This Diwali, along with Besan Ladoo (check the recipe here), we made a savoury snack known as 'Chakali' (or Murrukku, as it is known in Southern India). It is a popular snack for Diwali in almost whole of India.
Recipe to get around 20 Chakalis around 7-8cm in diameter
Ingredients
1 1/2 Cup Chakali or Murrukku flour (Available at most of the Indian Stores)
1/2 tsp. Asafoetida or Hing
1 tsp. Salt
1tsp. Red Chilli Powder
1 tsp. Carom Seeds
1 tsp. Ginger Paste
1 tsp. Garlic Paste
1/2 tsp. Turmeric Powder
Water to kneed the dough
Oil for deep frying
Method
1. Kneed the dough with all the ingredients and add 1Tbsp. oil. The dough should be soft and easy to mould
2. Leave it for 5-10 minutes.
3. Grease the chakali making press equipment or use a piping bag.
4. There are two ways of doing it from here- one is to make the chakalis directly into hot oil by moving the equipment or piping bag in circular motion or the second way is to cut few pieces of aluminium foil and make the chakalis on it and transfer to hot oil.
5. Fry till golden brown and take out and drain the excess oil by placing them on paper towel.
6. Let it cool and store in airtight container.
A variation for kids could be to make the dough with only flour, salt and carom seeds.
Hope you enjoy this snack with your family and do share with us...
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The rangoli that I designed for Deepawali this year was a variation of peacock.
Peacock is associated with Goddess Lakshmi and hence is an auspicious design for Deepawali. The colours are significant of peacock.
Hope you like the designs do share what designs you had done for this Diwali by posting a comment.
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The first day of Diwali is celebrated as Dhanteras, when we welcome Goddess or Wealth Sri Lakshmi to our house and also wish for prosperity.
This is Rangoli I created for Dhanteras
I chose to do it in green and warm colours like red, orange and yellow because green and red colour are used to represent Sri Lakshmi in various cultures, while yellow is the colour of gold and orange was used to connect the colours. The paisley is one of the traditional rangoli designs inspired from mango; which is an auspicious design.
It was a really windy day and so I was not really happy with the haziness that became a part of the design. I prefer my rangolis to be sharp but could not do anything.
Hope you like the designs do share what designs you had done for this Diwali by posting a comment.
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Hi Everyone,
Hope those who celebrate Diwali had a wonderful one. After all the excitement, celebrations and festivities; here I come back with a traditional recipe for Diwali time- Besan (Bengal Gram Flour) Ladoo.
This recipe is for making approx. 20 ladoos.
Ingredients
Ghee (Clarified Butter)- 150g
Besan (Bengal Gram Flour)- 225g
Suji (Semolina)- 35g
Mix nuts (Cashewnuts, Almonds, Pistachios)- 40g (Powdered or crushed)
Turmeric- 1/2 tsp.
Castor Sugar- 100g
Cardamom Powder- 1 tsp.
Method
1. In a ghee in a pan.
2. Add besan, suji and nuts, and fry on low heat while stirring. Fry till the mixture becomes slightly brown.
3. Add turmeric, turn of the heat, mix it well and let it cool down a bit.
4. Add sugar and cardamom powder, mix well and form into ladoos or balls by rolling them between palms.
Since I have added powdered nuts, it is convenient for our li'l ones to eat as well, while if you have older kids, you may consider adding crushed nuts.
Enjoy the ladoos with your family and friends and do let me know how it turns out!
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So here comes that time of the year, for which we Indians wait throughout the year... the biggest Indian festival Deepawali or Diwali. I have already written few things about Diwali in my previous posts (Read here and here).
As per the Hindu calender, in 2013, the Diwali celebrations starts from Friday, 1st November that is Dhanteras and will go on till 5th November, Bhaiduj, with Diwali on 3rd November.
The preparations often start weeks in advance with cleaning of house and shopping for new things for house, new clothes, preparation of various sweet and savory snacks to offer guests who visit during this period.
In my house also, we started with all this some days ago and are done with most of the shopping- our clothes are ready, home decor is ready and we prepare the snacks today.
I will start putting on the Rangoli from today and atleast till the day of Diwali and later as well if I could survive all the excitement post diwali.
So, with all the excitement coming through from today, I'll keep this post short and will write about all the celebrations in the coming week
Till then, Have a Happy and Prosperous Diwali
After yesterday's post (Read here) on my Diwali Rangoli Designs, today's post is about the designs I created for Diwali of 2009. By this time, I gained much more confidence and was ready to explore little more complex designs than those from last year. This time, I decorated my doorway for 3 days.
Diwali is celebrated for 5 days- first day is Dhanteras, which is celebrated to please Goddess of Wealth, Sri Lakshmi and a lot of precious purchases are made on this day; the second day is Naraka Chaturdasi, which is to celebrate victory of Lord Krishna over a demon named Narakasur; the third day which falls on a no-moon night is the main festival and is celebrated by worshiping Goddess Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth and Lord Ganesha, the elephant God, remover of all obstacles. People light of their houses with clay lamps and welcome Sri Lakshmi into their houses. The fourth day is celebrated as Govardhan Puja in north to commemorate the victory of Lord Krishna over Lord Indra by lifting a mountain called Govardhan on his little finger, while in southern India it is celebrated as Bali Pratipada, to celebrate the victory of Lord Vishnu in his dwarf form Vamana over demon king Bali. The fifth day is Bhai Duj when sisters and brothers express their love and affection for each other.
So the celebrations goes on almost for a week and it is a great fun when you celebrate with family and friends.
Now, coming back to Rangoli, in 2009, I designed rangolis for first three days and here are the pics.
This design was done for the first day. If you know me by now, you will be able to see one of my signature designs- the paisley.
This design was created for the second day. I kept it really simple.
This design was done on the day of Diwali at the doorway. Again featuring the other design which I love to create - the Peacocks. This is the most elaborate design I have created till date.
This design was done at the Puja area. If you notice in the last post also, both the designs in the puja area have lotus motif. This is because Goddess Lakshmi sits on the Lotus flower and these rangoli motifs signify the seat of Goddess Lakshmi. We invite Her to our houses and also keep a seat ready.
Hope you like the designs and share with us what kind of designs you like to create by posting a comment.
Till then, stay in touch for more on this...
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As some of you may be aware of the Indian Hindu festival known as Deepawali or Diwali or Divali. It is the most widely celebrated festival among Indians. It is also known as 'Festival of Lights'.
One of the significant custom is to do the Spring Cleaning of whole house and decorate it well. The doorway and the 'puja' (prayer) area is often decorated with 'Rangoli'.
Rangoli, also known Kolam, Mandana, Alpana etc. in various parts of India is a folk art used to decorate the floor of doorways and courtyards during festivals to welcome the deities. Various media can be used individually or in combination- dry colour powder, flowers, rice paste, coloured marble chips, paint etc.
When doing a rangoli on Deepawali, I prefer to use Colored powder which is easy to sprinkle, yet requires a lot of practice. The first time I tried doing Rangoli of Deepawali was in 2008 and here are some pics-
The first two pics are of Rangoli done at puja area while the last one is at the doorway. I love doing floral and geometric designs and sometimes combination of both.
Do you like doing Rangoli on Deepawali or any other occassion? What are your favorite type of design?
Do leave a comment and share...
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