Thiruvathirai kali recipe Serves-4 Ingredients needed Raw rice - 1 cup Jaggery - 1 1/2 cup Grated coconut -3/4

cup loosely packed Ghee - 1/4 cup Cardamom - 1/4 tsp Cashew nuts - few Preparation Dry roast rice in a pan till it turns light golden brown in color. Keep the flames low while frying. Dry grind the rice coarsely like rava. Keep it aside. Melt jaggery in little water and filter it to remove impurities. Roast cashew nuts in little ghee and keep it aside. Method Take a pan/kadai , add jaggery water and bring it to boil. Add grated coconut and let it cook for a few minutes. Add rice rava, 2 tsp of ghee and water (2 1/2 cups) and pressure cook for 3 whistles. After the pressure subsides, remove it, add the rest of the ghee and cardamom powder. Mix well and cook for 3-4 minutes. Thiruvathirai kali is ready. Note- 1 1/2 cup jaggery was just perfect for my family, if you want more sweetness, increase the quantity of jaggery. Ezhukari Kootu (also called thalagam) Serves -5-6 This kootu is called Ezhukari Kootu as it must have a minimum of 7 vegetables out of which mochai , pumpkin and ash gourd are very important for this kootu. Ingredients needed Mixed vegetables -4 cups

I used Mochai-1/4 cup (field beans), parangikkai (yellow pumpkin), poosanikkai (ash gourd), chow chow , brinjal, beans, carrot, avarakkai (broad beans), potato. Tur dal - 1/3 cup Turmeric powder - 1 pinch Tamarind - small gooseberry size ball Fry and grind Coriander seeds - 1 1/2 tsp Bengal gram - 1 1/2 tsp Red chilli - 5-6 Coconut (grated ) -1/4 cup Fry the above in a tsp of oil, adding coconut at the end and grind it to a paste adding little water. For the seasoning Oil - 2 tsp Hing - a pinch Mustard seeds- 1 tsp Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp Red chilli - 1 Curry leaves - few Preparation Wash and cut all the vegetable into medium sized cubes. Soak tamarind in warm water for 20 minutes, extract its juice and discard the pulp. Pressure cook dal with a pinch of turmeric powder. Keep the mochai also is a small cup and pressure cook along with it. Cook both the pumpkin in a little water till soft separately. Par boil or pressure cook the rest of the vegetables for 1 whistle. Method Heat oil in a pan, add the ingredients mentioned under seasoning, then add the par boiled vegetables and tamarind water. Cook till the raw smell of the tamarind goes. Then add the grounded paste, cooked dal, mochai, pumpkin, 1/2 cup of water and cook for a few minutes till everything gets incorporated well. Enjoy preparing kali and kootu for this Thiruvathirai.