Karadaiyan Nombu Adai
Karadiayan Nombu Adai is a set of sweet and savoury steamed rice flour dumplings offered as Neivedhyam during the Tamil Hindu festival Karadiayan Nombu. This dish however can also be had as a snack or meal on any given day and tastes delicious.
Karadiayan Nombu is a festival commonly celebrated in Tamil households on the first of the Tamil month ‘Panguni’. Women celebrate this festival for the wellbeing and longevity of their husbands as well as their marriage. This festival is almost the equivalent of the North Indian festival of Karwa Chauth which also is celebrated for similar reasons.
The timing for this festival changes every year according to the time when the Panguni month is born. Women would normally fast and break their fast during this auspicious time with this traditional offering called as Nombu Adai. Nombu adai is normally made as a pair, the sweet version which is made with jaggery known as Vella Adai, and the savoury version with tempering and coconut known as Uppu Adai. It is served with fresh White Butter.
This festival celebrates the tale of Sathyavan-Savithri and signifies the way Savithri saved her husband, Sathyavan from death and Yamaraj. Savithri won this battle with Yamaraj just by her clever argument. When Yamaraj granted Savithri a wish, she asked for sons for herself, and Yamaraj eventually had to bring her husband back to life to fulfill this wish.
Karadaiyan Nombu is celebrated exactly at the time when the Tamil month of Masi ends and transitions to the new month of Panguni. Goddess Devi is worshiped on this day.
The festival is traditionally celebrated by chanting a shloka which has reference to offering of this Adai with unmelted butter to God in return for long life of the woman’s husband and their relationship, followed by tying a sacred yellow thread around the neck. For married women, the thread is tied by their respective husbands, and for young girls or unmarried women, it is tied by the elderly women in the family.
In terms of the recipe for Vella Adai and Uppu Adai, it is traditionally made with homemade rice flour. This rice flour is made by soaking raw rice and then drying it on a kitchen towel followed by grinding and dry roasting. Though this is a slightly time consuming process, but worth all the effort in terms of taste and texture. You can however make this same recipe using store bought rice flour too. Dry roast the flour and proceed as per the recipe.
Vella Adai or the sweet version is made by melting jaggery in water and adding grated coconut, cardamom powder, ghee and cooked red cowpeas or Karamani. Equal amount of rice flour is added, however if you prefer your adai to be sweet, you can use extra jaggery. The dough is cooled and then flattened by hands with a hole in the center. This is then steamed for 7 to 8 minutes.
The savoury version or Uppu Adai is made by tempering mustard seeds, urad dal, asafoetida, chopped curry leaves, green chillies, grated coconut and cooking the rice flour in hot water. The dough is similarly cooled and then Adai is made and steamed for 7 to 8 minutes.
Here are a few tips for making perfect Adai:
- While making Vella Adai, adding a small amount of ghee makes the Adai not only glossy, but also gives softness.
- It is enough to melt the jaggery, filter and then bring to a boil again and it need not reach any string consistency stage.
- Be careful to stir the rice flour quickly and on medium flame to avoid any lumps. You can also use a whisk.
- For Vella Adai, I prefer to add the cooked cowpeas after the dough is incorporated, as sometimes if the cowpeas is cooked in jaggery, it tends to become hard.
- Adding grated coconut makes the adai soft. For Vella Adai, I use a mix of both grated and chopped coconut for some crunch.
- Grease your hands using Ghee before flattening the Adai. We prefer to flatten them slightly thin as it turns very soft this way.
- Adai is to be steamed only for 7 to 8 minutes.
- Wait for the adai to cool completely before you take it out of the idli plate. If you try to take it out immediately, it might break.
Serving Suggestion
Vella Adai and Uppu Adai are generally made and served in pair for Nombu, however you can make them individually too on any normal day. This adai is served with white butter and tastes good by itself. It can be a full meal in itself, or you can make this as a healthy snack.
Karadaiyan Nombu Adai
Equipment
- Idli Steamer
Ingredients
For Base Preparation
- 2 cups Raw Rice
- ¼ cup Red Cowpeas or Karamani or Chowli
- Salt to taste
For Vella Adai
- 1 cup Rice Flour homemade
- 1 cup Jaggery preferably dark colour
- 3 tbsp Cooked Red Cowpeas
- 2 cups Water
- ½ tsp Cardamom Powder
- 1 tbsp Grated Coconut
- 1 tbsp Finely Chopped Coconut Pieces
- 1 tbsp Ghee
- Little Oil for greasing Idli plates
For Uppu Adai
- 1¼ cup Rice Flour homemade
- 2½ cup Water
- 4 tbsp Cooked Red Cowpeas
- 3-4 tbsp Grated Coconut
- 2 tbsp Coconut Oil
- 2 tsp Mustard Seeds
- 2 tsp Urad Dal
- Ghee or Oil for greasing
- 2 sprig Curry Leaves finely chopped
- 2 Green Chillies finely chopped
- ⅛ tsp Asafoetida
- Salt to taste
Instructions
For preparing homemade rice flour
- Soak 2 cups of Raw rice (Sona masuri or any dosa rice) for 1½ hours
- Drain the water from the rice completely. Spread it on a large white cloth like dhoti or kitchen towel.
- Let the rice air dry for around 30 minutes or till it is 90% dry.
- Grind the rice in a mixer grinder to a fine powder.
- Sieve this rice flour in a fine sieve.
- Transfer the remaining coarse flour back to the grinder jar and grind again.
- Sieve again and repeat the process as required. You should finally be left with almost no coarse rice flour.
- 2 cups of raw rice should yield roughly 2.25 cups of Rice Flour
- Now dry roast the rice flour in a Kadai on medium flame till is warm or just hot. Turn off the stove. The rice flour is ready.
For cooking Red Cowpeas
- Dry roast ¼ cup of red cowpeas or Karamani in a pan on a medium flame. Roast till it is aromatic.
- Pressure cook the cowpeas with half a cup of water and some salt. Pressure cook for 2 to 3 whistles or till it is 90% done. Do not overcook the cowpeas.
- Drain the water from cooked cowpeas completely. Keep aside.
For Vella Adai
- In a heavy bottom kadai, add 1 cup of jaggery and 2 cups of water and bring to a gentle boil and the jaggery gets melted. The ratio of rice to jaggery to water is 1:1:2
- Filter the jaggery syrup to get rid of any impurities
- Add the jaggery syrup back to clean kadai and bring to a boil again. Add ½ tsp cardamom powder, 1 tbsp Ghee, 1 tbsp grated coconut and 1 tbsp finely chopped coconut pieces. Mix well.
- Now add the rice flour and stir continuously to avoid any lumps. You can also use a whisk if required.
- Once the mixture comes together, turn off the stove. Transfer to a plate and cool completely.
- Add 3 tbsp of cooked cowpeas and mix well. The dough should be firm now. Knead gently.
- To prepare the vella adai, grease your hands well with ghee. Take a small portion of dough and roll it into a ball. Flatten it between your palm to a slightly thin disc. It should not be too thin, nor too thick. Now make a hole in the centre of the Adai.
- Continue preparing the remaining adai.
- Grease the idli plates and place the adai individually in each of the cavity. Steam the adai with the lid covered for 7 to 8 minutes.
- Once the adai is cooked, take the idli plates out of the steamer and let it cool completely before taking it out. If you try to take it out while it is hot, it might break. Vella adai is ready.
For making Uppu Adai
- In a kadai, add 2 tbsp coconut oil and once it is hot, add mustard seeds and urad dal for tempering. Add asafoetida. Mix well.
- Next add finely chopped curry leaves and green chillies.
- Add 2.5 cups of water and bring to a gentle boil. The ratio of rice flour to water is 1:2.
- Add 4 tbsp of cooked red cowpeas.
- Next add 3 to 4 tbsp of grated coconut to it.
- Now keeping the flame medium, add 1¼ cup of prepared rice flour, and stir continuously to avoid any lumps.
- Once the dough comes together like Upma, turn off the stove. Transfer to a plate and cool it completely. Gently knead it once.
- For preparing the adai, grease your hands with ghee and take a small portion of dough and roll and then flatten to a disc between your palm. Make a hole in the center.
- Continue preparing the remaining adai. Now line them in greased idli plates. Steam the adai for 7 to 8 minutes, with the lid covered.
- Take the idli plates out of the steamer and take the adai using a spoon only when it is cooled completely.
- Serve Vella adai and Uppu adai with white butter,
Video
Notes
- Homemade rice flour works best for this recipe, however you can use store-bought flour too. Just dry roast it and use as per the recipe above.
- Make sure not to overcook the red cowpeas. It should be only 80 to 90% cooked as it will be cooked further in the steaming process.
- The jaggery need not be made to string consistency for the Vella Adai. It is enough to melt and bring to a good boil.
- Adding 1 tbsp of Ghee to Vella Adai mixture while cooking, makes the Vella Adai soft.
- Grated coconut adds to the softness of adai.
- Be careful to stir continuously breaking any lumps while cooking the rice flour.
- Both the adai dough thickens once cooled. So do not panic if the dough feels sticky intially. Once you knead the dough and use ghee for greasing your hands, it comes out perfectly.
- Grease your hands well with ghee before making the adai. Release once after flattening to a certain extent to avoid sticking.
- Do not steam the adai more than 7 to 8 minutes.
- Make sure to cool the adai after steaming, before taking it out of the idli plate.
