Maavilaku Mavu (Maa Vilakku Mavu) is an auspicious rice flour lamp made with rice flour and jaggery during Tamil Month Thai, Aadi and also during Karthigai Deepam festival. It is a family custom for many of you to offer Maavilakku during these auspicious occasions. My mother and MIL doesn't have this tradition, but my sister's in-laws has this tradition and she started following. I heard from her that even for Karthigai Deepam, they used to make Maavilakku Mavu deepam along with other diyas. So I learnt from her how to make this auspicious rice flour lamp.

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Tips for making Maavilaku Mavu Recipe | Maa Vilakku Mavu Recipe :

Maa Vilakku is an offering to God so its always a good practice to make this recipe with rice instead of store bought rice flour.
Spread the soaked rice in a clean white towel and allow it to try till the rice is 90% dry. If we feel the rice, the rice should have a dampness but not too wet.
Do not allow the rice to completely dry out. Then it would be difficult to get a smooth rice using our home mixer grinder.
Grind the rice to a smooth flour and sieve it twice to make sure we have a smooth rice.
Do not grind the rice flour and jaggery too long. It will make the dough runny.
Leave the rice flour and jaggery for few minutes and the jaggery will leaves moisture which will be sufficient for shaping the lamp.
Add 2 teaspoon of ghee inside the prepared rice flour lamp. Place 2 cotton wicks, apply sandalwood and kum kum around the rice flour lamp and offer it to God.
When the ghee is absorbed, remove the wick. Do not overburn the rice flour lamp.
Once pooja is done, we can break the lamp, mix with ghee, warm milk and shape into laddoos and consume!

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Recipe Card for Maavilaku Mavu Recipe | Maa Vilakku Mavu Recipe :

Instructions with Step by Step Pictures:

Rinse the raw rice in water atleast couple of times. Then add fresh water to the raw rice to soak them well and leave the raw rice to get soaked for atleast an hour. After an hour, drain the water from rice and spread it in a clean white towel to get it dried.

It could take atleast 5 to 10 minutes to get dried. If you take the rice in your hand, you should feel damp in your palm or fingers. If you are going to prepare larger quantities then drying of rice takes more time. Also, if we are going to grind the rice in a mixer, then we should grind it immediately after the rice got dried. Immediately grinding the dried rice in a mixer helps us to get more smooth rice flour without any lumps. If we leave the dried rice for a long time, then we would not get smooth flour in the mixer. But if we are planning to grind it in a rice mill, then it should not be a problem.

Grind the rice in the mixer to a nice powder. Normally we don't get any lumps. But we should sieve it couple of time to get a smooth rice flour. If we get any lumps while we sieve, again add the lumps of rice flour to the mixer and grind it again to a smooth flour and again sieve it.

Repeat the sieve process again and again till we get a smooth and nice rice flour. Now our rice flour is ready. Take the rice flour in a mixer along with grated jaggery and cardamom

Grind the rice and jaggery. Just give a couple of pulses just to mix the rice and jaggery thoroughly. Do not over grind it as the jaggery will start giving water and the whole mixture would become clumsy. Take the ground rice and jaggery powder in a plate and leave it aside for 10-15 minutes. The jaggery would give a nice wetness to the rice flour and you can easily make a soft dough.

After 15 minutes, split the rice and jaggery mixture into two portions. Knead the rice and jaggery mixture to 2 balls. Then with our fingers or with any bottle cap, gently press the center of the ball to make a dent. If you feel your rice and jaggery mixture is too dry to make balls or dent, then you can add little ghee and knead the mixture again. You can make a dent and make a shape like a Diya.