Gorojanam:

Be it normal delivery or C-Section, the first thing they ask the mother to eat is this Gorojanam. It looks like pepper corns but smaller in size. They also give Kasthuri (not turmeric) along with gorojanam. But for me they couldn’t get kasthuri, so I had only Gorojanam. They keep couple of it inside betel leaf and ask the mother to eat before feeding the baby so that baby gets the essence of it in the colostrum, the first milk. In my case, as I had long labour and there weren’t sure if its going to be c-section or normal, so we asked my in-laws to stay home. (My in-laws were with me during my pregnancy). So I had this medicine in the morning when they came to see me, basically after my first feeding. But still its ok, baby will be getting its essence later on.

Benefits of Gorojanam:

• Helps in speedy recovery.
• Prevents the mom from cold and chills (janni)
• Aids in clear voice and throat for the kid. (there is standard joke, when the kids scream in a high pitch, they ask the moms if she ate lot of gorojanam :-) )

Urai Marundu – உரை மருந்து

It one of the important medicine given to infants after punyajanam (which is usually after 11 days). It is given on the alternative days and especially on the days of oil bath. In my case me and kiddo were taking oil baths alternatively. The main purpose of oil bath is to reduce the body heat especially for lactating moms. Basically Urai marundu is the combination of these four herbal nuts and roots

• Vasambu / Sweet Flag / வசம்பு 
  1. It is also called pillai valarpan in Tamil. This is an amazing herbal root and you can read about it more in the ebook.

Vasambu

• Chittarattai / Galangal / சித்தரத்தை
  1. Helps to prevent cold and sore throat
  2. Helps to prevent congestion

Chittaratthai

• Masikai / Gall Nuts / மாசிக்காய் 
  1. Helps in digestion

Masikai

• Jaathikai / Nutmeg / ஜாதிக்காய்
  1. Aids in good sleep
  2. Helps to prevent stomach ulcer / soothes tummy

Jaathikai

Preparation:

Boil the above herbal roots in 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of water till the water reduces to 1/2 cup. Then pat them dry and also sun dry them nicely. Thats it, the roots are now ready to be used. This method of preparation helps the nuts and roots to stay fresh for longer time. (in terms of years)

 How to give it to baby:

•  Keep the breast milk ready. You get this rubbing stone in ayurveda shops or in utencils store and its pretty much same as sandal rubbing stone.

Urai Marundu with the rubbing stone

• Clean the stone and add few drops of breast milk and rub the herbs and nuts twice or thrice to get a small quantity of paste. Yes, couple of rubbing are more than enough for babies. Along with this you can rub a gold and silver coin too as both are good for health. But thats completely optional and we did use them for vaandu.
•  Slowly apply this paste in the infant tongues and after 45 days, you can mix this paste with more milk and feed in sang. We give this medicine for first three months.

DIWALI PALAHARAM

JALEBI
Ingredients :
White gram dal - 500gm
Water - 1litre
Sugar - 1kg
Coconut oil or refined oil - 1kg
Jalebi colour (orange) - 5 drops
Salt - to taste

Preparation :
Finely grind the white gram dal with little water. Mix salt in it and make a smooth batter of semi-thick consistency.

Heat sugar in a pan and add water into it. Add the jalebi colour and remove from the fire when it thickens.

Heat oil in a thick bottom vessel. Squeeze the prepared batter into the oil through a thin layered cloth. While squeezing the batter, first make three rounds and a flower shape on top. When it is done (don't fry), remove from oil. Allow oil to drain. Put the jalebis into the warm sugar syrup. Take out after they soak in the syrup for about 15 minutes. Make jalebi's with the whole batter.

DIWALI PALAHARAM

BESAN LADDU
Ingredients :
500 gm besan, sifted
500 gm ground sugar
200 gm ghee
1 tsp green cardamom or elaichi , powdered

Preparation :
Heat the ghee until it smokes, then lower the heat. Add the besan and fry on a medium heat until it is a golden colour. Take it off the fire for two or three minutes and add the sugar.

When it is cooled to a comfortable temperature, grease your palms with ghee and form the mixture into balls.

Set aside to cool and harden. Store in air-tight containers. 

DIWALI PALAHARAM

Murukku or Thenkuzhal for Diwali / Deepavali

Recipe source: my MIL (she uses estimates for all ingredients, adding and mixing as we go but we've tried to pin it down for you if you are new to this)

Ingredients:
1 cup of rice flour 
3 tsp of urad dal flour (roast urad dal and powder it fine in a mixer or coffee grinder) 
2 tbsp more or less, butter (we used Amul butter, yum!) 
A generous pinch of hing / perungayam / asafoetida 
1/2 tsp of cumin seeds / jeera 
1/2 tsp of white or black sesame seeds 
1/2 to 3/4 tsp of salt 


Makes about 15 pieces


How It's Made:

1. Mix the rice flour with the salt, hing, and urad dal flour. Cut the butter into small pieces and add to this. Mix gently with fingertips until it represents coarse sand.

2. Add the cumin and sesame seeds. It's fine to stick with one but I wanted to taste both of them so we added both.

3. Mix it well to incorporate well into the dough. It will begin to come together and hold it's shape when you press it in your palm. If it's too dry at this stage, add a little more butter. Don't go overboard because otherwise the murukku won't hold it's shape when you fry it.

4. Now, add enough water to make a soft dough, not too watery but forms a dent when you press down with your fingertips. If it's too watery, adjust by adding a bit more rice flour and a few sprinkles of urad dal flour. Don't panic at any stage, everything is fixable in this snack recipe.

5. Fill a murukku mould gently with enough mixture without pressing it down too hard.

 

6. Heat a kadai with enough oil to deep fry the murukku. When it's almost smoking hot, press the mould over the oil lightly until enough batter comes out. Swirl the mould so that you get overlapping batter worming out.

If you are a novice, you can press the thenkuzhal over a slotted spoon and gently introduce into the hot oil.

7. Fry until it becomes golden brown. Different people have their own preferences on how much they like to fry their thenkuzhal. Personally, I prefer it somewhere in the middle so I would try to get the golden brown colour.

That's it, we are done. Once cool, store in airtight containers. Keeps well for about 4-5 days if it lasts that long!

Hope you all are enjoying your Diwali cooking and sweet-making :)

DIWALI PALAHARAM

Paal Vadai Recipe
Recipe source: amma
Makes about 6 vadai


Ingredients:
1 cup of skinned, whole urad dal / ulutham paruppu 
A pinch of salt 
2-3 cups of milk (more or less) 


For jaggery syrup:
5 tbsp of grated jaggery (or brown sugar) 
10-12 tbsp of water 
1 pod of cardamom 

How I Made It:

1. Soak the urad dal in enough water to cover it by 3 inches for about 1 to 2 hours.

2. Grind the soaked dal with enough added milk to make a thick, custard-like batter. It should have the consistency of the batter you would grind for medhu vada. Add salt and mix well.

3. Heat oil to almost smoking point and add small quantities of batter into it. No need to shape them, just make them into small lime-sized balls.

4. Fry until golden brown and drain on kitchen towels.

5. For jaggery syrup, mix the jaggery and water and bring to boil. Peel and add the cardamom pod, including the skin.

6. Remove the syrup from fire and dunk the fried urad balls in. Keep covered and let it soak well.

That's it! Serve warm or at room temperature. The flavour is predominantly that of urad dal so it's quite unique and delicious.

You can also make these in white sugar syrup, just omit the cardamom pod in that case, it may overpower the flavour.

HAPPY DIWALI FOLKS

Deepavali or Diwali^{[note 1]}, p

opularly known as the "festival of lights," is a festival celebrated between mid-October and mid-November for different reasons. Diwali is celebrated mainly in India and is main festival in India. For Hindus, Diwali is one of the most important festivals of the year and is celebrated in families by performing traditional activities together in their homes. For Jains, Diwali marks the attainment of moksha or nirvana by Mahavira in 527 BC.^[1][2]

Deepavali is an official holiday in India,^[3] Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname, Malaysia, Singapore,^[4] and Fiji.

The name "Diwali" is a contraction of "Deepavali" (Sanskrit: दीपावली Dīpāvalī), which translates into "row of lamps".^[5] Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps (diyas or dīpas) in Sanskrit: दीप) filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil. During Diwali, all the celebrants wear new clothes and share sweets and snacks with family members and friends.

The festival starts with Dhanteras on which most Indian business communities begin their financial year. The second day of the festival, Naraka Chaturdasi, marks the vanquishing of the demon Naraka by Lord Krishna and his wife Satyabhama. Amavasya, the third day of Deepawali, marks the worship ofLakshmi, the goddess of wealth in her most benevolent mood, fulfilling the wishes of her devotees. Amavasya also tells the story of Lord Vishnu, who in his dwarf incarnation vanquished the Bali, and banished him to Patala. It is on the fourth day of Deepawali, Kartika Shudda Padyami, that Bali went to patalaand took the reins of his new kingdom in there. The fifth day is referred to as Yama Dvitiya (also called Bhai Dooj), and on this day sisters invite their brothers to their homes.

While the story behind Deepavali and the manner of celebration varies from region to region (festive fireworks, worship, lights, sharing of sweets), the essence is the same – to rejoice in the Inner Light (Atman) or the underlying Reality of all things (Brahman).

[edit]Dates

A Thai historic artwork depicting the battle which took place between Rama and Ravana

Krishna and Satyabhama fighting Narakasura's armies -Painting from the Metropolitan Museum

Houses full of lights

Diwali falls on the one new moon night between mid-October and mid-November.This year it is on 26th October 2011. Deepavali is celebrated for five days according to the lunisolar Hindu Calendar. It begins in late Ashvin (between September and October) and ends in early Kartika(between October and November). The first day is Dhan Teras. The last day is Yama Dvitiya, which signifies the second day of the light half of Kartika. Each day of Deepavali marks one celebration of the six principal stories associated with the festival.^[6]

Hindus have several significant events associated with Diwali:

• The return of Rama after 14 years of Vanvas (banishment). To welcome his return, diyas (ghee lamps) were lit in rows of 20.
• The killing of Narakasura: Celebrated as Naraka Chaturdashi, one day before Deepavali, it commemorates the killing of the evil demon Narakasura, who wreaked havoc. Krishna's wife Satyabhama killed Narakasura during the Dwapara yuga. In another version of the belief, the demon was killed by Krishna or Krishna provoked his wife Satyabhama to kill Narshna, defeating Indra.
• Govardhan Puja is celebrated the day after Deepavali and is the day Krishna defeated Indra, the deity of thunder and rain. According to the story, Krishna saw preparations for an annual offering to Lord Indra and asked his father Nanda about it. He debated with the villagers about what their 'dharma' truly was. They were farmers, they should do their duty and concentrate on farming and protection of their cattle. He said that all human beings should do their 'karma' to the best of their ability and not pray for natural phenomenon. The villagers were convinced by Krishna, and did not proceed with the special puja (prayer). Indra was then angered, and flooded the village. Krishna lifted Mount Govardhanand held it up to protect the people and cattle from the rain. Indra finally accepted defeat and recognized Krishna as supreme. Although this aspect of Krishna's life is sometimes ignored^{[citation needed]} it sets up the basis of the 'karma' philosophy later detailed in the Bhagavat Gita.

Boli

Ingredient

Channa dal - 2 cup

Cardamom pods - 2 pods

Jaggery - 2cup

Sugar - 2 Tbsp.

Grated Coconut - 1/2 - 3/4 cup

Maida - 1 1/2 cup

Butter - 2 Tbsp.

Rice flour - 1 tsp.

Salt - pinch

Suji( rava) - 1 tsp.

Method

1) Soak channa dal for 4- 5 hrs. As this is will fasten the process of boiling the dal, else you can straight away boil the dal

2) Cook the dal till it is done(to know the consistency, the dal should retain its shape, but when pressed between the fingers it should get mashed) and drain all water when hot, and let it dry, if the moisture remains, then transfer the dal on the paper towel and allow it to stay for 10 minuets

3) Add Jagery, Coconut and Cardamom pods to channa dal and grind it in the wet grinderwithout adding water ( we can use the mixer but would be a tedious process). I also added 2 Tbsp. of Sugar as they say it enhances the sweet taste along with jaggery. If the mixture becomes watery, you can place the mixture in a pan and heat it on the medium heat on gas top till it becomes thick which will take about 10-13 minutes. Allow it to cool completely only then the stuffing can be made into small balls else it will stick to the hand.

4) Make a soft dough (consistency that of chapathi flour) with maida, suji, rice flour, melted butter and a pinch of salt.

5) Stuff the channa dal stuffing in the dough as shown; make sure that the stuffing is double the size of the outer dough.

6) My mom used to use plastic sheet to spread this bread, but I didn’t do that, instead I took a glass plate, greased it with oil and then spread the dough.

7) Cook on a hot griddle

Serve hot or cold with ghee.