Happy Ugadhi - Telugu New Year Celebration

Hello everyone! First of all, I would like to wish Happy Ugadhi to everyone who celebrate it. Ugadhi is Telugu New Year. Telugu is one of the Indian languages and it is also my mother tongue. I think this year is the simplest new year I have ever had. Usually we prepare many varieties of meals but this year we kept it simple.

This is pappu. Pappu means lentils curry. It is made by cooking lentils in a pressure cooker first. In the meantime of waiting for it to be ready, we prepare the other ingredients which includes vegetables such as brinjal, carrots and tomatoes along with some spices as well. In the end we mix them both to make pappu.

The pot was actually really huge. My aunt just gifted it to my mother recently about a few days ago =)

These are potato dices fried in chilli powder and the regular spices with onion and garlic as well. They were yummy! I ate too much of them today because I was the last to eat and finished the leftovers.

This is fried cabbage with carrots as well. It got the yellow colour from turmeric. These are the only items I had and of course I had them with rice. I didn't take any pickle because I thought it might irritate my stomach as I just recovered from a mild acid reflux.

My father started cutting some mangoes for dessert.

The mangoes were juicy! I ate some of them. Here's an interesting fun fact, in Malaysia we call fruity desserts as 'pencuci mulut'. It directly translates to mouth washer :D My mouth does feel fresher after eating fruits and maybe it is due to the juices.

This is the batter my mom prepared to make a wonderful, yummy snack for the evening. It is called Theepi Garelu.

We need to mould the batter with our hands and make large rings. An easy way to make it is by just making a flattened ball and then poking a hold in it. Then we got to fry them in oil like this. I just helped my mom to turn them around until they become golden brown in colour.

This is how they look. This is another container my aunt gifted my mom and my mom loves it as it came with an oil strainer at the bottom so excessive oils will be strained.

Here's a closer look. We call them just Garelu at this stage.

This is after dipping them in jaggery syrup which is a form of unrefined sugar. Now it has become Theepi Garelu. Theepi means sweet. I ate a few and there are still many left as my brother did not eat any due to being away at work. He will be eating them tomorrow. I actually missed this snack because it has been a very long time since I have had it. Perhaps about a few months or so.

I would also like to wish all of my Muslim friends Ramadan Mubarak. The holy month of Ramadan has begun today which means Muslims observe a one month fast from today onwards. I wish that you have a blessed month. Thank you for dropping by and have a great day ahead ♥