Thiruvadirai Kali - Arudhra Darshan Festival with Kali

By Nithu on Jan 10, 2009 in Featured, Rice dishes, Sweets & Desserts | Print This Print This

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Kali (Rice Pudding) is one of the famous South Indian sweet made on the festival of Thiruvadirai. It is very easy to make and delicious to eat.

Thiruvadhirai or Arudhra Darshan festival on the full moon day of Margazhi(Tamil calender month, between Dec 15- Jan 15) is auspicious to Lord Nataraja, the dancing Shiva. Arudhra is the largest of the stars. It is two-and-a-half crore times bigger than the sun. There will be a 10 days festival at Chidambaram (Tamil Nadu, South India) during this month which involves a grand scheme of traditional observances commencing with the hoisting of the temple flag on the first day, followed by colorful processions of the five deities (Pancha Murthys) on the first eight days on various mounts. The fifth day features Mount Kailasam, while the sixth day features the elephant mount. It is only on the ninth day when Arudhra star and new moon coincide, we celebrate the ecstatic dance of Lord Nataraja and Nataraja leaves his sanctum, and is taken in a procession through the car streets, in the grand temple car. Streams of devotees flow to Chidambaram to attend this festival at the temple for the Tamil Shaivaites. Lord Shiva is believed to have given darshan to saint Manickavasakar on this day on the completion of his recital of Thiruvampavai. In Perur of Melai Chidambaram, Lord Shiva is believed to have given darshan to Kamadhenu (the divine cow of plenty) on this day. From mid night to early morning, there will be offerings to God in the form of Maha Abishekam(they pour oil, milk, honey, coconut-water, curd, sandal wood water on the statue of Lord Shiva) which will be performed at Thousan Pillar Hall. There will be this car festival(Rathayatra) where five separate temple cars bearing the idols of Lord Nataraja, Goddess Sivakamasundari, Lord Ganesha, Lord Subramania and Chandigeswara were taken out in a procession.

I am happy and lucky to be from Chidambaram. I have never missed to go to the Natraja temple on Arudhra Darshan. The whole place will be filled with fun and fair. I used to go around the temple streets with my friends and relatives and pull the car with the long and big rope tied to it. There will be this drums, music and dance all around and it was so much fun. We also eat all the chit chats like chilly bajji, cotton candy that were sold on the way. We will be awake all night to watch the Abishekam and I really miss all the fun this year.

On this day, we offer KALI (a sweet made from rice, dal, jaggery and nuts) and THALAGAM (mixed vegetable curry) to Lord Nataraja. Today, I would like to share the recipe of Kali with you which I have made for this occasion.

Ingredients:

  • Raw Rice - 200 g
  • Toor dal  - 25 g
  • Jaggery   - 225 g (Rice-dal and jaggery, ratio 1:1)
  • Coconut - 3 tbsp
  • Water     - 560 ml (Water and rice dal, ratio 1:2.5)
  • Ghee - 3 tbsp
  • Cardamon - 2
  • Broken Cashew nut - 2 tbsp

Method of Preparation:

    IMG_2366

  1. Dry roast rice till it becomes golden brown. Do not over roast it. See picture
  2. Remove it from pan and keep it aside.
  3. Grind it to a coarse powder just like semolina/sooji.
  4. Boil water and add toor dal and cook till it is 3/4th cooked. It should be tender enought as you see in picture.
  5. Remove from heat and set it aside.
  6. Now boil 560 ml of water and add jaggery. Allow it to melt in water completely and filter it to get rid of dirts.
  7. Water measurement depends on the quantity of the rice and dal. Say, if rice and dal together comes to 1 cup, then you have to add two and half times of that of water, i.e. 2 1/2 cups of water.
  8. Take the filtered jaggery syrup in a vessel and allow it to boil at low heat.
  9. Add coconut and let it boil two minutes.
  10. Now add the ground rice and 3/4th cooked toor dal to it and combine well. See picture
  11. Add 1 tbsp of ghee to it and mix well.

    12. kali3

  12. Transfer the contents to a rice cooked vessel and pressure cook them for 5 to 6 whistles. It takes more time than cooking rice.
  13. If you find it uncooked. Keep it for some more time, say for another 2 to 3 whistles.
  14. Once the pressure is gone, remove the vessel from the cooker and the Kali is ready
  15. In a seasoning pan, heat 2 tbsp of ghee and fry cashew nuts till golden brown.
  16. Add this to the cooked Kali and mix it well.

kali1
:) Serve hot.

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Posted on Saturday, January 10th, 2009 and is filed under Featured, Rice dishes, Sweets & Desserts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Thiruvadirai Kali - Arudhra Darshan Festival with Kali”

  1. jaya narayan January 1st, 2010, 12:55 am

    Tamilians from palakkad make kootu with kali on Arudhra darshan day and the nevidyam is offered to the diety before dawn.

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