Janamashtmi is coming

[Monica Bhide]

The heartwarming festival of Janamashtmi is around the corner. This festival celebrates the birth of Lord Krishna. I am planning a prayer service at home and would like to follow it with a meal.

What would you all suggest?

What is typical..?

I hope our newest member who cooked at the ISCKON temple will help me out here.

[worm@work]

Hi Monica.

Once again, I can only tell you what my mom used to do for Janmashtami. She would decorate the idol with flowers and light lamps around the altar and offer the following dishes as prasad:

1. Cheedai of two varieties (salty and sweet) -- deep fried balls made with rice flour and gram and some other ingredients.

2. Murukku - south indian chakli

3. Sometimes as an extra treat she'd make thattai as well (another fried snack made with rice flour and gram which is spicier than cheedai or murukku)

4. Vela avil (sweet poha - poha cooked with jaggery and garniedhw ith fresh coconut)

5. Payasam aka kheer

Maybe I should attempt to make something for Janmashtami as well :)

-w@w

[Edward]

A big bowl of panchamrita made with milk, yogurt, sugar etc, garnished with ghee-fried makhana and rose petals.

I'm starting to get this warm and tingly autumn is coming diwali sort of feeling!

Edited September 3, 2004 by Edward (log)

[Yajna Patni]

We used to try and make 108 preparations. Not too practical for a home janmastami, i guess.

Important were preparations made from milk. lots of milk sweets, kshira, often with camphor. Pushpanna rice too. Yamuna has a recipie for that, but i think she uses balls of paneer, if you do that, soak them for a minute in whey with a little salt. It makes them juciy.

Kachoris or samosas, pushpanna rice, kshira that is what is coming to my mind right now.

[FaustianBargain]

well..i can remember salt and jaggery 'cheedai'..tricky one, cheedai...it tends to be rather hard if recipe is followed right..there has also been episodes of the 'exploding cheedai'..c'est vrai...much fun was had sitting outside in the courtyard and watching the kitchen explosions.

it is celebrated in the evening, for some reason..and it wasnt a school holiday, iirc...i remember coming home early afternoon...the floor would be washed and cleaned..ready for painting krishna's feet...quite simple..clench fist..you know the pinkie side of the fist?...thats dipped in the rice flour mix...make impression on floor...the toes can be painted with a piece of cloth dipped in the same liquid rice flour kolam mix...apparently, the footprints belong to little krishna's...he comes to your home, you see...and leaves behind the proof of his visit... ..childhood...i was willing to buy any story thrown my way anything as long as it was followed by something sweet and edible.....my earliest memories of gokulashtami was following 'krishna's(white) footsteps' on our rather ancient house's red oxide floor...

back to the edibles...i think there was a count of five...salt and jaggery cheedai, of course...and murukku, thattai and i forget the last one. the most important offering is 'aval'(rice flakes?) with jaggery..sometimes with added coconut....the *actual* menu is a different story...urad dhal vadai, *very* rich and creamy payasam with the usual suspects...my grandfather would recite from the Bhagavadam...the deity is the young version of krishna...you know..the crawling krishna dipping his hands into a pot of butter..and speaking of butter, it makes a special appearance on the puja platter...there will be a huge plate with betel leaves, plantains..a *lot* of fruits..a nice round ball of butter..curds, milk...the neighbourhood ladies make their rounds visiting each and every house..another excuse to gossip and show off their saris...its not a 'strict' holy day..because the day celebrates the birth of krishna(iirc) and there are no orthodox rules..the kids especially get a free rein..our filthy hands have unrestricted access..there was pretty much nothing to do after that...except eat, of course..and oh..other than the food..i remember the fragrance of jasmine...its always jasmine altho' i am sure there were other flowers of different shades and fragrance...but i can only remember the jasmine.

i can look up the recipes if you cant find them online...cheers.

[raghavan iyer]

Lalitha (which happens to be my sister's name) - thanks for a resurrection of such great memories - the thattais especially hold near and dear to my heart along with krishna's rice-flour footsteps...

[FaustianBargain]

..the fifth is 'appam'..not to be confused with the paper thin kerala style appam..this involves jaggery at some level..munching through it as i am typing this..

p.s. mom adds that grandfather read 'narayaneeyam' not 'bhagavadam'..and i am mentioning this only because she is right behind me..looking over and giving instructions....ignore her..because unlike me, you are all free..

[foodietraveler]

A big bowl of panchamrita made with milk, yogurt, sugar etc, garnished with ghee-fried makhana and rose petals.

I'm starting to get this warm and tingly autumn is coming diwali sort of feeling!

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charnamrita/panchanamrita are a staple.

no prayer do krishanji would be complete without this.

lots of safed makkhan around the house.

makhane ke sheer

gulgulas

rabri

malpuas

atte ka halwa

and many savory dishes

[Monica Bhide]

..the fifth is 'appam'..not to be confused with the paper thin kerala style appam..this involves jaggery at some level..munching through it as i am typing this..

p.s. mom adds that grandfather read 'narayaneeyam' not 'bhagavadam'..and i am mentioning this only because she is right behind me..looking over and giving instructions....ignore her..because unlike me, you are all free..

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