Happy Sankranthi!

Makar Sankranthi, as it is referred to in Karnataka, is a joyful and celebratory festival.  Unlike most of our festivals which follow the lunar calendar, Sankranthi follows the solar calendar, and falls at the same time every year on January 14 or 15.  While many view this day as a harvest celebration, it is also the day where we recognize the Sun starting to move in a Northward direction for the first six months of the calendar year.  This time of the year is most conducive to doing positive things that can move us in an upwards direction as well. 

In our home, we celebrated the day by bringing together family and friends and by making some traditional and tasty treats including:

Ellu 

A roasted trail mix like mixture of sesame seeds, peanuts, whole split peas ("hurgadle"), dry coconut, pieces of jaggery, and pieces of sugar candy ("sakkare acchu").

Sakkare Acchu

Quite literally translated to "sugar molds", these sugary morsels are exactly that!  Milk, water and sugar boiled together and put into molds until they harden into sugar candy. 

Wishing everyone a very happy Sankranthi!

Return to Writing

A few years ago I started this blog to write down and share general ideas as a new mother. When my child was about a year old, I stopped writing as I re-entered the work force and found myself in a busy and fast paced juggling act of work and family. Now, in an attempt to slow down and process my thoughts more, I am coming back to this forum but with a different focus.

The one thing that always comes to my mind and that I strive to do is to pass on cultural traditions to my children that my parents succeeded in passing down to me. I thought "why not write that down"... Maybe someone out there will like my ideas and maybe I will also be able to learn from someone else's ideas. So that is what I am aiming to do with attempt number two at blogging.

For now, I will aim for only two things with this blog. First, to write about aspects of South Indian Hindu culture that are important to me. This mostly will revolve around celebrations of our many wonderful and beautiful festivals and will also include more day to day habits of mine. Second, documentation of any new South Indian recipes that I try and feel that I succeed with... because we all know that food is a great way to connect with any culture!

I look forward to sharing my ideas while learning as well. Thank you for reading!

Celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi

As I mentioned last week, another popular holiday that came along in early September this year is Ganesh Chaturthi. This is the day where we celebrate Lord Ganesha, who we believe is the remover of obstacles. Lord Ganesha is beloved by Hindus throughout India and the world and as such, there are some wonderful traditions that come along with Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations.

In India, celebrations are done on a huge scale! All you have to do is google "Ganesh Chaturthi Celebrations India" to see all the colorful and amazing ways Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated...

Large Scale Celebrations in Mumbai

Here in America, we do what we can to bring the celebrations to our home. This year, we were lucky in that the holiday fell on a Sunday, giving us all plenty of time and energy to focus on this holiday... which was great!

One of my favorite traditions for Ganesh Chaturthi is one where families together create an image of Lord Ganesha from natural clay to be used during the celebration time. Once the festivities are complete, this clay statue is put into water to dissolve, thereby releasing the natural elements that it is made from back into the environment from where they originally came.

Here at home, we also created a statue...

Next year, if you want to create your own statue at home, check out this clay product from Michael's. It was very easy to mold and the color was just right!

Many Indian stores also sell clay statues, which are usually painted with beautiful, bright colors. We have found in the past, though, that some materials other than clay must be used in making the statues, because they do not dissolve very easily in water.

For me, there are many benefits to creating the statue at home as opposed to buying one from the Indian store. Firstly, you know it will dissolve well in water. Secondly, the time where the whole family is sitting together and making the statue is very special and a great activity to involve kids in to get them excited for the holiday. Finally, although it may not be perfectly symmetrical, it is a product of our own efforts, which for me, is much more special.

Another tradition, on the food side of things, that comes along with every Ganesh Chaturthi, especially in the part of South India (Bangalore) where my family is originally from, is making Sweet Kadubus for this holiday. Sweet Kadubus are believed to be a favorite sweet of Lord Ganesha, and we make it as an offering for him. I will be doing a separate post some time on how I make these Sweet Kadubus but here's a little teaser:

These are just two of the many great cultural traditions associated with this holiday. So, although it's a little late, I hope that everyone had a great Ganesh Chaturthi this year and finds special ways to celebrate it in the future. Have a wonderful weekend!   

Back to Blogging and Celebrating Krishna Janmashtami!

Hello again, world of blogging, bloggers, and readers! It's been a couple of busy months but now as things settle down, I'm getting back to "Another ABCD Mommy" and to maintaining my weekly posts. During my time off, I missed blogging about a couple of very important holidays so I'll be sure to fit them in when I can, starting with this post.  Then, beginning next week, it's back to my schedule of recipe posts on Monday, baby related posts on Wednesday and on Friday, posts on anything my heart desires! So, here we go...

***

Growing up in America, one of the most important things for me is to maintain the festivity surrounding our Hindu holidays. One of my favorite memories from my own childhood is the special feeling of celebrating a day that is just an ordinary day for everyone else at school and work. It's not always easy to get into the festive spirit when daily routines do not pause for a moment, but making that extra effort to make sure we do is so important.  I truly feel it's one of the best ways to provide Indian children growing up here with a connection to their cultural roots.

Most Hindu holidays are deeply rooted in religion. The religious aspects of every holiday are very important to me, but they are also personal, and therefore, will not be a topic which is discussed in this forum. What will be discussed are some of the wonderful cultural traditions that come along with each and every holiday, and how I and my family were able to capture them...

At the end of August came my single most favorite day of the year - Krishna Janamashtami. This is the day when we celebrate the birth of Krishna, one of the most beloved incarnations of Lord Vishnu. The countless stories of Krishna from his childhood to his adulthood are told over and over, from generation to generation, and they always bring a smile to our faces while also providing us with important wisdom and life lessons.  

Baby Krishna stealing butter

 

The image of Krishna, as a young child, stealing butter is one of the most iconic. And the peacock feathers are something that is always associated with Krishna. While there is a philosophical meaning behind this, culturally, when we celebrate Krishna Janamashtami, if there are any little babies in the house, we dress them up like baby Krishna with a peacock feather in their hair :-)

 

Sadly for me, when I tried to tie the peacock feather in my son's hair, he just would not cooperate, so I had to settle with using it as a decoration somewhere else. I'm hoping for better luck in that department next year... 

 

Flowers, especially red, white and yellow ones, are used in decorating the home. We used these flowers in making garlands to decorate Krishna statues as well as to hang in doorways. 

 

 

And then there's my favorite part of decorating for Krishna Janmashtami... creating small footsteps to represent Krishna's little feet walking into the house. The meaning behind this, for me, is infinite, and seeing those little footprints coming into the house really brings a huge smile to my face. The material we generally use for creating the foot prints is made by mixing rice flour and water until it is a thick paste.

 

This year, we tried to use my son's feet to make the imprints, and had some luck with it (better than the peacock feather) but it was still quite a challenge. The slightly sloppier ones are his little feet. The neater footprints are made by dipping the side of your fist into the paste and stamping it on the ground and the using your fingers to make little spots for the toes.

And of course, no festival is ever complete without lots of delicious food, which we were also blessed with. I don't have any pictures beyond what's posted above, but hopefully it gives you a good idea of how we celebrated Krishna Janmashtami this year. There are so many cultural traditions to take part in, and since I'm a relatively new to being the one putting together celebrations, a rule of thumb that I like to try and abide by is to add in one more tradition with every year of celebration.

 

I'm happy to restart my blog with this post, and I wish everyone a (belated) very happy Krishna Janmashtami! Next Friday, I'll write about how we celebrated another wonderful holiday that came along in the first week of September this year - Ganesh Chathurti.

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and hopefully I'll see you back here on Monday!

 



South Indian Semolina Crepe... Also Known as 'Rava Dosa'

"The way to a man's heart is through his stomach..."

So they say... Well, I don't know who "they" are, but they must personally know my husband because I cannot think of a truer statement relating to him, and especially to his love of South Indian food. So... this past weekend, I decided to surprise him by learning a new South Indian breakfast/brunch item to make - rava dosa.

If you've ever eaten in an Indian restaurant, then you've probably seen a giant crepe-like dish that looks something like this:

A giant restaurant dosa

Unfortunately, in general, dosa is a somewhat complicated item to make. The batter requires fermentation and there's a whole process that goes into its creation. Well, luckily for me, there is a somewhat similar cousin to the regular dosa known as rava dosa, and it is easy easy easy to make.

Rava dosa can be made the day of, and does not need any preparation in the previous day / days like regular dosa does. I found this great recipe on Pinterest and with a few adjustments, I made something that we both really enjoyed!

I started off making the batter right after my morning coffee, which was about an hour and a half before we actually started making and eating the dosas. I followed the recipe as is except I did not add any yogurt, onions or cashews.
 

My rava dosa batter consisting of rice flour, rava (semolina), all purpose flour (maida flour), cumin seeds, pepper corn (ground up), green chilies, curry leaves, coriander leaves and salt.
 

Once you're ready to "fry" up the rava dosas, you take a flat pan / skillet put a few drops of oil (I used vegetable oil) on it and spread the batter out as thinly as possible while trying to avoid any holes and while trying to make it look like a nice circle (I'm still working on that part).
 

The thinner you can spread the batter, the better the rava dosa tastes.
 

Once you have cooked up the rava dosa, you can eat it with homemade chutney or pickle for a scrumptious and easy brunch. The only thing my husband didn't like about this recipe was the pepper corn, so I will probably leave that little ingredient out next time.
 

Rava Dosa with a little mango pickle.
 

Overall, I'd call this one a success. This was the first time I've ever attempted rava dosa and it came out pretty well! So, the next time you're wondering what to make for brunch and you don't feel like omelets, hop over to that link I posted above and check out this recipe... it's worth a try!

*Housekeeping*

Please note that you can now follow me on Bloglovin' by clicking the button on the upper right hand side of this page or at the bottom of this post! It's an easy way to keep track of all your favorite blogs, and hopefully mine is one of them :-)

Please also note that I have reorganized the buttons on the top of my blog. I will now be archiving my posts by breaking them out under these different headings.

Keep checking back for more changes!

Another ABCD Mommy

The Curious Chayote Squash

Have you ever seen this interesting little item at the grocery store?

Chayote Squash...

It took me a while before I connected this strange looking vegetable to the curried version of this known in Kannada as "seeme-badhnakai palya" that I've been eating since I was a kid. Once I figured it out, it quickly became a staple in our house once in every two weeks or so... and cooking it up is so easy: 

What you need (enough for two to three people): 

- 2 chayote squashes (if you can't find it at your regular grocery store, you can probably find it at the Indian store)  

- 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil 

- 1-2 small green chilis (depending how spicy you want it) 

- 1 tablespoon of vangi bath powder (you can find this powder at your local Indian store)

- 1-2 teaspoons of mustard seeds 

- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric 

- pinch of hing 

- 1 teaspoon of channa dal 

- 1 teaspoon udad dal 

- small amount of shredded coconut to garnish (if you want) 

- salt to taste

Here's what you do: 

- Peel, wash and chop the chayote squash into cubes and keep it to the side (the flat seed in the center of the squash is easy to overlook, but make sure you take it out when chopping).

- Warm up the oil with the mustard seeds, turmeric and hing within it (this curry is easiest to make in a deep dish open skillet like this one).

- When mustard seeds start to pop, add the vangi bath powder, channa dal and the udad dal to the oil for a few seconds before also adding in the chopped chayote squash (watch this step carefully because the dal will burn quickly).

- Add a bit of water (about a 1/2-3/4 cup of water), reduce to low heat, and cover the squash to let it cook. As the squash cooks, the water will boil out and disappear.   

- Keep monitoring the squash and add small amounts of water, when needed, until it is fully cooked and tender.

- Add salt to taste and a bit of shredded coconut (if you want) and mix it all together and you're done! 

The finished product - Curried Chayote Squash or "Seeme Badhnakai Palya"

I personally like to eat it with these Malaysian Roti Parathas that you get in the Indian store...

And, as a bonus! I also found this yummy-looking recipe for an egg and cheese casserole with chayote squash in it. I have not tried this yet, but it definitely looks like a good weekend recipe to try out some time! 

Egg & Cheese Casserole with Chayote Squash and Green Chilis

And finally, if you buy this squash and then don't like the way it tastes... you can always do this: 

Hahaha! I found this image online posted by some very creative person... 

If you end up trying it, hope you like it as much as we do! 

Trading Milkshakes for Nutrition

Have you ever substituted lunch with one of these:

High-Calorie Deliciousness

Well, I'm not proud of this, but I would be lying if I said that I have never swapped out a meal or some other form of nutritious food with a high-calorie, zero-nutrition, absolutely delicious McDonalds milkshake.  

But now, I know better. Now, if I'm in no mood to eat a proper meal, I'm craving something cold and sweet, and I still want to make sure I get some nutrition... I turn to an age-old drink from India.    And I love it.  

From the time I was a child, we would drink what is known as panchamrutha in our home. The drink is often given in temples in India and it literally means "a nectar made of five ingredients". The five simple ingredients that make up this drink are:  

You have probably noticed the sixth ingredient (bananas) in this picture, but I'll get to that later...

So the five ingredients that traditionally go into panchamrutha are: 

1. Milk 

2. Yogurt (Plain) 

3. Ghee 

4. Honey

5. Sugar    

Of these ingredients, four of them are very good for the body. Milk has calcium to keep our bones strong. Yogurt gives our digestive system necessary probiotic support (and also provides calcium). Ghee, when taken in small amounts, also has wonderful health benefits, and is often used in Ayurvedic medicine. Finally, honey is also well-known for having a number of both nutritional and medicinal benefits. Sugar, while not that great, makes the panchamrutha tasty, and is only added in small amounts.  

To make a good glass of panchamrutha for myself, I usually use the following (approximate) quantities: 

1. 2 - 3 cups of milk 
2. 0.5 - 1 cup of plain yogurt 
3. 1 - 2 teaspoons of ghee 
4. 1 - 2 tablespoons of honey 
5. 1 - 2 tablespoons of sugar 
6. Bananas are not an "official" ingredient of panchamrutha but they are also often mashed in to get even more nutrition into this awesome drink.

And there you have it, a delicious and nutritious replacement for a delicious but not-at-all-nutritious milkshake. The next time you're craving a cold, sweet drink, I highly suggest making a glass of this for yourself, you will love it.  

And, to not dismiss milkshakes completely, I found this do-it-yourself recipe online for my all time favorite McDonalds milkshake: 

Shamrock Shake 

I think it's ok to relish that once in a while too :-)  Enjoy!