Nonbu Adai – Steamed Rice Flour Cake

Karadayan Nonbu also called Savitri Vratham is celebrated in Tamil Nadu. This festival is specially followed by women. Married women follow this Vratham for the prosperity of their husband and unmarried women, to get an ideal person as their husband.  During this festival, women perform fasting and does pooja and offerings to God. Nonbu Adai is the main dish for the day. There are spicy and sweet adais. We offer these adais to Goddess Gowri Devi and will tie a holy thread around the neck. I love these adais and used to wait for the pooja to get over so that I can munch on. Here you go…

Ingredients:

For Sweet Adai:

• Rice flour –  1 cup
• Jaggery –  1 1/4 cup
• Sliced coconut – 3 tbsp
• Red cow pea (Karamani in Tamil) – 2 tbsp
• Cardamom – 2 numbers
• Water – 2 cups
• Ghee or clarified – 1/4 cup

For Spicy Adai:

• Rice flour – 1 cup
• Red cow pea – 2 tbsp
• Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
• Urad dal or black gram (split) – 1 tsp
• Channa dal or Bangal gram – 1 tbsp
• Green chilly – 1
• Sliced coconut – 3 tbsp
• Oil – 2 tsp

Method of Preparation:

1. Wash and soak the entire red cow pea for 10 minutes.
2. Boil water in a pan and cook the soaked cow pea till it is soft.
3. Heat a pan and add a cup of rice flour and keep tossing.
4. Remove from heat before the flour starts becoming golden brown. Keep it aside
5. Boil 2 cups of water in a pan and jaggery to that.
6. Once the jaggery completely melts, filter it to get rid off any dirt.
7. Now clean the pan and add the pure jaggery water and bring it to boil.
8. Slice the coconut in to small pieces.
9. Add the ground cardamom, sliced coconut, half of the cooked cow pea. Leave it for a minute.
10. Remove any lumps from the rice flour and add it to the boiling water and remove from heat.
11. Mix well till you get the desired consistency. Dough is ready. It should neither be hard nor be soft.
12. Take the idli plates and grease it with ghee or clarified butter.
13. Grease your hands with ghee.
14. Make balls out of the dough and flatten it and make a hole in the middle like vada and keep it in the idli plates.
15. Repeat the same procedure and steam cook it using your idli cooker or pressure cooker for 15 minutes.
16. Sweet adai is ready.
17. For the spicy adai, heat the rice flour in a pan as mentioned above.
18. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. Once they splutter add urad dal, channa dal and chopped green chillies.
19. Add 2 cups of boil and bring it to boil.
20. Add the sliced coconut, remaining cooked cow pea and leave for a minute
21. Remove any lumps from the rice flour and add it to the boiling water and remove from heat. Mix well till you get the desired consistency.
22. Make balls and follow the same procedure as mentioned above for sweet adai.

Serve with butter…

1. 

   Latha says:

   March 17, 2010 at 10:02 am

   Nombu adai looks delicious.

   reply