Milagu Adai | Karthigai Deepam Milagu Jeeraga Adai Recipe

Milagu Adai or Milagu Jeeraga Adai is a South Indian Adai Dosa Recipe made with raw rice (pacharisi) and black gram (black urad dal or karuppu ulundhu) for Karthigai Deepam Festival. The Adai Recipe I share today is a Palakkad Iyer Style Milagu Adai.

Made particularly for Karthigai Deepam Festival, this Adai is served with Jaggery (vellam) and White butter (vennai). It is also known as Karuppu Ulundhu Adai.

Before I talk about the recipe, let me share some details about our traditional festival.

About Karthigai Deepam Festival

• Karthigai Deepam is a South Indian Festival that falls on Karthik Poornima day.
• It is South India’s Festival of Lamps.
• As the name suggests, Karthigai or Karthikai, this festival is celebrated for Lord Murugan. It is his birthday. In Kerala, this festival is celebrated to welcome Goddess Karthiyayeni or popularly known as Chottanikkarai Bhagavathi Amman.
• Karthigai Deepam is also known as Thiruvannamalai Deepam.
• This festival, like Bhai Dooj, is also celebrated or dedicated to the bond of brother and sister.
• Milagu Adai or Milagu Jeeraga Adai is made for Karthigai Deepam as prasadam along with Pori (puffed rice) and Nei Appam.
• We light brass and silver lamps (traditional vellaku) and earthern lamps in the evening after which the neivedyam is offered and eaten as prasadam by all family members.

If you note all the ingredients in the prasadam are seasonal produce and are consumed to strengthen our immunity against the change in weather (winters).

Black Pepper, Jeera, Jaggery and Pori or puffed rice made with the harvested rice.

Karthigai Milagu Adai Recipe

• The Adai has two key components – Milagu or Black Peppercorns and Jeeraga (Cumin Seeds).
• Unlike TRADITIONAL ADAI RECIPE, we do not add any red chillies, other lentils or onions for this dosa recipe.
• Raw Rice is used to make this dosa unlike parboiled rice or Idli Rice since it is offered as neivedyam. Any short grain rice like Kolam, Ponni, Sona Masuri can be used for this recipe.
• Finely sliced coconut – The best part about this adai besides the black pepper and jeera is the coconut. Thin slices of coconut are added to the adai batter. Do not replace the slices with grated coconut as it won't taste the same.
• Like all adai batter, perungayam or kayam (hing) and curry leaves is a must for this recipe as well. It aids in digestion (especially required since it is consumed late in the evening).
• The ingredients are soaked for 3 hours and then ground into a coarse texture batter.
• Milagu Adai batter does not require fermentation. For Karthigai, we soak the ingredients post lunch around 1 pm, grind the batter around 4 pm and by 6 pm, the adai is ready and served as prasadam.
• Note - If you are hard pressed for time, make this batter a day earlier and store it in the refrigerator. It stays fresh for 3 to 4 days. Do not add coconut unless you have to make dosa.

This Adai can be made as everyday breakfast with a side of podi and chutney, especially during winter season. The recipe is Vegan and if you skip hing or asafoetida, it can be gluten free too.

The batter stays fresh in the refrigerator (without coconut pieces) for 3 to 4 days. You can always double the recipe and stock.

For a hearty brunch, I strongly recommend serving Milagu Adai with Avial (Kerala Style Mixed Vegetables in Coconut Gravy). It is a breakfast combo we grew up eating at home and still a favorite for weekend brunch.

If you like Adai and are particularly looking for recipe without any Rice, Do try our Quinoa Adai Dosa. It has loads of lentils and zero rice.

Step by Step Milagu Adai Recipe for Karthigai Deepam

Measure and add the raw rice, black urad dal, pepper and cumin seeds into a bowl.

Note - I have used ponni raw rice for this recipe. It is a short grain variety from South India.

Wash them couple of times under running water. Drain and then soak them with 2 cups of water for atleast 3 hours.

Drain all the soaked water, add the ingredients to a mixer grinder jar and grind them coarsely (use some water to grind)

Once ground, add sliced coconut pieces, hing, salt to taste and curry leaves.

Mix well and adjust the batter consistency, if its too thick, by adding some water.

Once the batter is ready, heat a pan, season it with some oil once its hot and then pour a ladle of batter. Spread it carefully, make a small hole in the centre and pour some oil in the centre and on the sides.

Let the adai cook (it will crisp up on the sides), turn them over and then cook further for a couple of minutes.

Serve it hot with vellam (jaggery) and butter.

Recipe Notes

• I have used sesame oil for cooking the adai. You can also cook the adai in ghee.
• This adai dosa batter doesn’t require fermentation. If you want, you can ferment the batter though. Traditionally, it is not done, especially for prasadam.
• Do not add grated coconut instead of slices.
• If you don’t have whole black peppercorns in your pantry, add the coarsely ground black pepper after the batter has been ground.
• You can add around 2 tsps for the measurements above. I, however, recommend whole black peppercorns for this recipe.
• If you are not making adai for prasadam, you can use parboiled rice or idli rice for making the dosa.

Milagu Adai recipe was first published on Jan 10th 2018. I have added fresh content, pictures and step-wise information to the post.

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We will be back again with yet another exciting recipe .. Until then, stay healthy and happy!

Vidya Narayan