PAL KOZHUKATTAI (DUMPLINGS IN MILK) WITH A BENGALI INFLUENCE FOR GANESHA CHATURTHI

PALKOZHUKATTAI - (DUMPLINGS IN MILK) WITH A BENGALI INFLUENCE FOR GANESHA CHATURTHI

This year my daughter, Dibs, has joined me to celebrate all the festivals at our place after so many years. She is a great cook and enjoys trying out recipes and we discuss a lot before publishing a new post.

Ganesha Chaturthi is almost round the corner, and I intended to prepare the traditional Pal Kozhukattai as an offering to the Lord. My daughter had mentioned to me about a Bengali sweet called Dudh Puli Pithe, which reminded me very much of Pal Kozhukattai. Today I prepared some traditional Pal Kozhukattais, and also some with a Bengali touch for a dry run, and it turned out to be very delicious.

Traditional Pal kozukattais are simple cooked rice flour beads, in milk. With the ingredients below, I made both varieties!

INGREDIENTS
Rice flour - 1 glass ( Holds 250 ml of liquid)
Salt - 1 pinch
Oil - 1 tsp
Grated coconut - 2 cups
Powdered jaggery - 2 cups
Milk - 1 litre
Sugar - 6 tbsps

Raisins - a few
Cardamom powder - 1 pinch (optional)

METHOD
TO MAKE POORNAM - SWEET FILLING

1. Melt jaggery in a cup of warm water and filter it.
2. Mix the coconut and jaggery and cook in a thick bottomed vessel, till it becomes a lump and starts leaving the sides of the thick vessel.
3. A pinch of cardamom powder can be added to the above 'Poornam' if desired. I like to retain the authentic flavour of coconut and jaggery without the addition of any flavouring.

TO MAKE THE KOZHUKATTAI (DUMPLING) DOUGH

4. Boil 1 glass of water with a pinch of salt and a tsp of oil in a heavy vessel.
5. Slowly add rice flour to the boiling water, stirring all the time.
6. Cook the rice flour till all water is absorbed; switch off flame and cover with a lid.

TO PREPARE THE MILK

7. Boil milk till it reduces to 3/4th the original volume.
8. Make a paste with 1 tbsp rice flour and water and stir into the milk and boil for few more minutes.This will prevent the milk from curdling while adding sugar.
9. Add sugar, cook for few more minutes; add cardamom powder and switch off flame.

MAKING THE KOZHUKATTAIS (DUMPLINGS)

10. Knead the cooked rice flour into a smooth dough.
11. Take out a small portion and roll into very small bead sized balls and keep aside.This is for the traditional pal kozhukattais.

12. From the main portion, pinch out a plum size of dough, knead once again and make into a cup, coating yours fingers with oil so that the dough does not stick to your fingers.
13. Place a teaspoon of 'poornam' in the dough cup and gather the edges together sealing the poornam inside the shell.

14. Flaten and press the gathered point and shape the kozhukattais into poornam filled flat balls. For the given measure you can get a cup of beads, and 21 poornam filled kozhukattais can be prepared.
15. Steam the traditional kozhukattais as well as the poornam filed kozhukattais in the pressure cooker for ten minutes, and allow them to cool down.

TRADITIONAL PAL KOZHUKATTAI


1. Remove one cup of the prepared milk in another vessel and bring to a boil.
2. Gently add steamed dough beads and raisins to the milk and boil for a few more minutes.
I just added one tablespoon of the left over 'poornam' to the milk for this preparation, which enriched the flavour.

PAL KOZHUKATTAI WITH THE BENGALI INFLUENCE
1. Bring the prepared milk to a boil and reduce flame.
2. Gently add the steamed Poorna Kozhukattais to the milk and simmer for two minutes.
Offer both the sweet dishes to Lord Ganesha and indulge in the prasadam!