Thiruvadarai Kali and Kootu

Photo: A&n

Ingredients

Thiruvadarai Kali:

1/2 cup rice

1/8 cup Moong Dal

1/4 cup Chana Dal

1/2 cup Jaggery

1/2 cup coconut

1/8 cup ghee

1 tablespoon powdered cardamom

Roasted cashewnuts

Thiruvadarai Kootu-

1/2 cup each of all vegetables -

quartered potatoes

stringed and chopped lengthwise beans

white pumpkin or Pooshnika (in Tamil) chopped into chunks

yellow pumpkin or the calabaza chopped into chunks

Brinjal or eggplant chopped

carrots chopped lengthwise

Peas - as much as you want

1/4 cup Tuvar Dal

A fistful of Chana Dal

1 tablespoon Turmeric

Lemon-sized ball of Tamarind

For the paste:

10 pods Dried Red Chillies

Coriander seeds - a fistful

1/4 cup grated coconut

For the Tadka:

1 teaspoon mustard

1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds or Menthya

3 pods red chillies

1/2 teaspoon Asafoetida

1 sprig of Curry leaves

Preparation

Thiruvadarai Kali:

Dry roast the rice and the lentils until they are reddish in colour

Pulse this mixture in a mixie to form a flour

Boil water in a large bottomed pan and add jaggery to it. let the jaggery melt and dissolve into the water. Let it simmer.

Add the grated coconut to this liquid and let it simmer for 3-4 mins.

Once it starts to boil, add half of the ghee and mix well. Immediately, add the flour and stir vigorously to prevent lumps. Break the lumps if any!

Keep it closed for 5-7 mins and let it cook. You may need to stir it in between to prevent charring of the flour.

Remove lid. Stir until the flour and water integrate to form a ball. It looks like a halwa at one stage. Cook with continous stirring for the another 10 mins. Finally, add the rest of the ghee and mix well and cook for 3-4 mins.

Garnish with cashewnuts and remove from gas. Once cooled, break the ball into lumps. Strangely enough, this Kali is usually lumpy and in between being dry and moist!

Thiruvadarai Kootu:

Cook all the veggies with turmeric in the pressure cooker until well-cooked but not mashable.

Similarly, cook the dal/lentils separately in the pressure cooker, until well-cooked and mashable.

Roast the ingredients for the masala paste and grind them to a smooth paste using little water

Meanwhile, soak tamarind in hot water and squeeze all the juice out of the tamarind. Once the veggies are done, boil the tamarind and add all the cooked vegetables once the tamarind juice is simmering

Once the vegetables have simmered for about 7-10 mins in the tamarind juice, add the dal/lentil along with the masala paste.

Stir well. Let it stay on the gas and simmer for around 7-10 mins. Once all the flavours are well-integrated, make the Tadka and add it to the Kootu.

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Comments

Permalink Samantha
March 15, 2009

Yummy...Glad to find a truly traditional tamil recipe

Permalink Alisa Escanlar
July 10, 2009

looks delicious! And I love the story behind the dish too!

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About

Thiruvadarai is a festival that celebrates Lord Shiva, a Hindu God venerated by a community called Shaivaites in Tamil Nadu. This festival is celebrated in the Margazhi month of the Tamil calendar. During this month is when the Lord Shiva's star - Arudra nakshatram - the star according to Hindu astrology occurs.

The story goes like this. Once Lord Vishnu who was thinking of Lord Shiva's 'tandav' nritya during his celestial sleep/nap, his seat(!) Adi Sesha which is in fact a large serpent felt that Lord Vishnu was really heavy that day. When he spoke to Lord Vishnu about this, He mentioned that He was dreaming of the celestial dance of Lord Shiva. Adi Sesha wanted to watch this celestial dance himself and sought Lord Vishnu's advice.

Lord Vishnu directed him to worship Lord Shiva and conduct penance at Chidambaram, a small temple town in Tamil Nadu. So, Adi Sesha came to Earth in the form of the sage Patanjali and performed a penance for Lord Shiva. In the same town, there was also another sage Vyagrahapada who prayed to Lord Shiva to obtain paws like the tiger, so he could climb trees and pluck flowers for Lord Shiva before the bees got to them. He also wanted to watch the Lord's celestial dance.

Lord Shiva was pleased with the prayers of both and performed the Ananda Tandavam– Blissful Dance. Since then, this event is celebrated in Tamil Nadu as Thiruvadarai. The image at Chidambaram of Lord Nataraja (King of dancers) owes it to this legend. In homes, the festival is celebrated by an early morning worship of Lord Siva and He is offered two special dishes prepared only on that day – kaLi (a sweet) and thaLakam (a kind of mixed vegetable “kootu”).