Karadaiyan Nombu Adai

Festival rice cake for the Karadaiyan Nombu vow — raw rice soaked and ground into a smooth batter, mixed with cooked black-eyed peas, salt, and a tempering of mustard seeds and curry leaves, poured into banana leaf cups, and steamed until set into firm, flat discs; a sweet version using jaggery and coconut replaces the savoury version made simultaneously. Both sweet and savoury adais are offered together on Karadaiyan Nombu (Tamil equivalent of Karva Chauth, observed by married women for their husbands' longevity, falling at the Tamil-Malayalam new year junction in Panguni). No other festival preparation requires both sweet and savoury versions of the same dish to be made simultaneously as paired offerings.