We celebrated Sri Krishna’s birthday yesterday. Most people celebrate Krishna Janmashtami as per the ashtami tithi but some of us celebrate it as per the star he was born under, Rohini. Basically it means we get to enjoy the goodies on two days 😁.
Sri Jayanthi Seedai – a first for me
For Krishna Janmashtami we make Seedai – salty and sweet, Murukku, Thattai, and Manoharam besides Appam, Rawa Ladoo, Payasam in sweets. I have never made Seedai. Amma has only helped my cousin Rohini to make them when Amma and Appa were posted in Sulur, near Coimbatore.
The challenge with Seedai is if the proportions are not right and the flour balls aren’t uneven, they burst when added to the oil. Krishnan loves Seedai, I love them too but never got around to making them till yesterday.
Amma had seen a You Tube video …. no typo, my mother is the You Tube queen in the house and she manages to find videos of shlokas, spiritual talks, cookery shows etc on her push button phone. I don’t know how she learnt to do this but am so glad she has.
So, Amma had seen a You Tube video about how to make Seedai and I followed my favourite Rak’s Kitchen for the process – Uppu Seedai and Vella Seedai. The ingredients I used are as follows –
Rice Flour (Nirapara Idiyappam flour) – 1 Cup; Roasted, powdered, finely sieved Urad dal – 2 TBSP; Butter melted – 2 TBSP; Copra (desiccated coconut) – 2 TBSP; Sesame seeds – 1/2 TBSP; Asafoetida – 1/2 TSP; Salt to taste;
I used room temperature water to bind all these together and made uneven balls. The oil was heated at the lowest heat possible on the gas stove. It takes a while to fry one batch but the medium heat gets you crispy Seedai. I kept a distance while putting in the Seedai just to avoid any chances of getting hot oil on me because of the Seedai bursting. Didn’t allow Amma to get near the hot oil except to remove the fully fried Seedai.
Krishnan has declared my Seedai to be better than the store bought ones ! Yayyy, am sure my mother-in-law is beaming up there. I refused to learn making this while she was around :).
Organic Food for Bhagwan Krishna
For Srijayanthi I made the traditional Aviyal and Sabudana kheer. I also made three small servings of Sukku-Vellam (dried ginger and Jaggery powdered together and bind them with ghee). The Sukku-Vellam is a digestive for all the fried food we end up eating on Janmashtami. I made Navaneetham which is Krishna’s favourite butter and sugar mixed. Instead of sugar I used Desi Khand.
Everything was organic except the Sabudana. All the vegetables in the Aviyal came from Vishnu or Parveen, the two organic farmers who deliver seasonal vegetables weekly. The jaggery, dried ginger, butter and ghee – all come from Organic vendors.
I chose to wear a handwoven Udupi Cotton saree in Krishna’s favourite Peethambari (Yellow) colour.
The festive season starts from Raksha Bandhan, Avani Avitam and Janmashtami that are usually in the month of August and September. Last year there was almost a month’s gap between Janmashtami and Sri Jayanthi. This year was just a day. Do read my last year’s blog Sri Jayanthi or Gokulashtami 2020. Looking forward to Ganesh Chaturthi on September 10th. How coincidental that last year Sri Jayanthi was on Sept 10th and this year Ganesh Chaturthi is on Sept 10th.
Happy festive season. May the pandemic recede and let the world go back to celebrating festivals like before. Jai Sri Krishna. 🙏🏾
#HinduFestivals #HinduTraditions #FestiveFood
Very nice