Mahalaya Paksham lunch Day 12

🍀Paruppu urundai Kuzhambu ( using only moong dal )

🍀Arbi / Chepankizhangu roast

🍀Snakegourds / Podalangai coconut milk curry

🍀Cucumber Kosambari

🍀Cucumber curd pachadi

🍀Curd , pickle

Recipes :

Moong dal Paruppu Urundai kuzhambu for Mahalaya .

This is not a recipe for the Urundai kuzhambu prepared on normal days . As we cannot use toor dal and chana dal , I have used Moong dal to prepare the urundai . Ingredients:

1 cup moong dal washed and soaked for 1 hour .

Few pepper corns

Curry leaves

Salt ( asafoetida is not used for Mahalaya cooking )

Grind the drained dal without adding water to a thick and slightly coarse paste . Meanwhile extract the tamrind water from a orange size Tamrind ball .

But make sure to dilute with water .

Add the Tamrind plus water about 3 cups to a vessel .

Add turmeric powder , salt , curry leaves .

Add 2 tbsp of the udad dal cumin pepper powder that is used during Mahalaya, or use sambar podi if preparing for normal days .

You can add asafoetida too .

Let this mixture keep boiling . Meanwhile make small balls of the moong dal paste . Steam it lightly ( not fully ) and drop into the boiling mixture .

If you are confident, then shape into small balls , roll in rice flour and drop directly into the boiling Kuzhambu. Add the washed water from mixie jar , to the boiling kuzhambu, it will help thicken .

Do not disturb the balls for 1-2 minutes as they may crumble .

With the help of a spoon , make sure to move them from bottom of the vessel .

Do not over boil , as it will make the lentil balls hard . Add thin dal water with 1 tsp rice flour as a slurry to slightly thicken the gravy .

Add some roasted coconut ( Garnish with coriander leaves. Karima Podi : specially for Mahalaya paksha cookjng by many families .

Recipe for the blended spice powder for use on Ammavasai and for Srardham

Dry roast 1/3 cup udad dal ,

1 heaped tbsp cumin ,

1 tbsp pepper ,

few curry leaves ,

1/2 cup grated coconut can be roasted and powdered with above but it will have short shelf life though it will be useful during the Mahalayha fortnight and can be used up , saves griding time also .

some families do not use coconut for ammavasai and for srardham so you have to make these changes and skip where mentioned .

Method

Roast all these till fragrant . Then powder it fine

. This is the only basic spice used in all Sraradha samayal ,for Ammavasai or for Mahalaya days , for all Kari , kootu , sambar and rasam . Increase spice and cumin according to your preference .

Red chilies are not used so only pepper is the main spice . Again small variations may be there in different families , this is what we follow

Day 13 lunch menu

Our Mahalaya Lunch menu Day 13 keeping it simple .

🍀Pongal

🍀Thalagam with assorted vegetables

🍀coconut chutney

🍀lemon 🍋Rasam

🍀Avarakkai Thoran

🍀Raw plantain pepper stirfry

🍀Rice , moong dal , ghee / nei

🍀Curd

🍀Pirandai Thogayal ( adamant creeper )