| Prep Time | 30 minutes |
| Cook Time | 7 minutes |
| Passive Time | 1 hour to soak the rice |
| Servings |
kozhakattais
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- 1 cup rice, such as basmati
- 1/4 cup hot water
- 1 tbsp oil
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp oil to grease your hand while making the dumplings
- 1 cup jaggery/gud/vellam
- 1 cup grated coconut
- 1/4 tsp powdered cardamom/elachi Optional - I didn't add as I don't like the flavor in sweets
- 1 tbsp Water
Ingredients
Filling (Pooranam) Ingredients
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- To make the outer covering, we need to soak the rice for an hour or so, and grind it into a batter, in the consistency of dosa batter. I completely forgot to take pictures at this stage, so just take my word for it ok? Soak the rice after washing in water for about an hour
- While the rice is soaking, let's make the pooran (filling)
- Heat a pan, and add 1 tablespoon of water, and add the jaggery
- When the jaggery melts (about 3-4 minutes), strain it through a sieve to remove any impurities and add back to the pan
- Now add the coconut, and start mixing
- Initially, it'll be a bit liquidy, butkeep stirring until it comes together without sticking to the sides
- Remove the pooran to a plate and let it cool; when cool enough to handle, make it into small gooseberry sized balls, and keep ready
- Now, grind the batter to dosa batter consistency
- Heat a kadai/vaanali, add 1/4 cup of water and a couple of spoons of oil
- To the batter, add a tsp of oil, and two tablespoons of milk, a pinch of salt, and mix well
- When the water in the pan is hot, add the batter and stir on low heat until it becomes a non-sticky dough like consistency; remove to a plate to cool, and when cool enough to handle, knead it really well like chapathi dough
- Keeping the dough covered in a wet cloth/napkin so it doesn't dry up, pinch off pieces of dough, and make smooth round balls of a small lime sise
- Now we have the outer covering and filling ready
- Grease both your hands generously with oil, and start making the outer covering Watch video attached to see how to make form the dumplings
- Take each of the dough balls, and start pinching a half inch width all around, making it like a disc, with your thumb and forefinger
- Now with your thumb, make a dent starting at the center, turning the dough ball and making it into a flat/hollow cup
- Place a filling bit inside
- Gather the dough around to make a small beak-like dumpling, and seal
- Make all the kozhakattais this way, and place in an idli steamer plate
- Heat water in an idli pot/pressure cooker (about 1 inch of water), place the idli plate on it, and steam for 7 minutes
- Turn off the heat, and remove to a serving plate
- Delicous kozhakattais are ready to be devoured!
Alternative method to making the outer cover:
You can use store bought rice flour. To make the dough, heat 1 cup of water (for 1 cup of rice flour), add a tablespoon of oil, a pinch of salt, and mix the rice flour gently into the water, and make the dough, on low heat. Dough will come together in a few minutes. Turn the heat off, and cool it before kneading. Proceed with the rest of the steps as above.
I always used to make it like this, but always ended up with dry, cracking shells. My friend told me to try this recipe, and I am glad I did because we ended up with the best, moistest kozhakattais!
I have some good memories of those days before my marriage, when every ganesh chathurthi, all of us girls would help mom make these delicious sweets in the tens, as we were a big family. Mom always made the maavu (outer covering), and the filling, and our job was to put them together.
A story:
When we were kids, my mother used to tell us a story, a famous story about this delicous dessert. It was about a man who's newly married, goes to his mother-in-law's house (minus the wife), and she serves him kozhakattais. Our man, who has never had them before, loves them and asks her what they're called. Since it's a strange and new name, he recites it on the way back to his home so he'll remember to tell his wife so she could make them for him. He reaches a stream, and a man before him jumps over the stream while saying "Athiribacha". Our idiot also says the same term to jump across the stream, and forgets kozhakattai, instead, reciting athiribacha all the way home. He goes home, and tells his wife that she should make him...athiribacha.
The poor wife has no clue what he's talking about, and tells him she doesn't know how to make it. He thinks she's lying to get out of making them, beats her, and goes out in a huff. The wife sits at home crying her eyes out, wondering what kind of an idiot she's married to. The husband comes back home eventually, just in time to listen to his neighbor asking his wife why her face is swollen like a...that's right, a kozhakattai! And our man jumps in joy. "That's it, it's kozhakkatai". He apologizes for hitting her, and the long-suffering wife makes them for him after this, and all is well!
We used to listen to stories like this, and didn't think anything of them. Only now, I wonder what kind of message stories like this are propagating for generations, making wife-beating an accepted norm!