Maa Vilaku...Rice Flour Lamp..Karthigai Deepam Special

I was held up with lots  of work for the past one week which made me offline from blogging..Tomorrow is Karthigai Deepam which is a special festival celebrated in Tamilnadu by lighting Agal Vilaku (lamps made of clay)..I had already posted last year the real reason behind the celebration of this festival in the post"Why do we celebrate karthigai Deepam" .

 

I had already posted few recipes like

 

Palm leaf Kozhukattai/Panai Olai Kozhukattai

Pori Urundai

 

Wishing all readers a very Happy Karthigai Deepam Wishes...

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

 

 

Serves:4-5

 

1 Cup of Raw Rice

3/4 Cup of   grated Jaggery

1/4 Tsp of Cardamom Powder (Optional)

1 Tsp of ghee

 

 

 

 

THIS IS HOW I MADE IT:

 

 

Wash raw rice 1-2 times.

Soak it for atleast 1 hour.

Drain the water

 

 

Spread the rice on a clean towel.

Allow it to dry for 1 hour in shade.

After 1 hour the rice would have dried and it would have  slight moisture.

Add the dried rice to the mixer.

 

 

 

Grind the rice into fine powder.

Sieve the powdered rice.If any ungrinded rice remains in the top of the sieve, again grind them to fine powder by adding it to mixer.Then again sieve it.

 

 

 

Grate the Jaggery.

Add 1-2 Tbsp of water and heat the pan.

Allow the jaggery to melt completely.

 

 

Strain the jaggery water to remove the dirts and impurities.

Again heat the jaggery water.Add cardamom powder(I didn't add it)

Then add the rice flour in small batches and keep stirring continously.

 

 

Take off from the flame and mix well.

The dough should be of chappathi dough consistency.

Add few drops of ghee and mix it into a nice tight dough.

If the dough is lightly loose  u can sprinkle small quantity of rice flour and make them tight.

Then shape it in the shape of a lamp by making a dent in the middle

Add ghee in the dent of the rice lamp,keep a wig and light it.

 

After the whole ghee gets over and the light goes off u can eat the rice flour vilaku.The black lamp lit part tastes very yummy..So don't miss to taste the black part of the lamp

 

 

HANDY TIPS:

 

 

 

 

 

• Instead of heating the jaggery on flame,U can mix the grated jaggery and rice flour .Leave it aside for 10-15 minutes to leave off the moisture.Then mix them to make a smooth dough.But here if the jaggery is impure u cannot remove the impurities..
• U can add grated coconut too before mixing.
• This maa vilaku tastes very yummy with coconut.
• Instead of freshly grinding the rice u can use readymade idiyappam flours too.But adjust the water consistency accordingly.
• The amount of jaggery varies according to its taste.
• This one stays good for 1-2 days when kept outside.U can refrigerate too.

 

Stay tuned for the different types of Vilakus...