Pillayar Nombu ellai maavu

Pillayar Nombu is celebrated in honour of God Pillayar  (Ganesha) by the Chettiars  on the 21st day after the Thirukkaarthigai Deepam, when Sashti Thithi and Sadayam (also called Shatabhisha) Nakshathra come on the same day. In US, it comes on Dec 26th, 2014.

To make the ellai maavu , you will need
Raw Rice - 1 cup
Jaggery grated - 1/2 cup

To prepare the rice flour, first soak the rice in water for 2 to 3 hours.
Then drain the water and spread it on a paper towel or white cloth and let it dry for 20 minutes.

Now, the when the rice is still wet, grind it in a mixie , into a powder.
Sieve it and collect the coarse powder and grind it again and seive it. Repeat this until very less
coarse powder is left.

                               

 

 

In a pan, put the jaggery and add 2 tbsp of water and heat it until the jaggery dissolves completely.
Now, sieve it in a tea strainer and collect the jaggery syrup. It should neither be too thick nor too thin.

 

Add the syrup little by little to the rice flour and make a dough.

Take the amount of dough required for the ellai and apply ghee on it and store in a tight container.

Keep the remaining dough in a separate container, to make panniyarams on the day of Pillayar Nombu. While making panniyarams, add water little by little to this dough and mix well. Pour laddle by laddle into hot oil and deep fry it . I will also post a separate blog for these panniyarams with photos.

It is advisable that the ellai maavu be made atleast 1 or 2 days before Pillayar Nombu, so that the Panniyaram comes out very well.


Happy Pillayar Nombu to all Chettiars all over the world.