Prathamastami - Delicious Turmeric Cakes

Today is Prathamastami and we offer a pray for the life and prosperity of the elder child and part of the rituals is making the Delicious Haladi Patra Pitha (Turmeric Cakes) about which I wanted to share.

So this happens every year and we make the Delicious Turmeric Cakes first time on this occasion. The Turmeric leaves are available in the market only during this time. Few years back, we had them grown at our home, but now we just buy them from market. And getting well grown leaves helps, because its more spacious. Now a days, even some people cheat by selling some look alike leaves, but if you just smell, you can distinguish by having the feeling of turmeric in the leaves. And better to buy them couple of days before, because the more they ripe, the better they are in terms of being flexible to hold the batter. Also the turmeric fragrance is more in ripen leaves.

We make a batter from Black Gram and rice, which is soaked in water overnight. And then batter is made in the early morning , keeping it for few hours as that bakes well (without adding a baking powder). And then we prepare a sweet Stuffing using coconut , fresh curd cheeses, sugar, cardamom and pepper powder and cooking them over medium/slow flame, till it become crispy.

And then we cut the turmeric leaves in sizes to put the batter and the sweet Stuff. Home made Ghee is applied before the batter is put, so that, after its cooked, its easy to separate.

And then its boiled in the idly cooker for about 20 mins. It can also be boiled in other containers, as suitable, the key is that it should be boiled over steam.

Once its ready, its offered in the Puja.

To augment the taste, another item was also made of yellow peas, and it was a pleasure to enjoy these delicious foods.