Coconut Jaggery filling Mothakam / Kozhukattai

This weekend was one of the exciting weekend. Met my undergrad buddies V & S. S had prepared a typical South Indian Meal. Rice, Sambhar, Puli kuzhambu, Rasam, Pudalangai kootu, Vazhakai Kai, Potato roast, Papad and spinach rotis too :-) Eat, chat and gossip – this is what we did. Came back home and slept crazily that I didn’t even feel the 6.1 earthquake that affected bay and Napa when all my colleagues felt it. Thank God, the majority of injuries are non-life threatening.  But its scary though.

When I goto India, I do get lot of gifts, but when my friends go for vacation and come back, I get gifts too. (I am spoiled that way :-) ) My friend P, got this cute mothak mould for me from Mumbai. So far I have never used mould for making kozhukattai. I make my own shapes :-) Before vinayaka chathurthi we wanted to try this mould. So sunday evening, we both decided to make mothakam/kozhukattai together.  We tried the mould, also we tried hand made mothaks and I tried my regular boat shaped kozhukattai :-)

Kozhukattai – I need to do this for Varalakshmi vratham, Garuda Panchami, first week of mangala gowri, Vinayaka Chaturthi and for saraswati poojai also. I need to do two varieties, coconut filling and sesame filling. Right now I am posting the coconut filling.

So here is the recipe:

For the filling: Coconut Pooranam

• Grated coconut – 1 cup
• Jaggery – 3/4 cup (Adjust according to your taste)
• Water – 1/4 cup
• Elaichi/Cardamom powder – 2 tsp
• Poppy seeds/kasa kasa – 2 tsps (optional)
• Ghee – 2 tsps

For the cover:

• Rice flour – 1 cup ( I just used the store bought rice flour)
• Water – 1 cup
• Gingelly oil or ghee – 1 tsp
• Salt – a pinch
• Sugar – 1 tsp

Steps:

Pooranam or filling:

• Heat the kadai and add ghee.
• Once its hot, add poppy seeds, if you are using.
• Let it roast for couple of minutes, then add water and jaggery.
• Let the jaggery dissolve completely and then add coconut and elaichi powder.
• Cook till the water gets evaporated and keep it aside.

Cover:

• Boil the water in deep bottomed vessel by adding oil/ghee, salt and sugar.
• Once the water starts boiling, add the rice flour slowly and keep it mixing it.
• Mix the flour well, cover it and reduce the heat.
• Turn it off in couple of minutes and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Mothakam/Kozhukattai process:

• While the flour is warm, grease your hand with ghee or oil, and knead the dough nicely  ( so that the outer cover doesn’t break.)
• Now make small balls out of it and start  pressing it so that you get nice thin circle.
• For boat shaped kozhukattai, take sufficient filling and keep it at the center of the pressed circle and close it so that it forms a semi circle. Now close the edges with your fingers and press the edges with fork to get nice pattern. (Pressing with fork is optional)
• For mothak shape, press the dough balls into a small cup and fill the pooranam inside and bring the edges together and close them.
• For the mould, we just followed the instructions and will post a video soon, before saraswati poojai :-)

• Once the kozhukattais are done, steam them for about 10-12 minutes and thats it yummy coconut filling mothaks/kozhukattais are ready.

Enjoy and Happy Vinayaka Chaturthi :-)