Karadayan Nonbu Adai

Before I morphed into a blasé teenager with what's the point of it? i don't care to celebrate festivals attitude, I used to enthusiastically participate in many small-scale festivals my mom celebrated commemorating some symbolic event, like Arudra Dharshnam, Karadayan Nonbu and such, in addition to the large-scale ones like Diwali...

Each little festival had its own prescribed menu and associated ritual, some of which differ from family to family. Yummy Thiruvadarai Kali and Koorkan Kari for Arudra Dharshanam, Nonbu Adai for Karadayan Nonbu and so on...

Many of these events happen only once a year, and so, the special menu is made just once a year to celebrate that event. But then, with about a festival a week or every fortnight, there was always something good cooking:-)

Since I like a lot of the festival foods, and since I left my blasé teenager self way behind, I have come a full circle and have started celebrating the ones I can, just to introduce them to my wee one. Plus, I love to doll her up in the wonderful Indian clothes my mom makes for her.

About a fortnight ago was one such festive event: Karadayan Nonbu. The menu for this event is very simple - just a mildly sweetened and steamed rice flour patty. I like the simplicity of this dish. It is usually served with a dab of freshly churned butter. Without further ado, here's my version of the karadayan nonbu adai recipe I learnt from my mom.



Ingredients:
1 cup fine rice flour
1½ cup brown sugar
1¼ cup water
¼ cup cooked black-eyed peas
optional: banana leaves for steaming
steaming apparatus

Preparation

combine the water, brown sugar and cooked black-eyed peas in a pan, and bring to a gentle boil

meanwhile, dry toast the rice flour in a pan till it turns light brown

add the toasted rice flour to the boiling brown sugar liquid, keep stirring and cooking till all the water is absorbed a smooth dough forms; off heat, allow the dough to cool a little

when cool enough to handle, shape the dough into small balls, about the size of a golf ball

if using banana leaves, cut small squares, one per ball of dough; place the dough ball on the leaf and flatten it into about ¼" patty, making a hole in the center of the patty (like for donut);

steam the patties in a steamer, in batches if needed; a large vessel with some boiling water and lid will work for steaming, or an idli cooker

Serve warm with butter on the side.