Paal Kozhukattai with Vellam/Sweet Rice Dumplings with Jaggery – Vinayagar Chathurthi Special

Wishing all friends and readers “A Very Happy 67^th Independence Day”. On this special day I am sharing with you Paal Kozhukattai a traditional South Indian Sweet…

Vinayagar Chathurthi/Ganesha Chathurthi is the birthday of Lord Ganesha celebrated all over India and many other parts of the world by Hindus. On this auspicious day, delectable neivadyams are made for Ganesha and special poojas are performed as a mark of celebration. Kozhukattai is a very special dish prepared for Vinayagar Chathurthi. But there are different types of kozhukattai’s like the modhagams, Kaara Kozhukattai, sweet kozhukattai etc. Paal Kozhukattai is one among them, which is nothing but small rice dumplings cooked in coconut milk along with either jaggery or white sugar. I always prefer to make it with jaggery/vellam as it is healthier than the white sugar.

Here’s how to make Paal Kozhukattai  with step by step photos…

Ingredients

Rice Flour/Arisi Maavu	1 cup
Jaggery/Vellam	¾ cup
Thick Coconut Milk	1 cup
Thin Coconut Milk	1 ½ cup
Cardamom powder	¼ tsp
Salt	One pinch
Oil	2 tsp

Preparation:

Grate the jaggery/vellam and keep it aside. In a sauce pan add the jaggery with little water and let it boil in the stove. When it starts to boil switch off the stove and filter the jaggery water and keep it aside.

Extract the coconut milk and keep it aside. First when you extract the milk is called the thick coconut milk[first milk] and the second time coconut milk is extracted by adding hot water is called the thin coconut milk [second milk].

Method

In a pan boil 1 cup of water with one pinch of salt and 1 tsp of oil. When it comes to boil, slowly add the rice flour and stir continuously. The flour cooks in the water and forms in to dough, at that time switch off the stove.

Grease your hand with oil and make very small balls with the rice flour dough. Arrange all the balls in a plate.

In a saucepan, heat about 1 cup of water and 1 ½ cup of thin coconut milk. When it starts to boil really good slowly add the balls. Cover and cook for a min, then let the rice balls cook well. When the balls rice up and start floating it indicates the rice balls are cooked.

Now add the cardamom powder, filtered jaggery syrup, and cook for another 10 min in medium flame.

Finally add the thick coconut milk and let it cook for another 3 -5 min. Switch off the stove.

Delicious paal kozhukattai with vellam is ready for neivadyam….

Suggestions:

• Here I have used rice flour, if your using rice flour use only good quality ones or the home made rice flour.
• Alternatively soak the raw rice for about 2 hour and then grind it in the mixer with some water to a fine paste. Add this batter to kadai with pinch of salt, oil and make the dough.
• When making large quantity of kozhukattai, the dough will get dried up faster. To avoid that close the dough with damp cloth and make balls with small portions.

Thank you for visiting my blog, please come back again for more traditional and authentic recipes of Tamil Nadu.

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Until then I am signing off…