Diwali special - ukkarai ,maaladu,inji legiyam

 Hi friends, 

Happy diwali to everyone of you. Hope all the shopping is done.  I sure for know that everyone of you will be busy with making sweets- some traditional and some from YouTube 😉.

Sometimes we feel ,we should do something easy and instant for festive season. But, traditions shouldn't change. 

For the last 75 years plus ,I think our family has been making maaladu and ukkarai for every diwali.  It has moved from my patties to my amma and for the past few years me and amma are doing it together ,so that I can learn the nuances of it.

I had been telling my mom to change the way she makes these things as there are some easy methods to do it. But she was very clear that she would be doing it in traditional way.

So, here are the traditional methods of doing these sweets.

Ukkarai 

Take 1 cup of channa dal. Roast it in a dry kadai. Soak the roasted channa dal in warm water for half an hr. Once it is soaked , cook it in pressure cooker. Let it not be mushy.

Once cooled, grind channa dal with the equal amount,i.e, 1 cup  of powdered jaggery. It will be like a thick paste. In a heavy bottomed kadai, take 2 tbsp of gingelly oil and 2tbsp of ghee. Add the ground paste in the kadai and start sauteing in medium flame. 

We need to keep on sauteing this paste till it leaves the side of the kadai and starts crumbling. In the meantime, we should be adding a mixture of gingelly oil and ghee as and when required.  After some time, ghee starts leaving the ukkarai. Switch off the stove and add fried cashews.

This is the traditional method of doing ukkarai. 

Maaladu

Another sweet which is very easy to make. Take 1 cup of fried grams ( pottu kadalai). Grind it into a powder and keep it aside. Let it not be too fine. If it's too fine, it will stick at the top part of our mouth.

Take 1 cup of powdered sugar and mix both sugar and fried gram well. Now add hot ghee little by little to the mix and start making balls out of it. It will look like a white laddoo. Add fried cashew pieces to the mix before adding ghee.

Simple maaladu is ready 

Inji marundhu

Grind soaked ginger - 1 cup  with 2 tbsp of soaked coriander seeds and 2 tbsp of soaked jeera into a paste. Now add 2 tbsp of ghee to a heavy bottomed kadai.  Add the ginger paste to the kadai. Add 1/2 cup of powdered jaggery. Start sauteing in medium flame.

Keep sauteing till it leaves the side of kadai and ghee starts coming out of the legiyam. Add ghee as and when necessary . Once ghee starts coming out, switch off the stove.

Inji marundhu is ready and very good for digestion. It is the first thing we have on the morning of Diwali. 

These recipes maybe different from those which we see/ read in internet. But this is how it is done in our house for many years.

Hope the recipes are clear. Please try and let us know.