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Sundal is one protien packed legume dish that is offered to Goddess as Neivedyam during the festival of Navratri in the south of India. Sundals can be prepared with an legumes and light tempering but with no traces of onion or garlic, specially because its an oblation. On other days , other occasions add some chopped shallots for a twist.
This Navrathri, on the second day today , I have prepared Peanut Sundal as prasadam (offering ). This post of mine today is soo much impromptu. While making this protien packed snack, I realised there are barely any recipes pertaining to Navrathri in my space , though I have been celebrating for years.

Living in London, this festival barely gets any spotlight celebrations among southindian. My mom does keep Golu, while Mil doesnt. I havent begun the custom of keeping Golu instead I do take pride in giving Vethalai Paaku. A ritual where we handover a goodiebag with turmeric, kumkum - the so called red powder, vethalai -paaku also known as Betel leaves with Betlenut, a gift item instead of blouse piece along with one prasadam that has been offered to God.I do not pack a whole coconut or give betel leaves ,because it goes lying in some corner of the house and then binned. 

My Goodie bag contains , turmeric,kumkum, a gift item ( a candle/ diya this year), an apple along with this prasadam. 
On inviting my lovely guests who are married women , they promptly come to collect vethalai paaku / haldi kumkum. But who cares to dress for the occasion!! Most of them come wearing clothing suitable for the weather.. People have even come wearing a denim skirt .. Woof!! Its not pin pointing at anyone in particular. It is the question of the long forgotten tradition and culture among the present generation. The tradition of getting dressed in regional clothing and fully decked up is all long lost in this NRI world. The thought about whether the kids will ever witness the authenticity and culture is the question!!


 More chit chat on the navrathri celebrations, traditions and culture abroad in my next Navratri post .Lets head straight to the recipe - The Peanut Sundal.

PEANUT SUNDAL Prep Time: 1 Hour | Cooking Time: 20 minutes INGREDIENTS: 1 Cup Peanuts ( dry) Salt  to Taste 1 Green Chili finely chopped 2 Tbsp. of grated coconut A gentle squeeze of lemon juice  – Approximately  1 tsp    To Temper 1 tsp Mustard Seeds 1 tsp Urd Dal 1 Dried Red Chilli 2 Pinch of Hing/Asofoetida A Sprig of CurryLeaves Approx 8-10No’s 2 Tsp of Oil DIRECTIONS:  Wash the Peanuts and soak it for an hour. Drain all the water and cook them in pressure cooker with ½ a tsp of salt and some water just enough to soak the peanuts. Drain the water and set the peanuts aside.   Heat oil in a pan and drop the mustard seeds. Once it begins to crackle, add the remaining ingredients. As you notice Urd Dal turning brown, add the cooked peanuts, finely chopped green chillies. Adjust salt as needed.  Stir for a minute, add the lemon juice and the coconut for garnishing.   NOTES: One can include grated ginger for a fine twist in the same sundal. Also if this prepared sundal is not for offering, add some finely chopped onions after the tempering for an alluring flavour on a rainy evening.

I see a little twinke, a little sparke in her eyes !! The sky is dark and clear , cold and frosty as it should be in November . Boom !! Hears ZZZ ! As the curtain is gently slided , you see colorful sparks in the sky . Curiously looking , My little pumpkin S starts to run all around the house and in excitement. Dada lifts her , strokes her back, sliding her soft locks off her face and tells her its Patas ( fireworks in tamil) . She slowly grasped her newly learned word.


Ever after that whenever she heard a Boom , Bang , Bong her eyes keenly look for the loud chromatic display in the dark sky. Just as the guy fawkes day celebration went past , here in UK , we had an exemplary fireworks display in a local park. Sitting up, cosily in our bedroom, sungged in our fleece jumpers and heater s on , we witnessed a 30 minutes picturesque prismatic exhibit . An extra hug , An extra kiss and more cuddles is what we got for this grandeur celebration . The kids in the neighbour hood were already woeing as this beauty they were all witnessing was drawing to closure..


How I wish , our little kids get to be a part of the traditional Diwali celebration like we used in our childood. They would barely crave nor get high stungon hearing a #Boom # Bang !!
As parents, sometimes we feel , we are depriving our lil ones of their culture and heritage sitting afar.. Something definitely needs to be done to bridge this gap... we want them to experience, a typical celebration like we all did since childhood. A stride that needs some hard work and a lot of thinking before the next celebration , next year !


This recipe of Peanut Butter Cookies comes from my favourite book the hummingbird bakery cookbook, and the logic for making them has got nothing to do with Diwali or with celebration mood . Lol . But this is here, because of my new essential kitchen gadget, my hand mixer. I have been using my muscle power and a simple whisk in the last 6 months of my baking . Coming to the recipe, the must ingredient was crunchy peanut butter  and I have used a Skipp Smooth Peanut Butter. Kids at home do not relish any abnormal texture on their tongue, so things got be smooth :) The instructions also called for a portion of light brown sugar but I have just used some caster sugar. Its not in my dictionary to go buy ingredients to make a delight. Everythings has to be home, reachable !!My personal mantra is to make things with readily available ingredients. SO invention it is !!

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES Prep Time: 10 minutes Freezing Time : 1 hour+ Baking Time : 14 minutes each batch Yields: 25-28 cookies INGREDIENTS: 170g Plain Flour 200g Caster Sugar 112g Unsalted Butter 1 Large Egg 120g Smooth Peanut Butter 1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence 1 ¼ tsp Bicarbonate Soda 40g Dark Chocolate ,roughly chopped DIRECTIONS: Whisk the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy using a handheld electric mixer. Add the egg, beating it well, scrapping the sides until it’s all clean.  Reduce the speed to low and beat in vanilla extract, peanut butter until well incorporated.  Stir in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and mix until smooth dough is formed. Mix the chocolate into the dough until evenly mixed. Roll the dough into a log, wrap it in a cling film and chill it for an hour+ until firm. Preheat the fan assisted oven to 170 F, gas mark 3. Line 4 baking trays with a greaseproof sheets Get the dough log from the fridge and cut them into equal pieces. Arrange 6 equal amount of the cookie dough on the prepared baking tray. Make sure to space the cookies apart , allowing the cookies to spread whilst baking. Bake in the preheated oven for 14 minutes until the edges start to turn golden brown. Leave the cookies to cool in the tray for another 10 minutes, before turning them out on a wire rack to cool completely. The cookies turned out to be soft and crunchy! NOTES: The recipe did not call for chilling the dough. Since I have had disasters with the dough going really flat and not getting the desired result, I have chilled the dough. You could cut the cookie dough log into equal sizes and place them as it is, or roll them in the middle of your palm and place them on the prepared tray. Incase you have missed reading all my banausic scribbling, there are few replacements I have done to the orginal recipe in the book. I have used Smooth Peanut Butter instead of Crunchy Peanut Butter and only used caster sugar instead of a combination of light brown sugar and caster sugar as in the book.