Kozhukkattai—–Steamed rice dumpling filled with a Coconut-jaggery mixture
A Very Happy and Prosperous New Year to everyone! Since this day marks the beginning of another wonderful year, it seemed fitting to post this recipe which is a favorite dish to Lord Ganesha,who is worshipped for an auspicious and good beginning. Kozhukkatai in Tamil or Modak in Hindi, is a very famous sweetmeat in Tamil Nadu and is usually prepared for Ganesh Chathurthi, the special festival for Lord Ganesha. Since coconut shares the stage equally with jaggery in this dish I though that this would be appropriate for this months’s JFI for coconut kindly hosted by Ashwini of Food For Thought.
For the filling:
1 cup of grated coconut
2/3 cup of jaggery broken into pieces
1 tsp ghee
1/2 tsp of cardamom
Take the coconut in a wok, add jaggery and about 2 tablespoons of water.Keep stirring until the jaggery slowly dissolves and forms a sticky,semi solid mixture with the coconut. Turn off the stove,add the ghee and the cinnamon. Cool and store.
For the rice flour wrap:
Rice flour 1 cup
1 tsp sunflower/corn oil
Salt to taste
Sieve the rice flour and keep aside.Bring 1 and 1/4 cup of water to a boil in a wok, add salt and the oil. turn down the heat to medium and add the rice flour slowly.Stir all the while to prevent formation of lumps . Transfer the dough to a white muslin cloth, cover it and start pounding it to remove any remaining lumps. After it cools down, knead the mixture and make small round boats as shown in the picture. The oil is used to prevent the rice flour from sticking to your hands.
Now to assemble them together:
put 1 tsp of the filling in each of the cups, stick the edges of the flour with a drop of water. Cover a plate with a wet cloth, add these dumplings and steam cook in a cooker for about 15-20 minutes in medium flame. cool and remove. Viola, the rice dumplings are ready.
This is my entry to this month’s JFI for coconut kindly hosted by Ashwini of Food For Thought.
Ashwini said,
January 2, 2007 @ 5:03 pm
I loooove modaks (thats what we call them). Thanks so much for participating in JFI. Happy new year Nalini
Coffee said,
January 3, 2007 @ 3:27 am
This is amazing!!!! Lovely little dumplings!!!! Thanks for sharing Nalini
Viji said,
January 3, 2007 @ 4:58 am
Very nice presentation Nalini. Not everyone can make it so perfect. Thanks for sharing. happy new year. Viji
Nalini said,
January 3, 2007 @ 2:15 pm
Hi,
Happy New Year to you all
Ashwini, I love them too! Thanks for hosting JFI.
Coffee,Viji, thanks, do try them and let me know how they come out
Nalini
Asha said,
January 3, 2007 @ 5:49 pm
They look fabulous!:)) Happy 2007!! Enjoy.
jacob said,
January 6, 2007 @ 5:02 pm
That’s awesome, makes my mouth water. I’ve been ripping off some of you recipes and trying them at home with a moderate amount of succes. Thanks!!!
seema said,
January 7, 2007 @ 9:37 pm
Nalini, I remember having this during ganesha chouthi somewhere and I had just fallen in love with them. Thanx a bunch for posting this recipe. Can’t wait to try them out.
Cheers
Seema
Lakshmik said,
January 8, 2007 @ 2:22 pm
Yummy kozhakattai. Reminds me of vinayaka chathurti. We used to eat so many of them. Mmm.
Nidhi said,
January 9, 2007 @ 6:36 pm
Nice looking dumplings..its something new for me. Thanks for sharing….Great work Nalini.
Nidhi.
Soumya said,
January 11, 2007 @ 12:18 am
Hey this is my hubby’s favorite dish.this is a recipe what we usually do for ganesh chathurthi.Thanks for reminding me about all these.Nice one indeed.