Ugadi festival is the celebration of New Year's Day for the Telugu people in Andhra Pradesh all over the world. This festival is celebrated with different names. It is popularly known as Barhaspatyamana for the people living north of the Vindhya hills and is called Chandramana or Sauramana for those living south of the Vindhya hills. There is an array of special food of Ugadi festival.Ugadipachadi is the most popular dish of this festival.

Ugadi Pachadi Recipe: Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups of water
• 2 tablespoons of peeled and chopped raw mango pieces.
• 1 tablespoon of Neem flowers.
• 3 tablespoon of jaggery
• 1 teaspoon of tamarind pulp
• Red chilli powder, according to requirement
• Salt, according to taste.

Optional Ingredients:

• Chunks of raw banana
• Raisins
• Chopped cashews
• Fried gram/Putnalu
Instructions:
• The tamarind should be soaked in warm water till it softens.
• Add the jaggery to another one cup of water and wait till it melts and strain and keep aside.
• Mix all the ingredients together.
• Ugadipachadi dish is ready. It should not be tasted if it is offered to the Gods as Neivediyam.

Ugadi Festival Recipes:

On the auspicious occasion of Ugadi, a host of special food of Ugadi festival are prepared to offer as Neivedyam to the Lord for the worship. Some of the noteworthy or popular Ugadi festival dishes are Pulihora, Obattu/Poli, Sweet Pongal,KodhimbirVada, Mango Pachadi , MoongdalPayasam etc

Pulihora:

Ingredients: Cooked rice(2 cup), Gingely oil (2 tbsp), Tamarind (lemon sized ball) Fenugreek(1 tsp)Chana dal (2 tsp) Red chilli seeds(2-3 tsp) Coriander seeds(2b tsp) Cashew nuts (5) and peanuts (25 gm) Mustard (1/4 tsp) Cumin (1/4 tsp) Split Urad dal (1/4 tesp) Asafoetida (a pinch) Turmeric powder (1/4 tsp) Curry leaves (handful) Salt to taste.

Method:

• Wash and soak rice and cook it. Sprinkle some gingely oil and keep it aside.
• Soak tamarind in water for 10 minutes till it turns into thick tamarind juice.
• Heat a pan and dry roast fenugreek, chana dal, red chilli and coriander seeds. It is cooled and ground to a fine powder.
• Heat oil in a pan and roast the cashews, curry leaves and peanuts till golden brown.
• Add mustard seeds, split urad dal, cumin, asafetida, red chily and chana dal.
• To this salt, turmeric powder and tamarind juice is added.
• Allow this to boil till a thick consistency is achieved and oil leaves the sides. It is allowed to cool and ground spice is added.
• It is mixed with rice and roasted peanuts, cashew nuts and curry leaves are added.

Ugadi Festival Recipes in Andhra Pradesh: Bobbatlu: Ingredients:

• For Covering: Maida (100 gms-3/4 cup), semolina (5 gms-1 tsp), ghee (1/2 tsp), oil (1/2 tbsp), water (75 ml), salt (pinch).
• For Filling: Bengal gram(100 gms-1/2 cup), grated jiggery (115 gms-1/2 cup), grated coconut (35 gms-1/4 cup), cardamoms (4), sugar (1 tsp), water (200 gms-1 cup).

Method:

• Covering dough: In a mixing bowl, mix ghee, maida, semolina, salt andwater to make a sticky dough and cover it.
• Filling dough:Cook the Bengal gram and ground it to a powder.Grind the cardamom and sugar in a mortar and pestle.Make a thick consistency of the jaggery by heating it in hot water. Cool it and to this add the cardamom mixture, grated coconut and cooked dal powder and make soft dough and this should be spread on a plate to cool.

Make equal number of covering dough and filling dough.Take a parchment paper and smear with oil and rule out small discs of the covering dough and put a spoon full of filling dough. Then bring the edges together to form dumplings.The Bobattlu are roasted on low flame till brown spots appear and there are no raw portions.

Among the various special food of Ugadi festival, Ugadipachadi is the most popular one that reflects the various flavours of life.