Vara Lakshmi puja

Lakshmi is mainly worshiped in 8 forms, the Ashtalakshmi. The eight manifestations of Goddess Mahalakshmi include Sri Aadhi lakshmi the Goddess of health, Sri Dhanya lakshmi the Goddess of food, Sri Dhairya lakshmi the Goddess of courage, Sri Gaja lakshmi the Goddess of luck, Sri Santhana Lakshmi the Goddess of children, Sri Dhana lakshmi the Goddess of wealth, Sri Vijaya lakshmi the Goddess of victory and Sri Vidya lakshmi the Goddess of education.Varalakshmi vrutham is celebrated on August 12th Friday in South India. Women observe the vrutham and do Lakshmi puja for the welfare of the family.

Previous day the house is cleaned and preparations for the puja is done. Waking up in the Brahma Muhoortham, taking bath, with a 'kolam' in front, they keep the Kalash. A bronze or silver pot is selected and is cleaned thoroughly and a swastika symbol is drawn and is smeared with sandalwood paste. The kalasham pot is filled with raw rice or water, coins, a single whole lime, five different kinds of leaves, and beetle nut. The items used to fill the kalasham vary from region to region and includes turmeric, comb, mirror, small black bangles and black beads. The things a sumangali use as adornment are used.
The kalasham up to the neck is sometimes covered with a cloth and mango leaves are placed on the mouth of the kalasham. Finally, a coconut smeared with turmeric is used to close the mouth of the kalasham. To this coconut, an image of Goddess Lakshmi is fixed or the image of Lakshmi is drawn using turmeric powder. Now the kalasham symbolically represents Goddess Lakshmi. Kalasham is kept on a plate of rice.
Lord Ganesha is worshipped first and Aarti is done singing Lakshmi stotrams. Various sweets are offered and then distributed as 'prasadam'. The next day, that is on Saturday, after taking a bath the kalasham is dismantled and the water in the kalasham is sprinkled in the house.
VaraLakshmi is the boon granting Goddess Lakshmi..She is worshiped by all Hindus for prosperity.

Ammoomma’s recipes……Ada Dosa

As far as I can remember, Ammoomma was a great cook. We had the same menu every day, boring. But whatever we got was delicious. The breakfast was a bit colorful with idlis, dosas etc. One of the favorite item she used to make was Ada dosa.

The recipe follows….

Ingredients

1 cup raw rice

¼ cup boiled rice

¼ cup split black gram (uzhunnu)

1 cup Tuvar dhal

A pinch of Asafoetida

2 big onions

4 green chillies

A piece of ginger

Few dry red chillies

Corriander leaves

Method

Soak rice and black gram together for 4 or 5 hours. Soak Tuvar dhal separately.

Grind the rice dhal mixture coarsely adding little water.

Then grind the tuvar dhal and all other ingredients together very coarsely and add to the rice mixture.

Add salt and mix well. Make thick dosas on the hot tawa adding oil all around and on the dosa.

This can be served with a variety of chutneys….Even without chutneys Ada Dosas are so yummy…..

Onion Chutney

Cut three big onions into big pieces, a few red chillies too and fry them lightly in half a teaspoon oil. Grind them together with salt and tamrind. Transfer the paste into a dish and pour some oil on it. Ready to eat….