Steamed Rice Dumplings with Sweetened Coconut filling.One of my favorite snacks from childhood days .. I have had it made in couple of different ways ; with fillings sweetened with sugar or jaggery and then one without any filling.
It was also probably my worst nightmare of a snack while staying in hostels, away from home, for studies. Most school and college hostels in Kerala make this for an evening snack; and probably because it is made in large scale there is hardly any "sweet-surprise" inside the rice layer and therefore end up absolutely tasteless. So one can only imagine how Kozhukkatta has acquired the pet name "la bombe"!
My love for Kozhukkatta is mainly for the really really gooey jaggery-filling. I pack so much of the stuffing in it that by the time the dumplings come of the steaming, they are almost oozing the syrup from all sides. The ratio of the coconut-jaggery mixture is totally dependent on how much sweetness you want , and hence I am not mentioning exact amounts for them. So here is the recipe :
Ingredients:
- 1 cup Rice Flour ( the finely powdered and roasted variety, used for Idiyappam )
- 1 cup water ( 1/2 cup more, if needed)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbs cooking oil
- Shredded coconut
- Jaggery ( I used approximately 1:1 ratio for coconut and jaggery)
- Grate the jaggery & mix well with the coconut.
- In a medium saucepan boil the water. Add the salt and the oil.
- Remove from heat
- In a steady stream add the rice flour and stir ( i prefer to use the handle of a wooden spoon to do this )
- Keep mixing till the mixture forms a smooth dough. (In case the it gets dry, add some more boiling water, about 1/2 cup more )
- As soon it cools down to a temperature you can handle , make small balls out of it ( 1 cup of rice flour should yield about 7-8 of these )
- Grease your palms with some oil, and lightly flatten each ball ( Keep the dough on your left palm , press gently to make a 2"circle)
- Put 1 teaspoonful of the filling in the center of the circle and bring the outer-edge together to cover it. ( I wish I had a pictorial to explain this ..Hope to post one soon). The dumplings eventually would like the ones in the picture.
5 comments:
What would one use as a substitute for Jaggery? I don't know of any Asian groceries here which might have it...Thanks.
You can try brown sugar instead of jaggery. You could also use table-sugar ..i personally prefer the flavour of the brown one :)
Lisa, Also a quick tip ,in case you ever try making this .. About the dough, the idea is to get it pliable. If the water is less, it will crack-up when u try to flatten it ( like the play-doh).. if that happens, keep some warm water handy and mix it in ,in small quantities.
Happy Cooking !
So does the boiling water cook the flour or do you steam the filled dumplings?
Hello Sherine, The flour gets cooked to some extent while being mixed with the boiling water.. but not enough. You do have to steam it .
Thanks for stopping by
-aswathy
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