Paal Kozhukattai / Vella Paal Kozhukattai

I am planning to post only sweet recipes this week. These recipes have been pending for sometime. I thought this week would be a perfect one to post since Krishna Jayanthi is round the corner and everyone will be preparing sweets and savories to offer Lord Krishna. So some recipes from my side to help you to prepare those typically last minute dishes.

First entry is vella paal kozhukattai. A simple, yet tasty recipe which helps healing cough and cold. Whenever we refuse to drink kasayam (Homemade medicinal drink), my mom used to prepare this as a cure for cold and cough during our childhood days. Since the rice balls are cooked in jaggery syrup, it is called as vella paal kozhukattai.

There are two ways to prepare the rice balls.  First method is the instant one in which you can use rice flour or idiyappam flour to make rice balls (Kozhukattai) whereas the second method is slightly a longer process. It needs idly rice to be soaked overnight, well grind to make a batter and then roasted in stove to get a thick dough. Either way gives good results however the second method gives extra soft kozhukattais. We prefer to cook this dish using the second method which is considered traditional. Please refer here for the step wise pictorial for making dough using the second method.

Basic Information:

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

For Making Rice Balls(kozhukattai):

Rice flour / Idiyappam flour – 1 and 1/2 cups

Water – as required (see notes)

For Making Sauce for kozhukattai:

Jaggery – 1 cup, heaped

Water – 3-4 cups

Green cardamom – 4 nos, powdered

Black pepper powder – 1 teaspoon

Dry Ginger powder / Sukku powder – 2 teaspoons

Grated coconut – 3/4 cup

Milk – 1 cup (optional)

Method:

1) Sift and take the rice flour in a wide mixing bowl.

2) Add warm water slowly and make a dough. Let it cool to room temperature.

3) Once it is cooled to room temperature, pinch a marble size dough and make balls out of it.

4) Arrange the dough balls neatly in a plate.

5) In a big, thick bottomed pan, take powdered jaggery. (As I don’t have big one, I used my pressure cooker)

6) Add 3 cups of water. Let the jaggery dissolves. Filter it to remove the impurities.

7) Take the filtered jaggery water again in the same pan. Allow it to boil.

8) When it is boiling, add rice balls slowly to the jaggery syrup. Cook for 5 -10 minutes.

9) Check whether the rice balls are cooked or not. To check it, put one or two rice balls to a small bowl of water and take a ball in between your thumb and forefinger and press it. If you are able to press it it is not cooked inside. If the ball is skidding from your fingers and retain its shape, then it is cooked well. At this stage, kozhukattais float on top of the sauce and the sugar syrup looks like thick sauce.

10) Add crushed cardamom, dry ginger powder and black pepper powder. Mix well.

11) Add grated coconut. Mix well.

12) Reduce the flame to low. Add milk and mix well. Turn the flame off.

13) Pour the vella paal kozhukatti in serving bowls and serve hot.

Notes:

1) Use good quality rice flour for making the kozhukattais. otherwise, you don’t get  jaggery sauce in correct consistency.

2) Increase or decrease the Jaggery and water quantity as per your requirement. I added 3 cups of water and 1 cup of milk.

3) Immediately after pouring the milk, do not boil it. Else the sauce might curdle.

4) Make uniform size round balls for even cooking for kozhukattais.

5) You can skip the grated coconut if you are calorie conscious.

6) You can use both hot or normal water for making the rice balls. I usually add cold water and make it.

Related Recipes

Vella Seedai / Sweet Seedai Coconut Milk Rice / Thengai Paal Sadam

Whole Wheat Sweet Pidi Kozhukattai