AYUDHA/ SARASWATHI POOJAI
It is an integral part of “Navarathri” festival; it means “worship of instruments”
On this special day, we use to deep clean the house, vehicle and other day-to-day use items like rice/dhal measuring cups, hammer, knifes, books, pen , pencil, laptop, home accounts book etc., Deep clean each thing with so much care and finally decorate with vibudti/thiruneer pattai, sandhanam(sandlewood paste) sprinkles and ends with kunkum dot.
// those who are keeping the GOLU, then they shouldn’t deep clean the house, just wash the vehicle and apply the sandhanam-thiruneer-kunkumam to the vehicle as well for the house especially to the motor items (tv/fridge/ washing machine/ oven/ windows/ door / entrance/ kitchen utensils – hammer/ aruval/ knife and reading books/ pen/ pencil//
Later by using flower strings we use to decorate our Pooja room, decorate with garlands for vehicles and Mango leaves (Maa Ilai Thoranam) with our home entrance.
- If you kids at home, keep their reading books, pen and pencil in the pooja and perform the sarsawathi pooja (don’t read any books on this day; we have to keep the reading books in the pooja on this day and will take on the next day which is called VIJAYADASAMI)
VIJAYADASAMI POOJAI:
On this day, place a clean pooja plate filled with raw rice and followd by fresh flowers and prasadam. After the pooja done, hold your kids/ toddler index finger and make them to write your first letter in your mother tongue ( being a tamilian, we will write tamil first letter “அ”)
Not only studies, people wish to start any new start on this special day like dance, music, and art form.
Here are the some of the Neivaidhayam on this particular occasion.
- Pori/aval-Kadalai/ Puffed rice/ flattened rice with roasted grams
- Navadhaniya Sundal/ Multigrain sundal
- Sakkarai Pongal/ Sweet Pongal
- Medhu vadai
- Panakam
Aval-PoriKadalai:
Pori/aval-Kadalai/ Puffed rice/ flattened rice with roasted grams, which is available at the market. You can use any one of these. (I used flattened rice)
Ingredients:
- Flattened rice – 1 cup
- Roasted gram/ pottukadalai/ split dahlia – ½ cup
- Nattu sakarai/ brown sugar – ½ cup
- Cardamom powder – a generous pinch
- Ghee – a tsp
Procedure:
- In a wide mixing bowl, add all the ingredients mix thoroughly without any lumps and transfer into another plate for serving.
Navadhaniya Sundal:
Ingredients:
- Multigrain/ navadhaniyam – 1 cup
- coconut oil – 1 tblsp
- mustard seeds – 1 tsp
- cumin seeds – 1 tsp
- dry red chili- 2 nos
- asafetida – ½ tsp
- salt – as req
- shredded coconut – ¼ cup
- curry leaves- 1 sprig
- sundal mel podi – 1 tblsp
Sundal Mel Podi:
Ingredients:
- coriander seeds – 1 tblsp
- byadagi chilli – 3 nos
- urad dhal – 2 tsp
- cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Procedure:
- Dry roast all the ingredients, cool completely and grind it coarsely and keep it in an air-tight container for more shelf life.
Procedure:
- Soak the pulses at least for 6- 8 hours and boil the pulses for about 2 whistles and keep side.
- In a pan, add about a tblsp of coconut oil, let it get enough hot. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, allow it to splutter and add broken dry chilies and asafetida along with some fresh curry leaves.
- Now add the boiled pulses to the tempering mixture along with required amount of salt, saute for a while.
- Add about a tblsp of sundal mel podi, gently toss the sundal with some freshly shredded coconut and turn off the flame.
SWEET PONGAL:
Ingredients:
- Raw rice – 1 cup
- Moong dhal – ¼ cup
- Ghee/ clarified butter – ¼ cup
- Milk – ¼ cup (optional)
- Cashews – 5-8 nos
- Dry grapes – 10 nos
- Cardamom powder – a generous pinch
- Pacha karpooram/ edible camphor – a pinch
- Salt – a pinch
- Jaggery – ¾ cup
- Water – as req
Procedure:
- Wash the rice and dhal thoroughly and pressure cook it along with ¼ cup of milk (optional) and required amount of water for about 3-4 whistles/ boil it smoothly.
- In a sauce pan melt the jaggery and filter out the impurities and keep aside
- Mash the cooked rice and dhal mixture and add the melted jaggery with a pinch of salt into the mixture, allow it to cook for a while now add 2-3 tblsp of ghee to the Pongal
- In a small pan add 1 tblsp of ghee, add some cashews and dry grapes and roast nicely into the ghee and pour the mixture into the Pongal
- To the final stage add a generous pinch of cardamom powder and edible camphor with rest of the ghee and turn off the flame.
- Enjoy the lusciousness of our SOUTHERN DELICACY “SWEET PONGAL/ SAKARAI PONGAL”
Special Note:
- Some people have the custom of doing AKKARAVADISAL on this day
It is more similar to sakkarai/ sweet pongal, while cook the rice we have to add equal amount of whole milk and towards the end of the dish we have add few scraps of Nutmeg/ jathikai.
