Karadaiyan nombu adai recipe

Karadaiyan nombu is a Tamil festival in remembrance of the Satyavan-Savitri legend. It is celebrated when the tamil month Masi ends and Panguni begins. Uppu adai and vella adai (uppu meaning salt and vella meaning sweet) are made and offered as neivedhyam/prasad to god along with butter. It is believed that Savitri made these adais and offered it to Lord Yama (The god of death) as a thanks for saving her husband. Married woman, fast during this day and break the fast by eating this adai.

We celebrated this festival this saturday and I made these adais as a neivedhyam (offerening to god). Both these adais taste great with Indian butter/vennai.

Ingredients:

For uppu (salt) adai:

• 1 cup rice flour
• 2 cup water
• 1/4 cup black eyed peas (karamani)
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• 1/8 tsp asafoetida
• 2-3 green chillies finely chopped
• salt to taste
• sesame oil as needed

For vella (sweet) adai:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice flour
• 2 cups water
• 11/2 cup jaggery
• 1/4 cup black eyed peas
• a pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
• sesame oil as needed

Method:

Dry Roast the black eyes peas (karamani) in a pan until you get a nice aroma and they start turning golden.

Soak them in hot water for 30 minutes or more.

For salt/uppu adai:

In a pan (preferably non stick) add 1 tsp oil. When hot add the mustard seeds, curry leaves (torn in small pieces), asafoetida, green chillies and let the mustard seeds splutter.

Pour two cups of water into the pan and let it come to a boil.

Add salt and half of the soaked karamani.

Now add the rice flour little by little to the water and stir continuously as you add the flour. Keep the flame in low as you do this.

Keep stirring until the flour clumps together like a dough. It does not take long for the flour to come together. Now let it cool down a little. (You can make the sweet adai as it cools down. In that case brush some oil to the dough and cover it so that the dough doesnt become dry)

Grease your hands with sesame oil and take small portions of the dough and make a ball.

Flatten the ball and make a hole in it like a doughnut or vada.

Steam it in a greased idli pan or steamer for 6-7 minutes. Your uppu adai is ready!

For vella/sweet adai:

In a pan add 2 cups water and let it comes to a boil.

Add the powdered jaggery (Use according to the sweetness of the  jaggery you have. I added 1 cup and found that it was not enough. I will be adding extra next time.)

Let the jaggery melt completely.

Add the powdered cardamom and the remaining black eyed peas to it.

Now bring the flame to low and add the flour to the water as you did for the salt adai.

Keep stirring until it clumps together into a dough. It might take a minute or so longer than the salt adais.

Make balls of the dough and flatten them as you did above. (same procedure as salt adai’s)

Steam them in a idli steamer for 6-8 minutes.