously at times the qnantity may not hold well add more rice flour/coconut if it is too watery
• Stir until it forms a mass add cardamom stir and let it cool
• Check the dough take a small amount of it and spread on covering your palm using a little oil it is easily spreads without breakage then the dough is right
• Make small balls out of the hoorna and keep aside
• Spread the dough well covering your left palm keep a small lemon sized ball and cover the dough
• Take either a alluminium foil/waxed paper  to roll the holige
• If the dough the hoorna are well done you can make very thin holiges this goes with practise
• Heat on a non stick tava and fry until golden brown
• Allow to cool and refrigerate and use for 1 week.

The slide is showing the very first holige as you try the next few will be very thin and crisp.the outer covering as you roll must be like a transparent film. Don’t worry if you don’t get it right for the first time trial and error are part of learning phase.  I did not have time to take the rest of the snaps of hoorna and dough which have been provided in various sites do check them out at Shilpa’s version here.

Sweet and lovely Manisha from Indian Food Rocks has awarded me this The Power of Schmooze award. I am very greatfull to her and really not sure whether i deserve it . Thanks Manisha it has given me an additional boost with hectic routine.

The Power of Schmooze Award is for bloggers who “effortlessly weave their way in and out of the blogosphere, leaving friendly trails and smiles, happily making new friends along the way. They don’t limit their visits to only the rich and successful, but spend some time to say hello to new blogs as well. They are the ones who engage others in meaningful conversations, refusing to let it end at a mere hello – all the while fostering a sense of closeness and friendship.”

I would like to pass this on to

Bharathy
Vanamala
Suma
Cute Sia from SpiceCorner my passionate inspirer thinks that i rock and given me this Rocking Blogger Award. . Thanks dear for the rocking award.

I would like to pass on to all the rocking bloggers
Lakshmi
Grihini
Priyanka
Athika
Seec
I would like to add a thanks note to all my family, friends, the wonderfull blogger buddies whose coment always means an inspiration an award itself when i first started to blog, visitors who leave a note once a while and also the ghost readers who some might not feel free to comment and some who would not want to comment who have less idea of what a comment would mean to us bloggers too who have made me go along with blogging so long. Thanks a lot it means a lot to me to continue…..

Thanks a lot for all my friends who kept a note and messages enquiring about my well being. Last week i was down with infection along with the work load I might be on and off with blogging from this month. I will try to visit your blogs when I find some time. Do continue visiting and blogging

RCI Oriya Cuisine

This cuisine is very new to me and I loved to explore the tastes of their food. I realised the food variety ranges from use of dhall  to vegetables with a very unique combination of spices which enhances the flavours of food. The sweet is mostly made of cheese or milk based which varies from kalakhand to rosgullas..More about oriya cuisine at Wikipedia

I have tried all the recipes from 123Orissa.com with some changes for our taste. This is my contribution to Lakshmi from VeggieCuisine’s RCI, this month we are celebrating Oriya cuisine hosted by Swapna from Swad of India

Vegetable Biryani/Khichadi

• All you need
  1.5 cup Rice
  3/4 cup Lentils/masoor dhall
  2 Potatoes cubed
  1 cup carrots/beans/peas
  1 cup Peanuts
  1 Tomatoes
  10 Cashewnuts
  1 cup grated coconut
  1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
  4 Red Chillies
  1 cup Onions sliced
  4 pieces of Cinnamon
  4 Cardamoms
  1/2 cup Curd( i skipped)
  Salt & Turmeric Powder

Method:

• Soak Rice for half an hour 
• Grind the grated Coconut with Cumin seeds and chillies.
• The recipe used the extract of the ground paste but i preferred to use the grounded paste as it is
•  Take oil in a kadai  add cinnamon, cardamom fry until fragrant
• Add rice, lentils, peanuts, cashew fry for sometime until all look slightly coated with oil
• Add water along with the ground paste, salt and tomatoes.Let it boil now add the vegetables
• Pressure cook for 3 whistles. Serve hot.

This turned out delicious khichadi and tasted close to our Bisibhelebhath.

Phul Gobi Do Piaji

All you need
1 Cauliflower
cumin powder – 1 tsp
Ginger paste – 1 cube
 Vinegar
 garam masala – 1 tsp
Tomato – 1
Red chilli powder/green chilli paste – 2 tsp
 Onion – 1
panch phoran – 1 tsp
Salt

Method

• Cut the cauliflower into medium size pieces. marinate with ginger paste, cumin powder and chilli powder/green chilli paste and vinegar for an hour

•  Heat oil in a kadai and the panch puran spices and fry onion .

• Add  the cauliflowers into the pan and cover it with tomato pieces. Add the garam masala and salt for taste

• Cover the lid and lower the flame until cauliflower is cooked fully.

Bhanda kobi Khofta Curry

All you need
Cabbage – 1 cup shreded
onion – 1 sliced
gram flour – 1/4 cup
coriander leaves – 2 tsp
corn flour – 2 tsp
baking powder – 1 tsp

gravy
onion – 1 big
tomatoes – 1
ginger paste – 1cube
chilli powder – as per taste
coriander leaves for garnish
garam masala – 1 tsp

Method

• Mix cabbage, onions, salt and chilli powder and coriander leaves. let it stand for 5 mins

• The cabbage mixture will is slightly wet now, add gram flour and corn flour along with baking powder mix it well

• Deep fry the cabbage pakodas in oil and keep aside

• Make a gravy by grinding the half onions, tomatoes and ginger

• Take a kadai with oil fry remaining onions tomatoes along with the ground paste, and chilli powder and salt.

• Add 1 cups of water and let it boil, the tiness of gravy depends on liking once it reaches a gravy consistency do a taste check 

• Add the pakodas and serve hot with rotis/rice

I extremely enjoyed exploring Oriya Cuisine and my family were pleased with the outcome of every dish, Please visit Swapna’s blog for the roundup of the event.