Maavilakku and Announcing WTML June Host and May Winner

This month's Walk Through Memory Lane is being hosted by Rafeeda of The Big Sweet Tooth. This event is close to my heart as this is about mom's cooking. Whatever childhood favourite food you have, try recreating it now, post it in your blog and link it to the event. We will have so many regional recipes at a single page. Every month a blogger will guest host this event and post the round up in the first week of the next month. To know more about the event please read WTML page. Every month there is a giveaway for one lucky winner. For this month of June, the giveaway is an eBook. The Essential Goa Cook book by Maria Teresa. I will be selecting the winner on July 1st and be sending the details of the book to their mail. Any one can participate int he event. To know more please visit Rafeeda's Page.

Maavilakku is an edible lamp made of sweetened rice flour and is very important in some festivals in Tamil Nadu. When we worship Goddess Sakti, we make this maavilakku and offer it as nievedhyam. There are two types of maavilakku. One is with white sugar and the other is with jaggery. The one prepared with jaggery is also made into kozhukattai the next day. There is a tradition in which if we suffer from any disease, we go to temple with maavilakku, make the person lie before God and place the vilakku/ lamp all over the person's body. It is believed that the lamp removes all the ailments. This is purely from a religious point of view. We also make this for Valaikappu function. It is called as maa urundai and the rice flour mixture is made into small balls. The mom to be's mom prepares the urundai and during the function, bangles along with the urundai are given to the ladies who attend the function. There is no cooking involved in making these urundai and lamps. Rice is soaked and powdered along with sugar and cardamom powder. It tastes so delicious. I am a greater fan of sugar maavilakku but my hubby likes the jaggery one. Addition of ghee gives it a nice flavour. I am linking this to Walk Through Memory Lane hosted by Rafeeda at The Big Sweet Tooth

Ingredients:

Raw Rice-1 cup

Sugar-1 cup

Cardamom Powder-1/2 tsp

Ghee-1 tsp

Procedure:

1. Soak rice for 3-4 hours. Drain water.

2. Grind it to a fine powder in mixer jar.

3. Sift it through a fine sieve.

4. Re grind the remaining large particles left in the sieve.

5. Along with the flour left in the jar grind a cup of sugar to fine powder.

6. Add it to the sifted flour along with ghee and cardamom powder.

7. Mix it to form a clumpy dough.

8. Press it inside a airtight box and leave it overnight.

9. The next day make lamps out of the dough and offer it to the Goddess.

10. You can also shape the dough into small balls.

Soak rice and drain water.

Grind it to a fine powder.

Sift it in a fine sieve.

Take the remaining particles in the mixer alon with sugar.

Add the ground sugar to the sifted flour. Add cardamom powder and ghee.

Mix until the dough is clumpy.

Press the dough into a small box and leave it overnight.

The next day, take small portions out of the dough and make it into balls.

Shape the ball into lamps.

Place a cotton thread and ghee. Light the lamps and have a nice Pooja...