AVAL PORI & NEL PORI

Kaarthigai Deepam is a festival of lights, celebrated in the Tamil month of Kaarthigai. It is celebrated on the full moon day of the Kaarthigai month which coincides with Krithikai star.
It is celebrated in a special manner in Thiruvannamalai. Lord Shiva asks Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu to find out the exact location of his head and his feet. Since Lord Shiva takes a gigantic form, they are not able to find out anywhere. Then Lord Shiva takes the form of a jyothi (light of fire) on the hill of Thiruvannamali. Therefore, this festival is also known as Annamalai Deepam.

On this day, people clean the houses. In the evening, they draw kolams (rangoli) in the front of the house and also place some lamps on it. The lamps(Agal) are placed in the pooja and lighted. Then the Deeparathana is done in which the lamps are moved to different places in the house.

In down South of Tamilnadu and in Kerala, Hindus will pray god for goodness of their brothers and they will light a elephant lamp(Gajalakshmi Vilaku) which marks as a sign of prosperity and wealth. The story behind lighting elephant lamp(Gajalakshmi Vilaku) is

Once a there lived a King and he had only one daughter. She loved an elephant which grew with her and she considered the elephant as her own brother. After her marriage she missed her brother elephant very much. So for every Thirukarthigai/Karthigai deepam occasion, she will light elephant lamp(Gajalakshmi vilaku) and she offers tender coconut, milagu adai,pori, appam or adhirasam  as neivedhyam for this festival.

INGREDIENTS:

• Aval pori or nel pori                                         - 4 cupd
• Jiggery                                                                  - 1 cup
• Water                                                                   - ¼ cup
• Coconut bits                                                       -1/4 cup
• Cardamom powder                                         - ¼ tsp
• Butter                                                                   - 1 tbsp
• Dry ginger powder                                             - 1/2 tbsp

METHOD:

1. Clean the husk and dust from the pori, and keep aside .(don’t wash in water )
2. Heat jagggery by adding ¼ cup of water and let it boil.
3. When the jiggery dissolves remove from fire  and strain through a strainer .
4. Boil  the strained jiggery in a medium flame till it reaches one string consistency.(if ypu drop in a bowl of water it will form a pellet, the pellet won’t dissolve in water.).
5. At this stage put off the flame and add one tablespoon of butter ,pori,powdered cardamom ,coconut bits and mix well .
6. Everything should be done quickly . pori is ready to serve .
7. If you want to make balls out of  pori, the balls should be made when it is still hot.(in our family we don't have a custom of  making balls out of this puffed rice, instead we preapare like this.)