According to the HINDU calendar Ugadi is the very first festival that comes on the first day of the first month ie Chitramasa. This New Year (2014) is known as JAYA Samvatsara. (There are 60 samvatsaras in all).
"Ugada - adi" meaning the beginning of the year is known as Ugadi. It usually comes in the month of March.This 2014 year it falls on 31st of March.
The family deity or kuladaiva is worshipped on this day along with the new Panchanga. Panchanga is the Hindu calendar and an almanac,which follows traditional units of Indian timekeeping, and presents important dates and their calculations in a tabulated form.
Panchanga sravanam and pathnam (reading and listening) is done only after worshipping it. The bhavishya or forecast for the coming year can be known by reading rashi phala .
Neem flowers along with jaggery pieces should be consumed as Prasada (God's offering).
It signifies that both good and bad happenings that may come to us in the coming year will be received equally . There is a sloka to be chanted before eating this mixture.
"Shatayur vajra dehaya Sarav sampathkarayacha, sarvarishta Vinashaya nimbakadalam bhakshanam. "
Meaning "For 100 years of longevity, healthy body , to remove all the evils, I will consume this Bevu(neem) and Bella(Jaggery)". Decorate your front door and Pooja place with tender fresh mango leaves and neem twigs. Neem has got plenty of medicinal values. It protects all especially kids from summer related diseases.
We welcome the new year by wearing new clothes and of course a good feast. Raw mango is used for the Chitraanna. Along with the usual festival dishes. When we hear the word Ugadhi the first thing that comes to our mind is "holige" or "obbattu". Also known as "puran poli". The recipes are as follows.
MAVINAKAI CHITRANNA
Ingredients
Rice:2 cups (for approx. four people)
Water:4 cups
Raw mango (grated):1 medium size
Grated coconut:1 cup
Cooking oil:3-4 tbsp
Mustard seeds:1tsp
Kadale bele and uddina bele
(Chana dal and Urad dal):2 tsp
Raw ground nuts:2 tbsp
Red chillies:8 to10.
Turmeric powder:1pinch.
Asafetida ----1pinch.
Karibevu or black neem leaves:10to 15
Method of preparation (MAVINKAI CHITRA ANNA):
Pressure cook rice with water.
Spread the hot cooked rice on a wide bowl. Peel the mango skin and grate it. (If it tastes too sour take half the quantity) .
Heat the oil in a pan or kadai (bandli) and put all the other ingredients in the above given order , one by one , in low flame. When they are all roasted golden brown add grated mango and coconut . Stir well.Add salt to taste. Mix well and keep stirring till the raw mango smell goes. Mix this to rice. Spicy MAVINKAI CHITRANNA will be the star dish of our New Year festival.
HOLIGE OR HURANA OBATTU OR PURAN POLI
Ingredients
Kadale bele (Chana Dal) : 1 Cup
Togari bele ( Toor dal): 1 Cup.
Jaggery (powdered): 2 Cups.
All purpose flour or Maida: 1 Cup
Wheat flour: 1 Cup
Turmeric(haldi): a pinch
Elakki/cardamom pwd:1 tsp
Cooking oil: 4 to 6 tbsp
Rice flour: 1 Cup
Method of preparation
Take maida and wheat flour in a bowl. Add haldi
powder and 1 tbsp of cooking oil. Mix well. Make a dough by adding water.
Let the dough be a bit loose than chappati dough .Smear some more oil on
it. Cover it with a lid and let it sit for 2 hrs.
Meanwhile pressure cook both dal/bele(s) with 2 cups of water. See to it that it
is completely cooked but not to a paste. Drain the extra water if any(very important!). Do not discard the lentil water. It can be used for rasam/saaru preparation. To this cooked soft dal, add jaggery powder and cardamom powder. Grind this into a fine paste in a mixer. (Some make hurana and then grind them but this is a much easier method and never goes wrong.) It will be in the form of liquid(Don't panic). Take this in thick bandli/kadai or pan and cook on a flame. You will come to know that hurana is ready when it starts leaving the bandli or pan and gives an aroma of sweet hoorana. As it is , it should taste great! Remove from the flame.
Pinch a small amount of dough and flatten in in your left palm. Take a big lemon-sized hurana and place it on the flattened dough. Cover the hurana into a ball (exactly like it is done for stuffed paratas.) Dab this ball in rice flour.
Roll it like chappatis(gently roll without putting too much pressure) and roast both sides with oil on a moderately hot tava/pan. If holige puffs up like a ball on the tava that means both dough and the hurana are done very well.
Enjoy the hot, home made holige or obattu with ghee(clarified butter) and/or milk. What a delicious way to start the New Year.........Ugadi.
