Lord Ganesha is said to love sweet kozukattai or modak, which is a steamed dumpling made of a thin rice flour shell, filled with a delicious mixture of coconut and jaggery. Somasi is a similar sweet, which is however, deep fried rather than steamed. The outer covering is made of maida (white flour) and rava (semolina). The mixture inside is made of cobri (dried cocunut) and sugar.
Ulutham Kozukattai is a salty steamed dumpling, that is also usually prepared during festivals and is offered to the deity worshipped. Like the sweet version, this also has an outer shell prepared with rice flour and a stuffing prepared with lentil. As Ulutham Kozukattais are very nutritious, my mother used to prepare them as an evening tiffin. She even enriched the nutritional value, by adding some minced vegetables. We would pop them into our mouths as we went up and down and finished them off, even before they were served at the table. A spicy gojju or a chutney will make a delicious combination with Ulutham Kozukzttai. Given below are recipes for the sweet as well as salty Kozukattais.
Ingredients for Kozukattai
Rice flour - 1 cup
Salt – 1 pinch
Gingili (Sesame) oil – 2 tbsps
Water – 2 cups
Method for preparing the Kozukattai
1. Boil water with salt and oil in a thick bottomed pan.
2. When the water is boiling add the rice flour gently stirring continuously to avoid lumping.
3. When the flour is cooked and becomes a mass, turn off the heat and cover it with a lid leaving it for 5 minutes to cook in its own steam.
4. Knead the cooked flour into a soft dough adding a little oil if necessary.
5. Take a small portion of the dough and roll it into a lemon sized ball.
6. Dip your fingers in oil and then make a depression in the middle of the ball with your thumb.
7. With both thumbs in the depression, press the edges extending them with the other fingers to make a cup like shape as uniform, and thin as possible. 
8. Place a spoonful of the filling into the cup and fold the cup in half so that the edges are sealed.
9. Press he sealed edges making sure that no stuffing comes out, and you have plump semi -circular shaped dumplings.
Alternately, you can gather the edges to the top and squeeze them together with your finger tips, to resemble the shape of a top or garlic pod!
Note: If you make both sweet and salty types for the same meal, then I would recommend different shapes (semi circular for the ulutham kozukattai, and top-shaped for the jaggery-coconut kozukattai) for easy identification! 10. Shape all the kozukkatais in the same manner.
11. Steam the whole batch in a pressure cooker without weight for 15 minutes.
Tidippu Kozukattai Stuffing - Sweet Jaggery & Coconut filling
Ingredients
Freshly grated coconut - 1 cup
jaggery - 3/4 cup
cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp (Optional)
Method
1. Mix coconut gratings and jaggery and cook in a heavy bottomed pan, over a low fire, stirring occasionally.
2. When the mixture is ready, it will leave the sides of the pan.
3. Switch off the flame, and add cardamom powder if desired.
Ulutham Kozukattai Stuffing - Vegetable and Black Gram Lentil Stuffing 
Ingredients:
Urad Dal (Black gram dal) – ½ cup
Red chillies – 3
Asafoetida- 1 pinch
Finely Chopped vegetables - 1/4 tea cup (beans, carrots, potato, capsicum, peas etc)
Chopped fresh coriander – little
Salt – ½ tsp
Oil – 2 tsps
Mustard seeds
Method
1. Soak dal and red chillies for half an hour.
2. Grind the soaked dal and red chillies coarsely with salt and asafoetida
3. Steam the ground dal for 15 minutes, and set aside.
4. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds.
5. When it splutters add finely chopped vegetables and a pinch of salt and sauté.
6. Next add the steamed dal and crumble and mix with the vegetable and seasoning.
7. Add corriander leaves.
8. Stuffing for Ulutham Kozukattai is ready.
Ulutham Kozukattai can be enjoyed with any chutney or gojju.
