Sankranthi Archives - My Veg Fare

Ellu Bella / Ellu Beerodu - Recipe for Makara Sankranthi mixture from Karnataka ( Sesame seeds and Jaggery Mixture)

Jayasri Ravi — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 02:48:00 +0000

Hi everybody, I am back again with my Home town recipe for making this Ellu - Bella (Sesame seeds - Jaggery Mixture). As I said in my earlier post People in Karnataka, people make this Lovely mixture with five Ingredients. Which they start preparing at least 2 weeks before. We also give with this Sakkare- Acchu (sugar candy) in different forms and sizes Acchu here refers as Mould, Literally translated as Sugar Moulds. So a packet of the Mixture, Sugar mould, Sugar cane and a fruit usually Banana with Betel Leaves and Betel nut and Elachi Hannu (Jujube fruit / Ber).
These days people give them in plastic covers, gift boxes or little bags or in many more different varieties as they please.
This is called ''Ellu- Bella Beerodu'' that is giving this mixture to every body, near and dear, friends and family :).
This is how my Mum makes and how I make too. You know why? because I feel she makes the best Sankranti Mixture.

Ellu Bella (Sesame and Jaggery) with other Ingredients such as Hurigadale (Daria Dal/Chutney Dal/ Pottudadalai), Dry Copra and Peanuts. The process of making this starts 2 to 3 weeks before. I remember my mum coming back from school(she was a teacher) finishing all her housework and then sitting with her Adike Kuthree (uha-di-ke Kuth-a-ree) / nut cracker watching a TV show and cutting Bella (Jaggery) in her first to do list. This is because Jaggery and Dry copra are dried in the sun for few days this helps in keeping the Trail mix stay good for a long time.

Jaggery needs to be cut into almost perfect cube shapes in her hand. My mum is a perfectionist she wants everything to be perfect like the Dry copra the black skin on the copra should be scraped very well no black marks so its pure white in colour. Then comes the Peanuts should be roasted to perfection when my Aunt was alive, mum and she used to use sand to roast peanuts. This sand had been used so many times for various roasting purposes it was like a treasure stored away careful for future uses! Why sand? Do you wonder? Sand would become hot and the sisters would put one or two fistful of peanuts and slowly roast it in a low flame which would make them perfectly roasted. No nodes in the peanuts, sister's were very particular about it, so had to check each one of them that was our job!

Til should be checked for any little pebbles are anything unwanted things in it clean it well then roast it again in a low flame make sure the colour should be perfect and dry it in the sun. Then the Hurigadale/Chutney Dal had to be perfect too, she made use look perfect round ones no cracked ones!

ELLU - BELLA / SANKRANTI MIXTURE (A Mixture of Sesame - Jaggery)

INGREDIENTS:
500 gms Jaggery (Acchu Bella)
500 gms Dry Copra/ Dry Coconut
500 gms Peanuts
500 gms Hurigadale/PottuKadalai/
100 gms White Sesame/Til SeedsMETHOD:
To make this Mixture Jaggery (Palm Sugar) must be an Acchu Bella, Just like this

Courtesy: http://www.towness.com/xcart/product.php?productid=40586

First for one day keep the Jaggery in the sun, Then with the help of Nut cracker cut the Jaggery into small cubes. Every day once you need to put it in the sun to dry :). There might be some wastages as every time you will not be able to cut them into equal cubes, this needs a little practice. You don't need to throw the wastages you can always use it for something else. Drying it in the sun helps the end product to stay fresh for long time.

Then Comes the Dry Coconut /Copra / Kobari

Courtesy: http://www.towness.com/xcart/product.php?productid=40436

You need to scrape the outer covering of this, which you can see from the photo, then cut them again into small cubes with the help of knife on a cutting board same as that of the Jaggery and keep them in the sun for few days this will help the copra keeps good for a long shelf life.

Once these two are sorted out - that is you must dry them well in the sun, this helps them keep them for at least a month.

Next are the Peanuts, Roast fist ful of peanuts in a wok, lightly , don't burn them then once they are a bit cool not completely cool this way we can rub the skin of the peanuts quickly, put them in a cloth and rub between your palms or we have Mora ( a basket like thing made with bamboo) and rub on them. Once the skins are removed then pick up the peanuts and throw away the skin, Pick up lovely nice white ones no discoloured peanuts !!, then break open the peanuts.

Once when you split open the peanuts can you see the little nodes you must remove them, Mum says they give a bitter taste, so carefully with all the good ones picked up remove all the nodes and keep the peanuts separately. So that is one job done 🙂

Next comes the Dharia Dal / Chutney Dal / Pottukadalai

This is not too bad You just have to pick up nice round beautiful ones without any cracks.

Next are the White Sesame or Til seeds

In a low heat roast fistful of White Til seeds very slightly it should not change too much colour.

So Now everything is done, Now we can mix all of them together and Lo! your Sankranti Trail Mixture is ready.
With this, we need to give Karumbu/ Sugarcane stick, Banana, Elchae Hannu (This is fruit which has a sweet and sour taste in it- Jujube fruit (Elchane Hannu also called Indian Jujube / Indian plum / Ilanthi Pazham / Ber fruit).

On this day In the evening, we make little children in the house sit and we put the Sankranti Mixture, Elche Hannu and cut small pieces from the sugarcane and some coins in a Pavoo ( pronounced Paa - voo A kind of measurement used in olden days which is made of Brass or Iron, you get them in steel as well these days). Woman of the house fill this Pavoo with the pot pouri and pour this on the head of the children and do Arati to them in the evening of Makara Sankranti. This is a tradition followed in most of the houses this is done to bless the children for longevity, good health and a prosperous life with Aarathi and songs.

In Karnataka People say : Yellu Bella thindu Olle Maathanaadu meaning eat Jaggery and sesame seeds and speak only good words...

A wonderful festival with Lots to give and welcome the New year with happiness.........

Mum gave me a sari for this festival...

May the God Bless you all with all the prosperity, Wealth, health and Happiness.....

The post Ellu Bella / Ellu Beerodu - Recipe for Makara Sankranthi mixture from Karnataka ( Sesame seeds and Jaggery Mixture) appeared first on My Veg Fare.

Happy Pongal and Makara Sankranti

Jayasri Ravi — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:56:00 +0000

Hi Everybody, Hope you are all doing well, I hope and wish you all had a lovely Christmas too..., And of course, A VERY HAPPY AND A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR Happy Pongal too..., I know I am always late. I thought better late than never saying it at all :), Hope you all forgive me. To all my dear Friends and Family (especially who constantly remind me to get back to blogging :), Thanks to all of you who sent me wishes I feel so bad for not writing back to you.., Thank you very much once again for everything.

Christmas and New year brought a new leaf in my life, Moving to a new house - Even though I am still in the process of setting it up. I still feel much better, lots of things to sort out (health wise) and lots of things happening in the midst of all these things I still had time to enjoy Christmas and baked some goodies, will post them sometime soon and enjoyed New year too.., with lots of family and friends in my new abode :).

''WISHING YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY PONGAL''

As we all Indians know what is Pongal ?, I would like to write a few words about this...thinking someday my kids would love to read what mum was doing on this occasion right? as we all do right ?

December 14th to January 14th was Marghazahi Maasam (Month of Marghazahi according to Tamil calender), This is a month long ritual or Penance (Tapam/Tapasu) carried out by Andal during the month of winter, I have written about her here do check out if you are interested. In this cold weather she gets up so early morning for a month-long period to awaken Vishnu and prays in such a way leading an austere life to attain his love, Her severe penance ends on the day of Kudaaravellum which fell on January 12th this year. From Dec 14th to Jan 12th, we in our community do not prepare any sweets, and make Ven Pongal (Savoury Rice) but on the 12th where Andal completes her Penance she makes Sweet Pongal to please Vishnu - I have written about this post here. Check it out.

Coming back to Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Makara Sankranti in Karnataka and Andhra, Lohri in Punjab, Magh Bihu in Assam etc., The dates of some festivals might change but this Festival has never changed dates, According to the Gregorian calendar January 13th-15th ie., form the last day of the Tamil month Maargazhi to the third day of Thai. I have taken few lines from Our Wikipedia, which describes in more detail about the scientific reason behind this celebration.
Courtesy of wikipedia

The time of the festival is of great importance to all Hindus, as it corresponds to the solar equinox when the days begin to lengthen and the nights begin to wane. Sankranti, or the transition of the Sun from Dhanu rashi (Sagittarius) to Makara rashi (Capricorn).

For this purpose, the signs and houses of the zodiac are calculated using sidereal time, not tropical. As such it does not account for the Earth's precession. The festival therefore takes place around 21 days after the winter solstice (between December 20 and 23) that marks the starting of the phenomenon of 'northward apparent migration of the sun' or Uttarayana, literally meaning northward journey of Sun.

Considering the winter solstice marks the beginning of the gradual increase of the duration of the day. Scientifically, the shortest day of the year is around December 21–22 after which the days begin to get longer, hence actual Winter Solstice begins on December 21 or December 22 when the tropical sun enters Makara rashi. Hence actual Uttarayana is December 21. This was the actual date of Makar Sakranti too. But because of the Earth's tilt of 23.45 degrees and sliding of equinoxes, Ayanamsa occurs. This has caused Makara Sankranti to slide further over the ages. A thousand years ago, Makar Sankranti was on December 31 and is now on January 14. Five thousand years later, it shall be by the end of February, while in 9,000 years it shall come in June.^{[citation needed]}

While the traditional Indian Calendar is based on lunar positions, Sankranti is a solar event. So while dates of all Hindu festivals keep changing as per the Gregorian calendar, the date of Makar Sankranti remains constant over a long term, 14 January. Makar Sankranti is celebrated in the Hindu Calendar month of Magha.

Makar Sankranti is a major harvest festival celebrated in various parts of India. According to the lunar calendar, when the sun moves from the Tropic of Capricorn to the Tropic of Cancer or from Dakshinayana (south) to Uttarayana (North).

In Karnataka - the place I come from the kannadigas celebrate in a different way, Amma has adapted to both Tamil Nadu culture (as we being Iyengars and as we have been born and brought up in Karnataka) Amma has always seen to it that we enjoy both the festivals and traditions as much as possible.On this auspicious day even today Amma buys us new clothes to my kids and me!, Early in the morning having a good head shower wearing new clothes we keep the pongal paane (Paane is nothing but a mud pot but as we don't use them anymore we use Brass vessels or sometimes a pressure cooker!) decorating it with Fresh Turmeric stick in a thread applying Naamam to the vessel and saying Pongalo Pongal....

In our home, we say this when the milk is starting to boil -

''Pongalo Pongal Porandaath Kulandanvaalatum

Pukkath Pongi Vaalatum''

Meaning for the above words-
porandaath (the family I was born) Kulandan vaalatum (live peacefully) Pukkath (the family I have been given to - Husband's family) Pongi Vaalatum (flow with prosperity)

After the ritual done, The day before we would have packed Ellu-Bella and Sakkare Acchu in covers, Then she would ask us to take plates - place a cover/box of Ellu-bella (sesame seeds- Jaggery), Sakkare - Acchu ( sugar candy moulds in different shapes), sugar cane, Banana and some kind of gift. This ritual is called ''Ellu Beerodhu'', There is a saying in Kannada '' Ellu Bella Thindu Olle Maathadi ( which translates to eat the mixture of sesame seeds and jaggery and speak only good).

In Karnataka newly married women give Bananas for a period of 5 years to married women (muthaide Baagina), with other things little Beetle leaves, Areca nut and other fruits and things which they are able to give for the first years of marriage and start increasing the Bananas in multiples of 5 and pray for their husband's Longetivity by the 5th year they give 25 Bananas :)).

Will continue this post tomorrow with other things which I follow and celebrate during this
period....

The post Happy Pongal and Makara Sankranti appeared first on My Veg Fare.