Yesterday was Prathamastami, a function that is specific to my place. On this day, the eldest child is worshiped with all the rituals , wearing new dress. Though this year, we did not do all the rituals (because of a death in family ), the turmeric cakes (Pitha - yes there is a wiki) were must to have. ON this day, the turmeric cakes are prepared using turmeric leaves and even the eldest child is asked to apply turmeric paste on his body before bathe. I am sure, everyone knows the health benefits of turmeric but eating it raw is difficult. This is a nice way of getting some turmeric to our body. And the flavor that we get from the turmeric leaves is very nice and appealing. Recently I commented on a post from 
Also we get new rice and new black lentil specially for this day - the black lentil has got a special taste compared to the polished white lentil, it just need to be cleaned well. Soak black lentil and rice for a hour and then need to clean the lentil well, as you see. You can use the regular white (polished) lentil as well - use lentil and rice in 2:1 proportion.
Then grind them separately, and mix them well, adding water to make like a paste. Fermentation is very important so try to mix them well by hand ( you can use a whisk, but it gets better with hand only). And don't make it very thick - else, the cake will be hard like a stone 😀 - from experience.
Then we prepare some sweet stuff to fill - coconut, jaggery and cottage cheese. Heat the jaggery, and then add coconut and fry them in medium heat, for 3-4 minutes and then add cottage cheese. Fry them till they become little crispy. Add pepper and cardamom powder at the end. We crush them together fresh. Pepper helps in digestion and cardamom flavor make you more hungry. Once the stuff is ready, the rest of the process is very simple.
We have planted some turmeric at my native, so we get fresh leaves as well. This is the time, when they mature - the leaves are used for this purpose and the yielded turmeric is used and some of them replanted. The more yellowish the better for flavor. Wash them well, and cut out pieces so that you can put the batter in it. Prepare a container to boil the cake. Some people use big containers and tie a cloth , adding water below. We use an idly container, the easiest way. Now hold the cut leave in hand and spread some batter, then add some stuff in the middle and then close it and keep in container.
As you can see below, place as many as the container get filled. And then put the lid for it to boil. It's same like cooking an idly, the cake will be boiled in steam. You can cook several times, based on how much you need. Usually, we cook 3-4 times , each one of them taking around 20 - 30 minutes.
The kids don't wait till the other curry is prepared - it's so tasty. You can prepare some other curry to have with. We continue preparing this for several days, till we have these turmeric leaves available.
After eating these tasty foods in the morning, we did not forget to take some snaps - my wife is the only kid so she is eldest and so as my son - so they had to wear some new dress.
