Semiya Coconut Halwa

Nagula Chavithi is a festival and celebrated in Karthika Masam in Andhrapradesh and some parts of Karnataka states of India.Nagula Chavithi will fell on the fourth day after Diwali. Nagula means Snakes and Chavithi is the fourth day of any lunar moon. According to puranas, Gods and Demons churned milky ocean to get Amurutham, which makes Gods and Demons immortal. While churning the milky ocean many things were emerged and one them is the poison Kalkuta or Halahala. Lord Shiv drank the poison to save the universe. He kept the poison in his throat to protect himself from the poison and so Lord shiva's throat turned into blue that's why he is called as "Neelakanta". Neela means Blue and Kanta means Throat. It is said to be that few drop of poison was fell out and to protect from that people started worshiping Cobra the "Naga Devatha".

On that day, Women and children will do hand bath and go to snack hills/pits and offer milk to snack goddess and worship her. Some people will burn crackers on that day.  Worshiping of  animals and nature is common in India. It means living in harmony with nature to protect nature.

I still remember those days, going to snack pits in green fields, my mom and aunty offering milk to goddess and doing pooja. My sis and me used to burn crackers in the evening after school.

Serves : 4

Total Time : 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• Semiya - 1 cup
• Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup (Fresh  or dry)
• Sugar - 1/2 cup (Want more sweet can add upto 3/4 cup)
• Ghee - 4 tbsp
• Hot Water - 2 cups 
• Food Color (optional) ( I added grape essence)
• Cashews and Raisins for garnishing

Preparation:

• Heat 3 tbsp ghee in a pan and fry cashews and raisins till golden and remove them and keep aside.
• In the same pan, fry semiya/Vermicelli till nice light brown and add coconut and fry for a minute and add hot water to it. cook till vermicelli cook completely.
• Add sugar, essence and cook until halwa leaves the edges.
• Apply remaining ghee to a plate and transfer halwa to the plate and adjust it and let it cool for some time and make it into pieces.